Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
St. Martin's Press
5 stars
Available now

It's always been just them, Ruth and Catherine, and no one else. Well, that's what Ruth wants her daughter Catherine to know. Catherine has always believed what her mom has told her and she never questioned anything. That is until Ruth started being forgetful. A lapse in memory here and a slip-up there causes Catherine to become suspicious of her mother and starts to dig into her past which leads them down a dangerous path. Will all secrets be revealed? Will Catherine and Ruth's relationship survive? Find out in Gone Tonight.

I truly enjoyed reading this book! The dual perspectives from both Catherine and Ruth gives insight into their thoughts, who they are, and the dynamic of the mother-daughter relationship and how it changes throughout the book. The pacing and writing of the story are perfectly in sync which helps create the right amount of tension at the right moments as the mysteries are revealed and when the characters are faced with life-threatening issues and hard truths. This leads to a satisfying ending, but at the same time, you want more. With how the book ended, my fingers are crossed for a potential sequel!!

Thank you, Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Sarah Pekkanen, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

An enjoyable slow burn of a thriller for me! The interconnected pieces slowly show their faces much as someone does keeping watch from the shadows. Ruth is certainly a mother that you don’t want to cross. One of my favorite pieces of the story is Timmy and how he connects with his sister - she takes care of him through everything. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this fun read!

This honest review is in exchange for an advanced reader copy of this book.

This is a story which interchanges chapters, written as one chapter moms story and the alternating chapters written as the daughters story,

Mom and daughter live together but as the story unravels you quickly realize how different they are. Each one is doing what they think best to protect the other but this of course will come at a cost. With their relationship almost destroyed each one must work hard to repair the mess they created.

Lots of twists and turns which kept me riveted. This is the first solo attempt written by this author that usually writes as a team. Well written and exciting.

I look forward to future books by this author.

I am a little late in reviewing this, so I won't write a full review, but I will say that I enjoyed "Gone Tonight" immensely! I honestly could not put it down, and I felt compelled to finish it the same day I started it (even though that meant staying up until 2 a.m.). I highly doubt you will be disappointed if you pick this up!

Thanks so much to St. Martin's Press, Sarah Pekkanen, and NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Catherine and her mother Ruth live a quiet, 'vanilla' life together, living in the same apartment and working humbling jobs. Things start to make Catherine second guess Ruth's actions once Catherine accepts a new job and gets her own apartment in a town a couple hours away. As the unraveling begins, the reader can easily see through Ruth's intentions and the impending roadblocks ahead. For this reason, I thought of this as less thriller/mystery and more on the side of obvious foreshadowing. There was potential to throw some curve balls I didn't see coming.

GONE TONIGHT is a riveting suspense thriller penned by author Sarah Pekkanen. Fans will recognize the name as half of the award winning, dynamic writing duo Pekkanen/Henricks. GONE TONIGHT is Pekkanen's first solo venture in the thriller genre, and the result is a gripping tale centered around the relationship between a mother and daughter and how well they really know each other. The story that unfolds is compelling, heart pounding and captivating.
Mother Ruth has spent a lifetime protecting her daughter from a past she fled as a pregnant teenager - one her twenty-four-year-old daughter Catherine knows nothing about but is beginning to question as she prepares to leave their home to begin her nursing career in Baltimore. Unfortunately, Mother Ruth is displaying early signs of Alzheimer's making Catherine leery about leaving her alone. With no known relatives to turn to for help, she cancels her plans to move. Frustrated with her mother's continued refusal to discuss her past or reveal the identity of Catherine's father, she begins checking up on her mother's activities and finds some puzzling inconsistencies between what her mother says and reality. Suddenly, the close relationship that's always existed between mother and daughter becomes awkward and strained as each are forced to look at the other differently. Since Catherine's birth, it's been just the two of them against the world, but with each secret Catherine uncovers she's left wondering if she ever knew her mother at all. Ruth will do anything to keep her daughter close and her secrets buried to protect her, and Catherine will do anything to find the missing key that opens the door to the past revealing what and/or who her mother is hiding. When it's all said and done, their world will change forever.

GONE TONIGHT is an addictive, tension laden thriller that unfolds through the dual points of view of mother and daughter, giving readers insight into both unreliable characters' thoughts and plans. Readers are privy to Ruth's emotionally charged backstory as they hear her words read from journal entries foreshadowing the potential threat Catherine's unknowingly unleashing with her covert probe into the past. Pekkanen utilizes short, choppy chapters with mini cliffhangers to entice readers to keep turning the pages without stopping and believe me, it's highly effective. The pace escalates with the rising tension as layers are peeled back and secrets revealed with danger creeping ever closer. The author does a fantastic job of exploring the complexities of a mother daughter relationship and utilizing them in weaving a dark, twisted story that explodes into a shocking climax. While GONE TONIGHT starts off a bit slowly allowing readers time to tune in to the situation, it soon grips readers by the throat refusing to let go until the final astounding page.

Sarah Pekkanen has crafted a stunning, well-structured and paced suspense thriller delivered via unreliable narrators. The exploration of the many facets of mother-daughter relationships, especially when riddled with half-truths and secrets, lays the groundwork for a highly emotional, immersive suspense thriller. GONE TONIGHT solidifies Pekkanen's place as a solo artist in the genre. Highly recommended to fans of suspense thrillers.

This is one of those books that could go any direction while you’re reading it, so it keeps you guessing the entire time. I absolutely loved it and read it in a night. Worth the hype!!!

If you enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, I think you'd like Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen.

Both books do a great job of switching from past to present and slowing uncovering secret pasts while creating a sense of tension.

Gone Tonight introduces us to Catherine Sterling, a nurse at a memory care facility who is about to move to another state. But Catherine's mother Ruth seems like she's willing to do anything to stop her. Ruth's past has always been a secret to Catherine, so when Catherine catches Ruth in a shocking lie, she decides to dig further into her mother's past.

The beginning is a slow build, letting us get to know Catherine and Ruth, both in the present and the past, but from about the halfway point on, it's fast-paced action. If you read a lot of thrillers and mysteries, I wouldn't expect to be surprised at most of the twists and turns, but the quick paced writing style and sense of urgency did make this a fun and enjoyable read.

*Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

Catherine specializes in geriatric care At 24, she is about to move from the home she has shared with her mother Ruth to accept a new position. When Ruth, 42, begins to exhibit signs of early dementia, Catherine’s plans change. However, not all of Ruth’s behavior can be attributed to her condition. The story is told in the alternating points of view of the two women.

I found the beginning of this book very hard to read because I find discussions of dementia and its symptoms very painful. However, the book shifted direction after a while when discussing Ruth’s childhood and adolescence, and then shifted again into a thriller, as Catherine dug into Ruth’s secrets. The book did a good job of bouncing the reader’s sympathies back and forth, and there was a believable twist at the end. Aside from the beginning, which I did not find enjoyable at all, I thought that this was well written, with an interesting plot. I liked this book better than the books that this author writes with Greer Hendricks.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC. I've read three books by Sarah Pekkanen and her co-author Greer, but never a standalone. This was an interesting premise.

“Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.”

HOLY. CRAP. WHAT A RIDE.
Gone Tonight, written by Sarah Pekkanen, is probably one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and one of my favorite thrillers that I’ve ever read. This book was such an addicting page-turner with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter where I simple could not put it down until I found out what happened next. The characters were so easy to get drawn into because they were so unreliable that you had no idea who to trust or not, and the suspense throughout the story line is what really draws you deeper into the story and keeps you on the edge of your seat. There are also so many shocking reveals that you never see coming and keep you guessing, and there’s so many major plot twists especially at the end. But there’s nothing that compares to the last 100 pages or so where all the major secrets get revealed and the insane thrill ride ends with a crazy conclusion. Plus THE EPILOGUE!!!

Overall, I definitely loved this book more than I thought I was going to and this was without a doubt an easy 5 star read for me! I can’t wait to read more of Sarah Pekkanen’s books in the future.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Sarah Pekkanen for my advanced copy of Gone Tonight!

Link to my Goodreads review is below! 👇🏼:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5409381959

Summary: Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.

Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother's past or background. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts: Thank you so much @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy of Gone Tonight! This one released earlier this month but I’m grossly behind on my ARCs 😂. This was probably my favorite by this author yet! I really enjoyed this one it was wild and kept you guessing. I loved the twists and turns this one took, it was a totally unique read. Definitely more action packed then your usual thriller! Overall a fun and suspenseful read with a mother daughter duo who are such a trip to read. I did feel like there were some parts of the plot that weren’t explored enough by the end of the book. But it was still a great read!

I had a lot of issues with this. The pacing was off - the beginning was incredibly slow, the mystery wasn't mysterious, and a lot of it was unbelievable; it took me out of the story.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 15% - I loved sarah’s books with greer so I was super excited to read this one!! I thought I could get past the concept, but unfortunately it was too much of the story for me to personally not get triggered about. coming from a family with alzheimer’s and dementia, my worst fear was coming true in this book and I couldn’t handle it. I absolutely loved the writing & thriller aspects and wished I could have pushed through. focus on prioritizing your mental health though folks!!!!

A wonderful, suspenseful and full of twists novel! Sarah truly knows how to keep your interested and turning the pages.

A mother and daughter duo who’ve been on their own since the mother ran away 24 years ago. The question is why did she run? Catherine is 24 and just graduated college, headed to a new job as a nurse around the area where her mother is originally from. There’s just one small problem, she doesn’t know that. I’m fact, she has no clue that her mother ran away. Facing her mothers new diagnoses of Alzheimer’s, Catherine is worried. Her mother is worried even more because of what her daughter could discover or that her daughter could be discovered.

Very well written and a good deal of twists are found in this newest release from Sarah. It begs the question, what would you do to keep your only child safe? What lengths would you go to to protect her? I really enjoyed this read and I’m giving it four stars!

"Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. All her life it's been the two of them against the world." How far would YOU go to protect the person you love most? Catherine and Ruth think she know each other better than anyone. But when Ruth is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, Catherine can't bear to leave and begin the career she was poised to start. But something is...off. Catherine is not going to stop until she finds out what her mother has been hiding.
Ruth has been running from something for a long time. Now that her past is catching up to her, Ruth wants to make one last escape with her daughter. She's desperate to keep her secrets. This novel by Sarah Pekkanen was a smashing success! She carries two dynamic POV's and the mystery kept me glued to the pages. I loved the short chapters and emotional, nail biting endings.
4.5 stars thanks to Sarah, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this thrilling suspenseful story!

Woof what a ride.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC. I flew through this book. It was twisty and wove together some wild family dynamics. Really enjoyed! 4 stars.

I loved this one! Lots of action, lots of suspense and it is told in alternating viewpoints which worked really well. Catherine is the 24 year old daughter of Ruth and this mother/daughter duo has always had an “us against the world” mentality. Catherine has trusted everything her mom has ever told her but it seems like Ruth has been hiding some really big secrets and telling lies to keep Catherine under her roof. Ruth’s carefully crafted world is now unraveling, their relationship is on shaky ground and the two women are in danger. You will not be able to put this one down. I just reviewed Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen. #NetGalley

This is a story about a mother and daughter relationship. I was excited to be approved for this title, unfortunately it wasn't a book I enjoyed reading. I've read books with this author and Greer Hendricks, and they have been page turners. I wouldn't recommend this title.

This was fast paced and entertaining! The twists and turns kept me on my toes and I enjoyed reading.