This book has an absolutely brilliant premise. Abi wakes to the call every parent dreads; her teenage daughter, Olivia, has fallen from a bridge into the water below and is brain-dead. She won’t survive. And yet she will be kept alive for a time, because she’s pregnant, and the doctors will do everything they can to ensure the baby’s survival. Abi must piece together what has happened to her sensible, popular daughter before it’s too late.

The narrative switches between Abi in the present, trying desperately to find out what was going on in her daughter’s life in the months leading up to the accident, and Olivia in the recent past. The revelations and surprises come thick and fast, and we learn along with Abi that there was a lot in Olivia’s life that her mother was unaware of. Throughout, McDonald keeps up the tension with no let-up.

McDonald writes with great confidence and fluidity for a debut. The descriptions of Abi and Olivia’s relationship, and other close relationships in the novel (trying to avoid spoilers), are beautiful. This is very much a book about what it means to be a parent and a daughter. The characters, particularly Abi and Olivia, are so well-drawn that I could see and hear them, and I felt like I understood the nature of their complex love for one another. I’m very excited to see what this author writes next.

A pretty good suspenseful story that kept me engaged. Finished in a day. Wasn't mind blowing but not bad at all. Maybe I was hoping for a more shocking ending but still a good book!

Well written, likeable characters, kept me guessing and made me sob. This is a mystery with heart and I really enjoyed it.

Sometimes when things are falling apart, the jagged pieces drift together and fuse into a newer, unexpected version of life.

Christina McDonald has taken those broken pieces of a family's tragedy and created quite the telling. This one is heavily imbued with real, believable characters who find themselves leaning into the wind of unbearable loss. McDonald, adeptly, makes us turn our own heads and question what our reactions would be if we faced similar circumstances.

The dreaded phone calls almost always come in the middle of the night. Abi Knight has just been informed by the hospital that her sixteen year old daughter, Olivia, has fallen from a bridge and is in critical condition. By the time that Abi and her sister, Sarah, arrive at the hospital, the news becomes even more dire. Olivia's scans show no brain activity. But there is another victim on the edge of life........Olivia is pregnant.

While reeling from the onslaught of such bone-shaking news, Abi takes a stand to do all that she can to find who did this to her daughter. Olivia will remain on life-support in an effort to keep the baby alive until delivery can occur at the safest moment. The police report gives all indication that this was merely an accident. But Abi is far from convinced.

McDonald shifts the story between alternating chapters voiced by Abi and Olivia. She keeps the tension in high gear as the calendar reverts to the past months leading to the bridge incident. We will find out a good deal of Abi's past as well and how it impacts Olivia's. Everyone will become a suspect in your mind. Certain characters will whiz you off. McDonald does a fine job of engaging her readers because this is an emotional read with so much at stake in the mix of things.

Let's face it.......we'll all be reaching for the next offering by Christina McDonald. It's that good.

I received a copy of The Night Olivia Fell through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Gallery Books and to Christina McDonald for the opportunity.

Currently reading The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald. I am always so happy when a book grabs my attention from the first page! I knew I’d like this book and nearly halfway through it, I am really captivated by the story of Olivia and her mother Abi.

The point of view switches from current day Abi, struggling to put the pieces together over how her daughter ended up in a coma, with bruises on her wrist and pregnant to Olivia, before this horrible accident.

The police are hesitant to get involved, why? And Abi told Olivia her father was dead, but is he? Who would want to see Olivia dead? Who is the father of her baby? As Olivia is kept on life support for the baby, Abi is distressed over Olivia’s upcoming death which will happen as soon as the baby is born.

This book has woven together various plot points which keeps me engaged and interested in what is going to happen next.

I love it! And you will too. Due on in February 2019!

Ultimately, The Night Olivia Fell had everything that I look for in a book: it was emotional, suspenseful, difficult to put down, it had a small amount of romance but nothing that over powered the story line as a whole, and it had secondary characters that hit the mark every time they were present. Wam, bam, thank ya ma’am!

From what I have researched, this is the author’s debut book and with me saying that, I have to in turn say this: I read this in one sitting. Nonstop. I loved this story, I loved that topic that the author tackled, and I am just in awe as I sit here and type up this review of how delicately she handled it all. For a debut novel, it knocked the socks off of almost everything that I have read this year.

There was so much that I wanted to discuss and talk about in my review and I was ready to get it all out but by the time I typed it all up the first time, I realized that so much of it would be given away if I did that. So I erased it all and instead I wanted to talk about the main thing that I LOVED about this book and that was how the author evoked authentic and raw feelings from me. It’s almost difficult for me to explain, maybe it was my mood, maybe it was Olivia or even Abi or the story-line, but this book hit me in a soft spot in my heart that I had long forgotten about and for that, I am always grateful.

The characters, WOW! They were amazing. And not one of them was as good as what they were portrayed as and as the story goes on you can see them crack more and more. They were all mixed with mysteries and they kept me guessing the entire time. By the time it was all said and done, I was suspicious of every one at least three different times. The author did a fantastic job at pulling my feelings and accusations in all different types of directions.

The plot holes were all filled. Just when I was making mental note of something that needed to be touched on, bam, it was covered. And when I say that, I mean it. That is a huge pet-peeve for me when I am reading a story. But with this book, the story-line stayed open so long that you were able to cast all sorts of allegations but then when you got to the next chapter, you would have more and the previous ones would all be gone.

I really feel like The Night Olivia Fell is so much more than the typical suspense story that we keep seeing promoted day after day. It does include the typical “cliches” such as secrets, lies, nothing appearing as it seems, and even conflicts and similarities between characters that you never would have expected, but the relatable characters and the raw emotions that this book evoked from me was in a department all in it’s own.

We know from the description that Olivia falls and is brain dead and pregnant and her mom wants to know what happened the night she fell and if she was pushed.  I stayed up way past my bedtime to find out what happened that night!  

This book is fast-paced, with hooks at the end of chapters to make you want to read the next chapter.  I don't like thrillers where you feel that these things could never happen in real life, this book was not like that.  Everything in this book seemed plausible, like it really could happen.  I also really liked that there were so many different possibilities and what happened was not revealed until the end.

This was Christina McDonald's first novel, but it really does not read like a first novel.  It reads as though the writer has a lot of experience knowing what works and what doesn't and how to hook readers.

As the mom of two teen daughters, the thing I did not like about this novel was that the mom didn't really know her daughter as well as she thought she did.

What if one of your deepest secrets may have been partially responsible for your daughter's untimely death? This is exactly the case in this thriller as Abi awakens one morning to the news that her daughter, Olivia had fallen off the ZigZag bridge the night before and is now brain dead .Told in past and present, with alternating viewpoints of Abi and Olivia, the novel recounts the events leading up to and after Olivia's death. How did Abi's mother's suicide affect Abi's parenting? How did her secret about Olivia's father figure in? And how did Olivia's relationships with friends and boyfriends affect her? Lots of themes here: secrets, lies, betrayal, blackmail, bullying, compassion, and love. It's a lovely novel about how the heart can break but perhaps be put back together with enough people who care and are willing to put the past behind them.

In spite of great reviews from many others, this one was just so-so for me. Decent enough to eventually finish, not compelling enough to rave about, but not necessarily bad. For some reason the characters just didn’t click with me. The mystery aspect was okay but I didn’t feel especially connected to anyone.

I enjoyed this book. The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald tells the story of a single Mom and her daughter who both keeps secrets from each other. The mystery revolves around a night when Olivia the daughter fell off of a bridge, was it an accident or was she pushed? The narrative, told in alternate viewpoints and timelines, held my attention until the end. The characters were written realistically and there was enough tension throughout to make this interesting. Good book!

This book took me on an emotional rollercoaster!!! It sucked me and grabbed at my heart!! Abi is a single mother who is raising her daughter Olivia whose sixteen on her own and always puts her first. She has spent her life protecting Olivia. One night she isn’t there to protect her and she gets a phone call Olivia has fallen from a bridge and she’s now on life support pregnant and has bruises. Abi isn’t agreeing with the police that it was an “accident” why aren’t the police investigating and she’s on a mission to know what has happened to her daughter and what are the police hiding. The story blends together beautifully between Olivia’s point of view from the last leading up to the accident and Abi’s point of view of what’s happening now with Olivia in the hospital and her investigation into her daughter life and secrets. I kept thinking I knew who was behind everything but I was wrong! It defiantly pulled at my heart and makes me want to keep my own child close! I want to thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read this wonderful book!!

5+ stunning stars to this debut novel from Christina McDonald

I was hooked from the opening of the book where Abi gets the news that no parent wants to hear about their child. There's been an accident and her daughter Olivia has fallen from a bridge. The story then is told expertly from Abi's point of view (mostly present-day) and alternates with Olivia's narrative from a few months earlier. There is a police investigation and Abi doesn't think it was an accident. There is a serious twist as Olivia is pregnant and her mother didn't know. The story builds in tension up to the point where we discover the truth about what happened to Olivia.

Abi hasn't had the easiest childhood and she's been restrictive and protective with Olivia, but it is obvious that Abi loves her daughter very much. As a parent, it was interesting to reflect on this dynamic. Can we protect our children too much? It also made me wonder about how well we know our children. The teenage years are difficult ones for both sides. This is a great book that explores that dynamic and how difficult parenting is for all of us, but especially single parents. This book does a great job of exploring relationships and those seemed very authentic to me in this book. There are some great characters, Abi's sister seemed so well developed. The author did a great job in making these characters come to life for me when I read this book.

I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy thrillers and family-relationship stories. It was an absorbing book that I read in a day and a half whenever I could squeeze in some reading time.

This was the best book I’ve read all year. It doesn’t come out until February 2019 but I’ve already pre-ordered it.

The plot of this novel seems pretty straightforward, something you’d normally see in a suspense/thriller novel - daughter “mysteriously” injured in an accident, trying to find out whodunit, etc. However, there were a few things that elevated this novel and made it stand out for me.

In regards to the thriller/suspense plot , the author did a great job of casting doubt & suspicion on several characters, and I truly didn’t figure it out until the end of the novel. I thought I had it figured out right away, but to my pleasant surprise, found myself questioning the killer as the novel went on. I very much enjoyed how to the story played out, as Abi worked tirelessly to figure out what happened to Olivia.

However, most thrillers don’t have an emotional component like this one did. The fact that Olivia is pregnant AND brain-dead, being kept alive on life support, adds so many feelings to this one, and evokes lots of emotion from the reader. Usually, the victim has already passed away, making the reader feel more detached- you feel no real connection to the victim. That was not the case in this story.

Without giving anything away, I was sobbing at the end of the novel - like loud, mascara-down-my cheeks ugly crying, causing my husband to ask (a few times) if I was okay. Especially in the last few chapters, the author did a phenomenal job of creating detailed, heartfelt scenes that made you feel like you were right there.

I think I also felt so strongly and was so emotional due to the way the book was written, with the alternating narratives and flashback chapters. Often, the reader only hears from 1 narrator and it’s not the victim. Hearing Olivia’s POV and knowing what was going on with her, made me connect with her on a much deeper level. The reader is in Olivia’s head right through the heartbreaking scene on the bridge. The writing for these scenes was just incredible.

Whether you’re a fan of thrillers or women’s fiction, this book will appeal to so many people and will resonate with you on a deeper emotional level. Highly, highly, recommend.

I don't know where to begin...this story was amazing. It takes a lot to make me cry and this one did it for me.

Without giving too much away, you must read it to understand it.

I have a teenage daughter in a "serious" relationship and if this was ever the situation I found myself in, I don't know what I would do.

This story will tug at your heartstrings and have you really thinking and understanding teenagers and what goes through their minds.

The story revolves around the night Olivia fell and what events bring her to that very moment. You will be devastated for this mother but you will also see the power of healing and acceptance. It is a dark tale with a true light at the end of the tunnel.

I loved every aspect of this book! Make sure you have some Kleenex handy, the character developments and ending are so great! I couldn't put down this page turner and actually read this book in one day! Christina McDonald is a great writer and I can't wait to read more from her! Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!

What a well written book! I loved the characters, even if I related to Abi a bit more than I wanted. 😁 I loved that all the hints and clues were out in the open, if you paid attention. When I finally turned the last page, I had to just sit and let it sink in. I will be re-reading this book...which is something I rarely do on purpose. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this in advance (netgalley), I will be highly suggesting it to everyone I know!

Wow! Was so invested in this book. Absolutely amazing book. Emotions were all over. Definitely need a box of tissues. Follow Abi's journey as she fights to find out what happened to her daughter. Thought I had it figured out, then boom! Thoroughly recommend.
Thanks to netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

5 “Trust Me, you absolutely cannot miss reading this book” stars to The Night Olivia Fell!

I read The Night Olivia Fell with a group of blogger friends, and we unanimously loved it! An emotional read perfect for groups, The Night Olivia Fell is definitely a book you will to discuss with friends!

My Thoughts:

The Night Olivia Fells opens with a scene of which no one wants to relate. Abi Knight receives a phone call that her teen daughter has been in a tragic accident and is in the hospital. Upon arriving, she learns that her daughter is not only brain dead, but also pregnant.

From there, the narrative shifts between Abi’s narrative, mostly in the present day with some flashbacks, and Olivia’s narrative in the months leading up to her fall, until the two narratives merge in a masterful way.

Abi believes from the start that Olivia’s fall is no accident. She sees bruises on her wrists, and she quickly learns no one is taking her seriously, including the police. Once the police finally do begin to investigate, the case never seems to be their priority, and Abi decides to take matters into her own hands.

What happened to Olivia that fateful night, and how will this tragic story end?

There are so many things I loved about The Night Olivia Fell, and the biggest is how grounded it is in reality with authentic emotions, relationship dynamics, and characters. And those characters…wow! Not one is simply good or bad; they are a nice mix of complexity that keeps you guessing, especially when it comes to pointing the finger at who might have harmed Olivia. The author kept a wide net cast when looking for the suspect. I would develop a theory, and then pan to the next potential perp as the story went along and red herrings were dangled.

The Night Olivia Fell is so much more than the typical suspense story. While it has all the paramount trademarks, including secrets, lies, and formidable tension, it is in a league of its own with its intensely relatable characterization and raw emotion. You will love Abi and Olivia, and you will most definitely want to wrap your arms around each of them together, as you read their story and accept their individual fates as mother and daughter.

I read this book as a group with Berit, Holly, Melisa, Mack, and Kendall, and this was the best kind of story to read together. We shared in the tension, the love for these characters, and the guessing game at just who was guilty at the center of it all.

Thank you to the author, Christina McDonald, for the complimentary physical copy. All opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It kept me guessing all the way to the end. Very suspenseful. Well written. Characters were fantastic. Author has a way of making you feel what the characters are going through.Can't wait to read more from this author.

Heart-wrenching, emotional, beautiful, suspenseful, thought-provoking, and uplifting—this is a book that is filled with love in many forms, and that I won’t soon forget! When I read a book and I start to fall for the characters, I know that it will quickly become a favorite of mine. This book made me think about the impact of a single moment in time, and the ripple effect on the lives of those surrounding a young woman. It made me think about the chain of events that lead up to and away from a tragedy, and how we go about getting answers and finding a way to move forward when the worst happens. It is a story about the love of a mother, and the unrelenting pursuit of justice for her daughter.

About the Book

Early one morning, Abi Knight is awoken with the worst news a mother can hear—there’s been an accident. Her daughter Olivia is in the hospital in critical condition. By the time Abi arrives, she receives the news that Olivia has fallen off of a bridge and won’t ever wake up again. There has been irreversible damage to her brain.

Devastated, Abi wonders how to say goodbye to her only daughter and best friend. But there’s a catch—the doctors can’t pull life support from Olivia by law, because Olivia is pregnant. Shocked, Abi wonders how Olivia’s life got to this point with her being unaware. What happened that night? And how long has Olivia been pregnant? Did she know? Why didn’t she tell Abi, who was herself a teenage mother?

As Abi becomes determined to find the answers she seeks, the carefully constructed life she has created for herself and her daughter begins to unravel. A lie she told comes back to haunt her, and the secrets of Olivia’s life begin to surface. But despite all of the lies, Abi is certain Olivia’s death was not an accident. Her bracelet is missing, and there are bruises around her wrist. A string of text messages and digital clues may hold the answer to Olivia’s final hours.

What really happened the night Olivia fell?

Reflection

What an incredible debut novel by Christina McDonald this is! I want to first speak on her writing—it is incredibly filled with detail that makes the scenes and emotions leap right off the page. For instance, as Abi rushes to the hospital early one rainy morning, reeling from the call from the doctor about Olivia, McDonald describes the sensory details of that trip. The wet leaf caught on the windshield, being moved around by the wiper blades before finally tearing. The squeal of tires and grip of the steering wheel as she tries to balance her panic with arriving safely. The sharp contrast between the bright lights and the dark hours of the morning, glistening on the damp pavement. The shakiness in her legs. Her writing is like this throughout the book, contrasting the inner monologue of the characters with the detail of their surroundings. You can easily picture this book as a film, watching it play out before your eyes.

And the story itself is one that will leave you thinking about these characters long after you finish. It is charged with emotion, taut with tension, softened by the love of a mother and her grief. The horror I felt for Abi, hearing updates on the health of her grandchild while knowing that the birth of the baby would mean the death of her daughter—it almost overwhelmed me imagining what that would feel like. How can she be happy about her grandchild when she knows it will mean she has to let Olivia go? Abi was a character that I completely fell for. She is aware of her own shortcomings, tries to do what is best, and stumbles along the way. Abi felt like someone I could know in real life. Someone I may have passed on the street one time, wondering what demons haunted her eyes.

We also hear some of the story from Olivia’s perspective, in the months leading up to the accident. I loved the way these chapters were written—almost like a young adult novel. They had the voice of a teenage girl. McDonald captured the worry and impulsivity of a seventeen year old perfectly. These chapters were so important, because without them Olivia would only exist for us through the eyes and heart of her mother Abi. But Olivia herself is full of life and hope and teenage heart ache. It would be easy to have Olivia sainted through the eyes of Abi, but instead we see her—as imperfect and full of love as she is. With a life filled with potential, taken from her before her time.

I read this book with the 5 of my book besties!!! We absolutely loved it.