The Night Before ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️by Wendy Walker

This is my first read by Ms Walker. I really did not know what to expect. I found the beginning a bit muddled and hard to decipher who was who. I was almost at a point of calling it quits but I kept reading. I soon became spellbound by these characters.

The unpredictable paths the author took us on was astounding and thrilling. This was an ever changing story so deep and I revealing till the end. Very good read.

Thank you go St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I give this 4 stars. I struggle with psychological thrillers because they all seem to have the 'gotcha' formula down pat and each book tries to outdo the last 'it' book in the category with ridiculous twists that sometimes come at the expense of the plot. The Night Before, by Wendy Walker, drops enough crumbs to make the twists believable and keep the reader turning each page in anticipation of what will happen next.

Since there is no cover art and a very brief description of the plot I went mostly by word of mouth from book friends and will keep this review brief so as not to spoil it for future readers! The story begins with Laura who goes out on a date with a guy from a dating site. When her family wakes up the next day, she is not home. Neither is the car she drove. Alternating between Laura's perspective of the date and her sister Rosie's race to find her, the reader is held captive reading how the events unfold with a nagging feeling that something isn't right. This feeling grows and grows and grows as you get nearer to the end. The pacing was great and I easily read this in one day.

This is definitely for fans of Wendy Walker, psychological thrillers and a perfect beach read!


I will post my review in April 2019 on my Goodreads/Amazon/Instagram/Facebook and Listy accounts.

Laura Lochner moves back to town after a devastating break up with her boyfriend. This is one of many failed relationships for Laura. Moving back to Deer Hill Lane stirs up plenty of emotions in Laura. You see, her boyfriend Mitch was murdered there and she was at the scene.

Laura moves in with her sister Rose and her husband Joe. They have the perfect marriage, or do they? It seems like Laura and Joe are pretty tight. Staying up late into the night after Rose goes to bed. Friends since childhood, is Joe just being a shoulder to cry on?

Laura signs up for a dating service findlove.com. She meets up one night with a charming older guy Jonathan Fields. Laura seems to be drawn into self destructive relationships that never work out. Is that why she is attracted to Jonathan? Is it because his story seems riddled with untruths?

Laura never comes home from the date....the end...just kidding but that is the end of my summary. You will have to read the rest for yourself!

I read this book with a group of my Traveling Sisters. The general consensus was that we loved it! I have never read a Wendy Walker book before and I loved her writing style. I flew through this book in less than a day. The unique and interesting thing about this book is the way the author leads you on. I literally had no clue as to how this would pan out. All my predictions at the half way point of this book were 100% wrong! If you want a book that will hold your interest, make you change your mind half a dozen times and still be wrong- this is the book for you!

Thank you so much to Wendy Walker, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this fantastic ARC.
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A pretty exciting, twisty novel. I only gave it 3 stars because I deduced who the bad guy was before it was revealed, but still, a creepy read!

The Night Before by Wendy Walker has very little information out about it. I mean, just looking at the 5 lines that are the synopsis tells you only that a girl is missing and we don't know why. With so little information going into this one, I wasn't sure what to expect - but I knew that I was immediately intrigued. Well, let me tell you - what follows is a twisting, layered and complicated story that in the end not only threw me for a loop but I genuinely enjoyed the ride to get there.

"...Laura had been hard to love, the little girl with fists for hands. With rage inside her. But maybe they had created that rage-all of them. She knew this now, having her own child. How easy it was to damage them with nothing more than words. Or indifference."

Laura Lochner has a sordid past, a sordid present and a seemingly sordid future. She's not your typical protagonist in a mystery / thriller who has a seemingly perfect life she decides out of no where to implode. No, Laura has been dubbed impossibly difficult to love from birth. Laura's difficulty finding and feeling love becomes the foundation of who she will become as an adult. She's constantly searching to belong, to be wanted and cared for in spite of her own failings and this leads her to be attracted to all the wrong men.

We're given snippets of Laura's past here as well, having been found holding a bat over the bloodied, dead body of her first love. What we don't know - is what happened, if she had anything to do with it and who the real culprit might have been. As we're given little pieces of Laura's past, we see her present unfolding from her perspective as well as her sister Rosie's. It gets a bit complicated as Rosie is living out the present day, searching for Laura who after moving home and going on a date has gone missing, and Laura's perspective of her date the night before. However, despite having all of these shifting timelines, Walker did a phenomenal job of developing all the story lines.

"I see Mitch and remember the swirling together of warm, lusty bliss and red-hot rage. Danger waking me from the illusion of safety. Fight-or-flight instinct taking over. My hands in fists at my sides, but a smile on my face because I knew how to win that fight. Or, at least, I thought I did."

Laura is absolutely your unreliable narrator trope and while I don't generally have a problem with it, I do sometimes feel it's mishandled. However, The Night Before was a masterclass in the unreliable narrator. Laura was still a layered, complex and genuinely likable character that I think anyone who has struggled with self esteem issues would find something to connect to. The secondary characters left a little to be desired by way of development but I still felt like they were solid and based in reality instead of being too far-fetched.

"Laura Lochner, men don't love you in spite of everything you give them because you are unloveable."

All in all my take away from this was a really quick and fun read. While there were some things I saw coming from the get go, there was a lot I absolutely couldn't have guessed. Past that, even though I knew some of the outcome it didn't detract from the shock factor or how enjoyable the read was. I think Walker crafted a really fun little thriller here and anyone who enjoys the genre would do well to pick it up!

This book had me at page 1. Laura is getting ready for a blind date. She lives with her sister, her brother-in-law and nephew, moving in there recently after a bad break up. Laura has had a hard time. When she was younger she was involved in mysterious incident where here boyfriend ended up dead and a homeless man charged with his murder. Never was it clear what actually happened. The current story picks up fast with Laura not returning from her date, her sister Rosie worrying and trying to track her down with the help of her husband Ben and their best friend Gabe. The story moves quickly and there are many plot twists that kept me completely intrigued. The less said the better but the story is suspenseful & exciting and the twists surprising. Definitely worth reading!

If you are a fan of psychological thrillers, you will want to put The Night Before on your to-be-read or pre-order list for next Spring. St. Martin’s Press sent out some teaser advanced reading copies with very little description and got me hook, line, and sinker. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot too early, but you can expect twists and turns and lots of the psychological part of psychological thrillers. While I am most excited about the Anonymous Girl psychological thriller coming out in January, The Night Before is one to look out for as well.

Fantastic psychological thriller! I was fully engrossed from start to finish. This is my first Wendy Walker novel, but I believe I have Emma in the Night, so I’m thinking I might want to check that one out now too!

This started off as a good read, but I found myself losing interest about 25% in to the book. The characters seemed superficial and I didn’t find myself caring about them but did need to see how it all wrapped up. Just okay.

This is a nice, readable mystery, without too great a plot, lots of repeating and moving around the story, often too much about a woman and her date. Laura has gone out on a computer date after having her heart broken by her last boyfriend. She is so devastated that she has moved back home, where she has to confront her own difficult past, and in with her sister. When she doesn't return from the date, the book fills with red herrings and twists. Certainly a fine light read, totally enjoyable for a good relaxing evening in a comfy chair.

4.5 stars

This book is a prime example of what a psychological suspense thriller should be! By far, it’s my favorite thriller read so far this year.

The publisher blurb:

"Twelve hours earlier, she was...
Hopeful.
 Excited.
 Safe.

 Now she's gone."

Now that is a perfect blurb! It’s best to go into this read with as little information as possible.

Laura goes on a date with a man she met on an online dating site and doesn’t return home. From there, the story alternates between the ‘night before’ chapters narrated by Laura, and chapters featuring her sister Rosie, who attempts to piece together the clues in an increasingly desperate attempt to locate her sister. Interspersed throughout the book are chapters detailing sessions between Laura and her therapist. I love how the author brings a psychological slant to all her books.

I picked this up early one morning to read and three hours later I was still in the same spot. If life had not intervened I would have read this cover to cover in one sitting. The pacing is perfect and the author reveals additional information at just the right times to keep the tension and suspense high. The ending had my pulse racing and I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough.

If you’ve given up on thrillers because many are less than thrilling my advice is to put this on your radar for the May 2019 publication date. It will restore your faith in the genre!

*thanks to St Martin's Press for an e-galley of the book in exchange for an honest opinion.
*Many thanks to the Traveling Sisters here on Goodreads, for the pleasure of reading and discussing this book as a group.
* review to publish on Amazon in May 2019

Twelve hours earlier, she was...Hopeful. Excited. Safe.

NOW SHE’S GONE

That was all the publisher said, so if they want to be vague, and have readers go in blind, I am not going to say much more.....but, I will give you a smidgen more....

Excerpt : (page 2)

“ Lipstick, cherry red.
I choose the color because it’s bright and cheerful. It’s optimism in a tube. And, that’s exactly what I need tonight.”
The guest bathroom at my sister’s house is impossibly small, with slanted ceilings and a tiny oval mirror. The lipstick hovers on the edge of a pedestal sink. I put it on first, so I won’t change my mind, rolling that optimism right across my lips.”


Is that not gorgeous writing?

I had the opportunity to read this through Netgalley super early, in exchange for candid feedback, as this book is not scheduled to be released till May 14th, 2019.

All I can say is that if you love thrillers with a twist...pre order now.
If you have a sister, you have always had to look out for...pre order now...
If you love stories told through two narratives, and a transcript, pre order now...

I will be making time to go back and read the author’s first two books, after reading this one..

I would like to thank Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wendy Walker for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars. When Laura was 6, she heard her mother telling a friend that Laura was a hard child to love. And she has been carrying that her whole life, always getting involved with men who reinforce her belief that she's unlovable. Now she's recovering from a bad break-up at her sister Rosie's house, and has decided it's time to date again. She goes on a date with a man she meets online--and when Rosie wakes up the next morning, Laura is missing.

<i>The Night Before</i> is in a lot of ways a very typical psychological thriller, but I'm rounding up because of how completely addicting it was, plus I liked the deep look into Laura's psychology and why she made the choices she did. It's a fast-paced read that I flew through, and I was totally riveted to see what happened next.

The story goes back and forth between Laura's perspective starting the night of her date, Rosie's perspective when she finds her sister missing, and flashbacks to Laura 's sessions with her therapist. The author did a great job with the pacing, slowly teasing out the truth about what happened to Laura and revealing things about her past.

If you’ve read a book by Wendy Walker before then you know how she likes to play with red herrings and twist her plots like someone wringing out a wet sheet. Just when you think you have it all figured out, she throws you off the trail completely.

The story is about two sisters, one of them lives under a dark cloud of suspicion because of a tragic event in the past. Everything Laura does, especially when it comes to romantic relationships, is always brought back to what she may or may not have done in the past.

Subsequently the reader is never quite sure whether they are dealing with Laura the secret psychopath or Laura the insecure victim of odd circumstances. When she goes missing after arranging to meet up with a man on dating website, her sister Rosie goes into meltdown and believes the worst has happened. She rounds up the troops before time runs out for Laura.

Simultaneously the reader is privy to events between Laura and this mysterious man, and let me tell you Walker presents an excellent cat and mouse game between the two of them. You’re just never sure which one of them is the predator, which makes the read even more exhilarating.

Is Laura disturbed, are the rumours true? Has someone got a vendetta against her, is this simply a misunderstanding or is there something more sinister afoot? It’s an enthralling well plotted psychological thriller, which will keep you guessing until the very last pages. Walker doesn’t disappoint.

I'm about 4.5 stars here.

Well, that was a wild ride!! At some point I figure my pulse will stop racing.

Laura is getting ready for a blind date. She isn't quite sure if she's ready to date again after a bad breakup not too long ago, but something about this man's picture, his profile, their conversations, makes her hopeful and excited.

It hasn't been easy for Laura since she moved back to her hometown, moved in with her older sister Rosie and her family. Because years ago Laura was involved in a tragic, mysterious incident, and no one really knows the truth of what happened, but it's haunted her every day since then. She doesn't like when people judge her or mistrust her—or even fear her—but she knows some do. And inherently, she knows Rosie is still worried about her.

Laura goes on the date—and then disappears. Rosie, her husband, and a family friend are left trying to figure out what happened that night. But to do so, they must uncover the truth about what happened to Laura all those years ago, and what other incidents that night has set off in her life since then.

The less said about the plot the better, because there is a lot going on and there are a lot of twists and turns to navigate. Wendy Walker definitely takes you on a ride, ratcheting up the suspense as you wonder what all of these characters are hiding. (I trust no one, so I suspect they're all hiding something.)

The Night Before alternates narration between Laura getting ready for the date and as the date happens, and the present, as Rosie searches for answers. It's a fascinating, compelling read that hooked me from its very innocuous start, as Laura is getting dressed for her date. But Walker only hints at what's to come.

This book doesn't come out until mid-May of next year, so if you can't get your hands on an advance copy, I'd definitely recommend one of Walker's earlier books, Emma in the Night. I think this new book is a little better than that one, but it still gives you an idea of Walker's storytelling talent.

We're in the midst of a real glut of thrillers, so it's not always easy to tell which are worth your time. The Night Before definitely is. You'll see everyone reading it come next year!

NetGalley and St. Martin's Press provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

This book was so full of psychological suspense that reading it was a little stressful. You know that feeling you get in your gut when something just isn’t right but you can’t put your finger on it? This is what the book does to you. It starts out hopeful and positive but you quickly realize something is off. What that might be though you’ll have no idea. What Wendy walker does so well is make you question the motives of every character. No one is safe. This was a really great read that I couldn’t put down and I definitely recommend it!

The Night Before is a great upcoming new thriller by Wendy Walker. I had read, and loved, Emma in the Night so I knew I had to grab this one before I even read the description. It took me a little bit to get into initially, but once I did, I devoured it. I had to know what happened to Laura and who was involved.
Laura was accused of a horrible crime when she was young, and she just can’t seem to shake it. Has it all caught up to her, or is she even the victim? If you’re looking for an unputdownable thriller that will keep you up all night guessing, this is the one.

[[[[[This is a "teaser" post/review for the book that went live 9/27/18 at https://wp.me/p60tH7-IV. Full review will go up on pub date. Following *** below I'm including the full review for you to see ahead of time.]]]]]

Wendy Walker slammed onto the thriller scene with All is Not Forgotten , and followed it up with the incredible Emma in the Night .

Now she's gearing up for the release of her third thriller, The Night Before .

I was provided an early copy of the book to provide my honest feedback, and boy oh boy. This book is just too easy to devour.

This baby bookling is so newborn that it doesn't even have a cover yet! You'll have to wait on the edge of your seat for my full review and the book itself, but here's a little nibble of my thoughts!

"This book is a master class in the unreliable narrator, the alternating-time chapters, in leading you down the road only for you to find it wasn’t taking you where you thought."

I gave The Night Before an unreserved four stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The book comes out in May 2019, but lucky you! You can pre-order the book on Amazon here!

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Links in post are affiliate links whose proceeds go toward the maintenance of this blog.

******
The Night Before is a keep-you-guessing mystery told in the always classic chronologically mixed format — alternating between “Present Day,” “Months Ago,” and of course, “The Night Before”.

Laura Heart Lochner has a shady past and a knack for overthinking her romantic relationships. When she goes through her most recent breakup with “Asshole,” she packs her bags and moves from NYC back to her childhood home to live with her sister, Rosie. Rosie, her husband Joe, and their neighbor Gabe, all are connected by proximity, but also by the fact that they were best friends growing up in that same neighborhood. They know each others’ childhood secrets, which for some, are more sinister than is typical.

To ease Laura’s heartache, Rosie helps Laura craft a dating profile and get a date with a respectable, mature, older man — one who would seemingly have a stable life to help Laura keep her head straight. When Laura doesn’t return from her date, her family fears the worst.

This book is a master class in the unreliable narrator, the alternating-time chapters, in leading you down the road only for you to find it wasn’t taking you where you thought.

Pre-order the book here.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Links in post are affiliate links whose proceeds go toward the maintenance of this blog.

This is one of the best thrillers that I have read in a while. The story follows sisters Laura and Rosie, Laura has just moved back to the small town that she grew up in with Rosie. Rosie has never left and is now married to her childhood best friend and they have a son. Laura goes on a date with a man she's met online after fleeing from her life in New York. This book was so engaging and it had me guessing the whole time. There were plot twist that made me gasp and the resolution was very satisfying. I highly recommend this domestic thriller.

4.5 stars! UNPUTDOWNABLE!!

This was a fast-paced, tension-filled, edge-of-your-seat thrilling read! I couldn’t flip these pages fast enough! I absolutely love this author’s writing – it pulled me in from page one and kept me fully captivated and intrigued until the very end.

The blurb describing this novel doesn’t give much detail:

“Twelve hours earlier, she was...
Hopeful.
Excited.
Safe.

Now she's gone.”

Knowing the caliber of this author’s writing, I knew I would be in for an intense and gripping read, which is exactly what this was.

Once again, Wendy Walker, mastered the art of brilliant narration. One of my most favourite books is her debut, “All Is Not Forgotten” which had such unique and clever narration. Although that remains my favourite of her books, this comes in a VERY close second. I loved the characters – my suspicions were bouncing all over the place. The various perspectives flow perfectly, revealing new pieces of this addictive and twisty story that will have you changing your theory more than a few times throughout.

The gripping and speedy pace, the vivid characters, the skillful narration, the unwavering tension. It all adds up to one fantastic story that will leave you in high anticipation of what Wendy Walker will come out with next! As you can tell, I highly recommend this incredible novel!

This was a Traveling Sister read that we all truly enjoyed!

A huge thank you to Jordan at St. Martin’s Press, Wendy Walker and Brenda and Norma for inviting me to be part of this Traveling Sister read!!