Wendy Walker is slowly becoming one of my favorites. Her stories unravel seamlessly and I always find myself surprised by several twists, despite my extensive reading of psychological thrillers. While some events were predictable, there were some I didn’t see coming. The Night Before follows Laura after her online date, as well as her sordid past. The day after she fails to return home from her date, her sister, Rosie, sets out to put the pieces together. Great, quick read!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my advanced copy in exchange for a review.

Laura has been involved in a past trauma, and when a breakup shakes her she retreats to her hometown to live with sister Rosie. During this time, Laura tries to be a different kind of woman- someone who is more successful in love. So, she tries out online dating and sets up a first date. All great until she doesn’t come home. This launches Rosie to search for her sister and delve into Laura’s past.
I thought this book was at its strongest in its first half, and I found the ending to be over-written and tied up nicely. That said, this was a fun thriller that I would recommend. I’m excited to try out the autbor’s other books.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy of the book to review!

I really enjoyed this quick moving book! I devoured it! There are so many twits and turns I had to keep reading to get to the end!

I’m really not sure how to rate this book. So many people have given it 5 stars but I was COMPLETELY CONFUSED during most of it. What does that say????? It started off good and kept me on the edge of my seat but somewhere in the middle, total confusion!!! I really wanted to like it. So many lies!! So much deception!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this author’s previous novels, “Emma in the Night” and “All is Not Forgotten”. Needless to say, I was looking forward to reading “The Night Before”. Especially after reading the description.

Twelve hours earlier, she was…
Hopeful.
Excited.
Safe.

Now she’s gone.

The book begins four months earlier. Laura Lochner is in session with her therapist. She’s talking about a night from many years ago. She wants to know why she has such bad luck with relationships. Why she’s “the girl no one can love”. Her therapist thinks she’ll find the answers by going home.

The story jumps to the present. Twenty-eight year old, Laura has moved home and is living with her sister, husband, and nephew. She hasn’t told them exactly why she left New York, but they know that it involves a man. Laura left home after graduating from High School and she never looked back.

Laura now feels like she’s ready to start dating again and joins a dating website. She meets a man on the website named Jonathan Fields. Her sister, Rosie is helping her get ready for her first date with Jonathan. Rosie is nervous about Laura dating. As Laura leaves, she tells her sister not to worry. She says she’s going to get it right this time.

When Rosie wakes up the next morning she feels like something is wrong. She tries to tell herself that everything is fine. She knows that Laura has good intentions. But Rosie’s memories of a night eleven years ago keep her on edge. She opens the door to the bedroom where Laura has been staying. It’s empty. The bed has not been slept in.

“Something is wrong”

Rosie’s husband tells her not to worry, that Laura is fine. But as the day goes on even he starts to get concerned. They start to investigate on their own. They don’t think that calling the police will help them find Laura, in fact, they worry that it might even make things worse.

Where is Laura?

Once I started this book, it was difficult to stop…very difficult. I thought this was a great read!!

The story is told from Laura and Rosie’s point of view, and takes place in the present but includes flashbacks from the past. Some of Laura’s therapy sessions are interspersed throughout the novel.

“The Night Before” is a smart and compulsively readable psychological suspense novel. With an original and engaging plot and a fascinating cast of characters, I was hooked from the start. I enjoyed the story and really liked how it all came together in the end.

I’m THRILLED to say that I’m now three for three with Wendy Walker, and as I’ve said before …

I CANNOT wait for more!!

I’d like to thank St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

OMG...this book is so compulsively readable!

I just HAD to find out what happened to Laura!!

Rosie and Laura are sisters; Rosie is settled down with a great husband and a sweet son and Laura is a bit of a mess. She can't completely escape an association with a crime that happened in her childhood and she doesn't remember exactly how responsible she might be even though she was exonerated.

Her sister and friend group have always been fiercely protective of her so when she goes on a blind date and doesn't come home, they don't know whether to be more worried about her, or based on her dicey history, her date.

Filled with unreliable characters, some awesome twists and a delightful red herring or two, I don't want to say more because this is one of the best books I've read this year.

I loved and it exuberantly fling ALL OF THE STARS at it!!

Thank you to Wendy Walker, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for this honest review.

Wendy Walker is a phenomenal writer! I had just read All is not Forgotten when I received an ARC for this book and OMG! The style of her work is just extraordinarily unique and captivating. This book is so good I literally could not put it down and when it was over I wanted more! I will be reading all of Wendy’s books forever and ever! Thanks so much NetGalley for my ARC!

Laura confides in her sister Rosie that she has a blind date. Chapters alternate with present day Rosie looking for Laura after she fails to return from her date and the past from Laura's perspective of "the night before". This one was slow but tensions build as you make your way through the book. In fact, I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book, every scene had the possibility of things going bad. I thought I had the ending figured out but don't make assumptions so quickly, that's all I can advise.

Thank you for the early copy.
I've been meaning to check out a novel by Wendy Walker. This was well-written and interesting novel. I will be checking out more from this author in the future.

I am all about a mystery where somebody goes missing, their steps are retraced and they have character flaws of their own that make the reader question what really happened. The Night Before checked all of these boxes for me. We have Laura who recently moved in with Rosie, Joe and their son. Laura moved away from home and came back due to a bad breakup. Laura has some self esteem and anger issues and often reflects on something that happened many years ago. With the help of her family and friend Gabe, Laura decides to get back into the dating game. She put a lot of thought and effort (which is not typical for her) into how she looks and behaves on this date. She takes her sister's mini van to ensure she will come home from her date with Mr. Jonathan Fields... only she doesn't come home.

The race is on to try to find Laura and find out what happened to her.

I really enjoyed the past and present views. I enjoyed Laura's insight on events that happened to her as a child and how they impact her now, as an adult. At about 75% of this book,. I figured out what happened and I was right. This is a great mystery that has great character development.

Thank you to Netgalley for this free copy!! My opinions are my own.

Compulsively readable. I so badly wanted to know what happened to Laura that I found myself sneaking away at work to read a few chapters. Following the dual timeline of sisters Laura and Rosie, one from Laura's perspective the night before, and the other from Rosie's the day after, was crisp and never confusing. It got a little convoluted for me near the end as we started to learn the truth about what happened, but not to the point where I rolled my eyes, which I do too often when reading psychological thrillers.

Overall, it took me less than 24 hours to finish this book, and I very much recommend it. Happy reading!

This is a twisty psychological thriller that held my attention throughout.
It is told from different points of view in different time lines, so it needed extra attention to the details. It took me sometime to get the characters and time lines straight, but afterwards it became a smith sail

I was gripped by the plot with its twists and turns and I didn't see the final twist coming, so this was refreshing.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC, this review is my honest opinion.

This book starts out with several mysteries. The book begins with Laura "Heart" (which isn't her real name) getting ready for a date. She is temporarily living with her sister Rosie, her brother-in-law Joe and their young son Mason. She's apparently ended a relationship recently and wants to "get back out there", so she's going on a blind date with a guy she met online named Jonathan Fields. Laura's story slowly unfolds over the course of the book and the chapters alternate between what happens to her on the date and what happens the next day when she hasn't returned home and her sister gradually starts to panic. And then there's also "something" that happened to Laura when she was in high school, which is why she changed her name. And if that's not confusing enough, there are also short sections detailing Laura's sessons with her shrink.

I had a hard time with keeping all of these timelines straight, and there are several big and surprising reveals that I found a little confusing. I didn't dislike the book exactly, but it wasn't one of my favorites either.

Thanks to Net Galley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When they described The Night Before as a psychological thriller they weren’t kidding. As the story starts out, the story of a missing sister told through the past and present interpretation of sisters Rosie and Laura, I had no clue how to take the story. I saw the base of the story is the effect of two events in Laura’s life. As a result she always seems to be looking for love but something seems to always go wrong. Missing after a date, Laura’s disappearance has her sister Rosie, brother-in-law Joe, and childhood friend Gabe frantically looking for her as they tell their story. From Laura’s perspective you hear about her life along with her interaction with her date. Will they all find the answers and a resolution. Walker kept me guessing to the end, I never saw it coming.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

I read this one in about a day and a half because I found it to be an easy read that flowed really well. The story is about 2 sisters, one, Rosie, who has a settled family life and the other, Laura, who has come to live with the settled sister after another tough break up. Laura goes out on a blind date with someone from a dating site and doesn't return home, sending Rosie, her husband Joe and their longtime friend Gabe on a search for her. The chapters alternate between what happened to Laura the night she disappeared and Rosie's search for her after she is missing. I thought this was an effective structure and it kept the story moving well. There were also short snippets of Laura's conversations with her therapist some months before that further added to the story.

I did not see the ending coming at all so it was a surprise but the way it wrapped up made sense. I enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you Netgalley/ Wendy Walker at all for an ARC of this book. It’s a fascinating character study into the main character and some auxiliary charecters too. I enjoyed being kept guessing until the end of the book.

This is my first Wendy Walker thriller and certainly not my last. I especially enjoyed her writing style and creative, mind blowing, psychological plot. There were many twists I never saw coming. I’m pretty good at determining the outcome of thrillers but this one had me fastening my seat belt. Far fetched?????.... maybe, but in today’s world where I continue to scratch my head in amazement at what happens to people, I think not.

The plot in its simplicity is about two young sisters, one favored over the other by their father (story also told in their alternating voices). As adults they are still struggling with their disjointed childhood. One sister more psychologically troubled then the other goes on a date with a man from an internet dating site. When she doesn’t return, the plot begins its roller coaster ride. Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Wendy Walker for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sisters who are as different as night and day... each one will offer you their perspectives. Laura has gone missing and you will hear the past from her and the present from her sister Rosie. Along the way, if you are anything like me, you will be constantly guessing what is happening next. Most of the time I was wrong (I love that) and watching the ending unfold had me gasping!

The description of this book has been left very vague by the publishers and intentionally so...go into this one blind and enjoy the ride!

Thank you to St. Martin's for an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

This book is certainly filled with some serious twists and crazy characters! I enjoyed reading this one, with its three perspectives (Laura, our main character, Rosie, her sister, and then snapshots of Laura’s therapy sessions). The story truly begins with neighborhood kids who grow up together, but ends with something so much more wicked!

My favorite part about this one is that I was not able to guess what was happening (although I did have an inkling at one point, but I second guessed it)! Walker certainly has a way with words!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, for the arc of this book.
I am not sure what to make of this book, I struggled to 50% of the book, and only carried on reading it to see the outcome.
It wasn’t a bad read, but also not a great read, I feel that it lacked something, it didn’t grip me or keep me at the edge of my seat.