Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Pekkanen, St. Martin’s Press & MacMillan Audio for both the digital ARC and audio ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own (except for any quotations) and may not be reproduced.

I am an absolute thriller/suspense/mystery fanatic & Sarah Pekkanen is an author that I usually tend to enjoy so I was thrilled to receive an early copy of Gone Tonight.

Synopsis (quoted):

“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.”

I REALLY enjoyed this novel! You think you know what’s going on, only to get proven wrong at the next turn and the twists just keep on coming.

While I had the digital ARC, I ended up listening to the audio ARC provided by MacMillan Audio, simply because I prefer audio over digital because I can get through it much more quickly. This was one of four audio ARCs that I started and finished over the weekend.

It was fast-paced and held my attention. I went back and forth on if I was Team Ruth or Team Catherine. Pekkanen did a great job getting you to despise either one in one chapter and then go back to rooting for them 2 chapters later. Who did my loyalty end up sticking with? Well, that’s top secret info that I cannot divulge or else you’d get too much insight to the twists & turns and then the story would be spoiled. You will just have to grab a copy when it releases on August 1st and see which side you end up on.

This was a solid 4 Star read for me and I definitely recommend giving it a read!

Gone Tonight: NetGalley Review 
Author: Sarah Pekkanen 
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, 352 pages 
Pub Date: 08/01/2023 
✨thank you to @netgalley for the advanced copy!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
SYNOPSIS: 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: her mother will do anything to keep that from happening. And this begins a dance of deception between both mother and daughter
  
“How far would you go to protect the person you love most in the world?” 

REVIEW: the dual POV is a Mother Daughter duo: but Catherine and Rose are not your run of the mill family.  The alternating POV was actually very easy to follow and went back in time just enough to give us background on the pair without too much foreshadowing: this reeled me in. The sprinkling of information was perfectly done throughout the entire novel!  We see Ruth, the mother, journaling out her memories so she can give her daughter the answers she is looking for.  But telling her daughter the truth isn't black and white in this story: Ruth knows that “good mothers” tell the truth, but she is pulled back and forth because telling her daughter the truth would also shatter her world as she knows it.  This book made me really think 💭, was not predictable at all 🤯, and the coup de grace at the end was so satisfying!

Ruth and Catherine have always been on their own. They have a strong mother-daughter bond; at least, they think they do. Then, secrets begin to come to light and the carefully constructed veneer begins to slip. Danger awaits just around the corner.

This was an intense psychological thriller. It grabbed my attention from the beginning and kept me wanting to read “just one more chapter.” The story was told from two points of view with chapters alternating between Ruth and Catherine. Part of the intensity was the fact that the reader knew things that the characters didn’t. It made me want to keep going to get past the cliffhangers.

While I enjoyed this book, I found some of the things predictable. I also wasn’t a fan of the way things ended. It felt like the author was trying too hard. Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars, rounded to 4.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #St.Martin’sPress for an eARC of #GoneTonight by #SarahPekkanen

✨ Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! ✨

Rating: a solid 3.75, but rounded up to 4 for GoodReads purposes!

Pros:
-Kept me entertained
-Surprising, non-obvious twists
-Dual POV
-Smart, in-depth female characters
-References to a great movie 😆

Cons:
-Mild lack of communication between characters (a trope that I’m not a fan of)

TLDR: A single mother with a haunted past, and a daughter who is determined to uncover the truth. Would recommend as a fun thriller book ✨


I’ve been a fan of Sarah Pekkanen so I was pumped to get the email about reviewing her newest! This was definitely a great, fast-paced thriller and one I’ve been hoping for. While a couple chapters felt like repetitive fillers, the majority of the book kept me on my toes. I loved that with each change of POV, my trust in characters would flip flop. It reminded me a lot of Luckiest Girl Alive, with the mother’s dialogue of past memories and puzzle pieces coming together for the reader. I 100% imagined Chiara Aurelia as a young Ruth while I was reading!

I loved Gone Tonight. It was a slow burn at first, as we’re introduced to the relationship of these two women and the secrets in their past. This is the type of book that starts off brooding and builds to heart pounding thrills. I love the multiple narratives and journal entries. Great read.

This book was amazing! The twists and turns it took left me speechless. I couldn’t stop reading. Everything was amazing. I have read one other of Sarah’s books but now I know for sure that I am a huge fan.

Gone Tonight centers around single mother Ruth and her daughter Catherine. It has always been just the two of them. They have moved many times over the years, and Catherine chalked this up to the fact that her mother worked low paying jobs and had to go where she could get work. They have been in their current location for a while now and Catherine has built a life. At 24 years old, she is also ready to move away from her mother for the first time ever. Just as she gets ready to embark on her new life, her mother receives devastating news that forces her to change her plans.

As Catherine throws herself into finding out the best way to help her mother, she uncovers something that is so shocking it makes her realize that she doesn't even know the person that she thought she was closest to. Through flashbacks, we get to know Ruth and how she got to where she is today and why it is so important that she keep Catherine close.

This was a slow burn and the premise was good, however, I found the execution to be overly wordy and filled with descriptions of mundane details that did not add to the plot. Everything was described and it bogged the book down for me. Also, without giving away the crux of the book, there were tremendous plot holes--some things that happened, people being in certain places, and certain situations just would not happen. Overall a decent read but nothing earth shattering.

Thanks in advance to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow! This held my attention to the point I could not put it down! Secrets were flying everywhere! Ruth is a waitress trying to make a living and keep her daughter Catherine(nurse in training) safe, from what we don't know. I can't reveal to much but things start to unravel and at an exponential pace. I loved the different timelines and POV's. I was pleasantly surprised as to where this book went.

Again, don't want to give away to much, but def worth the read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this in advance.

GONE TONIGHT was full of secrets and lies woven expertly through the story and seem to only become more confusing the more that Catherine worked to untangle them. Quick and fast-paced, the story will grip you in the first chapter and leave you wanting more by the end.
Pekkanen really delves into the line between wanting to protect and wanting control and we see just how thin of a line that really is between Ruth and Catherine.
I would've really loved to read more of Catherine's POV/life beyond the last chapter of the book because there is so much to dive into there. Although...It does leave a promising opening for a sequel.

Ruth and her adult daughter, Catherine, live a seemingly quiet and frugal life with few connections outside of each other. However, Catherine begins to realize there may be things that Ruth is hiding from her. As Catherine explores what Ruth might be hiding, we start to learn more about Ruth’s past as she writes a letter to her daughter.

I appreciated that this book was twisty from the start to end. Lately, I have been frustrated with books that go so far to hide the twist that the majority of the book is filled with mundane details. This was a page-turner for me as I kept wanting to know what would happen next. I enjoyed the ending left a small bit of mystery for the reader to consider.

A delicious slow burn!

I find the most interesting books have a mystery you're trying to solve only for it to be answered pretty early on and there's an even bigger mystery waiting to be solved. A real tip of the iceberg story. That's what Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is.

Told from the perspectives of Catherine and her mom in the present and her mom's reflection on her past, we see both women's thoughts about the way they live. As the reader we have the omniscient view of knowing why both women are making the decisions they are and also seeing how it's impacting the other woman. The one thing we are trying to figure out is what is Ruth hiding.

It's hard to write this review without giving too much away so I'll say that it's really fun trying to figure out where this novel is going and the climax is high energy yet also leaves you pondering.

Wow! What a great read! Beautifully written- descriptive writing and masterful use of literary devices. Gone Tonight is not a mystery but there are lots of twists and much intrigue as this tale unfolds. This was a 2 days read for me. I loved it.
Thank You to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sara Pekkanen for the opportunity to read and enjoy this ARC.

What a ride! This book starts off calmly enough, as a mother and daughter come to grips with the mom’s early-onset Alzheimer’s. Then, the story unravels slowly, as Ruth, the mother, reveals the truth of her past in a journal she is writing for her daughter, Catherine. Once the first shocking plot twist is revealed, the story picks up steam, hurtling toward a climax that left me breathless. There is so much to uncover in this story—the lies, the scandal, the trauma, the fear! At the heart of this story, Ruth is a mother protecting her child at all costs, but underneath this is a twisted and sordid tale that will keep readers turning pages until the very end.

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for sending me this arc! Pekkanen is a fantastic writer. This is my fourth read by her , and I’m yet to be disappointed. This is a fast paced thriller with family secrets, mental health representation, raw and relatable characters , and a story that will take you on a roller coaster ride until the very last page.

Content Warnings : Alcoholism
Rape
Child abuse
Domestic violence
Alzheimer’s disease

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

Catherine Sterling has been living alone with her mother, Ruth, her entire life. Her mother has always been a great supporter and Catherine and Ruth have had a very good relationship. It is finally time for Catherine to branch out and leave the nest, but Ruth is clearly not a fan of this decision. Even though Catherine has a new career, and the timing seems appropriate for her to move out, Ruth will not allow this to happen and do everything possible to prevent it. Why is Ruth trying to prevent this? Catherine starts to question her and Ruth’s past and look for clues.

The past collides with the present with Ruth's past. The Story goes from the past to the present telling us about Ruth past as well as the past between mother and daughter.

Now Catherine is finishing up Nursing School and looking forward to moving away to her new job and new career at Johns Hopkins, until Ruth starts exhibiting symptoms of early Alzheimer’s, which means Catherine’s plans will have to wait and she just could not possibly leave her mom alone. But things just don’t quite fit into place and Catherine starts doing her own research to try to find out the truth, and that is when she discovers that her mother has not been honest with her.

This was a very good thriller and kept me engaged throughout. This was a five -star read for me. The audio book was narrated by Kate Mara who brings Ruth and Catherine to life as well as other characters. It was enjoyable listening to it. I switched between listening and reading the book. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio as well as St. Martin's Press for a free copy of Gone Tonight for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Great storytelling! Sarah Pekkanen opens this story by showing the reader that things are not what they seem and slowly and carefully, at times seductively, she slowly peels back one layer of one story and then the next, until the full picture starts to emerge.

Enough breadcrumbs to the reader chasing the story, enough false starts and redirects to keep them guessing.

Overall, an immensely readable book.

A quick read. I appreciated the back and forth POVs and the storyline kept me reading. I found elements to be fairly predictable and not as thrilling as I expected from this author.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Oh boy - Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen was a DOOZY. The book starts with Catherine and her mother Ruth who live together and are extremely close. They both are keeping secrets from each other - which is really all that can be said without giving anything away.

You’re thrown into the middle of a situation and left to figure out what’s going on. Sarah Pekkanen does an amazing job of revealing it all to us through the characters observations and Ruth’s diary detailing the events in her life that led to here.

The twists shocked me and were so enjoyable. I would LOVE a sequel!

Wow! I couldn’t put down Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen. Gone Tonight was a twisty, jaw-dropping, slow burn type of read.

The book starts by introducing Ruth (the mother) and Catherine (the daughter). As the story unfolds, we learn Catherine is a nurse working at on a memory wing at a local care facility. When Ruth starts exhibiting signs of Alzheimer’s, Catherine goes into overdrive trying to hold onto the time she has left with her mother, while simultaneously trying to learn more about her.

The multilayered story is told by both women, as they tell the reader one thing, but tell each other something different. What begins as a story about a complicated mother daughter relationship, rapidly turns into something much, much more.

Make sure you check out this fast paced, thrilling, and tense book when it hits the shelves on August 1, 2023!! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC.

This is a slow burn mystery thriller told in two alternating perspectives - it begins with a mother with newly diagnosed Alzheimers, and her daughter who is working to become a nurse.

Nothing is as it seems in this book, and it has secrets, twists, manipulation, and betrayal. Although it is on the slow side, it’s an interesting character study that displays a complex and close relationship between a mother and daughter.

There are past memories that are revisited as more of the story is slowly revealed. It caused me to reflect on thoughts of how well does anyone truly know those closest to them? How far will a mother go to protect her child?

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to all thriller lovers.