I received an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed this riveting suspense story. Really kept me guessing with lots of twists and turns. Highly recommend!

I really enjoyed this book about what lengths a Mother will go to to protect her child. You could feel the fear in everything the Mother said and did. It was exhausting. The daughters developing mistrust of her Mother and the imminent danger from another dangerous person kept me turning the pages! Interesting twist in this story that I honestly didn’t expect.

There is dark, and then there is d a r k. And this book is the latter. As the plot moves along, the pace quickens, the twists grip you, and you find you’re holding your breath in the last act as you wonder how the ride will finish. It’s a book you won’t want to put down.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins for the arc.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Sarah Pekkanen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved Sarah Pekkanen’s collaborations with Greer Hendricks. I have read them all. So I was excited to read a book just by Pekkanen.

Gone Tonight is told from two alternating POVs. Catherine is a 24 year old nurse who specializes in geriatrics. She is about to leave home for a new adventure in Baltimore when she discovers her mother, Ruth, appears to be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Ruth has never told Catherine much about her past, so it shocks Catherine to learn that her grandmother also suffered from Alzheimer’s before passing away.

Ruth is a 42 year old waitress with a checkered past. She will do anything to protect her daughter. Her pov is told through present day and journal entries from her past.

The book started off slow and I would not have said it was a thriller at first. I did find the journal entries entertaining. It took awhile for the first twist to appear. After that, I found the book predictable and not as fast paced as I would have liked.

Ohhhh myyyyyyy! What a read! Plenty of twists and turns and an unexpected slight surprise ending. No loose ends! I won’t go into detail in fear of spoilers, but what a great read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an arc copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been a fan of the duo of Pekkanen and Hendricks, so I was interested to good one by just one of the authors. A solid 4 stars for this multi-layered book. It reminded me of Shrek and the analogy of an onion… many many layers that slowly got peeled back. To avoid spoilers , I will leave it at that.
A great thriller, recommended for all fans of Pekkanen/Hendricks books.

The story is told in alternating chapters by Ruth and Catherine, mother and daughter, plus Ruth is keeping a journal shedding light on her past which she has kept from her daughter all these years. It's a very slow book with much repetition of basic information. Things got a little more interesting towards the end but I had suspected how things would progress. I didn't care much for either of the main characters but the chapters are short and it's a pretty quick read. I'll be joining some of you on outlier island as I'm giving this one 2.5 stars, rounded up.

TW: Possible Spoiler: Faked Alzheimer's, hints at possible mercy killings, sexual abuse

My thanks to St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: August 1, 2023

This book was a definite page turner for me! The story was told in the alternating perspectives of Catherine and her mother, Ruth. As it unfolds, the reader gets a clearer picture of Ruth's motivation for doing the things she does. Catherine, on the other hand, is in the dark and continues to grow more frustrated and suspicious of her mother's behavior. I found this book to be fast paced with the suspense building as the story went on. The author did a great job of describing the various scenes and giving the reader a sense of what the characters were feeling in that particular moment.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy for review.

I was provided both the audio and print ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was an interesting domestic thriller. It follows mother and daughter Ruth and Catherine through their daily lives. As we get to know them it quickly becomes clear that Ruth is hiding something. Ruth has always been closed off about her past, and as Catherine is ready to spread her wings as a new college graduate and start her career as a nurse she is more curious than ever about her mom's past. What she doesn't know is that Ruth has carefully cultivated a life to protect herself and Catherine from the past that she is so desperately hiding from. She will do anything to keep Catherine close until she is 100% sure she will be safe from people and events that happened in her past. As the book unfolds we find out the lengths that Ruth is willing to go to to protect her daughter, and how far her daughter is willing to go to find the truth about her mother.

There were some situations that were a bit "unbelievable". I thought it was pretty unrealistic that Catherine wasn't able to figure out her mother's ruse a little more quickly, but overall the storyline was interesting. There were some good twists and turns, but I didn't find this to have high level of suspense. This may have some triggering content for some readers. This is an interesting story of the mother daughter relationship as well as nature vs nature.

As for the audio narration, I thought the narrator did a good job. I would have liked a bit more differentiation between Ruth's voice and Catherine's voice as the book is told from both of their perspectives. It was a bit difficult to tell which woman was at the center of the chapter with only one voice telling the story. I feel the audiobook would have benefitted from a 2nd narrator or if Mara would have been able to voice once of the characters a bit differently.

GONE TONIGHT was completely an addicting and juicy read. This one follows mother and daughter duo, Ruth and Catherine. When Ruth starts to have memory lapses, Catherine is ready to cancel her plans to move to be by her mother’s side. BUT then it starts to get juicy with her finding out some of her mom’s secrets! I loved Ruth’s journal posts and especially when she drops a huge secret to the reader! Usually I have a POV or media entry I’m looking forward to the most, but in this one I really just had to flip the pages and figure out what was happening! Everything about this suspense/ thriller was brilliant and I loved how it played out. Bravo @sarahpekkanen 👏🏼🫶🏻

Thank you @stmartinspress @sarahpekkanen for my gifted copy 💙

Sarah Pekkanen is one of my favorite mystery/thrill authors. This is her third book and it is just as good as her other ones. I read the book and listened to the audiobook and narrative done by the actress Kate Mara is superb. The story main characters are a mother, Ruth and daughter, Catherine. It is filed with lots of twists and turns and kept me guessing until the end. Gone Tonight is my favorite by Pekkanen.

Thank you #NetGalley, #MacmillanAudio, #St.Martin’sPress, #SarahPekkanen, #kateMara and #GoneTonight for the advance audio version for my honest review.

𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦!

I love Sarah’s books and I was so excited for this new release, it was so good.
A wild domestic thriller, with lots of family drama, secrets and deception that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this gifted copy.

𝗚𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 by Sarah Pekkanen released yesterday August 1, 2023.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

**4.5-stars rounded up**

Gone Tonight is the latest solo-release from beloved Thriller author, Sarah Pekkanen. I have had this one on my radar for a long, long time and she did not disappoint. I listened to the audiobook and was so impressed with how it was able to hook me from the very start. I was intrigued, I was invested, I wasn't able to put it down!!

In this story we're following a mother and daughter, Ruth and Catherine, respectively. Catherine feels like she knows her mother almost as well as she knows herself. It's always been just the two of them against the world.

Ruth loves her daughter Catherine with her whole heart and would do anything for her. Ruth was young when she got pregnant, and she gave up a lot for Catherine, but it was worth it. After all, a mother's life is full of sacrifice.

As Catherine has aged, she has grown strong, smart and independent, just like her mother taught her. She's now ready to spread her wings, move to a new city and get her first career-focused job. It seems like everything is going her way, until it's not.

Secretly, Ruth isn't ready for Catherine to be moving on. She's willing to do what she has to in order to keep her daughter close to her. She knows it's deceptive, but she also knows it's for Catherine's own good. In her efforts to keep Catherine with her, Ruth has inadvertently opened herself up to her daughter's scrutiny for the first time.

Ruth has always been secretive about her past. Catherine knows nothing about Ruth's life before her, or even her own extended family members. Ruth's recent behavior causes Catherine to dig, discovering she may not know her mom so well after all.

Y'all, I loved this! As mentioned above, I was hooked into this one from the start. I thought the plot was well-crafted by Pekkanen, keeping the Reader invested and on the edge of their seats.

I loved the character work. The way the truth of Ruth's past was revealed was completely enticing. We do get Ruth's past perspective to help that unfold and I was just as interested in those past sections as I was with the present perspectives.

I also really enjoyed being in the minds of both of these women, as they grappled with their present circumstances and the reality that they may not know everything about the one closest to them. The way it was written you feel like you're a fly on the wall, possibly with a piece of buttered popcorn, just watching all the drama unfold. It's juicy and captivating.

In short, I love a book that captures my attention enough that I can read it in a day. That's exactly what this one did. I had such a fun experience with this one and would definitely recommend it to other Thriller fans, or people who enjoy reading about complicated family dynamics. If you end up enjoying this one half as much as I did, you're bound to have a good time.

Thank you so, so much to the publisher, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. In my opinion, Pekkanen nailed this one. She should be proud!!

I didn't read the premise, but knew I wanted to read it since I'm a fan of Sarah Pekkanen's other books (co-written with Greer Hendricks). I assumed that it was a mystery/thriller, but once I started reading it I wasn't so sure. I was captivated from the beginning with this slow burn mother/daughter story and when I reached the first twist and realized YES, this was a thriller after all I couldn't have been more excited! Buckle up for this journey filled with twists & turns.

Ooh, this one was twisty. I liked the alternating points of view of the two main characters. Catherine and Ruth have a messed up relationship, as the reader you vacillate between liking and not liking Ruth as more is revealed about her past. I loved that the ending leaves you wondering if you could see these characters again in a future novel or maybe you won't.

I've read this author's co-writes but never her solo work, and now I'm wondering why that is. The start had me scratching my head, wondering when the psychological thriller part was going to start. But at the end of act I, it finally started in earnest. By the end of the story, I wasn't sure who the actual bad guy (or gal as the case may be) was. There were some twists I saw coming and others that indeed surprised me. Catherine and Ruth were both a bit psycho but with underlying reasons that I found compelling. All in all, a good thriller that will have me coming back to this author again.

I’ve been really enjoying mother/daughter dynamic thrillers lately!! It’s fast paced and kept me engaged and wanting to see how everything turned out. I thought this was going in one direction and was going to be more of a domestic fiction, but stick with it because there is a big twist that drives the story quickly in a different way.

This reminded me a lot of Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter but more digestible and straightforward!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this eARC!

I've been a Sarah Pekkanen fan ever since I devoured The Opposite of Me in 2010. I've enjoyed all her books since then, including the thrillers she wrote with Greer Hendricks. This time, Sarah wrote a thriller on her own and it's definitely a page turner!

I wasn't sure where the story was going at first, as it felt more like a domestic drama between a mother and daughter. Then the layers kept unfolding and it became more suspenseful and chilling. I don't want to say much as to not give any spoilers, but I really like how everything fell into place. I also liked the homage paid toward one of my favorite movies and the fact that it got a mention in relation to that. My favorite parts of the story were the flashback scenes, aside from one part that was completely unsettling (it was intended to be that way). It made me think of Heathers in some ways.

I had a couple concerns about Ruth's reactions to situations but I can't say much without giving something away. I just felt like she was being overly paranoid at times. I also felt like Catherine could have cut her some more slack.

Overall, really well done. An engaging story that kept me on the edge of my seat!

Movie casting suggestions:
Ruth: Aubrey Plaza
Ruth (teen): Dylan Conrique
Catherine: Julia Goldani Telles
James (teen): Daniel DiMaggio

Possibly a 3.5 - I liked the overall premise of this book and the twists were good and exciting, however the writing just didn't do it for me. It felt like there were a lot of random, descriptive sentences thrown in where the typical writing was a little more vague and broad. Example: "I poured myself a glass of water, chugged the 8 ounces, and poured myself another." I also didn't really like either of our main characters.

Overall this was a fun, easy, popcorn thriller - but not one that I'll be thinking about forever.

Pub: August 1, 2023

Happy pub day @sarahpekkanen !!

A big thank you to @stmartinspress for the gifted copy to read and review💙

Gone Tonight is exactly what I look for in a slow burn thriller: complex characters, backstory!!!, great writing, an intricate plot and a firecracker of an ending.

It also explores complex themes like mother/daughter relationships, nature vs. nurture, and generational abuse.

The story is told from the dual POVs of Ruth, a single mother, and Catherine, her daughter. We also learn more about Ruth through journal entries exploring her past.

What really makes the book's narrative interesting is the way it follows the traditional three act structure, but makes it modern and relevant to the thriller genre. This allows Pekkanen's writing to shine and highlights her strong character development skills and intricate plotting.

* Act one establishes Ruth and Catherine's worlds, their relationships and gives us the first major piece of tension. Think Chekov's g*n
* Act two builds on this reveal and takes it to the next level. Catherine's character arc is a major focus as she becomes more aware and questions the status quo. We also get to learn more about Ruth's past through her journal entries, which are some of my favourite pieces in the book.
* Act three is the climax. Tension is at its peak and the reveals are MAJOR. That's all I can say without spoilers!

I also really want pizza lasagna. And book two, please :)