Another page turner from Sarah Pekkanen! A fan of the author's twisty dual point thrillers, Gone Tonight didn't not disappoint and kept me up late into the night. This time, the dual points of view reflect a mother, Ruth Sterling with secrets she is shielding from everyone - especially her daughter. As Ruth's daughter, Catherine's POV evolves from a virtual bubble about her and her mom's identities to one where she is grown and searching for answers. Does her mom really have early onset Alzheimer's that has been passed down from Catherine's grandmother, a woman she has never met? In fact, Catherine has no family history or connections other than her mom. What i loved about this story is it is not only the story of mother-daughter bonds tested by the truth, but it is also a parallel story of mother and daughter each growing up in vastly different circumstances, and how Ruth's history as a young girl influences her own choices as a mother. As the layers are peeled back, those choices are ones that the reader can feel empathy and horror almost at the same time. This will rope you in from the first page -highly recommend! Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ruth and Catherine: mother and daughter. Both each other's whole world. But cracks appear when Catherine learns some sobering news: Ruth is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

But when she attempts to ensure her mother's safety and health, Catherine discovers that her mother has been keeping secrets from her, and those secrets have led something very deadly to their home.

Sarah Pekkanen's Gone Tonight is a satisfying slow burn game of cat and mouse that will leave you second guessing at every turn. Though I thought the pace was fairly slow during the first half, the second flies fairly quickly and though things tie up nicely, there's a lot of morally gray area to leave you thinking about this for awhile. A major point of frustration was that there's a strong need for the reader to put aside the fact that this book would not be a thing if either Ruth told Catherine the truth from the beginning or Catherine bothered to press Ruth for more answers more strongly than she did. But overall, I really liked the book and would definitely recommend it. Loved the writing and the dynamic between Ruth and Catherine.

Thanks very much to St. Martin's Press for inviting me to read this title through NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Thank you so much SMP for this ARC! I dropped everything I was doing to start this.

Sarah Pekkanen does NOT disappoint. I loved this dual POV narration told by mother (present and through journal entries reflecting on the past) and daughter (present).

Throughout the beginning of the story, my heart broke for Catherine as we learned of her mother's diagnosis, but those feelings sure did change and I was glued to this book from there on out.

I loved the elements of this story: runaway, hiding, moving on, mother/daughter, truth and discovery. This book will scare and shock you as well as bring a tear to your eye. Perfectly wild ride of emotions!

Read this if you loved Karin Slaughters, "Pieces of Her."

Thank you @stmartinspress for the ARC copy!

Gone Tonight is an amazing story told in the point of views Catherine and her mother Ruth in the present alongside journal entries to glimpse her past. Throughout their lives it’s always just been the two of them. 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 doesn’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.

As a nurse, I love reading about characters in the medical field. I was impressed with the way Sarah Pekkanen wrote about families dealing with illness, and also the role of caregivers and nurses in memory centers. I felt the research and the writing of the nursing character was spot on and really enjoyed reading those parts so much.

I could not put this book down as the story really propels forward especially with each of the three acts. Act one was literally setting up the scene, Act two and three propulsively pushed me at the edge of my seat and could not stop reading this book. I kept on guessing what could be happening and with a cinematic third act fit for a thriller blockbuster movie, I was blown away.

This book had everything I love in a domestic thriller read - addicting, immersive, fast paced, but also deals with a lot of important themes about families and the ties that bind.

I highly recommend Gone Tonight! Preorder this one now. I sure did!

GONE TONIGHT
BY: SARAH PEKKANEN

I was really excited to receive a widget from Sarah Pekkanen's publicist to read her latest slow burn of a novel called, "Gone Tonight." This seemed to me to be more of a character study than a racy, suspense driven plot. Which is perfectly okay, because on reflection everything does come together in the last 30 percent of this novel. The ending was very suspenseful which elevated this from a 3.5 stars to a solid 4 star reading experience. It made the novel rise to the extent of giving the payoff it needed from its somewhat slow pace.

Ruth and Catherine Sterling are the two main characters and they dominate the narrative throughout this well written character driven story. Ruth is the mother and Catherine is her only child. It has always been Ruth and Catherine against the world. Ruth is a forty-two year old waitress and Catherine is twenty-four years old.

Catherine has just graduated and is now planning on moving to Baltimore to pursue a career being a nurse at Johns Hopkins prestigious hospital in Geriatrics. Suddenly Ruth is exhibiting signs of early onset Alzheimer's Disease or is she faking it? Why would Ruth fake being forgetful, such as misplacing her keys and other concerning behaviors?

Caroline takes her mother to see a neurologist and when the doctor wants to order more tests, like an MRI or other diagnostics Ruth refuses them, citing that they have poor health insurance. When the doctor asks Ruth how long she has had the symptoms, Ruth says for about four months now. Why did Ruth tell her daughter, Caroline that she only noticed the symptoms for about a month? Caroline
wants to know more about her mother's life and Ruth studies Caroline's behavior. There is some
thing sinister at play that reaches a crescendo that comes crashing down on both of these two women by the end of the book. The Author is talented to have slowly added in breadcrumbs throughout like finely woven vibrant threads that create a beautiful tapestry of an erudite novel.

Publication Date: August 1, 2023

Thank you to Net Galley, Sarah Pekkanen and St. Martin's Press for generously providing me with my ARC of this slow burn of a novel in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#GoneTonight #SarahPekkanen #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

Best structured, slow burn, tense, twisty story, unreliable but also connectable POVs, ultra smart, addictive chapters and jaw dropping, adroitly wrapped up conclusion!

I adored Sarah Pekkanen’s previous works she’s created with her brilliant co-writer Greer Hendricks! This time she’s flying solo and thankfully she has written something truly heart pounding, earth shattering, mind bending.

This is lately the most fascinating thriller I’ve read and I’m so sure it’s gonna be one of my favorite thriller readings of 2023 even though I didn’t read the entire early copies that will be released next year. I know it’s a little assertive assumption but if you’ve read this mind bending wild ride, you may agree with me without thinking any further.

The entire progression resolves in three acts. It perfectly questions the darkness inside a person, how far a mother can go to protect her child!

Catherine and her mother Ruth have a truly dysfunctional, extra attached, a little overwhelming and somewhat obsessed relationship. They become each other’s world which may be suffocating at some parts!

Catherine, a successful nurse at the age 24, is ready to start her new job, building a new life In Baltimore when she finds out her mother might be suffering from early stage of Alzheimer’s for 4 months. And she confesses Catherine’s grandmother has also died and suffers from the same disease.

Catherine urgently cancels her plans to move to another city for taking care of her mother but in the meantime she starts digging out more about their pasts. They don’t have relatives and she realizes there might be reason her mother hesitates to keep her in the dark.

What if everything she knows about her own mother is bunch of lies. What if her mother’s obsession about keeping her around might be related with something extremely dangerous about her past.

Ruth is exhausted to run away for nearly quarter century. She used three different names. She worked in 12 different jobs. They lived in 9 different apartments. What is she hiding?

As Catherine keeps digging out more, she realizes she has been living with a stranger at the same house for years. And she might be in more danger than she can deal with!

Overall: I couldn’t put it! This is pure addiction! Absolutely highly extremely recommended!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Okay this is AMAZING. I flew through it in less than 3 hours. I couldn’t put it down. The twists, turns, and relationship between mother/daughter was so good. I didn’t see the end coming.

Amazing read! To be up front, I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. When the book started, I did not know what to expect. For a mother to pretend she has early onset Alzheimer’s to keep her daughter safe is an extreme measure. As the story unfolded and more information of the back story came out, it was a bit more understandable. However in the long run it may have been better to be more honest with her daughter to keep her from imagining things and doing research on her own. I would definitely recommend this book.

Is 5 stars even enough for this one?

Oh, the author does such a good job! I spent the first portion of the book so very sad and completely convinced I knew everything that was going on. I definitely did NOT.

The author deftly weaves a tale in which the truth twists and turns so deviously that you simply don’t know what to believe anymore. The characters are complex and compelling and I never once wanted to slap them! (Yes, I sometimes want to slap characters. Sue me.)

The truth behind everything is so satisfying and at the end of the book, I just wanted more.

Very happy I read this and can’t wait for whatever the author does next.

• ARC via Publisher

𝑴𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑴𝒂𝒎𝒂. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒌 𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄. 𝑾𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒖𝒕.

I have a difficult relationship with my mother, and this book was hard to read at times. As a parent, I know I made mistakes raising my two boys, just as I'm sure my mother is aware of the mistakes she made with me. You try to see past those shortcomings and understand why things were done the way they were. You try to have empathy, and you try to forgive, especially when you realize those things were done under the guise of having your best interest at heart.

Told in alternating points of view from Catherine, the daughter in her mid-twenties, and her mother Ruth, a woman full of secrets, GONE TONIGHT chronicles a life on the run, living in one cheap apartment after another, leaving behind friends and boyfriends. Catherine has always wondered about the secrecy but never really questioned her mother until the day she catches her in a lie so repulsive, so vile, that she quietly begins unraveling the truth about her mother's past, and what she finds out is more than she ever bargained for.

I've never read a book quite like this one, one that so perfectly captured the tenuous relationship between mother and daughter, the fierce love, the need to protect, the desire to break free. I loved getting to know Ruth through her chapters, and my heart broke for her and the things she endured. I was equally captivated with Catherine, who is holding on to some secrets of her own. I can't recommend this book enough, and when it publishes August 1, 2023, you need to get a copy. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for my early read.

Wow! I have never been disappointed in a book by Sarah Pekkanen and that stands true again. This story of Ruth and Catherine kept me turning those pages as quickly as I could. I highly recommend this book!

Four solid stars, almost 5! I enjoyed this author’s previous works, especially the collaborations with Greer Hendricks. But this book clearly proves Mrs Pekkanen can pull off a fabulous thriller on her own, too. I enjoyed the two POVs the book was written from & the gradual telling of the backstory. This book was just so well written, it’s truly hard to put down! Hope y’all enjoy it as much as I did!!

Did I just finish another digital review copy from NetGalley that doesn’t release until August 2023? Why yes I did and I’m not one bit sorry.
Ruth Sterling loves her daughter Catherine. Actually she is rather over protective, the question is why. Ruth’s family disowned her when she became pregnant and it’s just been the two of them for Catherine‘s whole life. But now, Ruth fears Catherine moving away to start a new job and a new life. Why is Ruth so afraid of that happening and how far will she go to keep Catherine by her side?

Told in alternating chapters narrated by Ruth and Catherine, we learn what keeps Ruth always on high alert and what demons may live inside them both. It would be way too easy to venture into spoiler territory, so I’ll just say that very few of my guesses about the story were correct. The chapters just flew by and I enjoyed trying to figure out this twisty tale. So far the 2023 books are coming in hot!

Catherine is making a big change for herself when she graduates from nursing school. She gets hired by Johns Hopkins to work with geriatric patients in Baltimore. It offers her a stable space to live long term after jumping place to place while growing up with her mother, Ruth.

Ruth has secrets. Ruth has relied on her relationship with Catherine to keep a sense of stability in her own life after a rough upbringing of her own. They have been the sole source of family for each other since Ruth left home at 16, pregnant with Catherine.

When Ruth begins forgetting things or getting lost, Catherine suspects early onset dementia and pressures Ruth to see a neurologist. But as Catherine digs deeper, or as deep as she can dig based on lack of information from Ruth, she wonders what is really going on. Is she really suffering from Alzheimer’s or is she trying to maintain control over Catherine’s life?

If you are familiar with Sarah Pekkanen’s work with Greer Hendricks, you know you are in for one helluva ride. As the story unravels and you learn about Ruth’s past, you can see that Ruth is going to do whatever she can to keep Catherine in her life, by her side, for fear of what’s really out there. But there are some things you can’t see. Some things that are deep inside someone, festering, unknown in those around them until it is too late. Who is the victim and who is the predator? A delightful, deceitful read that is sure to please new readers of Pekkanen and those who are already enthralled with her storytelling.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book is set for publication on July 31, 2023. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#netgalley #arc #sarahpekkanen #gonetonight #stmartinspress

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ruth is a single mother to Catherine. They have never had much money, and now Ruth is showing signs of early Alzheimer's at only 42 years old. Catherine had just graduated from a nursing program and is set to leave the nest but her mother's condition gives her pause and she starts to wonder if what she knows about her mother is accurate.

This was a very readable book. I read it in a day because I wanted to know what was happening and I felt engaged with the characters. I really liked this author's novels with Greer Hendricks and when I was offered this ARC by the publisher, I was happy to accept. This was a sold vacation read and I will look forward to this author's next solo offerings.

Solid 3 stars. The pacing in this wasn’t quite right for me. I was invested in both POVs and I liked the initial twist, but the pacing to the climax felt a bit dull and drawn out. The ending was a bit predictable as it was quite obviously teased throughout the book. Still, this had a more original story than many thrillers these days so I can’t complain.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I have read of Sarah Pekkanen which was not co-authored with Greer Hendricks. What can I say? Sarah is one of the most talented authors. Gone Tonight tells the cat and mouse story of mother and daughter Ruth and Catherine. Ruth will do everything to protect Catherine, even lying to her. Catherine has no reason to doubt her mother until things just start not adding up. As Catherine tries hard to learn more about her mother's past, her mother will do everything to keep her from finding out the truth. The book is written with each chapter alternating between Catherine's story and Ruth's story. Both characters were so likable. The stories take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. This is one book you do no want to miss. I just could not put it down, even when I wanted to. Thank you #netgalley, #smp and #sarapekkanen for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication.

I began this book with trepidation - I’m a huge Sarah Pekkanen fan but this book felt different in the first chapter? By a chapter 3 I was hooked and couldn’t put this book down! Pekkanen had me guessing up until the very last page! Nothing in this book is quite what it seems - taking a plot I was sure I knew in the first chapter and twisting and turning! Every character is an antagonist, a hero and a villain! Can’t wait to recommend this book to friends and really appreciate the advanced copy!!!

Wow! Awesome could not put down, full of twists and turns, suspense galore, great characters, amazing ending. Definitely ticked off all my boxes for a 5 star read!

Thank you to NetGalley & St Martins Press for an ARC copy of Gone Tonight in exchange for my honest review. Great book to cozy up to over the holidays! A tale of murder, secrets, and identity told from the alternating viewpoints of mother and daughter, with glimpses of the past sprinkled in throughout. Ruth and Catherine are on the run - unbeknownst to Catherine, the daughter, until she becomes suspicious of who her mother really is and what she is hiding later in life. There weren’t too many twists you couldn’t see coming or that were very shocking, but this book really had me hooked into wanting to see how the dots connected and how the mother/daughter duo came to be where they are and how they confronted everything when their past finally catches up to them.