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.

4 stars! Enjoyed the alternating past/present and different points of view. Fans of Reconstructing Amelia will enjoy this read.

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.

Woah! What an incredible, tense, emotion filled read! I devoured The Night Olivia Fell, only pausing my reading when life intervened. I loved the way the story unfolds with chapters clearly marked both in time and by who is narrating. Alternating back and forth in time, the story is told at times by Olivia and at times by her mother, Abi. Ms. McDonald nails the angst of a teenaged girl wanting more freedom and the life of a single mom struggling to make a life for her daughter and then searching for answers after a tragic incident. It is a coming of age book for both the daughter and the mother.

The Night Olivia Fell is suspenseful and tragic as Olivia’s narrative from the several months leading up to her accident is woven with her mom Abi’s quest to uncover what really happened that night on the bridge. Even though the plot of the book is good and well-paced with various twists and turns, I couldn’t lose myself in it the way I wanted to because I was so annoyed with Abi. Abi had a whole host of issues complete with a treacherous backstory about how her own mother abandoned her when she committed suicide as well as the volatile relationship she had with Olivia’s father. Abi has created a life for herself and Olivia where they are mostly isolated- Abi refuses to rely on anyone or let them in. She sets extensive rules and boundaries for Olivia and of course, as any teenager would, Olivia rebels against them. In Abi’s attempt to keep her daughter safe, she actually pushed her into the arms of danger. Classic. And of course, through her daughter’s tragedy, Abi realizes that it is okay to trust people and that she might be better off if she relied on someone other than just herself every now and then. Had Abi realized all of this earlier, Olivia might not be brain dead and pregnant but I guess we’ll never know.

“What do you do when you know something and nobody will listen? When you need answers and nobody will provide them? When you can’t trust anybody to help you?”

A rage was surging through Abi’s body. Her daughter Olivia was brain dead - and pregnant.
Abi doesn’t believe it was an accident that Olivia fell from the bridge - but getting the detectives - Samson and McNally to listen to what she has to say - take her seriously- is like pulling teeth. Whether they help her or not - Abi is going to find out what happened to her daughter. Go Mom!

As the story unfolds - we learn about Olivia’s world. We not only learn about her friends - guys & girls - ( of course suspecting any one of them as to who might have pushed Olivia off that bridge), but we learn what’s driving Olivia into a recent frenzy.
She spends a ridiculous amount of time googling a girl named Kendall. There’s a reason.....one she hasn’t shared with her mother - in spite of the fact that they’ve had a pretty close relationship.
We also are privy to Olivia’s thoughts - feelings - observations - and assessments towards others - often projecting how her friends and/or mom would think, feel, react, in any given situation.
Olivia was a smart cookie - she knew where to draw the line with each of her friends and mom. Olivia anticipated her mother’s worries - and therefore was extra responsible in texting her mother - staying ahead of her mother’s concern’s....giving her comfort-security .....( weather true or false)....when she was away from home.
Even straight A students - like Olivia and not into drugs - can become agitated and down right angry. Olivia was tired of being lied to..... which you knew her mother in France both were. But WHY?

Abigail Knight - Abi- is focused on the investigation, yet we get backstory on her life too. She’s the most complex character in this novel.
She was an overprotective mother. Insecure with who she is. Her own mother committed suicide when she was a teenager. Her childhood obviously affected the way she was with Olivia. We do witness Abi’s growth and strength over time.

Through the tragedy - from when Olivia fell - Abi discovers she didn’t know everything about her daughter. It was an ‘a-ha’ surprising revelation to her.
Personally - I’m puzzled when parents think they ‘do’ know everything about their teenager.
No matter how close a mother/daughter relationship might be - they are both independent of one another.

This was a plausible enjoyable domestic thriller. Good - not over-the-top mind blowing gripping - rather it was a tender-heart - mystery thriller through the soul of a mother who loves her daughter.....and vice versa.

3.6 stars

Thank You Netgalley, Gallery Books, and Christina McDonald

I just finished The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald and it was such a suspenseful and engaging read. I have found that I am very drawn towards domestic thrillers and this book kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the alternating narratives and I was able to really connect with each of the main characters who were imperfect but real because of McDonald's ability to portray them with such complexity. It was a very emotional read and kept me guessing until the end. I definitely recommend this one and it was a solid four-star book for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review:THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL by Christina McDonald. I loved this book. Being a single mom with a daughter myself, the storyline made me sad at times but was very heartfelt. I pretty much had it figured out who caused Olivia to fall but there were enough twists and suspicions to make me doubt myself. ⭐⭐⭐⭐Four stars.

What a debut novel by Christina McDonald! This book had my attention at page 1. It was suspenseful, emotional, and not easy to put down.
The book is about Abi, a single, hard working Mom to teenaged Olivia, who is found dead at the bottom of a bridge. Not only does Abi have to deal with the fact her daughter is brain dead but also, pregnant, But by who?
Even though Abi is a wonderful Mom (and very over protective), she has a past herself. Her Mom committed suicide when she was young and she was raised by her sister, Sarah. Olivia was promiscuous as a teen, and ended up pregnant by a man (Gavin) with a career in politics. He is furious about her pregnancy, and their affair ends abruptly. Gavin thinks Abi aborted their child, but Olivia decided not too, and hid it from him for years.
It not until Olivia runs into her "look a like" sister, Kendall that things begin to take a downward spiral. Olivia becomes angry that her Mom has lied to her about her father, and wants answers. She begins digging around, searching for answers into her past. But soon after, Olivia begins to feel as though she is being watched, she even starts to receive text messages with threatening images of her being murdered. Not only is she searching for answers about her past, she is also involved in a teenage love triangle. Is it the jealous boy that she no longer likes following her, is it the newly found sister, or the crazed father, who is afraid of his political career being ruined that is behind the threats? Read the book to find out!!!!
Thanks so much @Netgalley for letting me read and review this book! I had been dying to read it, ever since I heard about it.

I'm between 3-3.5 STARS on this one.

The Night Olivia Fell was another highly anticipated mystery on my list of 2019 releases. Come on, look at that chilling cover! I've found myself becoming more drawn to these lighter dramas that feature mother-daughter relationships; while my children are generally younger than the girls portrayed in these types of stories, I still find myself daydreaming about what life will be like when I, in fact, have teenage daughters myself. This book features one of those worst case scenarios where, you'd think as a mother of girls I would want to pass up, but surprisingly reading it helps me work through my anxieties by facing them head on.

Abi is a single parent, sacrificing everything and working to the bloody nubs to provide for her daughter. When she gets the dreaded call that Olivia's body has been found after falling off of the town bridge, she's justifiably devastated. When it's made clear that Olivia will never recover from her comatose state and Abi decides its time to pull the plug, the doctors drop a bombshell-Olivia is pregnant. They would like to keep her on life support until the baby is viable to survive without its mother, which gives Abi plenty of time to look into her own investigation of what really happened to her daughter.

While the mystery surrounding who murdered Olivia felt obvious from early on, I noticed there were a few portions involving related plot twists that captured my interest, and the writing and emotions inserted into the story were so well done. As a mother of two daughters, I can only imagine what Abi went through in this story. If you're looking for a lighter mystery that is more character driven, and one that will make you feel every emotion on the spectrum of feels, definitely pick this one up.

I loved this book it moved me to tears . The plot was well crafted and excellent and the characters well drawn . It kept me guessing till the end.

Loved it!! Definitely a 5 star read for me this year. The story sucked me in from the very beginning and the way the details and plot were revealed throughout the book was really interesting to me. This was my first book by this author, but I guarantee I'll be looking forward to more in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and also to the author for the chance to read this new novel in exchange for my honest review.

Loved loved loved it !!!


Thank you to Netgalley for this book in exchange for my honest opinion

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

THE NIGHT OLIVIA FELL by Christina McDonald is gripping, suspenseful thriller that kept me flipping the pages from beginning to end. It is told from the points of view of single mother, Abi, in the present but with a few flashbacks to months prior, and daughter, Olivia, in the months leading up to her tragic “accident” and resulting irreversible brain injury. The story starts when Abi gets the news that Olivia has fallen from a bridge and is brain dead, but still must be kept on life-support. What no one knows is whether it really was an accident or did someone harm Olivia intentionally. The author slowly, but deliberately, reveals details of their lives, relationships and long-buried secrets in an emotional and heart-wrenching way. As the tension builds, it is impossible to tell who is telling the truth. Beyond the thriller aspect of the book, there is the powerful story of a mother/daughter relationship and how far a mother will go to protect her child. I was fully engaged in this well-written and compelling book and highly recommend it! Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of this outstanding debut novel.