4.0 out of 5 starsAn enjoyable book.
May 18, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition
I liked how the story was told from different points of view, though in the beginning, it was a bit of trouble keeping it straight. That was quickly resolved as I was engrossed in this story. I found the writing to be well done and the story very good. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

This book is incredibly hard to put down. Talk about a bingeable thriller! Every second I wasn't reading this book, I was thinking about it. It's told in alternating POV's and conversations between a therapist and patient. So juicy, you feel like you're behind the scenes so to speak. It will keep you guessing, which is the best kind of thriller! This book follows two sisters. One of them is always having trouble with men- trusting them, loving them, keeping them alive...ya know, the usual!

Page turner! It started off a little slow, but then I couldn’t put it down! I wanted to know why Laura did what she did that night. I was in for a whirlwind! A great read!

I enjoyed this one but for some reason was not entirely pulled in and a few things seemed a little far fetched. I still enjoyed it and appreciated the twists. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

💔Book Recommendation💔

The Night Before is a suspense novel about an Internet date that goes terribly wrong. Original and brilliant, timely and fast-paced. Fascinating look into lies, big and small, told on a first date.
I just loved it. Five🌟 .
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#bookrecommendations @wendywalkerauthor #thenightbefore #whatimreading #momswhoread #bookstagram

After escaping New York city to live with her sister, Rosie, Laura Lochner decides to take a stab at the online dating world. She has spent her entire life haunted by a tragedy that happened when she was younger and because of it, has never had the best luck when it comes to love.

Rosie, who lives in Connecticut with her husband and son, has always been looking out for her sister. When Laura doesn’t return from her first blind date with a man, she begins to worry. Not only is Rosie worried about what the man may have done to Laura, but what Laura may have done to him…

The Night Before kept me guessing until almost the very end with plenty of twists and turns along the way. I loved the back and forth between Laura while she was on her date and Rosie as she is looking for her sister, as well as some short flashbacks to when Laura was seeing a therapist. Laura is very unreliable and makes plenty of questionable decisions, while Rosie is the protective older sister that just wants the best for Laura. While unable to really connect with any of the characters, I enjoyed their dynamic and look forward to reading more from Walker!

This is the edge of your seat novel. I could not put it down. Following the story based on the history given is awesome. You can't imagine how the story ends.

I really loved this story.


**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review**

I enjoyed the mystery and characters in this book. It kept me interested until the end. I actually didn't guess the ending early on like in other books. I'd purchase more from this author.

THE NIGHT BEFORE will have you gasping at every twist and turn.

Laura Lochner, after a bad break up, has returned to her home town, which she ran away from 10 years ago after a tragic murder of her High School "boyfriend" where she was found standing over his body and holding a bat.

As a child, she always felt unloved by her father and overheard her mother tell a friend that <i>she had fists as hands</i> and <i>was hard to love</i>. After her father left the family for another woman, Laura became a very angry child. And as an adult, she tended to have poor choices in men, always trying to make them love her but then the relationship would end.

After returning to her home town, and living with her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, she tries her hand again at dating via an online site. Borrowing her sister's car to meet her date, she promises she will return it no later than early the next morning. However, she never returns.

Feeling that something is very wrong, her sister Rosie, husband Joe and another childhood friend Gabe, begin searching for her as the hours and days go by and still they can't find her. Secrets and betrayals come to light from so many years ago. With too many days that Laura has been missing, Rosie finally decides to contact the police, something she didn't want to do because of that tragic night as teenagers in the woods. But can they find her? Secrets and betrayals come to light from so many years ago.

This is the first book I read by this author but she is now on my "authors to read list".

The story will pull you in from the first page and won't let go until the end. I did have a suspicion, or at least a guess, as to who the murderer was, but then, I also kept going back and forth between the characters thinking that maybe they could also be the killer. However, I didn't even come close to the "why" until the explosive last chapters.

If you like psychological thrillers, then this book is for you! It will have you guessing until the last word. Highly recommend!

Posted to GoodReads 05/26/19: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2474317381
Will post to blog on 05/30/19: http://cmashlovestoread.com/?p=20544

THE NIGHT BEFORE is an addictive psychological suspense mystery novel by bestselling author Wendy Walker. Having loved her debut novel, ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN, a dark complex psychological thriller with high levels of suspense and tension and her second book, EMMA IN THE NIGHT, a disturbing and a twisted psychological thriller that is filled with dysfunctional and calculating characters, I was eager to read her next novel, THE NIGHT BEFORE. The reason her novels are so good is that not only does her stories grip you from beginning until end…they remain with you for days to come.

This compulsive novel follows two sisters that uncover long-buried secrets when an internet date spirals out of control.

Laura Lochner had bad luck with men. She just wanted them to love her…but something always went wrong. She always ends up choosing the wrong man. Laura left a great job because a man broke her heart. Devastated by the end of her last relationship, she fled her Wall Street job, as a research analyst in New York City to her sister’s home in the Connecticut suburb where they both grew up. Though still haunted by the tragedy that’s defined her entire life, Laura is determined to take one more chance on love with a man she’s met on an Internet dating site.

Rosie Ferro was Laura’s older sister and spent most of her life worrying and protecting her troubled sister. Now with Laura’s return home, with no explanation provided, has disrupted Rosie’s peaceful life with her husband and young son.

Rosie felt something was wrong, when Laura never returned home from her date the next morning. Where is she and why hasn’t she called? She’s not responding to calls or texts, and she’s left no information about the man she planned to meet.

Rosie begins a desperate search to find her sister, and was afraid Laura might have turned violent based on what happened eleven years ago.

The story is told from Laura and Rosie’s point of view, and takes place in the present but includes flashbacks from the past.

NOTHING WAS AS IT SEEMED!

The tension kept building with mind-blowing revelations! I couldn’t read this book fast enough…and am still thinking about it!

Don’t miss out on this amazing thriller. You have to read it to appreciate it. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author and St Martin’s Press via NetGalley for my digital copy.

I enjoyed how a few common thriller tropes were turned upside down and around by the ending, although getting there did sometimes feel a bit too similar to other recent thrillers featuring an unreliable narrator. I found myself tearing through Laura's chapters and slowing down during Rosie's but enjoyed how the two parts came together in the end.

3,5 Stars

„The Night Before“ is a twisted psychological thriller which keeps you guessing what is going on. It begins quite vague with Laura moving back to her hometown after a bad breakup. She is leaving her life in New York behind and moves in with her sister Rosie and her family. Rosie is married to their childhood friend Joe. Laura and Rosie had a difficult childhood with her father leaving her mother for another woman. Laura never felt loved from their father but knew that he loved Rosie. Laura was a feisty child, always fighting and getting into trouble. She also developed a tendency to choose the wrong men when she grew up. It seems that she chooses them to prove that she is not worth to be loved. After a few weeks living with Rosie she goes on a date with a man she met online. But she does not return after that evening.

The story is told alternating between Rosie on the day after the date and Laura on the evening of the date. We learn what happened while Laura was meeting her online-date. And we also see how Rosie desperately searching for her sister. Laura had problems with men all her adult life and we learn what happened in her past. But the author gives us a lot of red herrings and as the story unfolds there comes twist after twist. The story is not too fast paced and I never connected to the sisters. Rosie is ok but Laura is a demanding character. I did not see her adult personality match the child she is described as. But I did not see all those twist coming because I did not expect this book to be like this. The story grows more complex which every page. I found the chapters about Laura’s date night a bit over-extended and almost getting boring. So everything about Laura is a bit too much.

Altogether his book was an easy read and surprising at times. It is not mind-blowing and I am not overexcited about it but I enjoyed it.

"The Night Before" by Wendy Walker

My first time reading that author.

I liked that book a lot. It was really interesting and different than my recent reads.
It was a little slow at first but quickly got more interesting .
At times a little confusing but not boring, a really good thriller.

ARC received through NetGalley.

This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

3 stars

I have read All is not Forgotten and Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker and loved them both, so I was very excited to get The Night Before. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t do it for in quite the same way. Maybe because I had a hard time caring about Laura and Rosie; I am just not sure.

For me, this book took off a little slow and in the first 20% or so, I was definitely waffling on a DNF. However, I decided to finish it and I am glad I did. Even though I didn’t feel as connected to the characters, the book did start to pick up the pace and I found myself wanting to know what happened the night before. While some of the reveals were a little far-fetched, I definitely did NOT have them all figured out.

Based on all of the other reviews out there, I would encourage you to give this one a shot. This one didn’t rank too high on my list, but there are plenty of other readers out there who were wowed by this one.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book via NetGalley

What a fun thriller. I really enjoyed her novel before this one and this novel did not disappoint. The ending is bit predictable but if you like a good fast summer read, this is definitely it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

The was very intrigued by the synopsis of two sisters, one goes missing and the other searches for her but thinks her sister could be a murderer so she doesn't know what she might find.

However, I was just left exhausted by the end of it. The writing style became very confusing. Is this all the same time line or a different one? Who is narrating it now? Why do I care about this?

I enjoyed the first Thord of the book and wish it was written in a different way.

With the many thriller that are on the market I would recommend passing over thing one unless you are like me and read every thriller out there.

Give me an unreliable narrator, a disappearance, and a story told in two separate timelines, and I'm hooked! I've long been a fan of Wendy Walker and was very excited to receive her newest psychological thriller, The Night Before, to read and review. Walker does an excellent job of pacing the story and dropping little bits of information throughout.

The story begins with mysterious Laura, who is ready to reclaim her life and go on a date with a stranger she meets on a dating website. The next morning, she doesn't return home to her sister's house, and the mystery begins. Many turns lead to a final twist, which is shocking, yet somehow feels like the right ending.

Laura Lochner is trying to work things out. After a bad breakup in New York City, she has quit her job and moved back to the small town where she grew up. Now she’s working at home, where she is living in her sister Rosie’s attic. She didn’t want to move back home , because of what happened when she was in high school. But she didn’t have anywhere else to go. 

Her first internet date is with a man named Jonathan. After several conversations, they agree to meet in person at a local bar. Laura borrows her sister’s minivan, knowing that Rosie needs her van back first thing in the morning. Rosie also gives Laura a dress to wear, some nice shoes, and red lipstick along with lots of advice about how to be a relatively normal woman on a first date. 

Laura’s always had issues getting along with others. She is strong and independent, angry and headstrong, meeting the world with fists instead of open arms. But she’s trying to be different now, to be open, to be unbroken. And Rosie is hoping for the best for her sister.  

But then Laura doesn’t come home. 

Rosie recruits her husband Joe and their tech savvy friend Gabe to help her look for her sister. But is it too late? It’s always possible that someone you meet on the internet is going to be dangerous, but Rosie knows that Laura can be dangerous too. In high school, she was found standing over her boyfriend’s body with a baseball bat. She had no memory of hitting him, but he was dead and there was no one else around. What exactly happened that night? And is it possible that history has repeated itself on a bad internet date?

Wendy Walker’s latest is a smart thriller about the bad choices we can make in relationships and what causes those choices. With jumps in time and different narrators, Walker expertly tells the story of a damaged woman and all the things that happened along the way to cause the damage. The Night Before is a powerhouse of a story with strong characters and lots of places to get lost in the mystery before you can find your way home. Another solid hit from the author of Emma in the Night.

Galleys were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

When it all came together at the end, it was interesting, but the beginning did not really hold my interest. The differing POVs were confusing and (unlike other books) there didn't really seem to be a good reason to separate the POVs. Thank you Netgalley for the copy of the book though!

This was the first Wendy Walker book I've read and I'm very pleased with the experience. I thought the book was clever and engaging. It was suspenseful and full of red herrings that succeeded in diverting my suspicions, while still adding value to the overall story. A shocking twist and an unexpected reveal were the icing on the cake for this one! I can't wait to read more from this author!