In this atmospheric mystery we find Allison, embarrassingly out of a job after an on air meltdown while delivering the weather report who takes a house and cat setting job in the seaside town of Opal Beach. We also find Maureen, a young "carnival girl" who mysteriously went missing thirty years ago. After coming to town Allison learns of Maureen's disappearance and is drawn into the need to solve the mystery. Told from alternating POV's both stories are equally compelling. I was totally invested in each of the characters stories and the author does a masterful job of weaving the two together at an even pace with thrilling results. Although not that surprising I was still surprised by the twists that lead to the conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and highly recommend it.

Thank you Harlequin and NetGalley for the advance copy to read, review, and enjoy.

Yep, another girl is missing like in so many books I've read the past few years. Apparently, I'm not sick of them because this one held my interest to the very end. I give credit to the author not the idea. Laskowski told a story spanning 30 years with characters that appealed to me. Which is surprising because they all had their faults and were not particularly likable. There were definitely a few red herrings thrown in that other readers may have found annoying. Some of the connections made between characters was also a bit suspicious for me. In the end, I will excuse these if a book keeps me interested and this one really did. Thanks you to Graydon House/Netgalley for the advanced copy of this. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Allison had a melt down on live tv and now she's lost her job, her husband (well, no great loss there), and her sense of positive self. She's got a job house and cat sitting in a large and lovely home in Opal Beach, one of those towns that look good on the surface and hide a lot of nasty secrets. She begins to poke around in the story of Maureen, a "summer girl" who worked there in 1985 and suddenly, one day, was gone. Told alternately by Allison and Maureen, it's the story of two women struggling. Tammy- Maureen's best friend (or was she?) is still in town and she helps Allison with her hunt for answers. Laskowski has created two sympathetic characters and while you might feel more motivated by Maureen than Allison initially, you'll root for both of them by the end. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A very good page turner.

​Tara Laskowski’s debut thriller takes a well-timed swing at how society has and still treats women like their disposable. The narration is shared by a recently divorced meteorologist Allison Simpson in 2015, and a teenage-runaway turned carnie, Maureen Haddaway in 1985. Although the two women are separated by 30 years, they both find themselves in Opal Beach—a town that was originally exclusive to society’s elites, but that has slowly been opened up to the public over the years.

​Allison is trying to start over after being fired from her job for calling her cheating (now ex) husband out on live television and winds up house-sitting in the beach town. While there, she crosses paths with several people who had known Maureen before her mysterious disappearance during the summer of '85 and befriends one of Maureen’s closest friends, Tammy. While many have a clear distaste for Maureen and believe she simply took off, Tammy believes otherwise.

Laskowski has crafted two sharp narrators that feel familiar in a way that they could be any woman or teenager we pass on the street. It’s a familiarity that makes us empathize, but it's also the sort that unnerves. For while we think we know them, it's clear there is far more lurking beneath the surface, as well as the elitist town they find themselves in. And the more Laskowski peels back these layers, the faster we read. We need to know what happened to Maureen. We want to find out how these women are connected.

One Night Gone has definite possibilities. Some twists I saw coming, others totally surprised me. The first half of the book moved too slowly for me but the second half was more action packed. I wish there had been more depth to the main characters. I always felt like there was more to know.

In 1985, Maureen Haddaway comes to the seaside town of Opal Beach and works as a summer girl at a traveling carnival. She experiences friendship, love and wild parties. But as Maureen’s life starts spiraling out of control, she vanishes. Thirty years later, former TV meteorologist Allison Simpson agrees to house-sit in Opal Beach during the off-season. After a messy divorce and on-air TV scandal that ended her career, Allison gets drawn into Maureen's mysterious disappearance. With the help of Maureen's former BFF Tammy, Allison decides to do her own snooping. And then Allison gets mysterious packages that point her towards the powerful Bishop family.

The story is depicted in alternating chapters by both Maureen and Allison, this was a gripping thriller and fine debut novel by the author.

I received an eARC from Netgalley and Harlequin - Graydon House with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

A great book right here! One Night Gone is terrific reading, from a debut author, about wealth, power and family and the lengths a family will fight to keep their secrets hidden. The chapters fly by, and it really only took one evening to demolish the book. Can’t wait to read the next one!

One Night Gone is an intriguing mystery with just the right amount of spook.

I was easily taken away in this mystery surrounding Allison and Maureen. Allison is a weather girl who travels to the town of Opal Beach and Maureen is a crazy carnival girl that went missing 30 years ago in this beach town.

I was taken right away with the small town of Opal Beach and the lingering thoughts of the strange disappearance of Maureen. Tara does a nice job of slowly laying out this tangled web of deceit to her readers. I was totally hooked on what was happening with Allison and Maureen and how they were connected somehow? Or where they? ;)

I do have to say that this was nothing too original in my mystery book and no really shocking twists or turns that I was hoping for. Overall, this was a decent mystery.

I look forward to what Tara Laskowski has up her sleeve next.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin/Graydon for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 10/1/19
Published to GR: 9/24/19

An intriguing mystery with suspense and characters that I became invested in...

I was easily drawn into the mystery that involves two women - Allison, a down and out "weather" girl and Maureen a "carnival" girl who vanishes from Opal Beach thirty years before Allison arrives.

Allison ends up house-sitting in Opal Beach and things get dicey when she becomes interested in the "cold case" of Maureen Haddaway. Some dark secrets linger.

The beach setting of Opal Beach was atmospheric and the tangled web of deceit slowly unravels with clues the author lays out. I had to know if Allison was going to uncover the crime or in danger herself.

I enjoyed it and came very close to solving it..... (that is always fun).

Nothing too shocking, a few twists and characters that I cared about. A perfect mystery puzzle to solve, perhaps beach side on a stormy night.

Allison Simpson has had a rough few months. She found out her husband was cheating on her, and confronted him publicly on television (she was working as a weather person for a TV news station). She loses her job, her husband and her home. House-sitting for a friend of a friend seems like a good way to gather herself, so she accepts a "job" in Opal Beach. She'll be watching a beach house for the fall and winter.

Upon arriving in Opal Beach, she befriends a woman named Tammy who runs a coffee shop and has lived in the town for her whole life. Tammy was best friends with a "summer girl" named Maureen 30 years before when they were both teenagers. Maureen disappeared rather suddenly, but everyone in town seemed to think that was normal. After all, summer people come and go -- that's the way it is in beach towns, right? But Tammy has apparently always had her suspicions about Maureen's disappearance. Why it took her 30 years to say something it's really clear, but she convinces Allison to help her figure it out. Soon Allison discovers that Opal Beach holds many secrets!

The book alternates between Maureen's point of view 30 years before and Allison's point of view in the present. I enjoyed this book a lot. I did have one question about Allison, I thought it was strange that she apparently got completely screwed over in her divorce. Her husband and his family were wealthy so I guess because she humiliated him so publicly, they made sure she walked away with nothing? She should have fought harder and not come out of that relationship with no money or a place to live. That was kind of inconsistent to me since she seemed like a strong character in other ways.

One Night Gone is about two women separated by three decades. In the summer of 1985, Maureen was working with a traveling carnival group, C&D Amusements, grifting when necessary to survive. Everyone with C&D was running away from something. In Maureen's case, her grandfather cared for her, ensuring that she did her homework and got to school. Clinical depression was not yet understood. Five years ago, after her grandfather died, Maureen's mother began keeping the "clouds" away with pills and needles, thrusting them into a "nightmare that no one who lives in a giant beach mansion . . . would ever understand." To Maureen, the kids who live in Opal Beach are just like those in the other beach towns the carnival has taken her to. "They have it easy and they don't even know it." But she keeps her "Sad Story" to herself.

But Maureen is drawn to handsome, popular Clay Bishop, whose family owns area seafood restaurants and the biggest, most ornate home in Opal Beach. And wields the most power in town. She dreams about a real relationship rather than just a summer fling, even though Clay will soon be going away to college. And she is sure that her other new friend, Tammy, also has feelings for Clay.

In October 2015, Allison arrives to commence a stint as the housesitter for the Bishop's next-door neighbors. Allison enjoyed a career as a meteorologist until she learned about her husband's affair. Now she is known as the Weather Girl, the star of a viral video of the newscast during which, instead of just forecasting the weather, she suggested that her husband bring along his umbrella when slipping off with his girlfriend to their beach house getaway. "And a tip to all you adulterers out there -- if you like treating your umbrellas like you treat women, then you can toss out your old one and head over to Macy's this weekend where they're having a sale. Women aren't disposable, Duke." Her on-air meltdown cost Allison her job, dignity, and home. She's been crashing in her sister's apartment. But the housesitting job represents a chance for rejuvenation, emotional recovery, and contemplation of how to get her life back on track.

Shortly after Allison arrives in Opal Beach, she meets Tammy, who runs the local coffee house. Tammy confides in Allison that she still feels guilty about her inability to save Maureen. She insists that she knows "something bad happened to Maureen. I just know it," even though the local authorities concluded all those years ago that Maureen probably just left town on her own. There was no evidence of foul play. Nonetheless, Tammy insists she thinks Maureen was murdered.

Lawkowski employs two first-person narratives to relate the stories of the two women. Maureen details the events of the summer of 1985 -- her friendship with Tammy, blossoming romance with Clay, and the resentment and distrust Tammy's roommate, Mabel, displays when Tammy comes to Maureen's aid. Maureen is naive, an idealistic dreamer, despite everything she has endured. Her mother used to refer to Maureen as "my little mermaid" and she still fancies herself "a damaged mermaid. Sprouting my tail. Claiming the ocean. Saving myself." But Lawkowski describes Maureen's descent into dangerous, reckless behavior in heartbreaking fashion.

Allison is lonely, but feels a kinship with the young woman whose whereabouts were never discovered. Maureen, like Allison, was viewed by society as disposable. That fact, coupled with Tammy's ongoing pain and regret, spurs Allison to assist her by searching for clues about Maureen's fate. Allison is befriended by Dolores, who runs her father's art gallery, and encounters the gossipy Mabel, now a real estate agent. And she is encouraged when she discovers clues to what might have happened to Maureen. Like Maureen, Lawkowski deftly makes Allison an empathetic character -- a woman who is intelligent and accomplished, but has lost her way temporarily.

One Night Gone is a cleverly-plotted mystery. Lawkowski manages to make virtually every character a suspect, injecting red herrings amid actual clues and surprising plot twists that relentlessly compel the story forward. As Maureen makes a series of bad decisions and Allison gets closer to the truth about what happened to her, the story's pace accelerates toward more than one shocking revelation and, ultimately, a jaw-dropping conclusion.

But One Night Gone is much more than an engrossing mystery. It is also a character study. The tales of Maureen and Allison unfold three decades apart but there are engrossing parallels that elevate the story. Both women have encountered challenges that have tested their strength and resolve, but neither has given up. Maureen's unrealistic attempts to find quick but lasting solutions to her problems stand in stark contrast to Allison's realistic assessment of the extent of the damage she did to her career and the embarrassment she brought upon herself with every event archived on the internet in perpetuity. Both women are guilelessly taken in by the unscrupulous persons they let into their lives, and both find themselves in danger as a result. Allison becomes determined to secure justice for Maureen and, in the process, redemption for herself.

Betrayal, deception, and danger are at the heart of Lawkowski's plot, but empowerment, self-reliance, and second chances are the theme of One Night Gone. It is an eloquent, evocative, and impressive debut thriller.

I am a sucker for seaside towns and the way they can whisk you away from all your problems. That was the initial allure here, the mystery aspect a happy bonus. But it seemed as though this story contained more problems than it did solve them.

This was told from two points of view - one of a girl who eventually goes missing and the other of a woman who is trying to figure out what happened sometime later. The concept should be straight up my alley, but I found I was picking out small inconsistencies or annoyances from the very start, holes that were a bit too gaping to be ignored and made the book feel a little sloppy. Granted, this was an ARC, so perhaps some additionally editing caught this in the long run. But I read a lot of ARCs and it's rare that the unpolished drafts have glaring issues like this.

This isn’t a bad book, let me say that. It moves quickly, it’s full of suspense and there’s a big twist in the end that I didn’t see coming. So, if that’s all you’re looking for, then this should be enjoyable. The problem for me was that everything in between was so wildly over the top that it didn’t seem believable to me.

These characters were all running around with secrets and lies and everyone was sleeping with everyone behind everyone’s backs. It was almost like all these things were thrown into the mix to throw off the reader, but it wasn’t clever, it was messy and kind of a cop out. Things happened only so that it could be brought up again later to fill in a big plot point, the characters weren’t really relatable, and I had a hard time believing they would so easily get caught up in what they did. Everything in this book was carefully and structurally planned out, but painstakingly so that it didn’t seem natural or plausible.

And while there was a twist ending I didn’t see coming, another reviewer explained it perfectly. It was a Scooby Doo ending, where the bad guy lays out their sinister master plan in a boisterous voice and it’s a life or death situation until something gives and the bad guy goes down, cursing the happy go lucky Scooby squad and then they all live happily ever after. That is not satisfying for me.

I’m being a bit unfair here, I should just sum it up saying this book just wasn’t for me, but a lot of people seem to enjoy it. And I feel bad when a book doesn’t work out for me because I know someone has put so much blood, sweat and tears into it. But I’m just getting tired of reading through books that seem to be pushed out quickly just to cash in on the trendy true crime genre. I enjoy this genre and it can be done so well but it feels like everyone is trying to do way too much and ends up oversaturating the story and the genre as a whole.

I am an avid reader and woe be to the books I read that come behind some really stellar ones. That is where this one fell in. This story did have its moments as we follow Allison along while she is trying to find herself after a not so stellar moment on air as the weather girl giving a dicey umbrella forecast to her wayward husband. I enjoyed that little situation as one of the more entertaining aspects of the story.
I found the time frames switching between Maureen and Allison were done well, but Maureen’s story was way more interesting then Allison’s. In a nutshell this is a mediocre who done it story with an unlikely twist in the end. Not a bad book, but not a remarkable one either, no great suspense or cliffhangers here. Some of the events and happenings were either to convenient or close to unbelievable.
I am glad to have been given the opportunity to receive this book from Harlequin-Graydon House Books through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This one gets 3 stars.

Now I have to actually write that review, and that is the hard part. It’s going to be hard because, frankly, I was just so in the middle about this book. Nothing was horrible, but nothing was particularly good, either.

One Night Gone is going to be a hard one for me to review, simply because I feel really ambivalent about it. I liked it. It was a fast, easy read, which—lets be honest—is what you want out of a mystery. The multiple perspectives format seems to be almost the norm in a thriller these days, so that was almost expected. The storyline itself was fine.

One Night Gone is the story of Allison, a recently divorced meteorologist who takes a job as a house sitter in a beach town while contemplating her next move. While there, she meets Tammy, a local, and is quickly embroiled in a decades old disappearing person mystery. There are all the basic themes that we’ve all come to associate with small beach towns: class issues, family secrets, and lots and lots of infidelity.

I don’t really have any problems with One Night Gone except that there was a lot of what felt familiar and kind of cliched and everything interesting and different fell flat. We have these characters with rich potential: Allison has some mental health issues, Maureen is a carnie, Tammy has an ailing mother that she is responsible for. All this great potential to deepen the story, but instead we have mostly interchangeable characters with little that sets them apart. Like the rest of the story, it was just fine. To me, this is a book I could recommend to someone who sees it in stock at the library, but wouldn’t recommend buying. It’s a quick read, the story is very easy to get into, and it’s entertaining. It’s just nothing to write home about.

A slightly spooky and mysteriously suspenseful thriller!

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book when I saw the cover! The author does a great job of describing the setting of Opal Beach. A small town filled with excitement, beach parties and fun during the summer months. But all good things come to an end. It’s cold, dreary, and lonely when summer ends. I could feel the eerie chill in the air! Inhabited by the rich, also known as “yacht squats”, abandoning their summer homes at the end of each peak season. And the “townies”, the year-around inhabitants, who make their living catering to the summer crowd.

This was a quick read...well would have been if we weren’t on vacation. My husband’s idea of vacation doesn’t include as much reading time as mine does. He wanted to act like tourists. 😂

Tara Laskowski’s debut novel and she did a great job! She captured my attention from the start, with the way she centered the story around two women, in Opal Beach 30 years apart. Randomly linked by mutual acquaintances, with deep dark, buried secrets.

Maureen was my favorite character and the chapters narrated by her were the ones that kept me flipping the pages. She’s a carnival worker with big dreams. And she believes Opal Beach might be the place to make those dreams come true. My own childhood memories of carnival rides, games and food came flooding back! Pretty rough around the edges, Maureen had a big heart.

Allison narrates the chapters that are told in the present. Although they weren’t quite as interesting, they were a necessary part of piecing the story together. Like Maureen, Allison has a past that she wants to keep hidden.

I had my suspicions early on, and they were fairly close. There were still enough hidden twists to keep me engaged until the final reveal and I still enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley, Graydon House and Tara Laskowski for this digital ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion!
@TaraLWrites @HarlequinBooks
#OneNightGone #NetGalley #GraydonHouse

<b>My Rating:</b> 4 ⭐️’s
<b>Published:</b> October 1st 2019 by Graydon House
<b>Pages:</b> 352

<b>Recommended:</b> Yes. If you like whodunnits, with a bit of creepiness, you should enjoy this one!

2.5 stars rounded up

I'd like to preface with the digital copy I was given didn't have any structure to it (random breaks in sentences; no clear paragraphs), so that made it increasingly difficult to read and even navigate the story.

But from what I gathered, Opal beach has something fishy going on. Thirty years ago, a woman, Maureen, ventured there to start her life anew. She was hoping for a fresh slate but ended up getting caught up in the allure of all the high society events. And then she vanished. Now, present-day, Allison makes her way to Opal Beach post-divorce and her job going south. She too is looking for a new beginning but finds herself engrossed in Maureeen's disappearance.

I'm always a fan of dual narration, and this story is told by both Maureen and Allison. I find it brings more depth and a stronger personal tie to the characters. However, I much preferred Maureen's storyline as opposed to Allison's. There was something disingenuine about Allison - her character just wasn't believable. And I think the suspense of "solving the mystery of Opal Beach" suffered as a result of being carried by Allison.

The little mermaid kissed his hand, and felt as if her heart were already broken. His wedding morning would bring death to her, and she would change into the foam of the sea.
--"The Little Mermaid," by Hans Christian Andersen


A slow-burning, atmospheric mystery involving Maureen, the 'Mermaid Girl,' who came to Opal Beach, on the Jersey shore, and met her fate. I quite liked Maureen...this gutsy, no-nonsense character, whose only goal was to better her life. Tara Laskowski did an amazing job bringing her to life, and making readers care about her plight.

The story itself was interesting. In fact, the first half of the book...maybe even the first three-quarters...had me engrossed. While I didn't entirely figure out the conclusion, ultimately, I did find it to be pretty stale, and maybe a little cheesy. It wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped, especially after the amazing build-up.

Told from two perspectives, those of Maureen in 1986 and Allison in 2015, the reader is enticed by little pieces of Maureen's mysterious life, while Allison tries to unravel the facts nearly 30 years later.

The novel had real potential, but simply didn't quite live up to it's premise.

**Thanks to the publisher for my advanced copy.

A fun mystery novel, One Night Gone captures the reader with a pretty setting - a beach house, just the kind of place to recharge and recover from traumatic events - and a relatable main character.
Allison Simpson needed a place to hide, somewhere that she could disappear to after losing her job as an on-air weatherwoman, due to an on-air rant aimed at her cheating husband, socialite Duke Shetland. After finding out that he had been sneaking around behind her back, Allison got her revenge by humiliating Duke on television. While he got to keep his life and his job, Allison was uprooted, seeking solace with her sister to plan her next steps.
When Annie, Allison's nurse sister, finds an opportunity Allison can't refuse (a three month gig house sitting in a small town several hours from Annapolis), Allison packs up her meager belongings and heads for the beach. Opal Beach is shut down for the season, and Allison quickly embraces the small-town, quiet charm. Despite hoping to remain anonymous during her stay, it quickly become evident that her on-air rant reached even this tiny town.
Tammy, Allison's first friend in town, quickly lets Allison in on a secret Opal Beach has kept for thirty years - the hushed up disappearance of Maureen Haddaway, Tammy's summer best friend. Blown into town with C&D Amusements carnival, Maureen is an enigma to the small town boys. Wanting to get to know her, but knowing she doesn't belong, she's welcomed with open arms by Tammy, where they quickly become the three musketeers rounded out by Clay Bishop - son of Phillip Bishop, owner of Bishop's Seafood chain. Maureen knows that summer has to end eventually though, and the carnival will move on, taking her with it. Enjoying the town while she can, Maureen quickly learns that the "yacht squats" truly believe they are above her. They treat her as just another carnie, a joke for the summer, except Tammy and Clay.
With each chapter of Allison's perspective, the reader is introduced to new evidence supporting the idea that Maureen didn't really just leave town when the carnival left, as police had concluded all those summers ago. As she tries to unravel the mystery, she draws the attention of the locals, the ones who believe Tammy is crazy for holding out hope that someone would listen to her all these years, for someone to believe her that Maureen wouldn't do that to her best friend.
Maureen's chapters unfold as that fateful summer did, telling a story of young love, of friendships, confusion, and drunken nights. As she becomes involved in events beyond her capabilities, Maureen's youthful naivete shines through, and the reader is reminded of just how young and vulnerable she truly is.
Told from Maureen's perspective in 1985, and Allison's in 2015, the reader sees both sides of Opal Beach, the carefree teenage summer, and the adult mystery of Opal Beach's history.
One Night Gone is a quick and easy read, that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters were fun, and I felt quite able to relate to both Maureen and Allison. Despite being completely different characters, they are recognizable in all of us. The beach setting is one that calls to many of us to heal our souls, and I felt that it complimented the plot well. The anonymity and ability to disappear with the carnival is one that has crossed many minds, making the idea that maybe Maureen did just skip town when the carnival left a completely plausible response.
Overall I'd definitely recommend One Night Gone for a late summer beach read!

One Night Gone is the typical story of the haves and the have nots in a New Jersey beach town. “Slap some sun and sand on anything and it’ll look pretty, but don't venture too far off. You want to talk inequity? Let’s talk inequity. Opal Beach has it all. The top 1 percent run everything and the rest of us can just suck it up.”

Told from two different timelines, 1985 when a young teenage carnival worker makes friends with the town’s rich boy and then current day, when a young divorcee agrees to housesit one of the big beach houses over the winter.

I have to say initially, I much preferred the historic story. Although as the book went on, I got invested in both. The ending was a tad predictable and yes, I figured out who was to blame. This was a decent mystery, but nothing earth shattering. If it were coming out in the summer, I’d classify it as a good beach read.

My thanks to netgalley and Harlequin for an advance copy of this book.

A quick read that would be good for a vacation to escape the doldrums of the winter. A young girl visits a beach town and then disappears. 30 years later, a woman tries to solve the mystery.

Is this book good? Eh.
Is this a fairly predictable premise? Yes.
Did I enjoy it? It's a nice break from the horror novel and family epics that I tend to favor.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.