Lots of twists and turns. Overall, a decent psychological thriller. I didn't see the ending coming. Just not that memorable.

I didn't put this book down once I started reading the first page. There are so many layers, knots to unravel, and pieces to put together. This is a mystery lovers dream come true. The reader gets both points of view and each gives clues and find out information that the other doesn't know. Intriguing, suspenseful, nail-biting and will be on my recommend to everyone list.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Wendy Walker for the opportunity to read and review her latest thriller - 5 stars! I literally put off everything I should have been doing today and read this book!

Laura is staying with her sister, Rosie, and her husband, Joe, in Connecticut after a bad breakup that made her leave her job and take refuge with Rosie. With veiled references to a situation that happened when the sisters were teenagers, Laura has lots of emotional baggage when it comes to men. So when she meets a guy on line, leaves for a date with him and then doesn't return home, Rosie is frantic.

The less said the better about this book before you read it - and you need to read it! Told from Laura and Rosie's viewpoints, it was so helpful to have each chapter labeled with the name and date to keep things straight. Highly recommended for a thrill ride of a story!

This is my 3rd Wendy Walker novel and I believe that her writing just keeps getting better. This is a solid thriller that consumed me. The deeper I got into the book, the more I felt the intrigue and needed to restrain myself from reading the ending. There were twists galore.

A well-organized style of writing with engaging characters. Laura was my favorite. She had a fascinating combination of human traits - compulsive, mindful, instinctive, uniquely interactive. Was Laura mentally unbalanced? I couldn’t decide. Her maneuvers kept me off course. When the big reveal is finally introduced, it completely satisfied. A dark page-turner that could become a great movie.


*will post in online venues upon publication.

This book takes you on a wild ride and will keep you gripped right until the end. It's been a while since I've read a thriller and been genuinely shocked or where I haven't predicted the ending halfway through. So The Night Before was a welcome surprise.

The story is told through the perspective of Laura and her sister, Rosie. In Lauras sections we follow her on her date with the seemingly perfect guy she has met online. From the moment they meet and the strange and disturbing night which follows. In Rosies we see her realise her sister is missing and then kick into gear and desperately try and track her down. All the while helped by her husband and childhood sweetheart Joe and their best friend Gabe. I really enjoyed these dual perspectives in this novel and it worked really well to further the tension and suspense.

I found it interesting that the whole time we are forced to question whether Laura is in genuine danger or whether her date is the one who should be concerned. It all comes back to a traumatic event in Lauras past, when she was a teen, a violent incident involving an ex boyfriend which placed her under suspicion. Interspersed throughout are sessions between Laura and her therapist where they discuss her trauma which also helps paint a picture of Lauras state of mind. Although Laura was cleared of suspicion, Laura and her loved ones are still unsure of what really happened that night in the woods...

I really liked the use of flashbacks and the exploration of the characters pasts. Walker really skilfully weaves together the friendship group here; Laura, Rosie, Joe and Gabe, and it was quite sweet reading about them growing up together and staying close well into adulthood. Because of this being so well written, it's totally believable that each and every one of these characters would do whatever it takes to find Laura. I always enjoy a book which has strong friendship elements and features a 'found family' of sorts so I was pleasantly surprised to find this in a thriller.

While I enjoyed the novel and characters as a whole, there were a few things which I found somewhat repetitive and unnecessary. One major one being how many times it's reinforced how bad Lauras romantic history is, like okay once or twice we get it. However, it was mentioned an overwhelming amount of times to the point where it gets a tad annoying. I wish there was more room in the novel to explore Laura moving on from her troubled past and finding love, whether that be with someone else or even finding solace in herself.

Overall, The Night Before is a twisty, intriguing and refreshing addition to the thriller genre. I read it in a single sitting, that's how gripped I was so take that as a sign that you definitely need to read this book! I would highly recommend this story for thriller or mystery addicts or even a reader who wants to get into the genre.

This was an OK read for me. It seems this author is very hit or miss for me. I adored All is Not Forgotten, couldn't stand Emma in the Night and found The Night Before to be... alright. I'll keep trying the new works of this author, but I hope the quality from her debut returns.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

I'm already a fan of Wendy Walker and this book did not disappoint. Laura returns to her hometown to live with her sister and her family after a particular heartbreaking breakup. She slowly begins to enter the dating world again via online dating sites. Her first date goes very wrong.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this book and I spent most of the book thinking I had it all figured it...I did not. I only give it 4 stars instead of 5 because I had a little bit of a tough time sorting out some things with one of the characters (I won't elaborate more or it would give too much away). In the end, I definitely recommend this for someone who enjoys thrillers.

4.5 Wow! This twisty thriller is fabulous! I started it yesterday and when I reached for it when I woke up in the middle of the night (insomnia is real, folks!) I couldn't stop reading it. I don't want to give anything away, so just read it and find out for yourself. I suspect this might be the beach read of the summer. Highly recommended!

Wendy Walker creates a spell binding story. I really could not figure out what was happening to Laura, and her Sister Rosie or their family and friends until the very end of this tale. Through it all it kept me totally engaged and wanting to continue reading long into the night....There are many twists into this story and each one came as a surprise to me. I think you will be spending some time reading and enjoying this twisty thriller so I recommend it heartily.

Phenomenal read! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

5 stars for this one! I could have easily devoured this read in a day, but due to other obligations I was forced to space out my reading time and savor each chapter.

Readers are introduced to Laura, a woman who has experienced difficulty in love, which stems from a distant father. She was the victim of a traumatic experience as a teenager that has followed her throughout her life, and the incident seems to follow her throughout her life. Her sister Rosie and childhood friends Gabe and Joe (now Rosie's husband) are consistent companions throughout her struggles. Laura has difficulty finding love, and goes to an internet website to look for love, where she meets Jonathan. I will stop my specific summary there to avoid any spoilers.

The story is told from Rosie's and Laura's perspectives in both the past and present. Readers are able to follow Laura's first date with Jonathan and Rosie's concern when Laura does not return home from her date. We follow the story over the course of a few days to determine what exactly happened to Laura and why she did not return to Rosie's home after her date.

I enjoyed this read immensely. The pace was perfect, the twists and turns were unexpected and I found myself reading with my mouth hanging open on more than one occasion. I even had to re-read some sections to make sure that I read the passages correctly. In my opinion, all aspects of the story were well explained, and there were no loose ends when I reached the last page.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a fast paced read with an unexpected ending :)

Holy Cow! The Night Before is one twisty tale! It is told from the perspectives of both Laura and her sister Rosie. I am hesitant to tell much of this story at all because I really think that it is best to go in as blind as possible. I had some strong suspicions about twists early on but there were a few in the end that I NEVER saw coming. I love that!!

Laura has recently moved back home and is temporarily living with her sister Rosie and her husband, Joe and their young son. Laura leaves one night to meet someone she met through an online dating service and she doesn't come home. The story goes back and forth between Laura's viewpoint (the night of the date) and Rosie's viewpoint (the time after Laura didn't come home). You get snips of what happens on Laura's date, and what happens the next day(s) when Rosie is frantic about her missing sister. Also, interspersed throughout the story are flashbacks to meetings Laura had with her "therapist," Dr. Brody months before when he helped her work through some of the traumatic issues from her past.

I was mesmerized from about the 25% mark on and really needed to know what had happened. I liked the way the story blended the timelines and viewpoints. It felt that you received necessary information at just the perfect time for the storyline. Very enjoyable read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well, not a great read for me at all.. couldn’t wait for it to end to tell you the truth. It moved slow for me and I was not interested in the story line..
I’m in the minority here so don’t go by my review if your interested in reading this.

I do however want to thank the publisher through Netgalley for the ARC.

A heart-pounding thriller with well-timed plot twists. Laura dresses up and goes out on a date, but does not return home before the next morning even though her transportation was a minivan borrowed from sister Rosie. Those close to Laura begin to wonder who is in more danger? Laura or her date? Three threads make up our narrative: 1) Laura and "the Night Before" 2) Rosie and the search for Laura beginning the next morning 3) Transcripts from Laura's sessions with her therapist from months earlier. The last entry will break your heart. This will make a fantastic beach or vacation read for summer travelling.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an eARC through Netgalley from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

A solid 4 stars.

A gripping thriller, although there were a few moments where it lagged, that is intriguing and keeps you guessing. I was actually mad when I had about half an hour left and was done with lunch break and had to go back to work. I loved the alternating chapters from mostly Laura and Rosie, along with a few small chapters about Laura and her psychiatrist.

I loved the old buried secrets and the way they all unraveled.

Fantastic psychological thriller!! The story went back and forth in time and narrators but it was always clear who was talking - and when. The characters are complex and vivid and the story is excellent. It seemed like every other chapter I was saying WHAT?! at one jaw-dropping revelation after another.

I love it when I can't guess the outcome in a thriller and can't figure out 'whodunnit'. There were so many surprises in this book - things I never thought of. I didn't have a clue!

A great thriller. Bravo Wendy Walker!

Full of twists and turns, this was a fantastic story that kept me guessing. Told in alternating perspectives and time periods, this is the story of two sisters, one who has disappeared after a date and one who is searching to find her the sister she loves. Both characters are haunted by their past and the traumatic experiences they were involved in. This is the second book I have read by Walker and I will continue to request her books. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Laura Lochner is about to go out with a man from an Internet dating website. Still recovering from her last relationship, devastated by being dumped, is it too soon to try again?!
Leaving everything behind in New York City, coming back to her home town in Connecticut to live with her sister Rosie and her husband Joe and baby boy Mason.
Haunted by a past traumatic event from a teenage romance gone wrong.
When Laura doesn't return home from her date the night before, Rosie knows something is really wrong. But is Rosie worried for her sister Laura, or the man she went out with?!
This twisty, intriguing psychological thriller will have you on edge as Rosie, Joe and childhood friend Gabe, follow the clues that lead back to Laura.
I didn't guess any of the stunning reveals at the end!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker and the premise of this was intriguing - what happened to Laura? She went on a date and is missing. However, she also has a troubled past - something happened that kept her away from her hometown and is making it difficult to date. This did have an unreliable narrator - is Laura a victim, a murderer, or somewhere in between? It was hard to put together the past with the present and some of the past seemed to be repetitive (she needs to be loved, we get it). However, the mystery storyline was really interesting and the twists and turns it took were hard to predict. I thought I had it figured out but I was wrong! However, it did end well and everything was explained, which I always appreciate in a book.
Overall, I did follow the narration (jumping from the night before forward and the morning after forward) but at times it was a little tough to really grasp what was happening and how. I liked this book as a thriller because it was hard to predict and everything wrapped up in a way that made sense. I also couldn't stop reading and flew through the book, which is always a great sign as well.

Many readers may not have heard of Wendy Walker but with her upcoming publication, The Night Before, I am sure that she will soon become a name to remember in the Psychological Thriller category. This book had all the right ingredients of an alluring and nail-biting thriller and I was lost in Laura's world of confusion, distress and desperation. I was a little disappointed to find out that the author had decided to follow one of the latest trends in the industry with an unreliable female narrator but quickly warmed to Laura and her personality. The first few chapters flew by as I was immersed in her world and was keen to discover how her first date after the big break up would transpire.

I read the rest of this book in only one other sitting, eager to find out what had happened to Laura after she disappeared. Blaming her date seemed obvious but the rest of the characters involved appeared to be so distressed about her disappearance that it really left the field wide open for all other surprises. The author really delivered here as we were taken on a roller coaster of twists, riddles and mind games where all characters were involved.

Although I enjoyed the premise of this book, I was slightly disappointed with how it ended and in particular the way in which Laura's disappearance was handled. At first the events seemed a little far-fetched, especially considering how the characters were originally portrayed, but it slowly started to make sense and all came together in the final few chapters. I would have preferred a different ending but looking back at all the hints the author left, I can understand why and how she chose to develop the plot the way she did. Tense, suspenseful and captivating, The Night Walker is a must read for all Psychological Thriller fans.

The Night Before will be out to buy on 14th May!

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a free advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ah, yes! I have been waiting since the exceptional Emma in the Night, Wendy Walker's previous novel released in 2017, for her follow-up. I had much trepidation as The Night Before like it's predecessor is based around the relationship of two very different sisters, Rosie and Laura, and because recently I had lost interest in reading family-based thrillers due to many of them being practically identical. But I must say, for all intents and purposes Ms Walker has renewed my faith in domestic thrillers based around the family dynamic and the secrets inherent in each household.

The author plays on the fact that siblings, despite being from the same genetic gene pool, can be as different as chalk and cheese; I enjoyed this a lot as it slowly built up the tension but it was also believable as I can vouch that my brother and I are both incredibly different and in the spirit of Rosie and Laura, opposites in some cases. Once all of the threads to the plot seamlessly combine and I looked back at the planning involved I was in awe of Ms Walker's genius.

Based around the idea that two siblings may have spent the entirety of their formative years together yet know little to nothing about each other's true characters, the story unravels with a series of stunning and surprising twists, each more mindblowing than the last. Walker is one of the very best thriller writers out there and this is nothing short of a page-turner with bags of suspense, a clever plot, plenty of pace and engaging characters. A dark, disturbing and compulsive must-read and one I enjoyed immensely. Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for an ARC.