**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advance copy to review!**

So, Wendy Walker's Emma in the Night stands out for me as a story I was talking about for a long time after I read it. It wasn't all positive, it wasn't all negative, but I was talking about it in every book conversation for quite some time. This one was a fun, fast read, but not one that I've been referencing back to. I'm usually pretty gullible, but even I recognized that there was a major red herring happening in this story.

Not bad, and it's fast, so I'd still recommend trying it out!

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

Suspenseful novel about a woman who has left New York City and moved in with her sister in the town she grew up in, in Connecticut. The reader eventually learns about her break-up in the city and the events that took place in her home town when she was younger. The story starts with her going out on a date with a man she has met online. When she doesn't return home, her sister, family and friends start a frantic search for her which leads to events in her distant and recent past being dug up. A page-turner right to the end.

I struggled with this one.
I'm not sure if it's because I wasn't in the right mood to read it or whether it's just not a book for me but I was ready to DNF at the 30% point. I had however gotten into the plot and I needed to know how it ended ad what actually happened on the night before so I pushed through and actually quite enjoyed the ending but it definitely wasn't anywhere higher than a three star for me.

The main thing that put me off this book were the characters, I didn't like any of them and in fact found Laura quite irritating for basically the whole of the book but to make it worse the start was so slow. I was fed up with listening to Laura, and I couldn't sympathise with her or understand her at any point in the book I just wanted something to happen to push me to keep reading. It wasn't until about half way through that it did, but once it did I completely forgot about the fact that I didn't like Laura and got myself fully wrapped up in the plot - which I enjoyed quite a bit. There were plenty of twists I wasn't expecting to keep me on the edge of my seat but it was how cleverly the plot was written that had me. I loved working it out and seeing how everything was brought together to work out as it did. It really was done very well, by the end.
I just wish the characters were more likeable and it got started abit earlier than it did. I'm sure I'd have loved it a lot more if that was the case. I'm glad i finished it though, it was worth crawling through that first 30%

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for this Arc copy to review.

The Night Before is one of those books I picked up based completely on the author. I honestly didn’t know what it was about, but if it was anything like Wendy Walkers first book, All is Not Forgotten, I would love it.

I was right!! The Night Before was a wonderful mix of suspense, mystery, and misdirection. The author has you questioning everyone and even wondering if Laura really was responsible and just got away with murder like they all said.

I’m happy to say even I didn’t see it all coming and had no idea how dark it would get before we learned the truth. For me the sign of a wonderfully written suspense book is one that keeps me engaged and guessing up until the very end but can still hit you with something you wouldn’t have guessed. The Night Before is that book. Wendy Walker gets you so lost in the story you are a part of it.

I Loved this book and recommend it to any suspense/thriller lover. I can’t wait for this authors next great book.

This book kept me guessing!!!

I did not want to walk away from the story of Rosie's missing sister Laura. Although, as life will have it, I did have to put the book down and participate in my own life from time to time. The mystery in this story was kept taut and the suspense was fabulous. I think Wendy Walker has crafted another great story for mystery, suspense, and thriller readers.

I enjoyed the alternating between points of view and time line disorienting in the best possible way. This structure kept me off-balance and unsure of who I should trust throughout the story. This lack of trust in the characters, made it hard for me to *like* any of them, but I did care about how the story concluded. This is a fine line for me. I wanted to see justice for all, but did not feel myself rooting for any of the protagonists, and probably would have been satisfied with any of them being the guilty party.

There was suspense and story a plenty here, and certainly a satisfying conclusion that did not require any stretch to believe it was true. I will watch for future titles by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this e-book!

Laura goes on a date after a bad break up in NY, which made her leave her job and her old life behind. She lives with her sister-Rosie- her husband, and their child in their old hometown while she gets back on her feet. She doesn’t expect the roller coaster of events that will occur when she takes a leap of faith and goes on a date with a man from a dating site.
Written in two different periods of time: The night before and present day, this novel will have you wondering if Laura actually killed a boy from her childhood, or is someone is making her think that she did.
The writing of this novel was really interesting, I enjoyed the flashbacks to their childhood that everyone can connect to-running into the forest to play with your friends, playing spin the bottle, and even keeping secrets in a small town.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the free ebook of The Night Before.

In this thriller, there is an overall unspoken distrust of Laura, who suddenly comes home to live with her sister Rosie and family. What exactly happened at the party many years ago that left her boyfriend dead and her eventually exonerated for the death, and moving away with a new name.

Rosie and Laura both feel like Laura has been unlucky in love, but both for different reasons. With Laura back in her hometown, the old childhood gang is back together. Finally a group of people who know and support her.

Laura is ready to start over and start dating, but weirdly, she doesn’t return from her date.

I was on edge trying to weave together the past with the present trying to figure out what happened those many years ago and how does it matter in finding Laura now.

I received a Digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Wendy Walker’s previous novels, and was excited to read this one. This was a solid mystery with an intriguing plot, but it didn’t match the originality or character development of Emma in the Night. A quick, enjoyable mystery by a talented writer, but the reveal felt like an attempt to surprise the reader instead of genuinely shocking the reader with an explanation of characters’ natures And motivations.

This was a bit slower paced than Walker's previous book, Emma in the Night, which I adored. I enjoyed this one too, but the end felt like a bunch of things I'd read before, and I wasn't as engaged with this one as I'd hoped.

This is a story told in alternating points of view between two sisters, Laura and Rosie. Laura has had a rough life, always struggling to find a man to love her. She meets a man and falls in love with him and he breaks up with her via text message. Laura then abruptly leaves her entire life behind in NYC to move back to Connecticut to live with her sister’s family. She starts her pattern over again, looking online for love and ultimately ends up going on a date. One problem though, she doesn’t come home! Rosie is worried that something has happened to Laura. Where is she? Is she hurt? Or did she hurt someone else, perhaps? ⁣⁣
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❼❺% of this book made me crazy, but in the best way! I had no clue what was going on, coming up with all kinds of theories. I was immediately sucked in. My head was spinning this way and that, going in circles, trying to figure out what happened to Laura. Or did Laura happen to someone else? ⁣⁣
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The storyline was like a bunch of puzzle pieces 🧩 and the reader is left to make them all fit together. I love a book that makes my brain 🧠 work really hard to figure out the truth and this story did just that. ⁣⁣
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An interesting aspect to this story for me was the idea of online dating, and how many creepy fish 🐠 are in the sea! I met my boyfriend on an online dating site and we’ve been together for almost 9 years. It’s so important to be cautious while going on a date with someone you never met and you don’t know much about. Like, you don’t even know for sure if they gave their real name. I can’t say that I was always as diligent as I should have been, but Laura sure wasn’t. I mean who goes on a date with a stranger and doesn’t make sure their cell phone is charged?! She did all the wrong things, even when her gut was telling her not to. It’s still believable though, because it happens a lot in real life. ⁣⁣
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If you’re looking for a fast-paced, fun read that keeps you guessing, check this one out! I really enjoyed it and look forward to more twisty, thrillery goodness from @wendywalkerauthor

I have talked about this book in my TBR and Wrap Up videos on my youtube channel.
I have talked about this book in my TBR and Wrap Up videos on my youtube channel.
I have talked about this book in my TBR and Wrap Up videos on my youtube channel.

Laura Lochner has had her share of bad luck when it comes to love. She always seems to pick the wrong men. Men that aren’t good for her. Men that eventually leave her. Mistakes she can’t seem to shake, nor the night years ago from her teenage years. A dark past that seems to haunt her.

After her latest bad relationship, Laura finally moves back into her hometown that she hoped to stay away, to live with her sister Rosie and her husband Joe. Laura is ready to move on, ready to stop making mistakes and give dating another shot with a man she meets online, who she hopes won’t know her past history.

But when Laura fails to come home the morning after, her sister Rosie starts to wonder what happened the night before.

I've been in a slump lately when it comes to psychological thrillers, even though they are my favorite genres, I've been avoiding them because there hasn't been that many great ones published lately. But, this is the one book that has pulled me out of this! To me, this was the perfect mystery/thriller/suspense book. I usually am able to predict the twist very early on in a book but with this one, I really didn't see it coming.

The story is narrated through two POVs by sisters, Rosie and Laura. Laura went on a date with a stranger that she met online.  Rosie started panicking when Laura failed to get back home after her date. She was worried about her sister. Who is the stranger that she went out with? Why is her phone off? Is she safe? And interestingly, given Laura’s history, is the stranger safe?

The Night Before is a suspenseful, well-crafted read that will have your head spinning. I didn’t know where the story was going. I couldn’t even guess since my mind was working too fast trying to keep up with Laura and Rosie’s narrations. The pacing was well-balanced with no dull moments.  Laura’s narrative explained the events of the night; naturally, this POV interested me more because that is where the answers lay. The red herrings in Rosie’s story had me turning pages faster in search of answers.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wendy Walker - I read one of her debut novels a few years ago, and absolutely loved it. I did have issues here and there, but she's definitely tied up some loose ends in her writing ever since.

I really enjoyed this one, lots of suspense and surprise turns. I love when a book can keep you guessing, and Wendy is one that can do that time and time again!

So this was my first title by Wendy Walker, but my friends have been talking about her for a while. I am so glad I had the chance to have this be my first by this author. Very exciting! Do yourself a favor and read this already!!! Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

In her new book Wendy Walker takes a look at what happens when meeting someone online for a date goes terribly wrong:

Laura Lochner has never had any luck with men or love, starting from when she was a child. She remembers her childhood as always being second to her older sister Rosie and that her parents loved Rosie more than her but it never stopped Laura from looking for love. This trend has followed her into adult life, always falling too hard, too fast for the wrong man. Laura has decided to change her approach and be a different Laura after another heartbreak. She decides to go on a blind online date with Jonathan Fields. The problem is Laura doesn't come home that night. Her sister Rosie fears the worst, there are some violent events in Laura's past that have never been explained and Rosie worries that this might be another one. Where is Laura and who is this Jonathan Fields, Rosie is determined to find out what happened The Night Before.

I am a Big Fan of Walker, I loved her first two books, especially her debut All is not Forgotten, but for me this book is the weakest of the three. This is not to say that I did not enjoy this book in the end, I just enjoyed the previous two more. I found this book hard to really become engaged with the characters and story until over half the book was done as there were times it failed to hold my attention. And I will admit that I almost didn't finish reading it but I knew there had to be something big in the end, and there was, I personally was able to see it coming, but the twist was there. I just felt like Walker has a lot more to give and there was something lacking or even cliché about this book.

For some reason I could not become invested in either Laura or Rosie. Yes, I felt sorry for Laura at times, but at the same time I found that she acted more like a teenager than an adult. I also found her thought process became too repetitive throughout the book, about not trusting her emotions or instincts, when those things had saved her time and time again. She was trying to be a completely different person in a moment when she knew that she shouldn't. Rosie I just felt came off as a whiny character, and I do not think that her perspective in the book really brought anything out in the story, other than it is her, her husband Joe and their long time friend Gabe who are actively looking for Laura. I'm not sure who Walker could have used instead for the present point of view but I just wasn't feeling Rosie

The one thing that I love about Walker is how she has decided to tell her stories. I love the back and fourth between the past and present and how the past slowly catches up to the present timeline. I find that this adds to the overall suspenseful feeling that you are supposed to feel while you are reading her books as you greatly anticipate what it going to happen next, what will Walker reveal.

While not my favourite book that Walker has written, it was able to grab me more in the latter half of the book. I know that this will not stop me from reading her novels and I anxiously await the next book that she releases. Pick up this book if you like more of a psychological suspense or domestic suspense read.

Cheers!!!

I am so behind on reviewing books for Netgalley and amazing authors like Wendy Walker that it’s sad. I finished this in one day and look forward to reading more from Ms. Walker. Here is a bit about the story. Laura and her sister, Rosie, along with Joe and Gabe, all grew up in the same neighborhood, tight friends from early childhood. Rosie and Joe are now married with a toddler, and Gabe has married. After her most recent relationship ends badly, Laura moves into her sister's home to recover. It isn't long before she connects with "Jonathan," a man from an online site and agrees to a date. When she doesn't return home the next morning, Rosie fears the worst. What sets this book apart for me is that Laura isn’t just concerned for her sister but for “Johnathon” as well. I love a book that has two points and gives you the complete twisty picture. With this book you get the added sessions with her physiatrist. I don’t want to give too much of the story away. I will say The Night Before is unique and worth the time to read.

3.5 stars. I thought this was a really great and unique concept for a thriller, which is a genre where the premise of many books are interchangeable. Laura has just gone through a really rough breakup and moved back home to live with her sister, when she decides to give dating another shot. She heads out on a first date and the next day her sister realizes she never came home. Her sister, Rosie, knows something is wrong, but she doesn't know if Laura has been hurt or has hurt someone else.

I don't think I've ever read a thriller where you aren't sure if the woman is the villain or victim of the story and I thought that was a great idea. I did find the way people talked about the main character a little odd, I felt like all they did was psychoanalyze her, even her family, but it did make you understand her internal monologue a lot more. I love trying to guess the ending of a thriller, and I will say that I did guess the ending of this one to a T, but I don't usually feel disappointed even when I am able to guess what happens. I felt like this book really grabbed my interest at about the halfway point, but before that it was a little hard to get into, which is why I didn't rate it higher. I liked the writing style and I really appreciated how so many different elements were tied together at the end. I would definitely read more books from this author. I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason I just couldn't get into this. I didn't. Like the characters or the stOry. Couldn't finish.

Loved this book! It was a quick page turner and the author knows how to write a fast paced novel. Can not wait to read more by this author.
Thanks for the ARC in exchange for a honest review