I read this one in one day, it moved fast and kept my interest throughout. I was waiting for some twists that just didn’t come, but still felt there were a few moments that surprised me or left me guessing. I think this was a solid thriller, if that’s your thing!

What a story full of surprises!
Loved the characters!
Fast paced!
Full of tension!
Solid writing by author Sarah Pekkanen!
Be ready to go on a twisty trip when reading Gone Tonight!
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a very well written book with deeply drawn characters that you really come to care about. The pacing is good , the mystery and twists are solid and unpredictable. It drag for me a little in the middle. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for making this available for review.

This book started out in one direction that was interesting but I wondered how it would become a mystery as classified. I didn't have long to wait. There are so many "I didn't see that coming" moments in this book that I can't tell them without spoiling the experience for other readers. There were a few revelations I had guessed - but just as many that I hadn't.

I enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the story.. This will be a best seller!

I enjoyed “Gone Tonight” by Sarah Pekkanen. Just when you think you know what is happening, there is a well timed plot twist. It is written from the alternating viewpoints of Catherine and Ruth, yet neither seems to be a reliable narrator. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

A super duper mesmerizing read!
I thought the story was about an obsessive mother, but then it melted into something else only to then morph into subplots that were completely unexpected!
I traveled from sadness to puzzlement to excitement to angst.
It is sooooo good!
Read why a mother and daughter are codependent and how much of our DNA from our parents resonates within us.

Gone Tonight is a thrilling, riveting read. Author Sarah Pekkanen sneakily builds up the suspense without you even realizing it. The first half is just a story about a mother and a daughter. They are devoted to each other; it’s always been just the two of them. But there’s a bit of an edge to their close relationship. The mother can be unyielding at times, and the daughter feels stifled. She’s just about to finally break away and experience freedom with a new job in another town when her mother’s illness, Alzheimer’s, stops her in her tracks and puts an end to that dream. Her mother has always done everything for her so she doesn’t even consider leaving now.

As the book moves into the second half, secrets, or hints of secrets, are revealed and suspicions start to form. Some of the things Ruth, the mom, says don’t quite ring true, and Catherine, the daughter, wonders if the things she’s been told all her life are true and begins her own investigation into her mom’s past. Ruth starts to keep a journal “while she still can” and the glimpses we get into it only raise more questions: why is Ruth so determined to keep Catherine safe? Safe from what or from who? What happened in the past? Secrets are revealed but at the same time both women become more secretive. You can’t quite put your finger on what the secrets are or who is really keeping them. Resentments build, the story becomes more complex and convoluted, more and more is revealed and a sense of foreboding settles over the story. The pace builds until it becomes cat and mouse and suddenly you want to read faster and faster and faster. The past has always been vague, the present is uncomfortable, and now it seems the future could be tragic.

Both Ruth and Catherine put themselves in danger – sometimes recklessly, sometimes because they are operating under false pretenses, and sometimes because protecting the one they love is vital. Coincidence, fate, inevitable events? Whatever they are, we nearly have the daylights scared out of us several times as we try to figure out just who is who and envision what might happen.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of Gone Tonight via NetGalley. It was a very enjoyable read, with an ending that is unsettling, chilling, and yet totally satisfying. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

I usually love books by Sarah Pekkanen and when she writes with Greer Hendricks so I was so excited to receive this ARC but sadly disappointed. The first third of the book was quite tedious told from two POV’s. One Catherine the 24 year old daughter of Ruth. So each chapter goes from Ruth, the mother to Catherine the daughter Towards the halfway point the book does pick up and the pieces of the puzzle that Catherine questions about her mother start to come to surface and Ruth knows at some point she must be honest with her backstory to her daughter. It had an interesting storyline but I found it quite farfetched and found the ending very disappointing. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC I received for an honest review. I really do not like giving negative reviews and was truly hoping for a different ending but this book may just not be for me. There are other reviews that are more positive so maybe it is just my take of the book.

Words can't describe how much I loved this exciting and emotional read! The relationship between mother and daughter was interesting complex. The main characters were so well defined that they jumped off the page. I couldn't put this book down and the final twists at the end were shocking in the most delightful way!

I went into this completely blind and I'm glad I did. This is a stunner of a thriller! The characters are interesting and likeable and you are rooting for both Ruth and Catherine even though their goals aren't always aligned. I enjoyed both POVs and didn't find myself rushing through one to get to the other. The twists and conflicts of the story were very well thought through and are all entirely believable. I'm blown away at the thought that this could potentially happen in the real world. This is a thriller with a heart of gold that I would recommend to anyone!

Thanks to Sarah Pekkanen, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is a psychological thriller that I just couldn’t put down. Ava, a young impressionable teenager, hungry to be loved embarks on a path one fateful night that will forever change how she views herself and the world. Catherine, her daughter, has just graduated from nursing school and is about to begin her career but will her journey lead her down the same dark path? I loved the way the author let us see snippets of Ava’s youth through her journal writing. It allowed the reader to have a glimpse of the experiences that she endured that made her the person she turned out to be. I also loved the underlying message that a parent’s love is unconditional no matter the costs. The twist at the end I definitely didn’t see coming and made the story even more riveting. I would definitely recommend to others.

I’ve read several books that Sarah Pekkanen has coauthored but this was the first solo run I’ve read and boy oh boy it did not disappoint.

Gone Tonight is a skillfully crafted suspense thriller that delves into the bonds between a mother and daughter. It’s ingrained in us that a mother should do anything to protect her child, but when is it too far and at what cost. A lifetime of secrets and lies has finally begun to unravel but will mother and daughter be able to move beyond it all?

Ruth and her daughter Catherine are as close as a mother and daughter could be, in fact it’s always been just the two of them. Having Catherine at seventeen, they are estranged from Ruth’s strict family and through the years Ruth shared very little about her previous live. Life has been hard with Ruth jumping from job to job struggling to make ends meet. The two have had to move around quite a lot when things didn’t work out. Having recently completed her nursing education, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, but as she is preparing to leave, her mother begins to exhibit signs of early Alzheimer’s disease. Catherine postpones her plans so that she can spend as much time with her mother while she is still cognizant enough to share about her previous life the little she’s willing to share doesn’t quite make sense propelling Catherine forward on a quest of her own to learn more about her mother and what she’s been hiding all these years.

I really enjoyed the structure of the story. The alternating POV allowed me to be in the minds of both Catherine and Ruth as the story unfolded and their emotions were palpable. The short chapters made for a fast read, making this a perfect beach read. Packed with secrets and lies, I watched the foundation of the mother-daughter relationship fracture as the truth emerged and the lines between right and wrong began to blur. This slow burn tension packed thriller held me hostage turning the pages late into the night.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the opportunity to preview an e-galley of this addictive read that is due to publish August 1, 2023. This is my honest review and the opinions expressed above are my own.

How far would you go to protect someone yourself or someone you love? Would you give up your name, your family and your entire support system?

A mother’s love is a powerful thing and that’s exactly how Ruth has justified many of the choices she’s made. Catherine has only known her mother’s love, as she has no other family to speak of. She has no siblings and her mother’s family disowned her when she got pregnant…

When her mother begins experiencing symptoms of Alzheimers, and Ruth states that her mother had it too, Catherine realizes she needs to know more about her family history, specifically her mom. This curiosity creates tension between the mother and daughter, but Catherine is determined.

As Catherine digs into her mother’s past, Ruth keeps a watchful eye on James a man from before that led to her choice to hide.

When James is released from prison, Catherine unintentionally connects with him in an effort to understand who her mother actually is, not realizing the danger she’s put herself in…

Ruth knows she needs to protect Catherine from James and share the truth, but could it be too late?

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Gone Tonight is expected to be published August 1/2023.

A fast paced thriller that will keep you guessing-and surprised. Catherine has never understood her mother Ruth but now she's worried because just as she's about to move to Baltimore for a job at Hopkins, Ruth has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Ironic, because Catherine has worked in a memory care unit and is a nurse who specializes in the geriatric. But is Ruth really ill? Ruth has a secret, a big secret, and now Catherine is picking it apart. This moves between the two women and between two time frames, with Ruth's history spelled out in a diary she writes for her daughter. This deserves to be read without spoilers so none from me. I admit I wondered a bit about both of them but wait....I also found myself down the google rabbit hole over the lasagna pizza thing- grew up near Towson and never heard of it or a restaurant specializing in it until this novel where it's important to the plot! Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC Great storytelling makes this a page turner.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

This was such a chilling story on so many levels. Twenty four year old Catherine Sterling works in the most acute unit of the memory care section at Sunrise, a facility for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Now she's dealing with the nightmare that her own mother, Ruth, is showing the signs of early onset Alzheimer’s. Just when she was ready to get out on her own at a new job in another city, finally to be out from under her mother's loving but smothering and constant presence, Catherine's plans are shattered by the need to stay with her mother.

The story is told from two POVs. There is Catherine's POV, as she worries that her mother seems to be showing the same symptoms of many of the people she works with. Then there is Ruth's POV, as we slowly learn just what she would do to keep her daughter safe from the past. Sadly, things from the past are finally coming to a head and Ruth feels she cannot let her daughter out of her sight. So she preys on her daughter's fears and sense of duty to manipulate her to not leave her mom when her mom surely needs her the most.

Ruth's past is a humdinger and we learn about it as she writes to her daughter in a notebook that will explain all. But Ruth's story isn't finished and the biggest danger is to come. It's in the second half of the book that my interest ramps up. With Catherine pulling away from Ruth, drastic measures must be taken but is it too late for Ruth to insure that Catherine doesn't fly the coop? This story is very much about family and this family is something else once all the past is laid bare.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Gone Tonight is Sarah Pekkanen’s latest domestic thriller told in dual POV from a mother and daughter. It’s perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Lisa Unger.
24-year-old Catherine Sterling was raised by a single mother and knew no other relatives. She worked as a nursing aide at an upscale assisted living facility while going through nursing school. Now that she’s graduated, she’s ready to move to Baltimore to work at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
42-year-old Ruth Sterling is quiet, a hardworking diner waitress, dedicated to her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now that Catherine is ready to move away from her, Ruth fakes having early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease to keep Catherine nearby. Ruth starts writing some of her memories about her past in a spiral notebook.

Since Catherine knows nothing about her family history, she starts investigating and learns that her mom has been lying to her all these years. She also stirs up danger from the past. It’s a cat-and-mouse between mother, daughter, and Catherine’s biological father.

I liked Gone Tonight because it was an original premise and featured strong female characters. The story was gripping, and the truth was revealed near the end of the story. The author revealed a lot of medical knowledge throughout the story, although I would classify this as a domestic thriller.

I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to the St. Martin's Press for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!


𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
I absolutely loved this one! I enjoyed the alternating POVs of Catherine and her mom Ruth and the journal entries that gave us a glimpse of the past-so fun! This was a suspenseful read about a mother who will stop at nothing to keep her daughter close to protect her from her past. Catherine starts to slowly unveil the truth about her mother and her identity. She begins to question everything about her own memories of her childhood, her mother, and begins to wonder if she can really trust her own mother-the one person she has trusted for her whole life. I really loved both of the main characters, they were totally unreliable narrators, and I enjoyed how they left me questioning things and wondering how everything would play out in the end. Also, I LOVED the short chapters! There are many twists that I did not see coming, and an ending that will blow your mind🤯

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞?
If you enjoy psychological thrillers, a book full of secrets and lies-then this one is for you!

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5

4.5 stars.

WOW! As someone who has read each of the collaboration novels Pekkanen wrote with Hendricks with less than stellar results (none ranked more than 'fine' to me), I expected much of the same from a Pekkanen solo-thriller outing; I was wrong. Gone Tonight is compulsively readable and hard to put down. This is a book where the synopsis gives next to nothing away and even almost misleads in terms of what the novel is about to great success.

I basically read this book in two sittings because it kept getting crazier with each chapter. Just when one thing started to come together another wrench was thrown in. But even with reading it quickly (which sometimes means a disconnect with characters) I still found myself getting a tad emotional throughout the novel, something that doesn't happen to me with thrillers.

This is a thriller I could see myself recommending to a lot of my friends when they ask for recommendations. While I can't say that I will be picking up any other collaboration novels that Pekkanen does with Hendricks, sign me up for the next solo novel!

My thanks go out to St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I started off thinking it was about one thing then realized with horror it was not. The daughter's distress about not knowing her month was annoying. Just ask her already. But then there might not be much story. Maybe could have stretched out the back half to give more suspense.

Gone Tonight
Author: Sarah Pekkanen
St. Martin's Press
Release Date: 8/1/2023
Mystery & Thrillers

I was so wrong when I initially thought I knew the direction that Pekkanen's plot was taking in Gone Tonight. The gripping story of a mother and daughter relationship is intense and full of unexpected twists. As the past and present collide, the tension builds as readers learn of secrets, deceit, and danger.
This book is skillfully told in alternating points of view of Ruth the mother and her daughter Catherine. Ruth fervently tries to keep Catherine from moving away to pursue her career. If you like psychological thrillers as I do, add this to your reading list.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the advance readers' copy. My review is my own.
#GoneTonight #StMartinsPress #SarahPekkanen