REVIEW || Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

OH MY GOD THIS BOOK.

First of all, thanks so much to Vanessa for giving me this book - I owe you one! Links to her YouTube channel are here, and her blog too!

For those of you who don't know - Don't Look Back is one of those books that gets you so sucked in, so so very quickly, and you can't help but want to know EVERYTHING ten minutes before the main character.

In this book, we follow Samantha, who, at the beginning of the book, is found stumbling out of a forest, a little worse for wear - okay, a lot worse for wear. She's battered and bruised, and has no recollection of what happened. She's gone from someone with the 'perfect life', to somehow having no clue who she is. And things only get worse when she's told her best friend Cassie went missing wit her - and still hasn't been found.

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I loved this. It's my first ever Jennifer L Armentrout book and oh my goodness. Why haven't I picked her books up before now? This book is one of those un-put-down-able types, I read it over the space of 24 hours - less than that actually! I was so invested in the characters, and felt emotions for each and every single one of them. One moment I was happy, another I was sad, mostly, I was as confused as our lead character Samantha, I mean, who wouldn't be?

***SPOILERS***

One of the things I really didn't like, or rather, was frustrated by, was the lack of important flashbacks. I understand why we, as readers, didn't get those flashbacks, but still, I would have appreciated them more rather than just that final one. Whilst the doctors had said her memory may come back in bits and pieces, I didn't really need to see the drama flashbacks between Del, Samantha and Cassie, when they were a given, particularly with Samantha being such a smart lead character. However, that being said, I absolutely loved the flashback involving Scott, Carson and Samantha. We'd heard of this story prior to the flashback, so it was so heartwarming to see that that memory hadn't been tainted by present day lies.

Can we also just stop and take a moment to appreciate Carson please? Perfect book boyfriend right there.

***SPOILERS END***

Overall, for my first JLA read, it is definitely worth a solid 4 stars, if not somewhere between the 4th and 5th star. This is because the main character was so relateable, we felt everything they felt, went through everything they went through, and I definitely came away from the book feeling like I had a friend in Samantha. Not to mention it made me take a step back and think about my life and how I could make changes to make me a better person.

All in all, a fantastic read, and I highly highly recommend it!!