Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Don't Look Back

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Release Date: April 15, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all—popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend.

Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it’s one she no longer wants any part of. The old Sam took “mean girl” to a whole new level, and it’s clear she and Cassie were more like best enemies. Sam is pretty sure that losing her memories is like winning the lottery. She’s getting a second chance at being a better daughter, sister, and friend, and she’s falling hard for Carson Ortiz, a boy who has always looked out for her—even it the old Sam treated him like trash.

But Cassie is still missing, and the facts about what happened to her that night isn’t just buried deep inside of Sam’s memory—someone else knows, someone who wants to make sure Sam stays quiet. All Sam wants is the truth, and if she can unlock her clouded memories of that fateful night, she can finally move on. But what is not remembering is the only thing keeping Sam alive?

Even though I might sound like a broken record by this point, I will say this again: I will read anything Jennifer L. Armentrout writes. To this day I have yet to be disappointed and anytime I hear about a new book from her, I get all excited. And I am happy to report that Don’t Look Back has kept the streak going. This was a page-turner that kept me guessing the whole way through. And I loved it.

Samantha Franco doesn’t remember who she is, what happened or where she has been for the last four days. But from everyone has told her, she wasn’t a good person. She and Cassie, the best friend she went missing with, took mean girl to a whole new level. Now though, Sam is getting a second chance. A second chance to be a better person and maybe try to fix some of the the wrongs she did before she went missing. But know one seems to be telling the truth about what happened the night she disappeared. Hoping to help find Cassie, Sam does everything she can to try to remember what happened that night. The only person who seems to be willing to be the truth is Carson, the boy she spent her childhood with, but who she has treated like trash all through high school. Sam is trying to do better, trying to remember, but could her forgotten memories be the reason she’s still alive?

Until now, I knew Jennifer L. Armentrout could do paranormal and contemporary romance like no other. Now I can also add thriller to the list. I loved Don’t Look Back. Like, dropped-everything-when-I-walked-in-the-house-after-work-and-kept-reading-all-night loved this book. This story was engrossing. I kept telling myself I would stop after reading just one more chapter, but I was just humouring myself by that point, there was no way I was putting the book down. Being the curious person that I am, I just had to find out what was going on, what had happened the night that Sam and Cassie disappeared. And because the story is told from Sam’s point of view, I was finding things out as the same rate she did. And if I’m being honest, that could be a little frustrating at times, but at the same time it just made it so I couldn’t stop reading. And as with any Jennifer L. Armentrout book out there, it didn’t hurt that there was also a good does of romance in the story. But the mystery is what truly did it for me. I just wanted to know everything. Until it was close to 2 AM and I finally did (though I may have regretted that decision when my alarm went off the next morning). But Sam and Carson made it totally worth it.

I loved that this story was told from Sam’s perspective. It made everything feel that much more intense and there was almost this sense of urgency to the way she told her story at times. And if I’m not lying, that’s probably what kept me on the edge of my seat so much. But beyond that, Sam was just an interesting character to read about and get to know. Seeing how she would react to what people told her she used to be like just made me love her that much more. She was able to see that she had been a pretty horrible person but at least she was trying to do better now that she had a second chance at it all. But as much as I loved Sam, Carson is the one who completely stole my heart. Because Carson was truly a good guy. Sure he didn’t seem that way at first, but it didn’t take long for me to change my mind where he was concerned. For me, Carson just leapt off the page and straight into my heart. There was very little about him I didn’t love. And he was exactly who and what Sam needed. I also have to mention Scott, Sam’s twin brother. I loved the relationship this two had when Sam came back not knowing who she was. They might not have gotten along before her disappearance, but I loved the sibling bond, and how protective Scott became where Sam was concerned.

In case the gushing didn’t make it obvious enough, I loved Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Don’t Look Back. It was an engrossing page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. With this book, Jennifer L. Armentrout has just reinforced the fact that she will forever be on my auto-read list.