4.5 stars for Christina McDonald's The Night Olivia Feel. This novel is a have your tissues handy, gut-wrenching story with a relatable storyline and characters. Single mom Abi receives a call that no parent ever wants to receive there's been an accident and her 17-year-old daughter Olivia has been involved. A huge thank you to Netgalley and Ms. McDonald for the opportunity to have an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you liked Reconstructing Amelia, you will like this one! This book got me out of my book slump, yay!
It’s about a single mom with a past she wanted to keep in the past, and her teenage daughter who kept digging to uncover the truth. Sometimes things are better kept in the past, and her daughter learns that lesson. The mystery of the story was who then killed her (the pregnant teenage daughter). It was fairly predictable, but still a good read.

Did she fall or was she pushed? The police believe she fell, but Abi, Olivia's mother, is convinced there's more to it than that. Told in alternating voices of Abi and the unfortunate Olivia, the author leads us back and forth between the present and the events leading up to the night that Olivia's life changed dramatically.

The novel was suspenseful, and had a strong storyline for a first novel. I guessed the ending, but it was truly only a guess, as the author threw in enough teasers that I did consistently wonder if my intuition was right. Was it the boyfriend or the other boyfriend? The mysterious political figure, or the best friend? Or the surprise look-alike that Olivia meets? And really, where did Anthony come from? So many choices of potential baddies! And was she even really pushed at all?

So...a decent storyline and suspense, but how about overall thoughts? The book was adequate, but not great. The excessive use of painfully awkward similes and metaphors was a turn-off. It was if the author was constantly reaching for descriptive phrases to paint a picture for the reader. I'm all about good, strong metaphors and personification. In this case, some of the descriptions were spot on, and at other times they were cringe-worthy. Sometimes less is more. A lot less would have been much more, in this case. However, this is a debut novel, so I don't want to judge harshly. I enjoyed the story well enough and even though it wasn't perfectly written, it kept me interested. I would read the next thing the author writes, if only to see if she tones down the descriptive phrases. She already has a handle on the basics of good story-telling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 3 stars.

This was a quick read that I basically read in one setting, and it was excellent. Abi gets a phone call in the night, that frankly no parent ever wants to get - something has happened to her only daughter Olivia and she must come to the hospital immediately. When she gets there, she learns that Olivia has fallen off a bridge in a horrific accident, and not only is she brain dead, she is pregnant. Olivia must be kept alive until the baby is born, but there is no hope that she will ever wake again. Could you imagine? I could not. So, we know that this is not the end of the story, or we would have no book. Abi notices a few things that are suspicious, and immediately determines this was not an accident, and sets out to find the real story of what happened that night. Problem is, she seems to be the only one who believes there is more to the story, making this difficult and frustrating. Many secrets from Abi's past are uncovered, some that even she was unaware of...

I LOVED this book, and it kept me guessing until the end. It was very well done, and I liked that the reader was kept in the dark for a while, so that we were learning things as Abi was in some regards. I came to love this family, despite their flaws, and was hoping for a miracle at the end. I was tearing up at the end, which is pretty rare for a thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an electronic ARC of this book to review. All opinions above are my own. Pub date is 2/5/2019. I highly recommend this one!!

Abi's daughter, Olivia, has had a tragic accident and because of the damage to her brain she can't be saved. A surprise to Abi, Olivia is pregnant. The doctors plan to keep Olivia on life support in hopes that they can save the baby. Abi is desperate to find out what really happened to her daughter and prove it wasn't an accident. The book alternates between Abi's search for answers and Olivia's past before the accident. This book explores a mother's grief, but also shows the angst and confusion of being a teenager. Olivia's mystery will draw readers in and keep them guessing as new lies and secrets are revealed.

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald is a mystery and family drama revolving around a pregnant teenager, Olivia, who fell from a bridge in Washington State. The book is presented with two points of view: Abi’s perspective after her daughter’s fall from the bridge, and Olivia’s perspective, prior to her fall. The two perspectives intersect at the end, revealing what exactly happened to Olivia.

When Abi Knight receives the news in the middle of the night that her daughter, Olivia, had fallen from a bridge, she immediately knew that this was no accident. And when she hears that her daughter is also pregnant, she is astonished. Abi is a loving, yet somewhat overwhelming mother. She constantly worries about her daughter and requests phone calls from her every few hours just to make sure she’s safe. She always thought her daughter made good choices: she didn’t sneak out and drink, she didn’t party or stay out past her curfew.

As Olivia is brain dead and on life support to be able to proceed with the pregnancy, her emotional and determined mother fights to find out what happened the night of her daughter’s fall. With past colliding with present, family secrets unintentionally coming to light, and the deep, unconditional love of a mother, The Night Olivia Fell is a story that is sure to unveil not only a mother’s worst nightmare, but also the hope of new life and the power of love.

I was greatly moved by this story and really appreciated McDonald’s heartbreaking descriptions of motherhood. Though I am not a mother, I felt a connection from Olivia’s perspective and was incredibly touched by Abi’s dedication to her daughter.

The wide variety of characters in The Night Olivia Fell were all complex and detailed. There were so many moments when I thought I had the mystery figured it out, only to be turned around again. McDonald did very well with creating just enough details to leave me uncertain of what happened to Olivia the night she fell, and who was involved.

I would say that the ending had so much emotion built in that it outweighed the rest of the book and I think having pieces of that emotion towards the beginning when Abi first finds out about Olivia’s accident would have been beneficial. However, this opinion does not at all affect how I felt about the story overall.

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald is set to publish on February 5, 2019 — thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

My review is also published on my blog: https://carolynehommes.com/blog/the-night-olivia-fell-book-review

This is a beautifully written murder mystery that will tug at the heart of every mother. From the dreaded phone call, to the shocking pregnancy, to the many questions, to the surprising ending it’s a book that cannot be put down. It’s everything I love about a mystery!

I just finished reading this book and WOW was I impressed! I hope this author writes another book soon - I’ll be first in line! The story engrossed me from the beginning and I couldn’t wait to see what happened. I was kept guessing as to who could have hurt Olivia and didn’t guess until it was revealed! I definitely recommend this book - if you like suspense you won’t be disappointed!

The Night Olivia Fell is about a mother’s search for the truth after her daughter Olivia falls from a bridge and suffers terminal brain damage. Chapters alternate between mom’s point of view after the incident and Olivia’s point of view in the months leading up to it. This is a story about the secrets one keeps structured around a domestic thriller/mystery.

The story started out strong and even caught me with a few little twists up front. Unfortunately, the book stalled out for me in the middle and I found the action dragged out and quite predictable. I also didn’t expect such a YA-feeling writing style to come through in Olivia’s chapters.

To end on a positive note, this is a quick read and many folks from my book club have enjoyed it greatly. I’m sure diehard fans of the genre will enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Night Olivia Fell was provided to me as a digital advance reader copy by Gallery Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Expected publication date is February 5, 2019.

Abi is awakened in the middle of the night by a call from the police. Her teenage daughter Olivia was discovered on the riverbank, assumed to have fallen from the bridge above, and is currently in the hospital with no brain activity and a baby on the way. Abi immediately demands answers to how her daughter died, and slowly her own past is woven into what happened to her daughter, showing how our choices can catch up to us and bring consequences long after they are made.

They reveal pretty early on that Olivia encounters another girl that looks just like her while on a campus tour, and so we understand that her dad might not really be dead like her mom has always told her. When Abi doesn’t give her the honest answers she asks for, Olivia goes off on her own to try to get answers. This search sets off a series of events which we see in pieces that lead us to the answer to how she came to both become pregnant and fall off a bridge.

I enjoyed this book but it didn’t move me like I expected it to. Everything I expected to happen, happened. Even the little bit of suspense in the whodunnit gave off enough misdirection vibes that even the most casual reader would realize that it was a false trail. It ended like I expected it to and now we’re here.

I have to admit that when I started, and the doctor told Abi that he couldn’t take Olivia off life support because in Washington state it’s illegal to take a woman off life support without attempting to bring the baby to term, I thought this was going to be a legal-type book. I thought Abi might attempt to figure out what happened to Olivia while fighting a legal battle about how women aren’t just incubators. There was a point to be made, even if subtly, that was never even addressed. The doctors help Olivia’s body fight off infection after infection to keep her working just long enough to get the baby out alive, and every time the story took me to the hospital I felt myself get a little angry. Like it wasn’t bad enough that she was basically murdered, she couldn’t have just been released into oblivion in peace without being forced to be on life support while being life support. I was just so tired and angry for her.

This one is a book that you could read, but if you didn’t read it you wouldn’t have missed anything. Don’t rush to it, but if it crosses your path give it a chance.

This novel was so tremendous! I loved every page of it. Christina McDonald brought Olivia Knight, a 17-year old girl, to life. She had the whole world ahead of her. She was full of vitality and joy. She enjoyed her friends, her mom and aunt, her classes, her hobbies. She was bright with promise. Until the day she fell over a bridge barrier and into the Sound. The novel begins with Olivia kept alive by machines, as she must have hit her head before or after her fall, rendering her brain dead. She’s being kept alive until doctors can deliver her baby. The police called Olivia’s fall an accident and no investigation is done. Olivia’s mother Abi Knight feels it may not have been an accident, and pursues her own investigation with the help of Anthony Bryant, a victim advocate with the Seattle Police Dept. Abi is looking for the truth——the who, when & how Olivia came to be in that hospital bed, brain dead, her body kept alive mechanically. This is the heart of the nove. The main characters await the baby’s birth which also the day of Olivia’s death.
The narrator relates Olivia’s story to the reader by re-creating scenes in her life in a colorful & lively manner, as if the reader was coming along on Olivia’s adventures.
Ms. McDonald has a marvelous writing style. The reader is brought into Abi’s present & past, and she/he comes to understand why Abi is the shy & diffident woman we meet.
There are also a few sub-plots running through the novel that keep it interesting and complex.
For those readers who enjoy a little mystery in their novel; for lovers of women’s fiction and suspense, I recommend this awesome novel!
Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

The Night Olivia fell is an emotional domestic mystery. I appreciated the duel perspectives. Hearing from both the mother and the daughter gave insight into the motivations for their actions as well as made me care more about their relationship. The mother's is in present time, and the daughter's is in the past, leading up to the fall. I enjoyed the ride and stayed up late reading the end. I cried, and that's always impressive to me- even if I am an easy crier.

I was SO excited to read The Night Olivia Fell, and it did not disappoint! I really love books that alternate between characters/perspectives, and in this case it presented the complexities of a mother/daughter relationship and the secrets and challenges that come with it. This one kept me completely engaged and entertained throughout, and while the ending wasn't a huge shocker (although I wouldn't necessarily describe it as predictable), it was still a very enjoyable read!

Abi receives a call late one night that her daughter, Olivia, has been in an accident. Not only is she brain dead, but to Abi's surprise, Olivia is pregnant as well. Abi is determined to find out what really happened to her daughter, which means also having to confront some of her own secrets she's been harboring.

Comes out next Tuesday, 2/5 so be sure to check it out!!

Thanks to Gallery Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, okay, this is more like it. Phew. I swear to god, it's like 1 out of every 10 thrillers is a good one, and I have to slog through a lot of bullshit before I get joy. Almost makes it not worth it, until I get something like this.

This started out incredibly similar to another "thriller" I just finished reading, and I was so irritated by that one I almost quit. So, when it comes to this genre, this is a situation of pick This, not That.

Abi is a single mother to her 17-year old daughter Olivia. They are extremely close, and Abi is suuuuuuuuper helicopterish. There are strict rules and strict expectations, but their relationship really is a great one, despite Olivia's newfound pulling back.

Then Abi is woken up bright and early one morning to be told her daughter has had an accident. And she's now brain dead. Sorry about that, but by the way, she's going to have to live for a few more months because fetus.

Fetus, you say? What fetus?

I can't even get into the idea that this poor girl had to be kept alive in a vegetative state to keep the fetus alive, racking up medical bills her mother couldn't afford anyway, but WHATEVER, NOT THE TIME.

Abi sets off a mad dash to find out what the hell happened to her daughter that night. There are bruises on her wrists, suspicious circumstances, and a police force that says, "Enh, it was probably an accident, next."

Abi makes some monumentally dumb decisions. In the flashbacks told from Olivia's perspective, Olivia makes some monumentally dumb decisions. And the red herrings are a bit glaring at times. But this is a good, solid story about the secrets children hide from their parents, and vice versa, and a mother's need for justice for their child.

Solid work. Almost makes me not give up hope on the Thriller genre as a whole.

I first decided to read this book because I happened to see someone who was reading this and I discovered it here on NetGalley so I instantly became interested just from the description of the book. This is a story of a high school girl named Olivia who was just trying to figure out her true life and self with complications as they came along the way. This story jumps back and forth and told from the past of Olivia's life before her fall and the present of Abi, which is Olivia's mom, her life and what she was doing presently in the story. I was quickly drawn to this story because the first several chapters hooked me in with starting the story off with much action and from there I just kept getting hooked and wanted to read more to find out what was gonna happen next. I definitely did not think this was predictable at all for the most part because the many different suspects throughout this story. it just made me think with different pieces of evidence one person might've done it and than someone else would pop in my head until the person who actually did it came forward in which I did not see coming at all. I give this story a 4 star simply because this was a very nice ending overall to the story, but not the ending I would like to have. It definitely made me the slightest disappointed. No spoilers intended just thought this was a very good story overall and this book gave me so many emotions I didn't want the story to end!

*slight spoilers*

Not going to lie the first few chapters of the book sucked me in! As I kept reading the plot started to become predictable. Olivia wasn’t the quiet good girl everyone knew. Abi was also hiding secrets of her own. At times it felt like I was reading a “Lifetime” movie.

For example: Poor girl has a secret affair with the towns prominent son, gets pregnant and is paid to “take care of it” but keeps the baby in secret. I don’t understand why Abi stayed in the same town of the baby’s father. Did she not think Olivia wouldn’t put two and two together one day?? *sighs*

The final showdown at the end left me dissatisfied to say the least. The whole reasoning had my eyes rolling. Overall it wasn’t a bad read and the story did hold my attention. It just didn’t work out in my favor.

I read this book The Night Olivia Fell, fairly quickly. The story and development of the characters was very good. I also enjoyed that the story changed up between 2 main Characters, Olivia and her Mom Abi. I was kept guessing until almost the end, as to who helped Olivia fall. Having just lost someone in my family, I kept hoping for a miracle. Enjoyed this book,easy to follow.

Thank you to NetGallery, the publisher and author, Christina McDonald, for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book. I looked forward to reading.more books from this author. The following is my true and honest review of “The Night Olivia Fell.”
LOVED this book! Once I started reading it, I didn’t want to stop. I couldn’t put it down and thought about it when I wasn’t reading it.
This book is about how far a mother will go to find out the truth about her daughters death. I found this story to be heart wrenching, emotional, believable,....the author does an excellent job of pulling you into the characters emotions.
I can only say good things about this book. If you like books about family relationships, this book is for you. Throw in some suspense/mystery? Just a perfect read!
Highly recommend.

Thank you SO much for this ARC!

This book was fabulous. Wonderfully written (told through both mother and daughter) with an appropriately paced plot and fully developed characters.

The ending made me very emotional, beautifully explained, very believable and heartfelt.

Thank you Net Galley for an early copy for an honest review. The book is available Feb, 5 2019.
A mother will do everything to get the answers to what happen to her daughter. The mother daughter relationship is very believable . McDonald did a great job, hope to hear more from her.