I enjoyed this one. Twisty, turny and the narrator was great. I have read other books by this author and have yet to be disappointed. A good read!

Mother's Secrets

A story of a mother and daughter. The mother appears to be falling victim to Alzheimer's disease. Catherine fears what is happening to her mother. She is scheduled to take a position away from home but feels she must stay close to her mother...that is until she doubts her mother.

Ruth must keep her secret past secret from everyone, even her daughter. Her daughter must never find out about her father and the past her mother Ruth had with him. Ruth keeps her past hidden well until she doesn't .

Catherine researches her mother's past and finds things that might put both her mother and herself in danger.

A mystery, within a mystery and a good story. I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks to Sarah Pekkanen for writing a great story, to MacMillan audio for publishing it, a great narration by Kate Mara and to NetGalley for providing me a copy to read and review.

This is the gripping thriller/mystery that I have been needing! Been in the mood for a mystery/thriller and the last two I’ve picked up have just not hit the spot, but this one did! Very quick read. That kept me going the whole time. (Even though I saw the epilogue “twist” coming a mile away, it didn’t take away from the thrill to me at all.) I loved the mother/daughter characters and that they weren’t awful people that you couldn’t root for. No they were a mother and daughter who both cared about each other but harbor secrets from the other. I appreciated that. (Also appreciated it wasn’t full of filthy language or bedroom scenes as so many are today!)

That being said, while I LOVED the narrator, Kate Mara who did a fabulous job, it definitely should have been two narrators, one for each woman’s POV. The story is told in two separate POV’s as well as diary entries and sort of two different timelines (It has a lot of flashbacks to Ruth’s past before Catherine). But the audiobook only has one narrator. And that got extremely confusing. It was hard to keep up with which woman’s POV I was in, especially when it was in the current timeline and it was switching between the two women. II got them mixed up a lot, in a way that would not have happened if there had been different narrators. Also in the audio it isn’t possible to differentiate between the POV and the diary entries. There should have been some form of distinction in the narration.

Story gets 4 stars
Audio production: 3 stars
Audio performance: 4 stars

One of the things I loved about this book was that the characters alternated chapters, which easily makes wanting to keep reading to find what happens next easier. It’s hard to say just one more chapter when you can’t complete the scenarios without reading on. I would read until my eyes wouldn’t allow me to anymore. The book itself kept me guessing, I speculated along the way but some things I was saying to myself “this woman is crazy!” And then yelling at the daughter for doing things she was messing up. The end was wrapped up nicely, I would definitely recommend this as your next read!

I found this book to be AMAZING!!! I enjoyed the pace and setting of the book. Also, the closely held secrets of the narrators really kept me interested in the book, and wanting to read more. This is a book I listened to on my way to work, and I found myself wanting the drive to go longer than it was, just so I could continue to listen!

I loved Kate Mara as a narrator! Although she didn't do "voices" so to speak, there is something to be said about having that familiar voice to listen to. Spectacular!

Generally, I would definitely recommend this book (and already have!) to friends and family.

Thank you to the Author, Narrator, Publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited to see that Kate Mara was narrating Gone Tonight. I LOVED her in House of Cards. Her voice was great to listen to, it was a little confusing at times because of the two different POVs she was trying to do. Sarah Pekkanen did not disappoint with this book. She had me with the mother and daughter relationship and exploring how one thinks they definitely know the other. It was definitely a wild ride of many dark secrets revealed that I did not see coming!

Another fantastic novel by Sarah Pekkanen. I was hooked from the start. I really enjoyed all the twists and turns in this novel, and waiting to see what would happen next. Definitely recommend this one!

I thought this one was a very well written fast paced story. I was intrigued from the beginning on what was going to happen but I was slightly confused at the start of who was who. Once I got past that, I really enjoyed listening to this one. I will say there were not any OMG!! moments for me but overall it was a solid story with some good twists.

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this story. My review has been posted on goodreads, storygraph, amazon, and instagram (@manymerrybooks).

Many thanks to @netgalley & @macmillanaudio for the #gifted audiobook

#AudiobookReview 🎧📖
Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
Story: 4✨ Narration: 4.5✨

🎶 Book as a song lyric: “Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table/Barely awake, I let precious time go by/Then when she's gone, there's that odd melancholy feeling/And a sense of guilt I can't deny…” -Slipping Through My Fingers, Abba

What worked for me:
The depth of the Ruth’s character, her past and present and the reveals doled out along the way…the tension and pacing were such a frustrating sort of satisfying.

The mother and daughter relationship, the love, the push and pull…

Kate Mara is a captivating narrator.

The heaviest topics were well written and portrayed VERY respectfully and with brutal realism (full TWs in comments).

The cherry chapstick 🥹🥹🥹

So many plots and subplots at play and they were juggling adeptly.

What didn’t work as well for me:
I really enjoyed the narration, but sort of wished for there to be more differentiation between the voices of mother and daughter.

Catherine’s character and some issues presented didn’t feel as well-researched/explained. See my PS if you’ve already read this one and DM me if you have thoughts.

Brain itchy, picky person (AuDHD) stuff, repetitive phrases like: shocked me to my core.

⚠️TWs/CWs include: Family estrangement, teen pregnancy, Alzheimer’s/dementia, death of parent(s), alcoholism, child abuse and DV (physical, emotional, psychological), racism, racial slur, molestation/child sexual abuse (on page, graphic), self harm, suicide, misogyny, fatphobia, self-blame (abuse survivors), graphic violence, murder, drugs, alcohol, terminal illness, faking of serious illness…

PS: (‼️Spoilers!⚠️): Catherine’s characterization required some suspended disbelief, because how am I to believe she’s inherited her father’s sociopathic/psychopathic nature and yet she’s devoted her working life to caring for elderly dementia patients and frequently exhibits empathy?

It took me some time to get into this book because it seems to start off just so slow. It’s a real slow burn for sure. But then suddenly as the story unraveled I found myself eager to keep going, to learn the truth and get to know the characters. It’s a great book that gives you so much to consider. It has dual POV which isn’t my favorite but is important to break down the plot and let us dig deeper into both their lives…and lies.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the early audio ARC!

I enjoyed this book and I think that Kate Mara did a fantastic job narrating it. It was a fast-paced thriller that kept me interested throughout the book.

This was a fun thriller to listen to, but I did find some parts a little slow to move through.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book starts off super interesting and kept my attention the entire time, i was very invested to figure out how it would end! I was so impressed with the layout of this book!

a fast paced story and I was interested to see how things would unfold and what the outcome would be. It kept my attention throughout and I was invested enough to want to see what happened

Propulsive is an accurate description for this story of a mother and daughter and how their quiet, unassuming life quickly unravels due to long held, dangerous secrets. 5/5⭐️

• Go in knowing no more than that and be prepared to ignore your responsibilities.
• Audio and print are equally fantastic. I started with the audio, then finished with print when my air pods ran out of juice.
• Suspend disbelief and just go along for the ride!

I do really enjoy Sarah Pekkanen when she writes with Greer Hendricks (The Wife Between Us, The Golden Couple, You Are Not Alone), and have had middle of the road luck with her books when she has written them alone (The Ever After), so this book fit right in there with what I was expecting.

Despite not being a fan of coincidences and characters that just cannot or will not communicate (of which this book had plenty of both), the author's writing and the pace of the plot kept me reading. Psychological thrillers are right in my wheelhouse and I realize that for the most part they do require a bit of the suspension of belief and I was willing to go along for the ride, I think because I have enjoyed this author in the past. If it was a new-to-me author, I might be a little less forgiving.

Kate Mara did a fine job narrating, although if there was ever a case for dual narrators, this is it. At the very least, I was expecting different voices for the two different points of view because, without it, there were points where it was hard to differentiate between the two characters.

I really enjoyed this twisty thriller! We have a mother and daughter story about how they have always just been those two against the world but as Kathrine the daughter is getting older and trying to move on with her life. But that’s when we find out the mother Ruth is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Kathrine starts to try to peace together her mothers past life. As this goes on we get dual POV told from Kathrine as she searches and Ruth’s life story and how she figures out what Kathrine is doing and how she is gonna stop her. I loved both of their parts and though they were told so well, Ruth’s life story was so interesting and I thought it was paced well! I was constantly questioning what was going on and if we could believe what we where hearing. The ending was suspenseful and I loved how it played out! I listened to the audiobook for this one and the narrators did a great job!

Gone Tonight was a great read by Sarah Pekkanen. Catherine Sterling thought that she knew her mother. Ruth is a quiet, hardworking woman who lives for her daughter. Catherine is ready to spread her wings and move from home. Ruth will do whatever possible to prevent that from happening. Ruth’s desperate quest to keep her daughter with her begins to reveal cracks in the world Ruth constructed. I enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to read more by the author.

A totally unputdownable thriller, this book will have you gripped from the very first page until the jaw-dropping final twist.

I didn't particularly love the characters, but I thought the story was interesting enough to keep my attention. I wanted to keep reading to see how everything would turn out in the end, and I think the store definitely picked up in the later half of the book.