Gone tonight was a really interesting thriller. Based on the synopsis I had no idea where the story was going and I was very surprised by the twist. I thought the book had really nice pacing and kept me interested for the entire story.

I love getting emails from Netgalley notifying me that I have been sent a new book to review! It is even better when that book is one of my most anticipated releases of the year and is written by an author who's previous release was a 2022 favorite of mine! Naturally, when I stopped what I was doing to download and start this book. Thankfully, I was not disappointed.

Gone Tonight is a thriller written by author, Sarah Pekkanen. It was released in August of this year.
If you would like to purchase Gone Tonight you can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can follow the author, Sarah Pekkanen, on Instagram and Goodreads! You can also check out her website!

Before I get into this review, I want to thank St. Martin's Press, the author, and Netgalley for sending me an advanced audiobook copy of this one. As always, all views expressed are my own.

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening.
Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother's past or background. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.

I gave this 4.5 stars on Goodreads. I really loved this! I have been itching for a thriller with a new or fresh plot line. I understand that there are only so many directions to go in and that thrillers will often have overlap---and I am okay with that---but because I read so many thrillers, it gets a bit repetitive after a while. This was intriguing from the start and maintained my interest throughout.
I think this brought something new to the table and I can appreciate that!

It is a well known fact here on the blog that I am a dual-POV lover! This book has such a dynamic dual--POV storyline that kept me guessing and really built up the suspense. In addition to the suspense, there is some really interesting commentary on mother-daughter relationships and, my favorite... SHORT CHAPTERS!!! Ugh, I am obsessed with short chapters. I have heard the back and forth on long vs. short chapters. You can call me crazy, but I am sticking with my short chapters!

As I mentioned earlier, I listened to the audiobook. The audiobook was well produced and easy to follow. If you are an audiobook reader or are looking for a good thriller to get you into audiobooks, I think this is a good option for you!

Overall, I highly recommend this book to thriller lovers! Due to the nature of the content in this book and some of the dialogue/language used throughout, I would recommend for readers 17+.
This was the first book that I have read from this author that was written solely by her (not a book that she co-authored with frequent writing partner Greer Hendricks) and I would really love to read her future solo works also. It takes a lot of talent to be able to shift between writing solo and writing as a duo, I am impressed with the consistent quality of the works (written and co-authored by Sarah Pekkanen) that I have read so far. I think this book will be a big hit this year!

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is a domestic suspense about Catherine and her mother Ruth. Ruth will do anything to protect her daugher. This story was a bit too much in some parts, but I think the author did a good job showing just how important the mother and daughter relationship is. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

A slow burn with many, many twists that i never saw coming! I couldn’t put this one down. The writer slowly unraveled the story and revealed a bit at a time, keeping me hooked and frantically turning pages. Ripe with tension, this was a fun read!

They say mother daughter relationships are complicated Sarah Pekkanen really delves into quite the page turning read on such a relationship between Catherine and Ruth. Honestly I went into reading this one not knowing what to expect since I'm already a fan of the author and Sarah really showed why she is a master at building a suspenseful thriller filled with mystery and great characters in Gone Tonight.

I enjoyed a couple of the author's books she coauthored (The Wife Between Us & You are Note Alone), so I looked forward to reading this book! This story portrays a mother who loves her daughter to the point of over protection, calculating her daughter's every move/choice and manipulating her daughter's experiences all to conceal a secret from her past that is seemingly coming to catch up with her. It places her daughter in danger. The story moves back and forth in points of view and timelines, with some mystery and vagueness that causes the reader to wonder exactly WHO is the most reliable narrator. This caused the book to move a bit too slowly in places and repetitive in others. The twists were apparent to me, but I enjoyed the experience of seeing how these characters' choices and what they'd reveal, until the satisfying ending,

This is a great suspense novel. I liked the dual pov, of a mom and daughter. This book had it all, secrets, lies, suspense. I really enjoyed this book.

This is the first stand alone novel I’ve read by Sarah Pekkanen and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed The Wife Between Us and The Golden Couple that Pekkanen co-authored with Greer Hendricks- both solid 4 star reads for me. I often recommend The Wife Between Us to friends looking for a good suspense novel that keeps you engaged and makes you think! That’s exactly how I felt about Gone Tonight. It’s not super twisty but there were strategic surprises throughout. The ending, in true thriller fashion, is action packed and intense; it had my heart racing a bit… exactly what I hope for in a book like this! It reminded me a bit of Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter and I’d recommend both!!

I had all three copies of this book- digital (thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress), physical (it was one of my Book of the Month picks for August), and the audiobook from my library which I listened to on Libby. I mostly read my digital and print copies. I love Kate Mara as a narrator but she read both POVs for Catherine and Ruth and I kind of got confused at times because the voice and cadence was much the same for both characters. Still an enjoyable listen, though.

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
🔥 Slow Burn thrillers
🧩 Solving puzzles
🎭 Multiple Perspectives
🤫 Secrets and lies
🏃‍♀️ Escaping a troubled past
👩🏻‍🍼 Complex mother/daughter relationships

Interesting story going from the perspectives of mother and daughter, Ruth and Catherine. Catherine is studying to be a nurse and works army a memory care facility. She finishes school and gets her dream job at John’s Hopkins. Before she’s about to move her mother starts showing signs of Alzheimer’s and Catherine is trying to figure out what to do. Along the way Catherine questions if her moms diagnosis is real and starts to unravel who “Ruth” really is.

Unfortunately this one didn’t really work for me or capture my interest throughout. Here is a story of a mother and daughter, both with secrets to hide. If I was Catherine, I would have started asking my mother questions way before it got to this point. Neither woman is very likeable and I didn’t feel compelled to root for either one. We find out what Ruth is hiding early on, leaving little to surprise. Most of the time we’re waiting for Catherine to uncover what we already know which to me as a reader was a bit boring. Nothing truly shocked me and left me longing for more. The narrator was also not ideal, as she didn’t ever change her voice tone, even for different voices. While the ending was action packed and suspense, overall this one missed the mark for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Sarah Pekkanen, and NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was hard for me to find a rating for. (Spoilers Ahead?)
Part one was so engaging and fun! It was a little creepy and I didn't know who I could trust.
Part 2 lost me. It just felt disjointed. I also am not sure how I feel about using the medical illness as a reason for things. I loved the mother/daughter duo.... I HATED the fact that the mom pretended to have dementia to get her daughter to stay in their town. I'm kind of numb to this book.

I've only read books written by Sarah Pekkanen when she teams up with Greer Hendricks, so I wasn't sure what to expect for this thriller. I really liked the dual POV that the book was written in. I found both main characters to be intriguing and likeable for their own reasons. I enjoyed the slow burn unravel of the mystery plot line but when it was all said and done, it felt underwhelming. I expected so much more from this author. The lies and deceipt, sure they were exactly that. But as a reader, they felt quite justified and reasonable. I was expecting some giant plot twist to come out of no where and blow me away. That never happened. When the ending of the book neared, I braced myself for the shock that never came. I liked the story as a whole and felt it was extremely interesting and a very fast and easy read but it didn't wow me by any means.

I’ve been enjoying books by author Sarah Pekkanen for years and was so excited to read this newest release! It was such a fun cat and mouse thriller full of twists!

🎧I paired the audio with the physical book, which is my favorite way to read and escape, and fully immerse myself into the reading/listening experience.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-mother/daughter relationships
-told in 3 parts
-multiple POVs
-unreliable narrators
-deception

*many thanks to St Martins Press, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Sarah Pekkanen is an auto-buy for me. I will pre-order books of her that I don't even know what they are about. She always delivers and never disappoints. GONE TONIGHT is no different. The pacing was fast and I could FEEL that relationship between the mother and daughter so deeply. My heart was pounding throughout. Chock full of secrets and plenty of twists and turns it was hard to put this down. INCREDIBLE and a must-read for thriller readers...and really ANY reader who wants a GREAT story. I wish I could give more than 5 stars!!!!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Netgalley and Sarah Pekkanen for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

So so good!! This is a page turner! If you haven't added this to your library or TBR, do so immediately. How well does Catherine really know her mother? As pieces of her past begin to pop up, Catherine begins to wonder who her mother really is. Is Ruth Sterling her real name? Did she really grow up in this small town? Why does her mother always seem ready to run at a moment's notice?

Oh, wow! This book is amazing. Once I started it, I was pulled into the story. The characters were great, I was feeling what they felt, such good writing. I could and would love to see this made into a movie, although I'm not sure it would come across the same as the written words. The things we do for love....
Thanks to netgalley, the publisher and author for the chance to read this advanced copy.

I was super excited to read Gone Tonight, and while I found it so engaging at the beginning, I couldn't help but feel as though everything fizzled out at the end. Catherine and Ruth were both such captivating characters with fascinating secrets that kept me pulled in, but what I expected in a thriller of this nature didn't happen. There was no plot twist or big reveal (in my opinion); instead, the plot sort of just fluttered along through what could have been an amazing climax, so by the end of the book, I was just bored by the entire story. I'm still bummed about this book personally, but I loved the short chapters and the dual POVs.

Good story of a woman escaping her past and her psychotic boyfriend and starting a new life, hiding her past , and always on the run to protect her daughter. So,e interest8mg twists, and fears.

Great suspense!

Catherine Sterling is a nurse. She has been working in a memory unit in a facility but now she is ready to move to Baltimore and start working at John Hopkins. Then, she starts noticing that her mother, Ruth Sterling is starting to have some memory issues. Shockingly she learned her grandmother had early-onset Alzheimer's. In the blink of an eye, her plans dissipate like smoke. She can't leave her mom this way, she has to stay and take care of her. As far as she can remember, Ruth has been there for her. They have been each other's support system.

Catherine is ready to give up her future when some incongruences start making her doubt what her mother has told her since she was a kid. Her mother is hiding things and Catherine must find out what is true and why is Ruth lying to her.

I liked how the story unfolded. The dual POV and the past and present timelines enriched the experience instead of making it difficult to follow. I liked both characters and I was scared of the outcome that was being foreshadowed.

The narrator, Kate Mara did a good job with both characters.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Audio via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you like a dark, twisted tale with untrustworthy characters that begins to get predictable after a few chapters and requires numerous trigger warnings, you may enjoy this but it was not the book for me. There was nobody to root for and though there was a touching scene at the end it wasn't enough for me to care.
I received this as an ARC from Netgalley to review in exchange for my honest thoughts.