I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I found the first chapter intriguing and when I returned to Gone Tonight, I read the remainder in one sitting. Gone Tonight is a duel point of view told by the mother, Ruth, and the daughter, Catherine. What seems to be a book about mothers and daughters and coping with a dreaded diagnosis morphs quickly into sharp thriller that had me on the edge of my seat, reading until I finished the entire book. Ruth's visit to the neurologist and the diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease and the short chapters switching between mother and daughter, catapults the reader fully into the story.

I enjoyed both characters POV chapters and I while I understood Ruth's character and even empathized with her at her darkest times, Catherine was a bit of an enigma. I thought her chapters were more about the events of the novel while Ruth's chapters let the reader into her character as she showcased her backstory. By the end of the book, I thought Pekkanen kept Catherine remote on purpose and I could see where she was leading us. The climax of the story was every bit as exciting as a thriller should be and while the events wrapped up neatly, we are still left wanting to know what happens with Ruth and Catherine next.

Overall this was a great read and while I think I've read Pekkanen before, I will definitely be checking out her backlist.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc for review purposes.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is a slow burn suspense novel. It is told in dual point of view of a mother (Ruth) and daughter (Catherine) in the past and present. Catherine is about to move away and start her dream job but when her mom stars acting weird (loosing her keys, forgetting phrases, leaving eggs in the cupboard) she needs to figure out whats going on with her. There were so many twists and turns and I definitely did not see that ending coming!! A book I truly couldn't put down.
Thank you to Sarah Pekkanen, St-Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It was a slow-burn suspense that just kept getting twister as the story progressed. There are dual POVs, and if I'm being honest, neither was likable. I found Ruth boring, but her past kept me reeled in and wanting to know more.

The ending was so good; I loved the plot twist! Just when I thought I knew, I didn't. I enjoyed this mother/daughter story.

I will post a full review before the pub date 8/01 on my Instagram page.

Thanks Netgalley and St Martin Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
Published: August 1, 2023
St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Women’s Psychological Fiction
Pages: 337
KKECReads Rating: 5/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Sarah Pekkanen is a #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of four novels. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages. In her free time, Sarah is a dedicated volunteer for rescue animals and serves as Ambassador for RRSA India, working hands-on to vaccinate and heal street dogs in Anand, India. She also volunteers weekly for a horse rescue group in Maryland, mucking stalls and helping mistreated horses heal.
Sarah lives just outside of Washington, D.C. with her family.

“I needed to do whatever it took to break the pattern.”

Catherine is weeks away from moving to start her dream job. She is looking forward to going out into the world until she starts noticing little things. Like her mom putting eggs in the cupboard and misplacing her keys, and forgetting phrases. Now, she has to figure out what’s wrong and try to find the truth.

HOLY BANANA BREAD. When I started this book, I thought it was going in a completely different direction, and I was mentally preparing myself for a story that would break my heart.

Boy, was I wrong. Sarah weaves such a devious and twisted plot, and I appreciate how many little details she puts into the building of the scenes and characters, things that are easy to read and move on. Until they come crashing back at 200 miles per hour.

I liked Catherine. She was intelligent, compassionate, trusting, and kind. She was dedicated to her mom and looked forward to moving into adulthood.

Ruth was such a solid character. I liked her storytelling and how she would stop at nothing to give her daughter the best life possible. There was an underlying sadness in Ruth but also a palpable ferocity.

The twists in this book left my jaw on the floor. I could not have predicted the turns this Tory took. Each more dastardly than the last. This was such an engaging and intense story.

I was on the edge of my seat, speed-reading for my life through the last half of this novel. I could not put it down, and I also did not want to finish. The book hangover is real!

Kathleen Sterling is a 24-year-old girl who any mom would be proud of she has a job placement at Johns Hopkins she just graduated from nursing school and works in the memory department at the sunrise geriatric center when she finds out that her mom Ruth has been afflicted with Alzheimer’s something she knows a lot about due to her career choice she realizes she knows a lot about her affliction but doesn’t know a lot about her mom. She knows her mom is hard-working that she came from Virginia her birthday os August 1 andn she’s 42… But does she? The more Kathleen diggs for information the less she comes up with. While Catherine is trying to dick up her mom‘s past Ruth is busy running from it but the day of reckoning is close upon them so why is Catherine acting like she scared of Ruth? Ruth thinks she has everything under control until she runs out to make an important phone call where her daughter won’t hear only to come back and see Catherine fleeing in the family car and running like her life depends on it. This book so, so, so freaking good! Sarah Peckanen has outdone herself and other people with this book gone tonight is a riveting edge of your seat read I was sitting up in bed to make certain I wouldn’t fall asleep I absolutely loved this book and feel lucky I even got to read it what an absolutely phenomenal story! I don’t know what it is about the story of Ruth and Catherine because on paper it is like your every day thriller but OMG maybe it is the author is writing style or the way she builds up the tension but this is an awesome awesome book! I want to thank Saint martins press Ian Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

🪟 Gone Tonight - Sarah Pekkanen

4 ⭐️ - Wow, this was twisty! This one has a slower start but definitely picked up and had my blood pressure rising. Sarah Pekkanen knows how to keep me on my toes!

I enjoyed this one more than I thought. I was super excited to see Sarah Pekkanen was releasing a new book, but this was my first solo of hers! At first, I was a littleee confused about who the characters were and who they were telling this stories too, BUT as it went on, I totally got the hang of it and was hooked. I was dying to know how the changing POV (my fave) between a mother and a daughter was going to turn out and unravel. I had some guesses that were correct and I saw coming but others I totally didn’t see. Definitely recommend if you’re a Pekkanen fan!

Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillan audio, and St. Martin Press for the early ARC and LRC! This thriller is out 8/8/23!

This book started off a little slowly, but by the halfway mark I was totally invested in finding out the family secrets. Catherine and her mom both have impressive skills when it comes to staying alive and I could easily see this as an thriller/action movie. I listened to the audiobook and it's a great way to experience the tension and mystery in this novel.

Read if you like:
👩‍👧Mother & Daughter Relationships
⏳ Past and Present Timelines
🤐 Secrets & Lies
📝 Journal Entries
2️⃣ Two POV

This was a more slow paced domestic thriller/mystery that swapped POV between Mother (Ruth) and Daughter (Catherine) throughout the book as Catherine begins to uncover lies and secrets from her mother and her mother begins to write out the truth of her past for her daughter that she has never shared before. This all comes out as Catherine is about to embark on a new journey moving away from her mother, but Ruth just can’t let that happen for reasons unknown to Catherine and the reader.

As someone that grew up with a mother that had secrets and lied often this one definitely struck a cord for how Catherine decided to dig and try to figure out the truth for herself of what was going on.

Thank you so much to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The premise is excellent, the execution not so much.

Told in alternating perspectives from mother and daughter (Ruth & Sterling), they are each working to mystify the other. Ruth is protecting Catherine at all costs including possibly faking Alzheimers (!) and Catherine is conducting her own investigating to figure out why.

This just didn't work for me. The plot was unrealistic, so many cringeworthy pieces that would never happen. I wasn't invested in the characters and ultimately the payoff was not worth the setup. The author led me to believe a character was "evil" with no explanations. I worked at a Target and Ruth just lives in the store. I just couldn't suspend belief enough for this to work well for me.

Sarah Pekkanen’s newest, Gone Tonight, was not the super suspenseful story I had anticipated, its a slow-burning, carefully unfolding novel about a mother and daughter. Catherine is nurse, excited about the next stage of her career but her mother doesn’t exactly want Catherine to head out and make a life for herself. Or are there some secrets that Ruth doesn’t want Catherine to know? And is Ruth the only one with secrets?

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.

Don’t miss this one! It’s out on August 1.

When I started this book, I was thrilled with the unique plot potential. Catherine, a recent nursing grad who's headed for a new job at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, lives with her mother, Ruth. Their relationship leans toward dysfunctional - to say Ruth is overprotective would be an understatement. But Catherine's attitude softens quite a bit when she learns that her mother most likely has early-onset Alzheimer's (and Ruth confesses that her own mother had it as well). As a many years long-term care ombudsman who spent considerable time with residents in various stages of dementia, I was super-interested and considered that to be a great angle for a psychological thriller. I even made some guesses as to how that might play out as the story progressed.

But quite a few chapters later, plot shifts left me very disappointed (to avoid spoilers I can't explain that any further). That's because thereafter, the plot became not too different from many others I've read; one character can't (or doesn't think she can) reveal past experiences to the other, with both constantly on the run because the secretive character fears that those experiences will catch up to them in a very not good way. And of course, the character from whom those secrets have been withheld begins to catch on - unbeknownst to the other one.

So it is that Catherine, who has always wondered about her mother's background, begins to dig around and unearths facts that contradict what Ruth has told her all these years. Why, Catherine wonders, have we moved around so often and so hastily? How much of what my mother has told me is the truth, if any - and why has she withheld it? For the most part, Ruth is oblivious to Catherine's investigations, continuing to stick the story she's told in the apparent belief that she's doing it all to protect her precious child.

For her part, Catherine suspects far more sinister motives; and the more she digs, the more the trust gap widens between the two and her actions threaten their very lives. Toward the end, of course, those threats turn into reality. There's no shortage of action throughout the whole thing, and it all comes to a bang-up end (just not one that involves what I'd hoped it would involve). That said, it's a solid and entertaining book, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

This was was just OK. The story shifts between two characters POVs and unfortunately neither of them were likable. The plot itself had so many holes in it and it wasn't believable. I didn't hate it, but was expecting more from an author I've enjoyed in the past. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

All Ruth ever told her daughter, Catherine, of her past was that she left home as a teenager when pregnant with her, never contacting her family again. But when Ruth starts showing signs of Alzhimers, Catherine decides now is the time to secretly dig into her mother’s past. What she finds makes her wonder if she ever really knew her mother at all. Sometimes it’s best to let the past lay burried in the past.

I really enjoyed this book and the way it was written in alternating points of view. Many chapters would end wanting you to read “just one more chapter”. You really won’t want to put it down, especially the second half. The only issue I have is that one small part of the storyline is very similar to another book/movie. One of the characters does call out the fact that they’d seen it in a movie before but as someone who has seen that movie a couple times, it felt very unoriginal.

This book comes out 8/1. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for gifting me with an advanced copy to read and provide an honest review. I really enjoyed it.

Fast paced with lots of twists and turns that I didn't see coming! I liked the alternate POVs, and glimpses into the past through Ruth's journal. It was an interesting premise that made me think what I would have done if in a similar situation, very original storyline.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine is a twenty four year old nurse that works with dementia and Alzheimer patients. Her mother Ruth Sterling is a waitress and they live together. Ruth was a well organized person but suddenly Catherine notices her mom is starting to show signs of dementia. Catherine is concerned enough that she has her mom visit a neurologist.

Ruth had Catherine out of wedlock and Catherine had never known her father. It was something they never spoke about. Ruth was now 42 but she was tight lipped about her past. Ruth’s mother was abusive so she tried to shelter her little brother Timmy from her. Her father tried to protect them but he was working all the time. But he did do special things for Ruth like the ring. This story is set with Ruth’s past and her old boyfriend James Bates and the future. It will definitely keep you wanting to turn page after page and it grabs you from the very beginning!

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this book. I was so excited to receive a copy on NetGalley and devoured it in a couple of days. It was hard to put it down but a girl needs to sleep sometimes! :)

After a slow burn start this book kept me turning the pages as fast as I could! I'm a huge fan of Sarah's work and this one did not disappoint!

Such a good book! Sarah Pekkanen is one of my favorite authors. This book has such a unique story line and incredible character development. The twists and turns are genius and truly thrilling.

This was good, a bit slow in the beginning but with a good dose of misdirection not only for the reader but for one of the characters right away. When I started reading I was confused with how it was going to be a suspense/thriller as it was playing out more like a medical drama. Lo and behold, things aren't as they seem, and as I continued reading (alternating POV's between mother and daughter) I figured out one of our narrators wasn't quite reliable.

Good bit of "nature vs nurture" and "mother knows best" throughout the story. The pace definitely picked out about halfway through and I was hooked on finding out how this all would end. I thought the third act plot points were a bit of a stretch but knew a showdown was inevitable. I enjoyed it for what it was, a quick weekend thriller. It probably won't be super memorable for me 6 months from now, but I would read this author again.

What a doozie! Start to finish this one in a few hours. It kept me engaged and wanting to know more. Enjoyed both POV’s and loved the pace.

Thanks to St.Martin’s Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Publish date: August 1, 2023