Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down because , I wanted to get to the ending and find out everything. Very good thriller.

This story captivated me from start to finish with a satisfying ending that was impossible to put down. No doubt this one is a 5 star must read for psychological thriller fans!

Walker takes a simple first date & takes you down a wild page turning journey through the POV of two sister's filled with twist & turns from past to present leaving one sister missing & the other figuring out where her sister is & how much danger she is in. Walker defiantly comes outta nowhere with some plot twist that caught me by surprise.

The story dives from past to present in short quick flowing chapters keeping the reader in suspense with each chapter. The suspense builds so much through out the book it's impossible to put down. I devoured this book in two nights, if I didn't have a job to go to the next day I would've finished in a day, it's that great of a read.

If you enjoy psychology thrillers that keep you guessing, this book is for you!!! It was so good! Kept me glued, kept me guessing and kept me in suspense!!!! 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you, #Netgalley!!
#TheNightBefore

This was quite the thriller! I enjoyed the many twists and turns! I was shocked by many of the events of this book.

The Night Before by Wendy Walker is a masterpiece of psychological suspense. Laura, who has had a troubled past, and a track record of picking the wrong men, finds herself on a dating website looking for a new start. She makes plans to meet a blind date and then, she’s gone.

The Night Before is officially one of my favorite books of 2019! Wendy Walker is a genius at character building. This book has well-developed characters, great characterizations, with an amazing plot and perfectly placed shifting points of view and timelines. Can you say psychological intrigue to the second power?!? I mean, I read it in 10 hours and then purchased the audiobook because I needed to hear this as well. I’m a full-on Wendy Walker fan now! Her other book, Emma in the Night, was one of my favorite reads of 2018.

Do you like suspense? Would you like to read a book that will keep you guessing? Then The Night Before is your ticket to a phenomenal journey!

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Synopsis from the Publisher/NetGalley.com
Twelve hours earlier, she was...

Hopeful.

Excited.

Safe.

Now she's gone.

I love a good family drama, so I ate this synopsis right up! This was my very first read by Wendy Walker, but I loved her writing style. Just enough hint at what‘s to come, but she still has a way to keep you guessing. I liked the different timelines of what happened the night before and what was currently going on, as well as the flashbacks. It kept me on my toes. I found myself drawn into Laura’s life and mind, and was rooting for her, as she seemed like she was trying to be a new and improved version of herself.
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I don’t want to spoil anymore for you, so I’ll leave you with the synopsis below! Let me know if you’ve read this one!

*Thank you to netgalley and St Martins Press for this free copy in exchange for an honest review!

There are so many brilliant twists and revelations in this book i feel like i got whiplash. Wendy Walker is brilliant at writing psychological thrillers that pull you in so much you have to put everything else aside until you've finished it because you will not want to leave the story until you've read every page. I'm really glad the synopsis didn't give much away because i always finds it better going in. I loved the two point of views and i was never confused or had to go back and reread parts like i have with other books, it shows how good of a writer Walker is.

Wendy Walker is one of my favorite authors. In "The Night Before" she brings us a very suspenseful thriller. When Laura finally decides to overcome her troubled past and start dating again, neirher Laura or her sister and friends expect what this night would tuen into.
In a very auspenseful plot, Wendy takes us into a meamerizing ride.
I really enjoyed this book ao much. Inlove Wendy's writing style. She kept me guessing till the end.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing my copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Twelve hours earlier, she was...
Hopeful.
Excited.
Safe.
Now she's gone.

This is the synopsis and I don't want to spoil any of the twists and turns of this fantastic psychological thriller! Wendy Walker is unique in her storytelling and always has many surprises for her readers. Very well done!

What a bloody page-turner this book turned out to be! In one sitting, The Night Before by Wendy Walker had me wrapped around its captivating pages until that shocker of an ending!

Laura has had her ups and her downs when it comes to love, more downs than ups actually. She is haunted by a teenage tragedy that has essentially defines her life. She is always choosing the wrong men. In an effort to move forward, she moves back home to Connecticut with her sister and joins an internet dating site. Just like that, she has a connection with a man on the site and decides to go on a blind date.

Nervous, yet excited, Laura leaves the comfort of her sister Rosie’s home to meet her date. When Laura doesn’t return home the following morning, Rosie and her husband fear for the worst. Together they begin to uncover the clues and details about the night before!

What a fantastically suspenseful wild ride! Not only was this a page-turner, but I was enthralled from the first page to the last. Like many thrillers, you sit there reading and guessing what is really happening, trying to figure out what new plot twist the author is going to throw at you, but this one had me completely blown away. I honestly didn’t see this ending coming!

Told from alternating perspectives, both Laura and Rosie’s, Wendy Walker keeps you wondering where she’ll take you next. The pace and the layout is what really kept me on the edge of my seat, just when I thought I was going to get more from Laura, we get a different side from Rosie! While it is a wee bit of whiplash at times, Walker has a magnificent way of making you want more from each chapter.

The Night Before by Wendy Walker is a riveting and entertaining thriller that will leave your heart pacing as you question everything that you’re reading. While you’ll think you know what Walker is playing at with the plot twists, you’ll soon find out this is an author who knows how to throw a curve ball! This is my first Wendy Walker novel, but it certainly won’t be my last! She is an author to keep an eye on! This intense thriller by Walker is a must read for 2019! You’ll be hearing about this one, so don’t miss out! I highly recommend you read The Night Before by Wendy Walker!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wendy Walker for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Wendy Walker’s The Night Before is a riveting and unique thriller about a woman, Laura Lochner, who goes out on a date with someone she met on the internet and doesn’t return home. When Laura’s family realizes she is missing, they frantically begin searching for her. They of course wanted to make sure Laura hasn’t been harmed by this random stranger from the internet. Interestingly enough, however, they are also concerned for the safety of the random stranger and worried that Laura may have harmed him. The family’s unexpected thoughts about Laura and her potential for violence grabbed my attention right away and kept me turning the pages and what starts out as a seemingly straightforward missing person’s tale turns into a gripping exploration of how this family’s lives have been shaped by childhood trauma and long-buried family secrets.

One of the things I loved most about The Night Before is the way Walker uses multiple timelines and a dual point of view to gradually unfold the details of the story. We follow Laura’s sister, Rosie, in the aftermath of the internet date gone wrong, as she, her husband, and a close family friend try to retrace Laura’s steps. They’re trying to find her without involving the police if at all possible because of whatever has happened in Laura’s past to make her so volatile.

In addition to following Rosie, we also follow Laura the night before while she is on her date so that we are able to see what direction the date took and why she didn’t come home. To further flesh out the story and offer insight into Laura’s past and what has the family so concerned, we also get to sit in on some of Laura’s earlier sessions with her therapist. I thought this technique was very effective. It felt like watching the pieces of a puzzle start to fill in over time as the story alternated between the different timelines and povs.

I was also a big fan of the novel’s pacing. You can easily read it in a couple of sittings because it’s quite fast-paced. It starts out with the tense situation of Laura being missing and the tension only builds from there as everyone races to try to find her. The suspense also ratchets up the closer and closer we get to finding out what happened in Laura’s past that continues to haunt both her and her family. The story was filled with enough believable twists and turns to keep me guessing until the end.

The only reason I didn’t rate this 5 stars was because even though I was concerned for the well-being of Laura, I just didn’t feel as much of a connection to her as I would normally like to feel when it comes to main characters. I think it was because I was constantly torn between wondering if she was a victim or a perpetrator and therefore I didn’t entirely trust her account of events. In that sense, the book had almost a Gone Girl vibe.

Even with that lack of connection, however, I still think The Night Before is an exciting read that mystery/thriller fans are sure to love.

Wendy Walker brings us a darkly, twisted tale of lies, secrets and deception. The Night Before follows Laura Locner, and her family. Laura has had a rough go of life, and at 28 she has lived a lifetime of suffering and failures. At 16 Laura’s on again off again boyfriend,Mitch,was murdered in front of her. While a homeless man was ultimately blamed for the assault that claimed Mitch’s life, the small town Laura grew up in never really forgave her. Especially, since she was found in the woods clutching the bloody murder weapon.

Laura did her best to move past her childhood difficulties and she moved to New York City and pursued a successful job, but after multiple failed relationships, Laura moves into her sister Rosie’s and her husband Joe’s house in the same small town she used to live in. Feeling compelled to get back in the saddle, Laura joins an online dating program, and soon enough she has a date. Rosie, Laura’s sister believes this may finally be the opportunity that Laura needs to get off on the right foot. Joy is short lived though, when Laura fails to return from her date. With few leads, Rosie, Joe, and family friend Gabe join together to try and find Laura.

This is a wonderfully suspenseful story, full of twists and turns. This novel begs the question, Even when you know someone, do you ever really know them? Novel supplied by Netgalley.

Well damn Wendy Walker, I’d like to pick your brain! You sure do know how to write one crazy thriller with twist after twist. By the end of the story, each and every single character in this book has a world before them that has come crumbling down.

First and foremost, I feel that I have to mention that I must naturally gravitate to the covers of Wendy’s books because I already own “All is Not Forgotten” AND “Emma In The Night.” But....as they sit on my bookshelves, ask me if I’ve read them! I am ashamed to say that I have not and they are the full-price hardcover editions too; shame on me!!!!! So, what was it about this PARTICULAR book that made me want to reach for it on it’s release date? The cover, while that is absolutely gorgeous ( Especially the color) that’s not it! The synopsis, while vague, is captivating...but that’s still NOT it! Do you give up? I’ll tell you....it was the BLURBS on the back of the book from authors that ( in my opinion) know how to knock a thriller out of the park… you will NEVER see what’s coming and you’ll be left with your jaw on the floor. I’m talking about A.J. Finn, Megan Miranda, and Liv Constantine!!! Damn, I thought to myself, this book MUST be good...and ohhhhh was it good!!!!

Let me tell you a little bit about the story you are about to read...just a tad so as not to give much away!

Meet Laura:
“Born with fists for hands.”
“Mistreated.”
Feels that “ Omissions are NOT lies.”
Says “ I wish I had her magic potion for being happy. I wish there was a recipe for it. But then again, I would be the one person to measure wrong.”
Thinks “I’m alone with my defective mind.”
“I wish I still had my illusions. Nothing has filled the empty space they left behind.”


The Date:
“What is it you’re hiding?”
“You don’t need to worry, because I’m not going to be me tonight.”
“ Go home. Get under the covers.”
“He’s not who he says he is.”
“I feel trapped, suddenly, like I’m in a cell with no way out. But there is a way out.”
“I may be safe...but you might not be.”
“He covers his lies with more lies.”
“RUN.”
( In no particular order).

Are you intrigued yet? You should be. Soooo many things that you won’t see coming. Reader, you must pay attention.

4 stars.

My only critique is I would have left the “ bioligical” part out, those who have read this will know what I mean. The story was already fantastic without that detail.

Bravo! I will be reading your other books ASAP!

Thank you to Netgalley & to Goodreads for my ARC copies, all opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and my librarian status, I got to read The Night Before by Wendy Walker early. The book is expected to be released on May 14 of this year.

Hopping back and forth between the narratives of two sisters, as well as some short therapy sessions, Walker introduced us to many connected characters, but specifically the main four— Joe, Rosie, Gabe, and Laura. Rosie and Laura are sisters who grew up with Joe and Gabe. Rosie actually ended up marrying Joe. Flashbacks describe their early friendships and allow the reader to feel the history between the four friends.

The book starts with Laura getting ready for a date, her first one since a break-up with a mystery man in New York which caused her to temporarily move in with Rosie and Joe. She met her new date on a dating website, which makes her nervous. She hasn’t had the best luck with dating in the past, but her sister and Joe and Gabe are all there to support her as she prepares to leave.

Once Laura leaves Rosie’s house, the narrative is split into two parts. Each chapter is dated and time stamped, helping the reader keep track of the events that follow. There are twists and turns as the book becomes a thriller and leads up to an unexpected ending.

I’ve always loved mystery books and movies; but as I’ve started watching mystery movies with friends, I’ve realized that I don’t try to figure out the mystery the way they do. I find myself staying in the moment and really not thinking about how the story might end. I pick up clues as the characters do, but I don’t find myself trying to predict the story as my friends like to do.

I was the same way with this book. I stayed in the moment as I read, but I also couldn’t put it down. The ending was a complete twist that I never would’ve guessed, but I feel that my friends may have been able to figure it out. I don’t know if that means I consume mystery stories “incorrectly,” but I don’t really care because I’m still enjoy reading them!

For about the first half of this book, I liked it, but wasn't finding it to be anything particularly exceptional. But at about that halfway mark, something unexpected happened, followed quickly by another event, and I was surprised- and hooked, reading the rest of the book in one sitting. This is the perfect time of year for a book like this, as anything that will keep me up late reading is my preferred type of summer reading.

Laura has come back home. Back to the scene of the crime, where she was accused of murdering her boyfriend in high school. She left New York after a bad breakup, and has started online dating. After her first date, she doesn't come home. Rosie, her sister, goes on the hunt for her. She is worried about what could have happened to Laura, or what Laura could have done to the man she went out with.

I loved this book. This was my first ready by Wendy Walker, but I already have another one by her in my cart. I really liked the writing style. The story was fantastic! Even though I had it figured out, I still wanted to keep reading to find out as many details as possible.

Thank you #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for an early review copy of #TheNightBefore

I really enjoyed this book, I like how the past and present and the night before kind of flowed together, so that there wasn't much foreshadowing and the story unfolded together, all three timelines. It worked really well and kept me wondering. Really great read!

First of all, what a gorgeous cover.

Second of all, I really did love Wendy Walker’s first thriller, All is Not Forgotten. Although I found the narrator repulsive, the premise of the book was so compelling and original.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t a huge fan of The Night Before. To be fair, I read it while doped up on Nyquil, so I’m not sure if that affected my reading comprehension, but I found it to be a fairly shallow thriller, albeit with a crackerjack surprise at the end.

The novel centers around two sisters, Laura Lochner (the night before) and Rosie Ferro (the morning after). A bit of a twisted and aimless soul, Laura is back living with her sister’s family after a disastrous end to a relationship leaves her reeling. Although Laura wants nothing more than to find love, the past looms ever present in her blood-stained rear-view mirror, and informs every decision she makes, from omitting her infamous last name on her dating profile, to seeing a psychologist to try and work out her own fears.

Still hellbent on finding her happily-ever-after, Laura heads out on a blind date, and doesn’t come home. In the morning after, Rosie frantically searches for her, aided by her husband Joe, and their childhood best friend, Gabe. In tracing Laura’s footsteps, they find her abandoned car, and the tension ratchets up a notch. But who is Rosie actually worried about?

Laura?

Or the man she was meeting?

Told from different narratives and different timelines, the novel gives us snippets of Laura’s date (which is tedious and for the life of me, why did she stay on it?), Rosie’s search, and interspersed, Laura’s sessions with a psychologist who seeks the truth of why his patient feels so unlovable and broken.

Though the denouement surprised me (I had zero idea who the actual villain was, and it was a shocker), I didn’t find there was enough pull in the actual narrative to keep me invested. Laura’s voice was scattered and unappealing – with a ton of repetition and confusing back-flows into the past. While Laura was at least complex, I found Rosie was a cardboard cutout – absolutely no character development at all – she existed solely to find her sister and/or worry about her.

While The Night Before wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, I won’t deny that it was entertaining and twisty, with enough “wtf” moments to keep it from sliding off the cliff. I think it was balancing on the edge of being truly good, and with some careful editing (Rosie’s flatness, Laura’s inner monologue, and the endless meandering date), it could have been a complicated and dark mountain of a novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate it!

Wendy Walker’s first two crime novels, All is Not Forgotten and Emma in the Night established her as a powerhouse writer in the crime fiction community, but nothing prepared readers for the splendor that is The Night Before. This is Wendy Walker’s best book to date and readers will be flocking to it for the remainder of the year.

So, why does The Night Before work so well? It’s another in a line of psychological suspense novels with dual narration, unreliable characters, multiple twists, and a shocking conclusion, but the way Wendy Walker draws the reader under her spell is nothing short of magical – almost as though readers are hypnotized and unable to stop until the final page is turned.

Laura Lochner is a woman who has never been good at choosing men. After a tragedy in her youth, she has continually hopped from man to man, never quite finding the one that will make (and keep) her happy. A recent difficult breakup has brought her to her sister’s door – looking to restart her life in the location where it all started going wrong in the first place.

Rosie Ferro cares about her sister, but spends more time worrying about her choices than really building a relationship with Laura. She sees this relocation as a chance to put right what has always been a challenging dynamic. Little does she know, but the stress of welcoming Laura into her home is going to threaten her stable marriage and family life.

As the novel begins, Laura is preparing for her first date with a gentleman she met on an internet dating site. Rosie is sure this is too soon and a very bad idea, but she is unable to talk Laura out of this decision. But when Laura never returns to the house, Rosie begins the process of tracking her sister’s final moments on that fateful date.

Wendy Walker presents her plot in two time periods. Laura’s point of view which slowly documents the date night activities and the ever-increasing menace imposed by this complete stranger. Meanwhile, Rosie’s chapters describe her worry the next morning when it is clear that Laura never made it home and then moves forward in time as Rosie begins her investigation, eventually putting her own life at risk to find out the truth about her sister’s disappearance.

The juxtaposition of the night before and the days after is so compelling that when one point of view interrupts the other, readers just want to skip ahead to see how things in the previous POV continue to unfold. Except, before long, that same reader is sucked into the second point of view perspective and the same pattern repeats. Having two very distinct characters helps the reader keep track of where they are in time, but it is the sister’s love for each other that really bonds the reader with these two women.

Occasionally, both narratives are stopped and readers are given a slowly unfolding question by question accounting of a therapy session that sheds light on some things and makes others even more intriguing. There are multiple twists in The Night Before, and readers who are familiar with the recent rash of psychological suspense novels will likely ferret out a few of them before the characters are able to, but rest assured that Wendy Walker is not a writer interested in following cliché resolutions, so some of the later rejiggered elements are truly surprising, ingenious, and yet, completely believable. This is a work to cherish and I for one cannot wait to see what Wendy Walker does next. She just keeps getting better and better with each new novel.

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Wendy Walker has always been one of my favorite authors and she wrote another amazing book once again. I have read her other two published novels and this is by far my favorite one. This book was full of suspense and mystery and I loved that it bounced back and forth between the two main characters every other chapter.

After another failed relationship Laura decides to take a temporary leave from her job and apartment and move in with her sister Rosie who has the perfect family with her husband and son. Laura is struggling to break free from her past while it seems that Rosie has it all together. When Laura goes on a blind date with a guy from a dating website and then never comes home Rosie takes matters into her own hands to find her sister. Due to Laura's past and the fact that she's still viewed as killing her boyfriend years earlier, Rosie can't help but think Laura did something bad again. But what Rosie and her husband Joe uncover will leave everyone reeling and casting doubt on one another.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I was immediately hooked from the beginning and could not stop reading, I love how Laura's character was viewed as the tough as nails chick with the "fists for hands" while Rosie was the more maternal have-to-take-care-of-everyone character. The storyline and plot were excellent and kept me thinking one thing but then threw me for a huge loop when it turned out I was wrong, way wrong.

This book was completely different from Wendy Walker's other books and I loved that. I definitely think she should continue writing mystery/suspense novels because she is beyond amazing at coming up with some crazy stories