Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I loved the creativeness and twists within this piece; I continued to listen, even when I was sure I knew where the plot was heading. I would happily read another text from Sarah Pekkanen.

Ruth and her daughter, Catherine, only have eachother. It has been that way for as long as Catherine can remember. Now, she’s getting ready to move away and her mother starts exhibiting signs of dimentia. Catherine knows very little about her mother’s life and is beginning to become suspicious that things may not be as they seem.

This book is told from 2 points of view. I listen to the audiobook, and I thought it would have usually benefited from having to narrators. I love Kate Mara, but a different voice when switching POV would have been a huge improvement.

This book was sort of slow for me for the first 3/4 of the book.. The end did become a little more fast paced.

I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it. It is only been a week since I listen to the audio, and I had to go back and listen to the ending to remember what happened. I want something that sticks with me and doesn’t take work to recall.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was entertaining, but didn’t leave me wanting more.

Thank you to netgalley and Macmillan audio for the audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows a protective mother and a suspicious daughter as they’re finally forced to deal with the the mother’s mysterious past. The premise was interesting and the tension was there, but this was a tough read for me. I’m not sure if it was the narrative or narration or a combination of the two, but I had a lot of trouble connecting with the characters, and I think the resolution could’ve used a stronger punch. I usually love thrillers, so I’m surprised, but I guess this one really just wasn’t for me.

This was pretty good. I thought the plot was a bit slow and there weren't as many components as I wish there were. I did see the twist coming at the end, but I really enjoy Sarah Pekkanen's writing and storytelling style, and will therefore will gladly read anything she publishes. I loved The Wife Between Us that she wrote with Greer Hendricks. It's probably getting both authors an A on anything they write.

Katherine knows nothing about her mother or her mother's past or even her father, and the author slowly reveals the sordid past and why her mother, Ruth decided to change her identity and keep even her very existence a secret from the world.

Thank you so much to #Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy for an honest review.

It’s been a few months since I’ve read a psychological thriller and I can’t think of a better one to have come back to the genre. With quiet twists and extraordinarily flawed yet lovable characters, I was hooked.

Though Catherine has always had a good relationship with her mother Ruth, she’s ready to leave home and begin a life and career of her own. Her plans change when her mother receives an Alzheimer’s diagnosis from her doctor. Not willing to waste a minute of the time left with Ruth, she cancels her moving plans.

Ruth begins to write down her life story for her daughter… but not for the reasons one might expect at such a time. She’s worked the entirety of Catherine’s life to keep her past buried. Not only her past but also the secrets Catherine unknowingly carries. It isn’t long before Catherine begins to pick up on the fact something deeper is amiss. How well does she really know her mother?

While the book keeps a slower pace than usually found in these kinds of thrillers, there is a constant string of events weaved in and out. Through Ruth, we get glimpses of her past. Through Catherine, we hear recollections of her mother and the conflict the plot brings into their relationship. I found Catherine’s character the most fascinating element of the book. Some might disagree with me, but I also found Ruth’s love for her child admirable under the circumstances. I feel she did the best she could with what she had.

I listened to the audiobook version. Kate Mara did a fantastic job narrating. Sometimes I don’t love listening to thrillers because the narrator will be too dramatic. There was the perfect amount of emotion and urgency conveyed without becoming theatrical. That said, the story would have benefited from two narrators so each character had their own voice. Nevertheless, the reading experience was not hindered because of the single narrator.

Gone Tonight is easily the best thriller I’ve read this year. I can’t wait to read Sarah Pekkanen’s other books.

A huge thanks to Macmillan Audio for inviting me to listen to an audio ARC of this book through NetGalley! I am looking forward to purchasing a hard copy for myself.

How well do we know the people we love the most? You would really know the mother who raised you all by herself, right? Catherine Sterling is sure she knows her mother, Ruth Sterling. It has always been just the two of them. Through numerous moves, Catherine always had her mother to count on. When Ruth suddenly starts forgetting things and losing items, Catherine becomes worried. Catherine has just finished nursing school and is about to head out into the world on her own. But can she leave her mother if her health is failing? In an attempt to help her mother, Catherine begins to look into her past.
Ruth has always been very tight-lipped about her younger years. Could her past have answers to help her now? As Catherine digs into Ruth's past, she uncovers more than she gambled for.......
This book will grab you from the start. Sarah Pekkanen does a great job weaving a story told by the point of view of both mother and daughter. The narrator was enjoyable to listen to while you work through this book. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

Sarah & Greer dually written books have always been a favorite of mine. The psychological suspense has always been fantastic, and this book did not disappoint at all. This slow burn, 3 act book shows just how far a mother will go to protect her child. The mystery reveal was phenomenal and I was so enthralled in Ruth's story. I loved this book so much and am so thankful for the opportunity to read this early!

This is a story of a mother, Ruth and her daughter Catherine. They are incredibly close and have had a tough time over the years. Catherine has finally finished nursing school and is headed to start a life on her own in a new city. Ruth experiences some health issues and Catherine begins to see her mother in a different light. Both find themselves deceiving each other as Ruth tries to keep her daughter safe and Catherine tries to discover the truth about her mothers past.

This was an intriguing story. A great pace and unraveling of secrets kept me engaged. I enjoyed it but the end didn't sit right with me. I cant really say why as it would be a major spoiler. I received the audiobook and was excited to see it was narrated by Kate Mara. She was great but I feel that the story would really have benefitted with a different narrator or change of voice. The POVs changed almost every chapter between mother and daughter. Both were narrated the exact same way, with same tone of voice.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a great read! It had me hooked and I flew through this audiobook. I loved to hear about each point of view with the mom and daughter, such likeable characters. It actually wasn’t too much thriller and mystery so I am surprised at how much I liked it. It was a fun read and I loved hearing the daughters pov while you already knew things about the moms. Would love to explore more from
this author!

Ruth and Catherine Sterling are the perfect mother-daughter duo…Or so they thought. At first glance, Ruth Sterling appears as any hard-working, quiet woman, and a loving mother. She lives for her daughter and would do anything for her. Quite literally. When Ruth begins to show signs of early onset Alzheimer’s Catherine is devastated. She puts her plans to move across states for a new and exciting job opportunity on hold to help Ruth and get her the care she needs. Her mother is her first preference. That is until their carefully constructed world comes crashing down as anomalies and inconsistencies begin to show up in the stories Ruth had been telling Catherine about her past. As Catherine starts to pick up on the inconsistencies and dig deeper, Ruth panics and tries to hold on to her daughter tighter than ever, setting a game of deception between the mother and daughter in motion.

One of the best things about this fast paced psychological thriller is that it is told from both Ruth and Catherine’s POV alternately. While most of the story is in the present, the Sara Pekkanen has cleverly sprinkled the past into the chapters. As we read on between the mother and daughter’s POV, we learn more and more about Ruth and Catherine and what led Ruth on this obsessive journey with her daughter.

In this journey, we also learn to what extent Ruth will go to protect and keep her daughter! The question that lingers long after we read the book … Was her path justified?

I was hooked from chapter one and couldn’t wait to find out Ruth and Catherine’s journey. Gone Tonight is a gripping, suspenseful read that kept me read well into the night!

Sara Pekkanen wrote a captivating, masterful thriller with this book! This book has earned a place amongst my top favorite Thriller books for this year.

Thank you to Netgalley for sharing the audiobook version of this book with me. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this one. I guess it falls into the category of thriller, but it wasn't too scary and no twists and turns, which I liked! I don't like when thrillers are so over the top with reveals and twists. This was a really interesting story and the way the details unfolded kept me interested. The ending was sort of a letdown, I'm not sure what o expected but it fell a little flat. Overall I really liked the book. The audiobook read by Kate Mara was done really well!
Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced copy of the book.

This book was a slow burn but then we slowly peel back history to find what it is Ruth has been hiding all these years. We alternate back and forth between Ruth and her daughter Catherine and there are times I think both of them are unreliable narrators.

This is hard one to review because I don’t want to give anything away and she does a great job at weaving the truth and the red herrings together that I don’t want to accidently say the wrong thing!

Narration by Kate Mara was very well done she made the two women voices just enough of a difference where you knew whose story we were hearing.

This author always does a great job at suspense and this is no exception.

3 ½ Stars

I received this audiobook from the publisher Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

This was a good book. I thought I knew what the book was about pretty quickly but that issue was made clear early in the story. It was then that the book went in an interesting direction. Little rabbit trails in the story kept me engaged. I really liked the narrator.

Thank you to the author Sarah Pekkanen, publishers Macmillan Audio, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of GONE TONIGHT. The narrator, Kate Mara gives an excellent reading for this book; it might actually be my favorite performance from her ever.

This is one of those books that had me making wild guesses the whole way through, and I was always wrong, and always wildly entertained! Red herrings galore, and twists and turns, which were entirely appropriate, given how far this story travels both in time and along the different character arcs. I was just astounded as I watched Pekkanen peel back the layers, a petal at a time, and I'm thinking the whole time she's taking me into the eye of a peony, but...it was something else altogether, not even a flower at all. More like a hurricane, all frilly and purple at the edges where she'd torn away to reveal the fury of her fiction.

"My headlights shone on a black corvette tucked in the furthest corner of the lot. James was leaning against the rear bumper. He looked so good in his jeans and white t-shirt...The sight of him washed away the ugliness of the previous hour. I parked and walked toward him. I was a mess. I hadn't even brushed my hair....But James was smiling by the time I reached him....He...rubbed his thumb against my cheekbone. There was a dot of blood on my face, he said. It wasn't mine. It was [my little brother's.]...I told him everything. Before I was even halfway through, he reached out and put his arms around me; it was the opposite of how my father restrained me,...he drew me to him tenderly. It wasn't exactly how I planned to start our first date...." chapter 12

So much happens in this story. I enjoyed the plot because it kept making me drop my jaw into my lap. But also, because so much happens in this story, I think sometimes I had to be more willling to suspend my disbelief than I normally would. A few rabbits out of hats in this plot. But The author does take the time and effort to go back and stitch up every end she unravels, for those readers who love a very thorough denouement.

I have a quibble with the major theme this book builds upon for its story logic, which is the idea that behavior can be congenital or hereditary.

"Catherine has James's eyes. They're midway between round and oval. They're the shade of a favorite old pair of jeans. They radiate gentleness and calm, but I have never once kidded myself that they reveal every facet of her soul. There's this thing Catherine does when she's sleepy. She rubs her feet together, like they're giving each other a little massage. They move slower and slower as her eyelids droop, then they stop right as she drops off. James use to do the exact same thing. The first time I noticed it in Catherine, she must have been two or three..." chapter 8

This scene conflates a hereditary trait like eye shape or color with a learned behavior like feet rubbing, pure and simple. This is a stigma that harms mentally ill and other disabled popuilations, so it's not my favorite. Honestly, this book could have been written almost identically without that trope in place. If you read this book, I'd love to hear what you think about it!

GONE TONIGHT is an intelligent, twisty slow burn that pays off multiple times throughout the narrative. Can't wait for more from Pekkanen!

Rating: ⚾️⚾️⚾️.5 / 5 baseball bats
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 27 2023
Format: Audiobook, NetGalley, narrator: Kate Mara
Read this book if you like:
👤 Psych thrillers
👮🏾‍♂️ Crime thrillers
🔥 Slow burn
🔪 Serial killer stories

This book follows a mother and daughter relationship and their devious dance against each other.

Both daughter and mother are hiding secrets from one another and as the story unfolds both of them are thrown into a messy situation that helps both uncover their secrets.

Trigger warning:
Sexual assault

It was sad at times but it was necessary for the plot to move along.

Audiobook thoughts:

Loved the narrator so much!

When it comes to audiobooks it's important to find narrators that can inbody the characters and bring them to life.

I enjoyed this audiobook experience so much thank you!

Would I recommend? Yes, absolutely!

I've read all of Sarah Pekkanen's books and this is definitely one of my favorites! The twists were unique and I was on edge several times. The story resonated with me especially because I work at a nursing home and see what was being described. I think this will be a fan favorite!

Great story and twists along the way. The two perspectives keep it interesting and you get a birds eye view of all the lives this has affected. Are they victims of choice or chance?

The narration was excellent. My only suggestion would be two
narrators, to help bring each character to life.

I guess this is a page turner as I started it yesterday and found it very hard to put down. The chapters alternate for the most part from Ruth, mom, to daughter, Catherine. Ruth is a single mom who works hard and loves and supports her daughter, who also works hard, graduated college and is a nurse in an assisted living facility. As the story moves forward, things in her mother's life just aren't adding up for Catherine and she wants to know why. As the back story of Ruth's childhood emerges, I couldn't help but emphasize with Ruth and hope for the best but prepare for the worst. This is my first book by Sarah Pekkanen and definitely not my last. This suspense/thriller was very well narrated as well.

Friends, may I present to you my latest 5 star read! I was totally hooked in this slow-unravelling thriller and the dual narration was on pointe! (Bravo Kate Mara!)
 
Ruth will do anything to protect her daughter, Catherine, from her past. Anything. Her daughter can NOT know the biggest danger and threat that may be coming for her at any moment. Catherine is slowing figuring out things may not be quite as they seem as she also grapples with her mom’s early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As a nurse in a home for Dementia and Alzheimer’s, she knows all the signs, but facts aren’t exactly lining up.
 
As Ruth continues down the path of living in fear for, and protecting Catherine from a huge past mistake, Catherine creates her own path separate from her mom’s knowledge as she digs deeper to uncover the truth.
 
I couldn’t not stop listening to this story and devoured every detail. The details, btw, made me feel as though I was in the story with the characters…the empty roads looking over my shoulder and dark bedrooms alone with my thoughts as I map out the best possible way to get out of the situation I’m in…I was both Ruth and Catherine and ‘just one more chapter’ led to may late nights for me.
 
Sarah is definitely becoming one of my fav mystery/thriller authors.
 
Gone Tonight will be published on August 1, 2023
 
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of this amazing thriller!

I have read all of Sarah Pekkanen's books and have loved them, so very excited and thankful for NetGalley, MacMillian Audio and St. Martin's Press sending me this Audiobook Listening Copy! I enjoyed it enough to finish it in one day! I actually replayed chapters 1-4 4x because I was driving through Nashville and lost track of listening...LOL This is my third book of hovering mothers this week. GEEZ!!!

Ruth thinks her daughter Catherine is the perfect child. She never dreamed of her finishing college as a nurse and moving away from her. 24 year old Catherine sees through her mom's antics and investigates her past. After she discovers several relationships have been punctured by her mom and the secrets her mom is hiding, she becomes afraid of her. The beginning of the book is all about the timing of her escape and how she will do it.
Catherine is working at a memory wing for dementia patients when Ruth decides to fake Alzheimer's so she won't leave. There are so many flaws with these two and some very irrational decisions that you may have a hard time staying with it, but when Ruth's past resurfaces and the crime she committed comes to light...It will pick up!!!!

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