You know you’ve found a good book when you set your alarm for 6am so you can have a solid 90 minutes to read before the rest of the house wakes up. I couldn’t wait to jump out of bed and get back to Catherine and Ruth’s story and I picked up this book every chance I had.

I immediately connected with both Ruth and Catherine and enjoyed the backstory along with the present day story which isn’t always the case with multiple POVs and timelines. Pekkanen did an excellent job of giving the reader enough information to fully engage us without telling us everything all at once. We felt the fear and tension from Ruth and the confusion and worry from Catherine.

I wouldn’t call this a slow burn since it was fast paced but it wasn’t your traditional thriller either. Some familiar themes were present but they were executed in a way that felt fresh. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and tore through it at rapid speed.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Great book! Addictive and couldn’t put it down. Loved the twists and turns. Great character development! I really enjoyed the story being told from both point of views. This is going to be a big hit! Thank you for allowing me to read this ARC.

Ruth and Catherine, mother and daughter, have always been close. As Catherine’s career progresses and she accepts a job that would take her away from home, Ruth goes to great lengths to stop her. Catherine becomes suspicious and begins to look into Ruth’s past and uncovers what she has been hiding.

I have read a few of Sarah Pekkanen’s book that she co-wrote with Greer Hendricks, and this one is my favorite. I loved the dual POVs and was instantly interested in the backstory. When the past caught up to our mother-daughter duo I had to keep listening to find out what would happen next. I thought the ending was great, but parts were a little over the top. Overall it left me wanting more, which is never a bad thing!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Pub date: 8/1/23
Genre: domestic thriller
Quick summary: Catherine Sterling and her mom Ruth are a team - but as Catherine plans to start her own life, her mother will do anything to keep her by her side - and keep Catherine from learning her secrets.

I've really enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen's co-written books with Greer Hendricks, and this solo project GONE TONIGHT lived up to the twistiness I've come to expect. Ruth is...not the perfect mom she appears to be, and I loved following along as Catherine discovered her secrets. This is a super fast and compelling read- you have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but I enjoyed the wild ride.

Both audio and text were enjoyable - I think I slightly preferred the text because it let me turn the pages faster. But narrator Kate Mara did a great job capturing the action, and the dual POV format was easy to follow on audio.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my e-ARC and Macmillan Audio for my audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

A mother and daughter’s bond is like no other especially when secrets are involved. Ruth Sterling and her daughter Cathleen have been inseparable since day one but that is all because of her mother’s past. Keeping her daughter safe is Ruth’s #1 priority at all cost. How far would you go to keep your children safe?

In this novel you will find a story that will keep you wanting more. Sarah Pekkanen takes you on a journey of going through life with Ruth and Cathleen learning to be present but not seen. Alternating between mother and daughter perspectives you will soon find that sometimes life isn’t what it seems.

With Ruth on the “run” from early on in her childhood she will do anything possible to keep her daughter Cathleen safe. As time progresses, Cathleen starts to realize that certain aspects do not add up. When her mother, Ruth, starts to show signs of Alzheimer’s she is forced to try and figure out her family’s history to help her mother overcome this terrible disease. Once Cathleen begins to investigate, she begins to unravel the mysteries of her mother’s past. Along the way, she discovers she may not know her mother at all.

This physiological thriller will leave your wondering and not wanting to put it down. I really enjoyed reading this novel from, Sarah Pekkanen. I have always enjoyed her work and this did not disappoint!

A special thank you to Sarah Pekkanen, St Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this advanced copy of Gone Tonight.

This was the first novel I’ve read by Pekkanen alone, however I’ve read three of the books she did with Greer Hendricks, and honestly I think this one tops those three. I requested this ARC blindly (didn’t read the synopsis past the first sentence), and I think that’s the way to go into this one. You start out thinking it’s contemporary, with the mother and daughter relationship only to get to Part II and that’s when the thrill kicks in. Hold on to that slow burn beginning because once you get past that, it’s a page turner to figure out what is going to happen. It’s dual POV, going back and forth between Ruth and Catherine, mixing the past into Ruth’s chapters. I enjoyed Ruth’s because you got to really understand where she was coming from (still trying to decide if I agree). Definitely recommend, and would totally watch if this were ever a mini series/movie!

This was my first solo book of Sarah’s and I really enjoyed it.
I really liked the dual POV of both Catherine and Ruth. I loved Ruth’s chapters about Ava’s past the best.
It was fast paced and quite unique. (Which is hard sometimes with thrillers because there are only so many plots.)
I really liked the ending and thought it wrapped everything up perfectly.
It’s funny you know, because while I understand it was for the plot, if Ruth had allowed Catherine to just move away as planned, she would have been safe. Regardless, it made for a unique story and a great red herring.

Thank you, NetGalley and .St. Martin's Press for this advance copy!

I'm a huge fan of the author's other work, The Wife Between Us and The Golden Couple so I was really excited to get this arc. It has dual POV and a bit of past and present timelines which I love in a thriller. The book explores a mother and daughter relationship and just how far a mother will go to protect her own daughter. This indeed has a good number of twists and turns and was exactly what I was looking for in a thriller. I thought I had it all figured out, but Act 2 really threw me for a loop and had me questioning everything I had read up until then.

Ruth (the mother) has been keeping a lot of secrets from her daughter Catherine. She never wants to talk about Catherine's father and recently was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease forcing Catherine to take care of her.

Catherine loves her mom and would do anything to help her, but starts to grow more curious about her father, her past relationships and what her mother has been hiding all this time. When Ruth refuses to answer any f her questions, Catherine begins digging on her own and what she finds sets Ruth and Catherine on a thrilling ride to escape Ruth's dangerous past.

Thank you to Sarah Pekkanen and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow! This is the best book I have read all year.

So incredibly well-done!

You start off, thinking you know where it's going, like a roller coaster on a well-marked path. Then the tension and mystery begin to climb, much like our figurative coaster.

And the plunge. Oh so delicious! The thrill is everything. I start off rooting for one character, then when more of the plot is revealed, I begin to rally for the other character, until I'm willing them both to get on the same page!

I could NOT put this down! It was full of so many twists-- the first one the author encourages you to figure out on your own and when you do, it is SO satisfying!

Suddenly, your predictable roller coaster is plunged into darkness and your heart is racing with new knowledge and everything begins to click into place as you begin to get the fully formed picture.

This story also put me through the gamut emotionally as well; the mother/daughter relationship is fraught with the all-too common complexities and then when you add in some deep backstory, it heavily authenticates it. I even teared up towards the end-- that has NEVER happened to me in a thriller/mystery before.

If I could give applause, I would! Definitely worth the read!

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

FIVE FULL SHINING STARS.

An inseperable bond between mother and daughter, except the mother has been decieving her daughter her entire life. Why?

This was the thriller I needed. Fast-paced, multi-faceted, twisty, heart-pounding, gripping and captivating. This held my interest the entire time. I found myself lost in the pages, even while taking care of a newborn.

A top notch thriller for me. Probably one of my all time favorites. This will be one I recommend over and over.

Omg Sarah does it again! She has quickly become one of my favorite authors in this genre as she is queen of suspense. Just when you think you have it figured out.. trust me, you don't. Sarah is great at writing red herrings and misleads till BAM you get hit with what's really going on just before the book ends. This book was so fresh and original and I loved every pulse pounding, heart stopping moment.

This book had all the setup in the world for something really twisty and amazing, but unfortunately it just never made it there. The dual PoVs between Catherine and Ruth were very well done, and I especially enjoyed the parts where Ruth was in her journal recalling the past that led up to her disappearance from the world. The chapters were just long enough that by the time they were finished, you were ready to get back to the other narrator but also excited to come back to the last one and find out more about what was going on. The first Part was very slow and not much was happening, but I forgave this, assuming it was a lot of setup for the suspense to come. While after Part 1 I did speed through this, it was mostly because I was anticipating a climax that ending up being a let down.
I actually said “well, that was surprising” at the end because, well, there weren’t any surprises at all- and with all the buildup and little tidbits of information we were given throughout the book, I really felt like I was going to end up somewhere really exciting. Catherine’s “twist” never really made it all the way there for me, and my sister, who was also reading an ARC, thought the book wouldn’t really have been much different at all with her twist taken out entirely. It felt like the climax of the book hung on the plausability and shock of her twist, so it was even more disappointing that it ended up unnecessary and poorly done. Maybe if we had seen firsthand some more clues to point us to the direction that Ruth took us re Catherine, we might have felt it more believable.
Overall, I give it credit for being relatively well-written, and I did fly through it in only 2 days, but sadly, I would not recommend this to my thriller reader friends. 2.5 stars rounded down.

I received both an audio ARC and an E-ARC of this book and listened to half and read the remainder physically. The narrator did an excellent job of presenting this story. I was a bit confused as to which character’s point of view we were listenin to because it also fluctuates between both characters and the past and present timelines.

I preferred to read this book. I was a bit triggered by some of the content but overall, it was fine.

At first this book felt like it was going to be a contemporary novel about a mother and daughter duo dealing with the mother’s diagnoses of early on set dementia. Then the book takes you on a ride for a suspenseful thriller! Once the slow burn ended I couldn’t but it down, I highly recommend it!

4.5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the early ARC and ALC.

Have you ever wondered what a mother would do to protect a child?

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.

This book was the perfect amount of suspense and secrets while we navigate two POVs -- Ruth and her daughter Catherine. We're faced with unreliable narrators while we piece together Ruth's past and Catherine's present and how both of these collide in a nail-biting ending! Just when I thought there weren't anymore surprises, Sarah Pekkanen throws more at you (in the best way)! This was beautifully written and kept me engaged in the story the whole time. Definitely a book to pre-order!

As always, SP is on point. Though I found the beginning to be a tad too slow, once it got moving I was in.

The story of both female protagonists is intriguing in their own right. The journal entries were well placed and it was a perfect way to tell the story without full chapters that were just full of previous timeline.

Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Sarah Pekkanen for this ARC! Honestly, I had no idea what this book was about at first - I just know I’ve loved all of Sarah’s books. Just like always, this completely sucked me in. This book brought tears to my eyes, made me laugh, and had me nail biting lol! This book is about a mom losing her memory to early onset Alzheimer’s - and for some reason brought of memories of my past! Sarah never disappoints - and I would have to say is one of her top books! It was a different mystery, but a very enjoyable one!

Thank you NetGalley for the early access! I have read and loved every book that Sarah collaborated on with Greer Hendricks so I was really eager to read a new one of Sarah’s on her own.

This did not disappoint. The pacing of this thriller in the beginning had me questioning when things would become more “mysterious” but as soon as I wondered, the plot changed to just that. I think she did a great job with how important facts were shared casually that eventually caught up with the reader. Often I read books that attempt this and it’s just really obvious that whatever is being mentioned will be important later on but she got me by surprise a handful of times. I wasn’t sure beforehand what the balance would be between thriller vs. more of a mother/daughter emotional drama. I usually prefer my thrillers sans the tears but this was a good blend of both and I think I probably liked the characters more because of it.

“There is one thing we women do even better than disappearing: We protect our children.”

•Synopsis:
From the outside, Ruth seems like any other hardworking, self sufficient single mom. Her daughter, Catherine is her whole world. Moving from place to place has kept anyone from getting too close, It's only been the 2 of them for as long as Catherine can remember. Now 24 & a recent nursing graduate, she's ready to move away and start her career, but her mom cannot let that happen. Ruth's only priority is to protect her daughter at all costs. Catherine has never had any reason to question her mother, but what lies in wait outside the walls Ruth has so carefully built? Is Ruth's past finally catching up to them both?

•My Thoughts:
I am a huge fan of co-authors Sarah Pekkanen & Greer Hendricks, so of course I was excited for this solo story from Sarah Pekkanen! Just as I predicted - I LOVED Gone Tonight. This story was so original, & beautifully written, the very definition of unputdownable. I connected deeply with both Ruth & Catherine's POVs. I think what makes this thriller stand out is that the situations were so believable & realistic. Pekkanen writes a gripping, suspenseful read that will keep you guessing as she reveals the truth one layer at a time.
Definitely one of my new favorite books ever!

I read this while following along to the audiobook. Kate Mara did a fantastic job narrating & bringing this story to life. I can picture her starring in an on screen adaptation perfectly!

Thank-you to @netgalley & @stmartinspress for opportunity to read this ARC!

This is my first book by Sarah Pekkanen and it did not disappoint. This mystery thriller is told from a mother and daughters point of view. I'm normally not the biggest fan of slow burns but the way this was structured kept me hooked and I grew to love the main characters. 4.25 Stars

Thank you to NetGallery for this ARC.