This book definitely held my interest. Ive been in quite a reading slump so probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have if I read it at a different time, but still a good read.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martens for sending me this ARC in return for my honest review. I read this in one sitting and could not put it down. It’s a great palette cleanser book. However, there are not any crazy twists and it’s not entirely memorable. Despite this, if someone is a fan of Pekkanen’s other books, it’s absolutely worth the read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This story follows a mother and daughter. Caroline starts to question things her mother is doing and digs into her mom Ruth’s past. There are things not adding up. Ruth (mom) starts to notice and tries to stop Caroline from looking too closely.

3/5 stars. I enjoyed the beginning and then it became a little slow in the middle. I liked the ending but felt like it was one you saw coming ahead of time.

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️. This is my fifth book by this author and sadly 4 out of 5 were only 3 stars, so I’m not sure this author is for me. I did like You Are Not Alone (4 stars). I think it’s mainly the writing that I don’t love. While the chapters are shorter and easy to read, there’s just way too many unnecessary fillers throughout the whole book. I don’t need a whole paragraph on how a Brita filter was changed or step by step of someone washing and drying their silverware, pouring a cup of coffee, picking up a notepad, opening a laptop and starting a search. Just way too many unneeded details.

As far as the storyline, it had potential but just no WOW surprising moments. It was a very slow burn. I would say it didn’t pick up until about 80%. The ending had one little surprise in it but it wasn’t enough to increase my rating.

I did like how the chapters alternated between Ruth and Catherine’s POVs. The chapters that contained the journal entries were good but again, just too much rambling of unnecessary things. The book probably could have been 50 pages shorter without all the fillers.

Sadly, I don’t think I’d recommend this one. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

To see other reviews I’ve left, check out my Instagram and Goodreads pages:
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It's fast-moving, and I read it in two days. There's something Ruth is keeping a secret, but is it good or bad? The story is straightforward, without really a mystery-type of feel. However, it's still intriguing. The ending is emotional, and I wish there were more of the family at the end. It seems like I have been holding my breath the whole time, just like Ruth. I feel that Ruth's family life was not fully written. At times, I wish there was more of a backstory there with her mother. I love the simple yet complex full-circle relationship between Ruth, Catherine, and Mateo.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for letting me read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed GONE TONIGHT - the alternating chapters made for a quick read, and it was generally a fast-paced and entertaining story! Would recommend to anyone looking for a thriller centered around the mom and daughter relationship.

I received this book as an ARC for an honest review. I am actually torn on this review. I couldn't put this book down because I wanted to see how it all played out and was so engrossed in the story but I also think it was drawn out a bit. The novel is about a girl with an abusive alcoholic mother who falls head over heals with a young man. Her family is poor and she is picked on in school. This handsome stranger comes at the right time and in her words "saves her". Then something horrible happens and she realizes he is not who she thought she was. She finds herself on the run from the law, from him and pregnant. She survives on the streets and assumes a new identity. She struggles to build a life for her and her daughter all the while lying to everyone including her daughter. The story is set in two narratives, one of the mom including her journals to introduce past events and one of the daughter. The author is good at spinning a tale that you can't put down but at times (especially 3 AM) I wish her descriptions were a bit shorter. But if you want a story with a strong female protagonist who got handed a bad deal on life but still fights to do what she can to protect her child, this is great. The storyline unwinds as you learn what happened in the past from the mom's perspective as well as the daughter's. I do recommend this book.

I love a good mystery/thriller, but this one just didn't do it for me. The action centers around a mother and adult daughter, and the daughter trying to unravel the secrets her mother is keeping. It's told in alternate points of view from both main characters, including flashbacks to when the mother was younger. I didn't find myself invested in the characters, and overall it just felt a bit slow to me and maybe longer that it needed to be? I thought the flashbacks were the most compelling part as that's where a lot of the pivotal action happened. The mother's relationship with the daughter (even once all is revealed and the book is coming to a conclusion) seemed to be one of extreme overprotectiveness/borderline obsession which just seemed....strange. So in the end it was just ok for me, but not one I would necessarily recommend to my friends.

What would you do for love? How far will a mother go for her daughter?

Review:
I blew through this on the plane this week and loved it. As a mother with a daughter myself, this one really resonated for me. The perspective alternates between the mother and daughter as they both reflect on the past and what secrets have been buried. These women were both going through some hard personal development and I was rooting for both of them even when they were working against each other.

The story:
Catherine is about to leave home and venture on her own when her mother, Ruth starts exhibiting signs of Alzheimers. How could she leave her mom, her best friend now? Meanwhile Ruth’s past is coming to the surface and she’ll do whatever she needs to to keep her daughter safe. How could she let her daughter leave now?

Thank you @netgalley, @stmartinspress, and @sarahpekkanen for honoring me with this read and allowing me to give a review.

FYI, I did find some errors in the text in Chapter 38 and I am happy to pass those along if those would be helpful but it did not impact my review.

A sensational book that had me turning the pages so fast. Ruth is a mother, a waitress and always on her guard. Catherine is her daughter and everything she believes about her mother is about to implode. The back and forth with little nuggets throw in keeps you wanting to find out the real story of Ruth and Catherine. Bravo to the author.
Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. It was a pleasure to read and give my feedvack.

I appreciate Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to preview this book!

This is my first book by Sarah Pekkanen, and to say I am now a fan is an understatement! This book blew me away!

Ruth and Catherine are as close as mother and daughter could be. When Catherine prepares to move out and have a life of her own her mother, Ruth, does anything and everything she can to keep her from leaving. Then, Catherine starts to question her mother’s past and tries to uncover what her mother is hiding.

This book started out slow, but once it picked up it was a wild ride that I could not put down! I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending could have tied up some loose ends, but I guess maybe that was the point. I give it a solid 4 stars!

4.5 paws rounded up.

Atmosphere: 👍
Fly-on-the-wall feels. We see the independent interpretations of the mother and daughter of similar events and behaviours, but it wasn't repetitive and the character reactions made sense even when you started to piece together what was really going on.
-Mostly set in an apartment and geriatric facility in a Pennsylvania town; imagine away because the author isn't overly detailed (in a way that fits the story), so if they don't describe something in detail early on you won't get your imaginings smashed in later.

Main POVs: 👌
-A parent in their 40s who had their child while in high school. They dropped out of school, cutting off their family, friends, and boyfriend. They successfully made a life as a waitress and single mother. They are caring, protective, intelligent, and cautious bordering on cunning.
-A morally grey adult child (in their 20s) of the above-mentioned parent. They are close with their parent, loyal, but also excited to branch out on their own after obtaining a geriatric nursing degree. They have confusing and conflicting emotions about leaving because their parent has recently shown symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer's.
-Journal entries sprinkled throughout of the parent recounting how they met their boyfriend, handled pregnancy and high school, and why they cut everyone off in their life.

Cred Rating: 👍
Mostly realistic/plausible. I found myself fly-on-the-wall screaming "what about____" sometimes and every time the MC would address my internal rantings in a way that made sense or showed they were aware of the shortcomings in their plan/interpretative of events, which drew me into the story and made me feel like I was interacting with the characters sometimes. Certain scenes near the end had to rely on a complete lack of eye witnesses but I guess it could happen! The feels about a parent wondering if their child inherited the worst of the other parent (while ignoring their own shortcomings) were realistic.

Reading Journey: 👍
Cruising through town in the evening on a twisty turny road while totally lost in an audiobook/podcast/radio program.

Great match if you like:
-Mother daughter relationship tropes
-Book club/thought-provoking commentary based on "Nature vs Nurture", "What would you do in that situation?", and how far is healthy/non-psychopathic for protecting your loved ones
-Fly-on-the wall narratives (we are deep in both MCs thoughts and understanding why they do what they do or think what they think while knowing more of what happened as the observer)
-Fugitive/secretly on-the-run plots
-puzzle piecing over the course of a story

Vibes: 🫢🥺🤗

Content heads-up: One of the characters works in a geriatric facility supporting elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer's. There are descriptions of what the patients go through based on the MC's POV, and although dementia and Alzheimer's is touched on in the story, it isn't the main focus.

Format: ARC from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

For starters, I was super excited to get an early copy of this book since I have enjoyed and read every book that the author, Sarah Pekkanen has co-written with Greer Hendricks. This is the first book that I saw with just Pekkanen alone, so I was very curious.

Gone Tonight, tells us the story of the mother-daughter duo of Ruth and Catherine Sterling. Ruth gave birth to Catherine at seventeen years old, and they have been on the “run” their whole lives. Ruth has switched jobs, apartments, schools- but why? Why can’t they just stay in one place and be happy? They also only have each other as they are estranged from the very few family members that they do have. Is Ruth Sterling really who she says she is? Is Ruth just an overprotective mother, or is there something more sinister involved? Catherine goes on a mission (finally after 24 years), throughout this story to find out what her mother has been hiding.

I really enjoyed the alternating POV’s between Ruth and Catherine. The chapters were nice and short, which in turn kept me turning the pages faster. However, while I enjoyed the story, I just wasn’t at the edge of my seat like I thought I would be. The twists and the outcome were rather predictable, and I didn’t find it that “thrilling”.

I still recommend reading this book as the storyline was interesting and different from the common mystery/thrillers out there. It was also a fairly fast read, which was a bonus.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Publication date: August 1, 2023. (Mystery & Thriller)

I jumped into this book right away when I saw it on Net Galley because I love what Pekannan puts out. This was a like not a love for me because I’m not usually drawn to messy mother daughter dynamics. If you’re a fan of a twisted mother daughter relationships then I would definitely pick this up. Go in knowing it’s a bit slow and predictable but a nice palate cleanser from anything heavy or literary.

Ruth would do absolutely anything to keep her daughter Catherine safe. She has been on the run for years concealing her true identity because of a mistake her and her high school boyfriend made 24 years ago. Catherine becomes curious about who her mother really is. She begins to question her mothers career and new Alzheimer’s diagnosis and wants to gather information about Ruth’s troubled past. Ruth will NOT allow that to happen. She has spent years running from her past and will stop at nothing to hide her daughter from the truth, until one day her high school boyfriend comes back into the picture and the past Ruth so desperately was trying to hide from, arrives back on her doorstep.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Gone Tonight
A Novel
by Sarah Pekkanen

Thank you to St. Martins Press, Netgalley, and Sarah Pekkanen for the opportunity to read and review this ARC
.Gone Tonight is told from multiple viewpoints, so the reader gets both Catherine's and Ruth’s side of events. Chapters mostly alternate between the two narrators. The story of Ruth’s past and how it connects with her illness is doled out in tantalizing segments that keep the reader rapidly turning pages.
Damn, this was a great book. I loved the way it had me really knowing some junk was going down with Mother Dearest. The mother was beyond redemption. A REAL psychological thriller and the ending was the perfect

Gone Tonight gets three stars for "star power" alone-author Sarah Pekkanen burst onto the literary scene with the blockbuster The Wife Between Us, coauthored with Greer Hendricks. That novel was a flurry of small twists culminating in a "never saw that coming" moment, while Gone Tonight is a slow burn that never really ignites into an inferno. The problem is the entire premise the plot hinges on doesn't make sense-while it's understandable Ruth will do anything to keep her daughter Catherine safe, the "threat" is virtually non existent (literally and figuratively since the man Ruth is trying to keep away from her daughter has no idea Catherine even exists) until the last few pages of the novel. But Gone Tonight succeeds through terrific character development-Ruth is a chameleon, hiding not only her true identity, but dark impulses that have haunted her for decades. The story also gets a lift from dual narration and flashbacks to Ruth's childhood that was filled with torment and abuse. The reader does sympathize with Ruth and her dogged determination to provide a better life for Catherine, but it's a huge leap from parental concern to thinking disaster is going to strike every time the phone rings. Gone Tonight moves quickly with short chapters, but gets slowed down from lack of momentum. Gone Tonight is a good book, but feels like a let down after her previous sizzling thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.
This story of a mother and daughter, Ruth and Catherine, was a slow burn and I ended up feeling very sorry for Ruth, who only wants to protect her daughter. Catherine fears her mother has the beginnings of Alzheimer's and is dying to find out more about her mother's (and her) family history, but is finding it very difficult as her mother refuses to talk about it.
Ruth is a very compelling character, but I wasn't too fond of Ruth. The mystery of the book is more towards the end and pretty good, but on the whole the book felt too long for me.
A decent read.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of this book. Early on, I was immediately drawn in to the story and wanted to decipher the plot twist. I enjoyed Ruth’s perspective more than Catherine’s. At times I felt very frustrated with Catherine’s initial naive and unquestioning nature. After the first plot twist, my interest waned in finding out what happened. I felt as though Catherine’s personality could have been explored a little more. Overall, 3/5 stars for me. I do believe many readers will enjoy the story and be drawn in quickly.

Another great thriller from Sarah Pekkanen! I loved both the main characters in this story - both strong, wounded, resilient and just the perfect amount of sneakiness. I never knew where this plot was headed but Pekkanen deftly avoids plunging the book into eye roll or far fetched territory. Every twist felt surprising but perfectly in line with the rest of the book,

I really enjoyed the decision to reveal one of the bigger twists earlier on in the book. It was a completely different experience once I could empathize with both Ruth and Catherine and see the motivations behind their actions and deceptions.

St. Martin's Press and NetGalley gifted me a ARC. Many thanks. Solidly written domestic suspense. The writing was good and not superfluous which makes for a quick, easy, and good read.