This was such a slow burn, I thought this book might not be for me. Boy, was I ever wrong. It was good! There were plenty of character building and analysis, I felt I was reading an actually true crime. Really well structured and tensed. When I finally got into it, I couldn't put it down and read it all in one night. While I gave this 5 stars, I do wish that the ending was one chapter back where (spoiler alert) Ruth reunites with her family. I cried because of that chapter. The last bit of twist was quite unnecessary and spoiled what was set out beautifully before. I'm tired of that old troupe of "he took the fall."

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free book.

This book was a page turner! I loved the plot, loved the characters, loved the different perspectives. The twist was unexpected and I couldn't wait to get to the end but was then sad that it was over! Highly recommend. Thank you for the opportunity to review this ARC, I will be reading more by this author.

After Ruth Sterling is led astray by her high school boyfriend she spends the rest of her life running from the events of one night, and soon has her daughter Catherine to protect as well. I enjoyed the dual perspectives of the two women as history catches up with them, and Pekkanen’s dual timeline presented in journal entries was a great addition to her latest book, Gone Tonight. I was deceived by some of the twists and turns and enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen’s latest suspense thriller. I received an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

Wow!! All I can say is that Sarah Pekkanen has blown my mind with her latest thriller, Gone Tonight. This book is filled with twists, turns and lots of secrets. Told from a mother and her daughter’s POV, this book kept me up at night. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I HIGHLY recommend Gone Tonight!!

Thank you to St. Martins Press, Netgalley and Sarah Pekkanen for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This is a creepy if repetitive jaunt. You're given nibbles throughout the first two acts and then the story explodes. If wants to feel panicky but there's a choppiness about it that detracts from that feeling. The characters are built well enough and the book has good flow. This would make a good beach read.

I received an ARC from the publisher for my honest review.

Catherine, 24 years old, has been under her mother’s thumb all her life. But when she accepts a new job far from home, her mother desperately needs to keep her close, and Catherine begins to uncover her mother’s lies. Gone Tonight is a taut and suspenseful story told in alternating POVs between Catherine and her mother Ruth, with the details of Ruth’s life deftly revealed through Ruth’s entries in her journal. This is a definite page turner, as the reader eagerly devours Ruth’s story as Catherine unknowingly puts both their lives at risk as she searches for the truth. A mother’s undying love for her child propels this expertly plotted book, and will keep you glued to the pages. I received an arc of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book by Sarah Pekkanen. She is one of my favorite authors and has had a successful leap to suspense/mystery novels in the last few years, both with Greer and now as an individual.
I read this in less than 24 hours because I just had to know what happened!

From page one I was intrigued by this mother daughter relationship. I spent the entire book trying to figure it out and sometimes thinking I knew what was going on. I have read many thrillers and still this one kept me in the edge of my seat.

I was really excited when I saw Sarah Pekkanen was releasing a book on her own- I had read her books with Greer Hendriks and loved them and devoured them.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this one. I tried to get into this book, but I was unable too. I was not enjoying myself. The writing style felt drastically different. And the point of views jumped around too much for me and I had a hard time following the story.
I appreciated the advanced copy.

Gone Tonight is an interesting thriller that ramps up the intensity as the book goes on. The story follows Ruth Sterling and her daughter Catherine. Catherine has always kind of figured that her mom was hiding something since she never really talked about her past or her family much. She plans to move and start a new job but that gets hijacked after her mom starts showing signs of Alzheimer's. Things quickly unravel. The story is interesting but I found some parts a bit far-fetched. The two main characters are not really all that likable, but I am not sure they need to be to enjoy the story. This is a decent thriller that I am sure will be a big hit.

I absolutely adore this author and she is on my auto purchase list. So when I was given the chance to read an advanced copy of this book, I gladly accepted ! And, was not disappointed. This was a “could not put down” read.

The love a mother has for her child, can’t be replaced. And it is evident in this book.

Loved the storyline and how fast paced this was. Ended perfectly and was not disappointed.

Recommended for sure!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for offering me an ARC of this gripping thriller. I've read two of Sara Pekkanen's other books (coauthored with Greer Hendricks) and enjoyed them very much, so I had high expectations. I wasn't disappointed!
The story is told in first person, alternating between Catherine and Ruth Sterling (daughter and mother). They have lived a close, isolated existence, moving so often that they've developed few friends and no roots. Catherine has never known any other relatives; her mother claims her family disowned her when they found out she was pregnant, and her boyfriend dumped her.
When the story opens, Ruth is exhibiting alarming memory lapses that point to early onset Alzheimer's. Catherine, a 24-year-old geriatric nurse who works in an eldercare home, puts off plans for moving away to accept an internship at Johns Hopkins so she can care for her mother during what little time she has left. Which, we learn, is exactly what Ruth wants. She doesn't feel she can keep her daughter safe if they're living apart.
Ruth writes a diary for Catherine to read after she passes, telling the story of her life and family history. From these entries, the reader pieces together the traumatic event that changed Ruth's life, how she's been able to survive and keep hidden, as well as her fears about the evil lurking in her daughter's genes.
In the meantime, something doesn't ring true about her mother's classic dementia symptoms, so Catherine does more research. Not only does she learn her mother's been faking Alzheimer's, but everything about her is a lie: her name, her family, her hometown, and even her birth date.
Catherine's quest for answers leads her right into the danger her mother struggled all her life to protect her from, and the two have to put aside their fractured relationship to overcome it.

This was a really good book, and I really enjoyed the manner the story was laid out. Catherine and her mom Ruth have lived a nomadic life, sometimes moving with no notice to a new city which Catherine has to adjust to. Catherine has decided she wants to find out about their past and why her mom seems so scared all the time. And she wants to find out who her father is. Meanwhile Ruth starts to write down her history, including why she keeps moving and her fierce desire to protect her daughter. The story takes place over three Acts, each Act peeling away a bit of the layer that Ruth has kept around her past. Ruth has also developed the symptoms of Alzheimer's, which has forced Catherine to quit a job she had accepted at John Hopkins Hospital to care for her. As each layer of the past comes off it starts to catch up to Ruth in the present. This was a very good book and I would highly recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #St Martin's Press for the ARC.

I have eagerly read everything Sarah Pekkanen puts out and was so happy to be offered that chance to read an ARC of her latest book, Gone Tonight. The characters are well developed and likable. While you may suspect some darkness in Ruth as she constantly moved her daughter over the years, you can also appreciate her willingness to protect her only child. As always, Pekkanen slips in some cracks in the story that have you second guessing in whom the darkness lies. Very enjoyable read with all the plot twists I have come to expect from this fabulous author.

Gone Tonight, by Sarah Pekkanen, is a stunner of a novel that grips you from the beginning and continues to spin you around until the shocking conclusion!

Ruth is a single mom who raised a smart, successful daughter, Catherine. Now, Catherine is about to leave for a new job, but Ruth is diagnosed as having early onset Alzheimer’s. Catherine, as a nurse, hesitates to move for her new job and leave her mom when she knows the havoc this disease will wreck on their lives and the limited time she has with her mother. Ruth is Catherine’s only family, and Catherine knows next to nothing about those family history.

Desperate to learn more about her background and take care of her mother, Catherine decides it’s time to move past her mother’s refusal to talk about her past, and she starts digging into her mom’s history. However, things get weird quickly, and Catherine realized that Ruth isn’t who she claims to be and has lied about significant parts of her life.

What else is Ruth lying about? Is anything Catherine thinks she knows about herself or about her mother true?

Gone Tonight is told from multiple viewpoints, so the reader gets both Catherine 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 keeps the reader rapidly turning pages.

Fans of Sarah’s previous books like The Wife Between Us will enjoy this newest book of hers. If you love mysteries in the style of Lisa Unger and Heather Gudenkauf, you will love Sarah Pekkanen’s writing and this book!
Thank you to Sarah Pekkanen and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy! Gone Tonight comes out on August 3, 2023. This is one to scoop up in a pre-order, don’t miss it!

Menacing.

That’s the word that comes to mind after reading Gone Tonight.

Tension drips from angst as Ruth begins to lose her memory and Catherine—a young memory nurse—struggles to hold on to her mom (and learn about her past).

Stomach knots form as we read about Ruth’s past and get to finally meet James.

And menace. Yes. Menace permeates as the story of Ruth and James unfolds.

Unreliable narrators who don’t become more realizable until later on adds to the edge-of-one’s-seat feelings.

Yet, readers should be aware that most of the thrill with this thriller resides between the lines, the spaces where our minds fill the void. It isn’t action packed but rather slow, methodical. It doesn’t have jump scares or page drops, but the spaces our minds take us is what propels it forward.

Think: a quiet contemplative thriller.

Catherine Sterling is not who she thinks she is. And neither is her mother, Ruth. Ruth is quiet, works hard, and moves frequently. Now, Catherine is ready to fly the nest and move to Baltimore where she will begin her nursing career.

All of that may be in jeopardy now. Catherine is noticing things about her mother. She has never been forgetful and since Catherine works in a Memory Care Ward, she recognizes the signs of dementia.

Ruth has been running since she left home. Pregnant and unmarried, she has convinced her daughter she was kicked out of the house and can never return. But now Catherine is set to move someplace that could unravel all of Ruth’s carefully constructed lies. Could she fake dementia to keep her daughter home?

Ruth may have taught her daughter how to be secretive too. Catherine is suspicious and nosy. She wants to find out what her mother is hiding from her. Things such as who her father is.

As Catherine spins her own lies in order to get information on her father and mother and it may get her killed. There is a reason why Ruth has been running, or so she says. Ruth and Catherine are about to find out they don’t know each other as well as they thought.

I read this a week ago and I am still thinking about it. The way it all came together was perfect. And I’m still wondering about a few things. Good!

NetGalley/August 1, 2023, St. Martin’s Press

This one feels tricky to review. The beginning was slow, I’m not sure how I feel about the end and I couldn’t read the middle fast enough.

The story is basically about Catherine trying to find out who her mother Ruth really is. With alternating view points between Catherine and Ruth, you learn about Ruth’s past and why she has all of these secrets from her daughter. It was more entertaining then I expected it to be.

It was definitely an easy read and I think a solid 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced digital copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is a good book.

The book was a little slow until the latter part of the book when the pace picked up considerably.
The chapters go between POV’s from the mother Ruth and her daughter Catherine.
Ruth is hiding some secrets in her past. Catherine starts to get suspicious and starts looking for answers. The middle of the story was a little long winded but then it picked up.
Ruth will do anything to protect her daughter. The book picks up as Catherine starts investigating what her mother has told her and what is the truth.
You will enjoy this story and I recommend it

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook ARC of this title in exchange for my review.

This was a rather complicated mother daughter relationship thriller with alternating POV's. I've liked other books by the author and had hopes for this one, but I couldn't really get into it as much. It felt like a bit of a copy of the other big-name mother/daughter book out a few years ago (& made into a movie.) I like that one better.

2 stars for "it was ok"