Good read with some twists. Not completely suspenseful but there is enough thrown in to make you question your own predictions. Shows the love of a parent - the struggle, the fear of the future and what one would do for a child.

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald is absolutely one of my favorite reads this year. It is a five star book, for sure. I really would recommend going into this one blind, as it’s such a good book and the blurb doesn’t do it justice.

I was completely captivated within the first few pages and instead of quickly reading as I normally do, I limited myself to only a few chapters at a time because I knew I’d be sad when it ended.

I loved the alternative view points of the way the story is told. The characters are so well constructed that you either love them or hate them, but either way, I felt like I knew them as people. What I really enjoyed about this book was that I made a prediction about the ending while reading the first few chapters of the book. I had my thoughts and I was steadfast with my theory until about 3/4 of the way through, where I was thrown for a loop. I loved that I was wrong and really enjoyed being kept on my toes.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Gallery Books. I truly am honored to have been able to read an ARC of this one and will definitely need a hard copy for my shelf! Congrats to Christina McDonald on an incredible debut book. I will definitely be following this author to see what else she comes up with!

The Night Olivia Fell is a profoundly poignant, heart wrenching, twisty novel that will leaving you feeling so many emotions, and in the best possible way.

Abi Night receives that call all no mother ever wants to get; her teenage daughter Olivia has fallen off a bridge, and she is brain dead and PREGNANT. Per state law, Olivia must be kept alive on life support to keep her baby alive.

The police rule Olivia's fall an accident, but Abi is not convinced and she is desperate to find out what happened the night olivia fell.

This incredibly well crafted novel, is told in alternate perspecitves of Abi and Olivia with Abi's perspective in the present and Olivia's in the past. The characters are so complex with a fantastic interwoven plot that will grab you from page one. I must admit I thought I knew how this would end, but I was surprised at every twist.

Christina McDonald created an emotional story about a mothers love, relationships, lies and how far we will go to discover the truth.

Don't miss this gem of a novel. You will not be disappointed.

Every parent dreads getting that late night phone call. When Abi gets a call late at night, telling her that her daughter Olivia was in an accident, her life comes to an abrupt standstill. Abi learns her teenage daughter is not only brain dead but pregnant.
Abi begins to suspect that Olivia's accident is no accident. She starts her own investigation which leads her to come to terms with her own past.
I loved this book. It was very engrossing and I had trouble putting it down. It has many twists and turns, leading you to an unexpected ending. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book.

Beautiful yet tragic book. I didn't expect that climax, but very cathartic ending. I definitely cried at one point, so I highly recommend a box of Kleenex.

Abigail (the mom in the story) receives that dreaded middle of the night phone call that her daughter has fallen off a bridge and been transported to the emergency room at the town's hospital. Medical examiners rule that Olivia is in a comatose state, but she has encountered enough brain damage to never be able to make a recovery. Abi is a single parent, looking forward to sending her daughter to college in the near future. Abi next learns that her daughter is pregnant. The police rule Olivia's death as an accident and are hesitant to continue searching for any culprits in her death. Abi cannot accept the fact that this was a suicide or an accident. The Night Olivia Fell is reminiscent of Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood. I enjoyed the jorney and would recommend also to fans of Reconstructing Amelia.

You get drawn in, twisted, thrown in the air, land with a hard boom; then the Sun does rise again. This is going on my top 25 list of 2018! I am still shattered, do I cry, there are so many to weep for, or should my anger vent itself first? Whatever you do, read this book this year, I refuse to give one particle of it away! Fantastic, gut-wrenching, how do I get up tomorrow story! Author, I must find this Author! Thank you Netgalley! Thank you to the Publisher, and the Author! A genuinely well-written book!
I Highly Recommend! Thank you!
carolintallahassee

The Night Olivia Fell by author Christina McDonald is a gripping heart felt book about relationships between the only family you have. Learning to rebuild those relationships even after you think it's too late seriously one of my new favorite books! Reads very similar to Reconstructing Amelia and has the twists and turns while trying to uncover the truth. This book isn't to be missed!!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of The Night Olivia Fell in exchange for an honest review.

Predictable with a lot of different plot points. Suicide, single motherhood, politics, teenage pregnancy, police corruption. There is maybe too much packed in when focusing more on the state law might have been an interesting twist. As it is, there isn't a mystery here with building suspense but a build up of the narrators' characters and straight storytelling.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

I loved this book. A true testiment to the lengths a mother will go for her children and the quest for truth. Did Olivia fall to her death? Was it really an accident? Who was there? Who has information they are not sharing? Where are the coverups and who is behind them? All the characters were woven together masterfully, which was a great feat considering all the likely suspects that emerge as the plot twists and turns. I couldn’t put this down! I received an ereader copy of this book for an honest review. Thank you!

This story grabbed me from the start. The family drama and mystery kept me turning pages well into the night. As a Mom, I felt the characters emotions come off the pages. This is so well written and I look forward to reading more by Christina McDonald. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this excellent book.

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald is an electrifying read. The author had me in tears which does not happen very often. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

4.5 Stars

Imagine being sound asleep when the jarring sound of the phone ringing awakens you and a voice tells you your teenage child has been badly hurt and you need to rush to the hospital as soon as you can. Yet, how can that be? It's impossible, clearly a mistake, your mind tells you because you know your child is safely asleep right down the hall! You rush to check only to discover their bedroom empty...and your world quickly falls to pieces.

As a mother with teenage sons and a soon to be pre-teen daughter, this is absolutely one of my most vivid nightmares come to life, a worst-case scenario that made me completely empathize with Abi, one of the main characters in The Night Olivia Fell, who in the opening scenes of this engrossing and emotionally spell-binding domestic suspense novels gets a middle of the night phone call just like I described telling her that her daughter Olivia has been badly injured.

It's a phone call that will forever change her life because once she gets to the hospital she finds out that Olivia is more than injured, she's brain dead after falling off a bridge. Nothing can be done to save her. Abi is destroyed by the news since Olivia was her world, but there's more to come--the daughter she thought she knew everything about is pregnant and must be kept on life-support until the pregnancy is viable.

The story is told through alternative narratives. We hear from Abi in the present day who doesn't believe Olivia fell off the bridge after seeing a circle of bruises on her daughter's wrist. She doesn't care that the police have ruled her daughter's fall an accident or that they are reluctant to the point of almost refusing to investigate because she's on a hunt to discover what happened to her daughter by herself!

In flashbacks from months back leading right up to the moment she ended up on the bridge, we hear from Olivia, who was a teenage girl full of life, dreams, love, and hope for her future as she was getting ready for college and a bright future. I loved getting to know Olivia through her sections because she was such a sweet, bright, realistically portrayed teenager, but it just made it harder emotionally as I continued to read knowing her fate.

Christina McDonald was excellent in portraying Abi's pain at the loss of her daughter, and I cried as I felt it along with her. I think one of the saddest moments in the book was when Abi breaks down after her sister Sarah talks about how much closer it is until the baby is born and Abi has to tell her that's the day Olivia dies! How can she be happy about her grandchild being born when it means the death of her daughter...I wept and wept at that part. Abi is a character that will stay with me for a long, long time.

This character-driven novel unfolds perfectly. It's emotional, tragic, and sinister domestic suspense at its best, and I'm extremely impressed that this is McDonald's debut! Although the mystery involving Olivia was one I figured out fairly early, there are plenty of twists and red herrings along the way that will make you look at every character once or twice with suspicion! And there were other sinister things going on that tied in with the mystery that made me go "oh, now that I didn't expect"!!

The Night Olivia Fell is a highly emotional read that is perfect for those who like a lighter suspense novel although it's filled with tension and drama. It's an addictive read that you won't be able to put down until you finish it! I can say with 100% certainty that I'll be watching closely for McDonald's next book! I highly recommend you pick this one up--it releases in February 2019!

** A huge thank you to Christina McDonald, NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC copy to read in exchange for my fair and honest review. **

Abi Knight receives a call in the middle of the night that her daughter, Olivia, has been in an accident. Having rushed to the hospital, Abi finds out that Olivia has irreversible brain damage. According to Washington state law, life support cannot be removed because Abi is pregnant. (Which Abi didn't know about).

6 months ago, Olivia Was on a college tour when see sees her - (from another school), Kendall, almost Olivia's exact image. Kendall and Olivia talk. Olivia finds out that Kendall's mom is ALSO from Portage Point, WA. She has been shielded from the identity of her father. Maybe now she will get some answers.

NOW, Abi is on a hunt to find out what exactly happened to Olivia the night of the accident. Her sister, Sarah, helps Abi but the police need to do their job.....

The story continues back and forth from Olivia (before the accident) to (the present) her mom, Abi.

The main character, Abi, is (to me) unlikeable, over domineering and self-pitying. I did not agree with what Abi, was doing or how she raised her daughter. Lies, lies, lies... Sarah, Abi's sister, raised Abi. Both of Olivia's boyfriends throughout the story, were sort of jerks and self-important. Olivia's best friend was horrible. Olivia, herself, was typical of
a child raised by an over-sheltering mother. (I mean, calling in every few hours on the dot when you are in high school?) This leads to lies and overt rebellion in even the best of kids.

Even if I did not like the characters - it was a brilliant story. I HIGHLY recommend to all!!!!!


Many thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for a fascinating read!!!!!

I want to Thank NetGalley, Gallery Books and Christina McDonald for an advance copy of this book.

I was super excited to read this book and I loved it! A unique family dynamic with imperfect and endearing characters. Love, betrayal, scandal, surprise, tragedy, endurance and healing are just some of the themes of this story, not sappy or inconceivable. I loved it from the beginning and was enthralled throughout. There was always something interesting happening and I enjoyed the way the characters interacted with each other and how their relationships changed within the story to propel to a final conclusion/outcome. This book was everything I hoped and more. The concept was appealing and the book well written. I highly recommend.

How well do we really know our children and what’s going on in their lives? That’s an over-arching theme in “The Night Olivia Fell” by Christina McDonald. The story begins with 17-year-old Olivia Knight falling, told from her perspective, and then the book alternates between Olivia’s perspective before she fell and her mother Abi’s perspective after Olivia fell. We meet Abi as she awakens to a phone call about Olivia having an accident. When she arrives at the hospital, she is told that Olivia is brain dead but that they can’t remove life support because Olivia is pregnant. :-O

It’s then that Abi realizes that she really doesn’t know what’s been going on in her daughter’s life. We learn a lot about Abi’s back story in her chapters – deserted by a mother who committed suicide when Abi was 10, raised by her sister, a teenage mom herself. Abi is an insecure and over-protective mother whose daughter has begun to rebel. Abi is determined to figure out what happened to her daughter, and when the police aren’t moving fast enough for her liking, she starts to ask questions herself.

I don’t want to give away anything because it is definitely an interesting story. There are a lot of potential suspects and a lot of possibilities for what happened – including the possibility that Olivia really just fell (or jumped?) – but Abi doesn’t think so. It’s a 5-star concept for sure and one that kept me reading.

What knocked this down to 4 stars for me were the writing style and Olivia’s chapters. The writing was overly melodramatic for me, like a soap opera: “Rage radiated out from him in waves. Adrenaline kicked hot and silent in my blood, and I leaned away, wanting to escape the vortex of his fury.” Really? I’m sure there are those who like that style. Not my cup of tea, but everyone has their preferences. In regard to Olivia’s chapters, I simply think the book would have been better without them. Keep the Prologue and maybe the chapter near the end where we actually find out what happened to Olivia, but the rest of Olivia's chapters actually give away too much information. The book would be much more of a suspenseful whodunit without Olivia’s point of view telling us what we don’t want to know so soon. There’s enough context in Abi’s chapters to keep you guessing.

There were a couple minor characters who send flowers to Abi and approach her when she’s out for a run one day. They didn’t really add value to the story and could easily be eliminated. There’s also a detective who is helping investigate who Abi spends a lot of time with and their budding relationship is a little cliché but not really developed throughout the book for where they seem to end up.

Overall, I would recommend this one. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This title is scheduled for publication on Feb. 5, 2019.

It takes a lot to make me shed a tear while reading. But when it comes to a mother and her child it’s one sure way to get me all in the feels.

Add in an unexpected baby, a mystery, and all the feelings of grief and love and loss— heavy hitter right here.

<b>”Everybody lies. It’s just a question of degree.”</b>

I could not stop reading, even when the tears were flowing! I love a good mystery thriller and even better when it’s heartfelt. This one has all the elements while still leaving you guessing until the very end.

I’d love to read more by this author!

Not the type of book I usually go for (I tend to gravitate towards thrillers and romance novels) but this one was soooo wonderful. Thank you Netgalley for a great read.

What could have been just another mother-loses-child story becomes so much more than that. A story of one woman's pursuit of the truth. Dont want to say more, but I loved this book and highly recommend it.

Above average writing with an average plot. This book reads quickly, and there are all kinds of red herrings as to who caused Olivia's fall. The best parts are the realizations that Abi makes as she navigates the world after her daughter's tragedy. However, the plot kind of reads like a teenage soap opera. I'd *almost* classify this one as YA, it kind of reads like an episode of Riverdale. Thanks so much to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book!

"Being a parent is one long process of daring yourself to let you go." Here's a book for your 2019 TBR's (because there are only 52 days left in 2018...say what?!). The Night Olivia Fell is sure to be one of 2019 best reads. Goodreads calls this book perfect for fans of "Reconstructing Amelia and Big Little Lies." This book reminded me more of the former.

Synopsis: Single mother Abi gets a phone call in the middle of the night that no parent wants to get: her only daughter, Olivia, has fallen off a bridge and is now on life support. Everyone keeps saying it was an accident, but the marks on Olivia's wrists lead her mother to believe otherwise. With the police not wanting to launch an investigation, Abi takes it upon herself to figure out what happened "the night Olivia fell." Abi soon realizes that maybe she didn't know her daughter as well as she thought she did, and Olivia realizes that her mother has secrets of her own.

Opinion: I really enjoyed this book. It is fast-paced and suspenseful. The chapters alternate between Olivia and Abi's point of view. There are well-developed subplots that add an extra-dimension of mystery to the story. As a mother, I could completely empathize with Abi and even Olivia, and I even found myself getting a little teary-eyed at the end of the story. This is probably the first "thriller" that has ever made me cry! It did remind me a lot of Reconstructing Amelia, so if you enjoyed that book, you'll probably like this one too. I don't want to give too much away, but you'll definitely want to check this one out! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.