4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Ruth is, and always has been, an overprotective mother to Catherine. But when Catherine notices her mother is lying to her, she starts pulling away to Ruth's dismay. Does Catherine really know her mom?

This almost felt like two diffent stories who meet in the middle. First, you have the family drama with Ruth and Catherine. Although enjoyable, it tended to drag on. The second part, however, is full-on thriller and I was completely hooked!

I highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Sarah Pekkanen for an advanced copy of this book. I offer my review freely. Publication date 01 August 2023.

I'm such a fan of the writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen since their debut novel The Wife Between Us.

“Gone Tonight” is so full of twists and turns, it was hard to put down. The relationship between Catherine and Ruth grows from mothered to smothered, and the reader gets to experience the whole thing firsthand. The character development in this novel is spot on. I felt for Catherine right off the bat as she watched her mother struggle from what she thinks is Alzheimer’s. As the story plays out, the plot itself could go in several different directions, but Pekkanen pulls the right chord, and the tension develops slowly, then steams like a whistling teapot, leading to the final unexpected conclusion.

A massive thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the copy!

Wow oh wow this book was so original! It was filled with twist and turns, a bit of a slow start for me but once I settled in I could not put the book down! I love this author and have most of her other books, this one is no exception!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital advanced readers copy!! I received a complimentary copy of this book. This novel will be published August 1, 2023! Add it to your August TBR!!

Suspenseful, intriguing, well-written character study that deftly calls into question the things we may not know about our mothers' lives before us. I loved the writing and also the narration of this audiobook. Pekkanen does a commendable job with fully realized characters, an intriguing plot, and great narration. A must read from a very reliable thriller author!

I don't know how Sarah Pekkanen does it! Everything she writes is captivating and makes you question everything you think you know about the story.

Claire and her mother Ruth are the only people they have and Ruth aims to keep it that way. Hidden agendas and secrets galore, dive into this story knowing when you surface for air, it will be because you finished the book.

Twenty-four-year-old Catherine Sterling and her mother Ruth have an unusually dependent relationship. They have trackers on each other's iPhones, so they know where the other one is. They've moved around a lot over the years. It's always been just the two of them. For the first time, Catherine is about to leave the nest as she has an exciting new job as a nurse at John Hopkins in Baltimore. But those plans may have to wait as her mother is exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's and Catherine can't leave Ruth. Catherine is also compelled to start investigating more about her mother's family history as she has never met any of her relatives. She's starting to sense that her mother has not been truthful all these years. Ruth figures out that Catherine is becoming suspicious of her and now fears that all her lies will be exposed.

I had only read the thrillers that Sarah Pekkanen co-authored with Greer Hendricks, so I was anxious to read Gone Tonight, a solo effort. This is a slow burn thriller that starts off as a domestic drama and then ramps up in its intensity. The story is told from each woman's perspective as the suspense builds and builds. There are some very good twists and surprises. I enjoyed it very much.

Rated 4.25 stars.

Have you ever woken up one morning and thought about how well do I know your parents? Do you think they have always spoken the truth and never told a lie? Catherine is about to embark on her own, she is moving to start a nursing job at Johns Hopkins. The first time she has ever been away from her mother, ever. She is excited, nervous, scared, and just wants to start her journey. Ruth has always protected Catherine her entire life, like any mother would. She has struggled to make a life for the both of them. Working waitressing jobs, changing apartments at a moment's notice, and struggling to make ends meet. Ruth always said her parents kicked her out when she became pregnant with Catherine. She has never contacted them again. Catherine never questioned, until things started to not add up, and she began to dig. Has Ruth always been honest with her, or has she built a house of lies?

This is a crazy intense family drama that will have you on the edge of your seat. The pages will become a blur as you tear through this book. Make sure to have drinks, snacks, and entertainment for your children. You will not be able to put this down. The characters are fantastically written. The mother and daughter dynamic are there. There is so much codependency that you need boots to wade through it all. There is so much more to this story than what meets the eye. If you love dark family secrets this is the book for you! Thank you to Sarah Pekkanen and St. Martin's Press for my jaw dropping copy.

Ruth Sterling and her 24-year old daughter Catherine have only known life as a unit so far. Ruth has always worked various low-wage jobs to provide, and the two have moved from place to place a lot, but their one constant is each other. That’s about to change, though, as Catherine is moving away soon to start a job as a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

At least that was the plan.

Ruth is now showing worrying signs of memory loss … eggs placed in the cupboard, losing her way home from the drugstore, calling ice cubes “water squares”. What is happening? It doesn’t look good, especially when Ruth brings up a family history of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Suddenly Catherine’s plans for the future don’t look so clear. Until she makes a discovery one day …

Up to this point the story seemed like a family drama, and while I was enjoying it, I still wondered where the story was going. Boy did things take an unexpected turn! As Ruth and Catherine’s chapters alternate, the reader finds out that things aren’t quite as they appear, and maybe there’s a lot more to Ruth’s story than Catherine has ever been aware of. Things that Ruth has taken great pains to hide from her.

Imagine the plot like a game of hide-and-seek, only Ruth is hiding secrets from her past and unbeknownst to her, Catherine is seeking to uncover them. Unfortunately, Catherine doesn’t realize that uncovering these secrets will put both she and her mom in danger! Now, they may need each other more than ever.

I both read and listened to this, wonderfully narrated by actress Kate Mara, and really enjoyed it! It’s very character-driven, with the relationship between Ruth and Catherine taking center stage. Watching their dynamic change from one of dependence to a more functional adult relationship and getting to know each other, perhaps for the first time, was a nice change of pace from typical thrillers. The final third brings a satisfying amount of suspense, tension and action.

As with all thrillers, there’s some suspension of disbelief required, but honestly not much! It didn’t feel beyond the realm of possibility that it would play out this way. It also brings up some great questions about how much of our nature we inherit from our parents. I loved the ending and epilogue. No huge shockers, but just the right amount to make it fun!

★★★★ ½

I read this one in one day, it moved fast and kept my interest throughout. I was waiting for some twists that just didn’t come, but still felt there were a few moments that surprised me or left me guessing. I think this was a solid thriller, if that’s your thing!

What a story full of surprises!
Loved the characters!
Fast paced!
Full of tension!
Solid writing by author Sarah Pekkanen!
Be ready to go on a twisty trip when reading Gone Tonight!
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a very well written book with deeply drawn characters that you really come to care about. The pacing is good , the mystery and twists are solid and unpredictable. It drag for me a little in the middle. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for making this available for review.

This book started out in one direction that was interesting but I wondered how it would become a mystery as classified. I didn't have long to wait. There are so many "I didn't see that coming" moments in this book that I can't tell them without spoiling the experience for other readers. There were a few revelations I had guessed - but just as many that I hadn't.

I enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the story.. This will be a best seller!

I enjoyed “Gone Tonight” by Sarah Pekkanen. Just when you think you know what is happening, there is a well timed plot twist. It is written from the alternating viewpoints of Catherine and Ruth, yet neither seems to be a reliable narrator. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

A super duper mesmerizing read!
I thought the story was about an obsessive mother, but then it melted into something else only to then morph into subplots that were completely unexpected!
I traveled from sadness to puzzlement to excitement to angst.
It is sooooo good!
Read why a mother and daughter are codependent and how much of our DNA from our parents resonates within us.

Gone Tonight is a thrilling, riveting read. Author Sarah Pekkanen sneakily builds up the suspense without you even realizing it. The first half is just a story about a mother and a daughter. They are devoted to each other; it’s always been just the two of them. But there’s a bit of an edge to their close relationship. The mother can be unyielding at times, and the daughter feels stifled. She’s just about to finally break away and experience freedom with a new job in another town when her mother’s illness, Alzheimer’s, stops her in her tracks and puts an end to that dream. Her mother has always done everything for her so she doesn’t even consider leaving now.

As the book moves into the second half, secrets, or hints of secrets, are revealed and suspicions start to form. Some of the things Ruth, the mom, says don’t quite ring true, and Catherine, the daughter, wonders if the things she’s been told all her life are true and begins her own investigation into her mom’s past. Ruth starts to keep a journal “while she still can” and the glimpses we get into it only raise more questions: why is Ruth so determined to keep Catherine safe? Safe from what or from who? What happened in the past? Secrets are revealed but at the same time both women become more secretive. You can’t quite put your finger on what the secrets are or who is really keeping them. Resentments build, the story becomes more complex and convoluted, more and more is revealed and a sense of foreboding settles over the story. The pace builds until it becomes cat and mouse and suddenly you want to read faster and faster and faster. The past has always been vague, the present is uncomfortable, and now it seems the future could be tragic.

Both Ruth and Catherine put themselves in danger – sometimes recklessly, sometimes because they are operating under false pretenses, and sometimes because protecting the one they love is vital. Coincidence, fate, inevitable events? Whatever they are, we nearly have the daylights scared out of us several times as we try to figure out just who is who and envision what might happen.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of Gone Tonight via NetGalley. It was a very enjoyable read, with an ending that is unsettling, chilling, and yet totally satisfying. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

I usually love books by Sarah Pekkanen and when she writes with Greer Hendricks so I was so excited to receive this ARC but sadly disappointed. The first third of the book was quite tedious told from two POV’s. One Catherine the 24 year old daughter of Ruth. So each chapter goes from Ruth, the mother to Catherine the daughter Towards the halfway point the book does pick up and the pieces of the puzzle that Catherine questions about her mother start to come to surface and Ruth knows at some point she must be honest with her backstory to her daughter. It had an interesting storyline but I found it quite farfetched and found the ending very disappointing. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC I received for an honest review. I really do not like giving negative reviews and was truly hoping for a different ending but this book may just not be for me. There are other reviews that are more positive so maybe it is just my take of the book.

Words can't describe how much I loved this exciting and emotional read! The relationship between mother and daughter was interesting complex. The main characters were so well defined that they jumped off the page. I couldn't put this book down and the final twists at the end were shocking in the most delightful way!

I went into this completely blind and I'm glad I did. This is a stunner of a thriller! The characters are interesting and likeable and you are rooting for both Ruth and Catherine even though their goals aren't always aligned. I enjoyed both POVs and didn't find myself rushing through one to get to the other. The twists and conflicts of the story were very well thought through and are all entirely believable. I'm blown away at the thought that this could potentially happen in the real world. This is a thriller with a heart of gold that I would recommend to anyone!

Thanks to Sarah Pekkanen, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is a psychological thriller that I just couldn’t put down. Ava, a young impressionable teenager, hungry to be loved embarks on a path one fateful night that will forever change how she views herself and the world. Catherine, her daughter, has just graduated from nursing school and is about to begin her career but will her journey lead her down the same dark path? I loved the way the author let us see snippets of Ava’s youth through her journal writing. It allowed the reader to have a glimpse of the experiences that she endured that made her the person she turned out to be. I also loved the underlying message that a parent’s love is unconditional no matter the costs. The twist at the end I definitely didn’t see coming and made the story even more riveting. I would definitely recommend to others.

I’ve read several books that Sarah Pekkanen has coauthored but this was the first solo run I’ve read and boy oh boy it did not disappoint.

Gone Tonight is a skillfully crafted suspense thriller that delves into the bonds between a mother and daughter. It’s ingrained in us that a mother should do anything to protect her child, but when is it too far and at what cost. A lifetime of secrets and lies has finally begun to unravel but will mother and daughter be able to move beyond it all?

Ruth and her daughter Catherine are as close as a mother and daughter could be, in fact it’s always been just the two of them. Having Catherine at seventeen, they are estranged from Ruth’s strict family and through the years Ruth shared very little about her previous live. Life has been hard with Ruth jumping from job to job struggling to make ends meet. The two have had to move around quite a lot when things didn’t work out. Having recently completed her nursing education, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, but as she is preparing to leave, her mother begins to exhibit signs of early Alzheimer’s disease. Catherine postpones her plans so that she can spend as much time with her mother while she is still cognizant enough to share about her previous life the little she’s willing to share doesn’t quite make sense propelling Catherine forward on a quest of her own to learn more about her mother and what she’s been hiding all these years.

I really enjoyed the structure of the story. The alternating POV allowed me to be in the minds of both Catherine and Ruth as the story unfolded and their emotions were palpable. The short chapters made for a fast read, making this a perfect beach read. Packed with secrets and lies, I watched the foundation of the mother-daughter relationship fracture as the truth emerged and the lines between right and wrong began to blur. This slow burn tension packed thriller held me hostage turning the pages late into the night.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the opportunity to preview an e-galley of this addictive read that is due to publish August 1, 2023. This is my honest review and the opinions expressed above are my own.