From the cover and author, I thought Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen was a suspense or thriller novel, but after the first few chapters, I was confused. It read like women's fiction about a woman and her adult daughter navigating a health crisis. Slowly some hints surface that all is not as it appears, and then the plot escalated quickly!

I appreciated this slow burn suspense novel. I was never completely sure either main character's motives, which I enjoy in stories with a mystery to solve. The involvement of the daughter's workplace was an interesting aspect; I'm relieved I no longer have family members who reside at a senior living facility. I questioned the detailed flashbacks to the mother's high school years ... until I didn't.

Occasionally I anticipated a minor twist in the plot, but for the most part this story surprised me time and again. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Kate Mara which was the perfect balance of intensity, although at first it was a bit confusing to track the daughter vs. the mother voiced by the same narrator.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the review copy of the audiobook.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion

Ruth Sterling is getting forgetful, her daughter Catherine is becoming concerned. Catherine works in the alzheimer's unit in a seniors home and wonders if the signs she is seeing are what she thinks they are. catherine is due to move to Boston to a new job and now wonders if she can leave her mother alone. They are all one another has, no family, no ties, just them, as it has always been. As Catherine looks further into the matter, she wonders if her mother is being truthful, if everything she has known is a lie. She knows nothing about her mother's past, about who she was. As Catherine gets closer to the truth, she does not realize she may be endangering herself. Ruth Sterling has spent her whole life with one directive, keep Catherine safe. Just how far will Ruth go to hide her past and keep Catherine safe, how far would any mother go?

This was a great book. I liked the pace and even though some of it wasn't too hard to guess, the story was told well. Some good plot twists and I liked the ending.

Sarah Pekkanen has had an admirable career: She started out writing women’s fiction, transitioned into mysteries, then began co-authoring thrillers with her editor, Greer Hendricks. Her latest solo offering, the thriller Gone Tonight, shows that she’s absorbed all the lessons from these different genres to pen a captivating story that upends reader expectations with every plot point.

After being kicked out by her religious parents and disowned by her boyfriend, Ruth Sterling ran away from her Virginia home to raise her daughter Catherine all on her own. Like a grittier version of the Gilmore Girls, they were each other’s best friends. Ruth waitressed while Catherine would do her homework in a booth. They moved several times when the money ran out. But now Catherine is a newly graduated nurse, eager to start a job at Johns Hopkins, and things finally seem to be looking up.

And then Ruth is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She admits to Catherine that her own mother died of it several years ago. She didn’t tell Catherine because she didn’t want her to worry.

Catherine is crushed. The Johns Hopkins job is now out of the question. How can she leave her mother to face this disease alone? How can she lose her mother when she knows so little of the woman’s past? And is there a chance that she’s inherited the Alzheimer’s gene? Wanting to know more about her mother before her memory slips away permanently, Catherine leaves her a journal and goes poking around in Ruth’s past. Slowly, Catherine begins to realize she never really knew Ruth at all.

Catherine and the reader are in the same boat: Neither of us knows the real Ruth Sterling. Even though half the book is told through Ruth’s point-of-view, Pekkanen is a master of letting the reader know just enough that she’ll draw the wrong conclusion. Then she drops a twist that leaves you breathless.

My only quibble with the book is that the pacing is a little slow in the beginning, when it seems this book is only about a daughter coming to grips with her mother’s medical diagnosis. But as soon as that first twist hits, the book takes off at a gallop, and the stakes get higher and higher. Both women are highly believable as they engage in a chess game that neither acknowledges. And while some of their actions are questionable, their motives never are.

The only thing that remains constant throughout the book is the question of the inheritable brain disease, and what family members will do to protect each other from it. The nature of the disease, and what constitutes protection, provides that final twist.

This book was nothing like I expected, but I liked trying to figure out how all of the different puzzle pieces fit together. The ending was interesting - just the right amount of resolution and also leaving you with a little bit uncertainty.

I really enjoyed this book, although it took me a bit to get into the plot. Pekkanen’s writing is great, and I really got into the story the more I went along. I will definitely look forward to the next book from this author.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this novel!
3.5/5 rounded up

Phew, I really enjoyed this book. I absolutely flew through it; the pace was nonstop but also just right. This was a dual POV of Ruth and Catherine of both the present and past. I was SO excited to see how everything played out and couldn’t think of a better resolution.

I enjoyed this one! It started out slow, but then, all of a sudden, the plot took quite an unexpected turn, and I could not stop reading! The story is told through alternating POVs between Ruth and her daughter, Catherine. I thought the author did a great job with the way Ruth's back story and secrets unfolded.

I thought the plot was original and had good mystery, suspense, and twists! I started reading this one on audio but switched to the physical and found that I enjoyed it much more.

Catherine and her mother, Ruth, have always been a duo. It's always just been the two of them for as long as Catherine can remember. Catherine is on the verge of getting her nursing degree and moving away to start her new life, but her mother wants anything but that. Especially in the area Catherine's planning to move to. In her quest to keep her daughter close, Ruth inevitably makes Catherine start asking questions about her past... and that's not a road Ruth wants to go down. Once Catherine starts connecting the dots and catching pieces of her mother's lies, their lives could change forever.
 
Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen was a really good mystery/thriller. The ending was very unpredictable and those are the best kind! SO many twists and turns, as soon as you think you have it figured out. NOPE. The rug is ripped right out from under you.

With each and every book I read from Sarah Pekkanen, I become further obsessed with her ability to tell a thrilling, psychological story. Her writing is always so spot on and each book once I start it, I don’t won’t to put it down until it’s over.

Gone Tonight is no exception, it sucked me in immediately and I had to know what was at the core of Ruth’s paranoia for her daughter Catherine. I loved the different timelines that give you an earlier Ruth and a present day Ruth. It explains a lot of her behaviors and habits. And overall I just loved the lengths she went through to protect herself and her daughter.

Overall I thought this was a great book/audio and would definitely recommend it to any fan of the authors or any psychological thriller fan in general.

***Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC copy in return for an honest review***

Sarah and Greer were the two authors that started me on thrillers. I was surprised to see a solo book but knew I had to read it. After reading their last book, I couldn't wait for this one. This one was wild. It left me guessing until the very end. Well done.

Absolutely loved this book! Sarah Pekkanen never misses. I've loved all her books with Greer Hendricks and this one was just as brilliant. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

I began reading the e-ARC of this book and finished it on audiobook after publication. Loved Kata Mara’s narration.

This was a wild ride! Just like her other books I have read, SP is a master at pulling you in right from the beginning. And the bits revealed throughout keep you guessing.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ruth Sterling has raised Catherine alone since birth. The two of them together have been all each other has known, until Catherine decides she wants to move away to attend school. Ruth will do anything to prevent that, and soon Catherine begins to catch on. She turns the tables around on her mother to try to discover why she might not want her to leave, and the answer is not what you think.

I love Sarah Pekkanen books, and this one is no exception. Her writing is so solid, and she is a master at creating a tense atmosphere. This book is a great psychological thriller - page turner, twisty, and exciting. There is so much that happens in the beginning of the book, and twists keep coming. Just when you think you know what is going on, more twists are thrown in.

The book has a dual time-line, back from when Ruth was younger, that switches back and forth between present day. I like how secrets are slowly revealed that way. There are some times that you have to suspend disbelief, which I am not always willing to do. But when a story is this enjoyable, why not? Definitely a great beach read, vacation read, poolside read.

Special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

At the core of Gone Tonight is the story about the love a mother has for her daughter. All her adult life, Ruth has been keeping a secret from her daughter Catherine. That secrets threatens to come to light as Catherine teachers adulthood and Ruth will do anything to keep it buried.

Told in alternating perspectives, I really enjoyed how the story unfolded. Both characters were great, and loved the balance between slow burning mystery and intense thriller at the end.

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I've had this book for a while just sitting. I finally decided to read it and it was good.

Ruth has spent her life protecting her daughter Catherine.

Now an adult, Catherine works in the memory wing of an assisted living facility. She's accepted a new job in Baltimore and is getting ready to move when her mother starts to exhibit signs of alzheimer's. With time running out, Catherine wants to learn more about her mother's life but what secrets will she uncover.

This book is so much more than I expected. Fast paced and worth the read!

4 stars.

Gone Tonight is a fascinating exploration of the mother-daughter relationship between Catherine Sterling and her mother, Ruth Sterling. It's a story of secrets, love, and a mother's determination to keep her daughter close and safe while her daughter wants her freedom.

Catherine is eager to start a new chapter in her life and pursue a new career, while Ruth is fiercely protective of her. But this isn't a typical mother-daughter drama; it's a gripping tale of deception and hidden truths.

What makes this book stand out is the gradual unveiling of Ruth's mysterious past and the turmoil it creates. It's like peeling back the layers of an onion; just when I thought I had uncovered everything, another layer emerges. Sarah Pekannen skillfully crafts the narrative, keeping me engrossed in the story.

The pacing of the book is well-executed, with each chapter revealing more about the characters and their motivations.I found myself eagerly turning the pages to see how the dance of deception between mother and daughter unfolded.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I found myself wanting a bit more depth in certain subplots and character backgrounds. However, "Gone Tonight" is an engaging read that delves into the complexities of familial relationships and the consequences of hidden truths. If you're looking for a thought-provoking story with well-drawn characters, I highly recommend giving this book a read. Sarah Pekannen has created a captivating narrative that will keep you pondering long after you've finished the last page.

The writing was fluid and beautiful and both main characters were very well fleshed out. But I didn’t think the plot itself was unique or different enough to warrant more than 3.5 stars. The “reveal” was also completely obvious from the start.

⭐️ 5
Age range: 16+
Content Warnings: murder, SA

Quotes:

- I would do anything to protect my child.
- I hadn’t even met you, but I swear, I already loved you, too. You were the only thing good left in my life. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have given up a hundred times that first week.
- I guess I’ve never really looked at my mother as an individual. She has always felt more like a planet that orbits around me. Maybe that’s true for most daughters, at least until we reach a certain point in adulthood. We define our mothers through the lens of how they relate to us.
- there is one thing we women do even better than disappearing: We protect our children.

Review:
Catherine doesn't know any of her family or their history, her Mother Ruth has kept that from her. Ruth has a history that slowly unravels as you read further into the novel and you begin to question everything that Catherine has been told including her Mother's sickness. That’s when Catherine starts to think that her Mother may not be this loving and hardworking Mom but rather a liar or worse. We get both sides throughout the book so we know somethings pretty early on but those things we know just keep turning and spinning until the very end. I couldn’t put this down I was so hooked to the story and trying to get more and more information. I also felt so bad for Catherine early on and then my thoughts changed as I read on. Ruth is one strong Momma!

Tropes & Vibes:
- Murder Mystery
- Psychological thriller

This book totally took me by surprise. At first you think it is just a story about a young woman struggling with her mother's prognosis of Alzheimers but then you realize, there is far more to the story. Told in dual POV, Catherine and Ruth tell their stories. Catherine wants to learn more about her mother's past while Ruth works hard to shield her daughter from it to protect her. All in the name of love. What is Ruth hiding, what is the truth? As Ruth's story unwinds while she records her story in a journal for her daughter to read later, suspense gathers as the past slowly gets close to the present. Will Catherine's delving in to the past put her and her mother in danger? A quick read, this story kept me on the edge of my seat with some twists and turns so that I did not expect the surprise at the end. Well done. Many thanks to #netgalley #gonetonight #sarahpekkanen for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really liked this book. I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. People are never what or who they seem to be.