Gone Tonight started out slow and I almost set it aside, but I'm so glad I stuck with it cause it was a pretty good read. Ruth a hardworking, poor woman suddenly starts to suffer with memory issues. Her daughter, Catherine, recently graduated from nursing school and working at a memory care unit, knows all too well what this might mean. Katherine is determined to learn about her mother’s past before it’s too late. Her mother has worked hard to hide her past from Catherine, including the identity of her parents or Catherine’s father. The book alternates between the two women, and the reader gets to see the past through their memories. I loved the book. #netgalley #gonetonight

Gone Tonight was my second Sarah Pekkanen book (The Wife Between Us was my first) and both were three stars and "ok" reads. The narrators alternate between the mother Ruth, and daughter Catherine. It helped see two sides to the same story and made reading a little more interesting, but the overall story felt slow, I wanted it to be faster paced, with more twists. It did pick up and there were a few twists towards the end, but not enough to boost my rating or overall feelings. It seems like you either loved this book or it was just ok, so take my review with a grain of salt. Fans of Pekkanen might enjoy Gone Tonight more than I did.
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Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ugh I did not like this book. There were parts that grabbed my attention like when the coach was killed. However, the storyline about the girl and her mom fell short. There were some interesting starts like when the mom implied that the daughter may have been a killer or something was psychologically off about her, but then they never really took that storyline anywhere. I also did not care about the mom and the guy (sorry I am terrible with character names). I was about to put down the book multiple times but forced myself to finish.

Ruth had Catherine at the tender young age of seventeen and they have been a team ever since. Always on the poor side and frequently running from one place to the next, Catherine has just taken it all in stride. Now at twenty-four Catherine is ready to stretch her wings and start a new career. She’s accepted her dream job as a nurse at John Hopkins, but she has to move away. As her move date draws closer, Catherine starts to notice things about Ruth. She’s forgetting things, losing things and getting lost. Catherine is all too aware of the devastating affects of dementia as she works in an Alzheimer’s care home. Willing to give up her dreams, she starts to notice other things amiss, her mother has secrets and she’s determined to find out what they are. Ruth is also determined to keep her secrets to keep Catherine safe, but Catherine won’t be stopped. What is her mother hiding? Told in two voices as well as journal entries, this was a slow burn of a book, but as the story builds, so does the tension. With an original storyline, Pekanen keeps the reader riveted until the very end and in the audio version, Kate Mara brings the story to life. Thank you to Saint Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC and ALC of this book.

Wow, this book was just what I needed in a thriller. The last two thrillers I read didn't hook me like I would have wanted them to. This book sucked me in from the start. I honestly didn't want to put it down. The only reason I didn't finish it sooner was because I'm exhausted from the heat and had work. If not, this probably would have been a read in one day book. This book has so many twists and turns and just information keeps unraveling as the story goes on. Seriously a messed up family. Each chapter you gets wilder and wilder. You get two povs. One is the pov of the mother and the other is the pov of the daughter. The mother's pov she's slowly telling her life story to us and what she wants to leave her daughter just incase? The daughter's pov is her slowly figuring out that her mom isn't the person she thought she was. It was fun seeing the mom tell things and have the daughter trailing behind. It was such a good pace and kept me hooked. I can't wait to see what Sarah writes next. I'll definitely be picking it up.

This is one of the best thrillers I have read in awhile and any review I write will not do it justice. Preorder this. Read the book. You will not regret it.

Dual POV between Mom (Ruth) and Daughter (Catherine) play out so well in this story as Ruth mostly tells a history about how they got to where they are and the reasoning behind her current habits, while Catherine is trying to unravel the lies that her mother has given her throughout her entire life. This in itself leads to conflict where Catherine is figuring out the secrets her mom is trying so desperately to keep hidden.

This book leaves you at the edge of your seat wondering what’s going to happen next until the very last page. While some of the storyline is somewhat predictable, there was plenty that was not. I could not put this book down!

3.5/5
Gone Tonight was a slow burn thriller. It started a little slow and then the started to pick up when Ruth and her daughter Catherine began unveiling each other's secrets. It really picked up at about 70% and became much more heart pounding and exciting. I definitely enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel and I was pleasantly surprised when the pace picked up. Layer by layer the characters grew on me and I appreciated the approach of the book.

I ended up listening to this novel and feel like I wish I would have read the book instead. I think since the novel switches between multiple characters and multiple timelines, I would have had an easier time in the beginning if I would have read the physical copy. I enjoyed the storyline and it was a good thriller.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for granting me a free copy in exchange for my honest review!

Wow, this gives a gut punch right from the beginning and just keeps hitting. So many plot pivots and the separate narratives of mom and daughter makes for a superb story. What a mother would do to protect her child. Love it.


Thank you Netgalley for this arc

I have read everything Sarah Pekkanen has written, and this is by far the best book yet!
This book is about a mother (Ruth) and a daughter (Catherine). It tells their life story through both characters. Things happened in Ruth's life that have affected Catherine's life,
and all is revealed in the end.
Thank you, #netgalley and #stmartinspress

Ruth Sterling is used to blending in and has adjusted to life on the run with her daughter after her boyfriend put her in an impossible situation many years before that gave her no choice but to flee. What Ruth does not plan for is her daughter Catherine’s persistent questions and inquest into her mother’s past. Catherine catches her mother in lie after lie and decides to go on a mission to figure out why her mother keeps secrets from her. Ruth’s past comes back to haunt her just as Catherine gets closer to finding out more about her mother’s past. The two women must act together to stop the man Ruth once loved who is hell bent on getting revenge against Ruth for leaving him many years before.

This was a highly engaging plot to read as the first part of the story focused on mother and daughter trying to get ahead of one another on Catherine’s quest for the truth about her mother’s past. When that truth is revealed, Catherine has to push her anger with her mother aside to protect her from the man she has been running from for 25 years. The timeline, characters, and all the little details inside this book were carefully written and engaged me more and more with the turn of each page. This was a solid 4 star read for me. I thought it was a well written book. A few parts were a little out there, but it was still very entertaining and I liked the character. I docked 1 star only because something was missing that packed the usual punch of a 5 star read. It ended nicely, but as I turned the last page the book overall lacked the usual thrill I get when I finish a 5 star read.

This is a psychological thriller told from the point of view of the two main characters. Mother and daughter are on a collision course as they are both keeping secrets. The story is told in the present and the past and keeps the reader interested as it unravels the plot. The characters are mesmerizing as they reveal to the readers their true self. The dialogue is also interesting and page turning. The story will hold your interest from start to finish.

This had a slow start, but once the mystery and suspense picked up, I was hooked! I loved the ending, which I did not predict! The multiple POVs added depth to the story and made the characters very interesting, even if not quite likeable all the time.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Not too bad for this author’s first solo journey. She has co-authored a number of other psych thrillers, all of which I’ve really enjoyed so I was delighted to receive an advanced copy of this book.

In this slow burn, we meet Ruth and her grown daughter Catherine. The two are as close as close can be between mother and daughter. In fact, one might even think too close. Neither have any of their own friends. They spend most nights together. Ruth even has Catherine’s location on at all times so she always knows where her daughter is. It’s always been just the two of them, with Ruth regularly packing up and moving them suddenly every few years while Catherine was growing up, which made it impossible for her to sustain friendships.. But Catherine has been offered a nursing position in Baltimore and will finally be leaving the nest…or will she? Ruth has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which puts a big wrinkle in her plan. As Catherine starts to look more closely at her mother’s diagnosis, she starts to notice that maybe Ruth hasn’t been as honest with her over the years as she thought.

There was a lot to love about this book. The dual first person narration that alternated between Ruth and Catherine’s perspective was atmospheric and ominous. It moved the plot at a good pace and kept me intrigued to know what was coming next. Ruth also used a journal format to share backstory from an older time line of when she was a teenager. The execution of this worked well. There was a decent twist and the ending packed some punch.

What didn’t work as well for me was the shift in plot dynamic from suspenseful to action/adrenaline. The reader learns fairly early on what’s going on with Ruth, which took the plot in more of a cat and mouse direction. I was hoping for pure suspense. Some of the plot elements were also far fetched so one needs to be able to suspend disbelief to some degree. And the audiobook version could have used a second narrator to perform Catherine’s perspective. This would have added depth and animation in bringing the storyline alive via audio.

There were some hits and misses in this one but overall it was engaging and kept my interest. Would recommend to others.

Thanks #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for an advanced ecopy and #MacMillanAudio for an audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was amazing. Twisty, dark, suspenseful with drama and secrets!
Told between Ruth and Catherine, a mother daughter duo. I loved the concept, the layout and the dialogue!
Add this to your list! Coming in August 2023.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

A well structured, slower moving thriller with minimal twists and turns. The author slowly weaves the story together until the reader finally has the whole picture. I do enjoy stories where we slowly learn everything we need to know, but I would have enjoyed some bigger reveals.

I could never decide if I liked Ruth or not. I understand the choices she made were due to necessity, but like Catherine, I feel she could have done things differently. Catherine felt a little bland to me honestly, but I appreciated that she wasn’t a damsel in distress and took matters into her own hands. This really dove deep into doing whatever it takes to protect your children and ran with it.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was lucky enough to buddy read this one and it kept me so engaged with all the different opinions on what was happening and where this one was headed. I was very quick to believe both of our narrators are reliable while not all in my group were so easily swayed. Told from a mother and daughter’s POVs the reader is privy to there is something in their past, but not what that is.

This format was a great fit for this story. Not only is there two POVs, but Ruth is documenting what has happened to get them to where they are now. Ruth is lying to her daughter and trying to protect her to the best of her ability. And fearful she might not be able to come clean, she is writing an account of what happened and what she has kept from her daughter Catherine.

I am not sure either character is likable or if the story remains plausible at all points, but seriously none of that mattered as I read this one. There was the perfect amount of build up and tension to make me need to know their story and what would happen to them. Quite a few times I was on the edge of my seat.

Both the book and audiobook kept my attention and wanting more. Kate Mara does a great job narrating the audiobook and letting the story shine.

If this isn’t on your tbr, you need to make room and add it.

I’ve been reading and enjoying Sarah Pekkanen’s novels for years now, but Gone Tonight is far and away the best of the bunch. My thanks go to Net Galley, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public August 1, 2023. If you love psychological fiction or thrillers, you should order it now.

In her previous thrillers—the ones I’ve read, at least—there is similarity. She’s written about women ganging up on one woman, and love triangles, or what appear to be love triangles. This one is different, and it’s better. Here we have just two characters, mother Ruth and her young adult daughter Catherine. The unseen character is James, Catherine’s biological father. Throughout the story, Ruth is vigilant, always watchful. She’s afraid she’s being stalked, or investigated, or otherwise watched. Ruth isn’t merely careful; she keeps a bug-out bag ready for each of them, varies her routine to where she really doesn’t have one. She doesn’t take the same exact route to any of the places she frequents regularly. To see and hear this character, one would think that the CIA, the Mafia, and all of the cartels were out to get her and kill her.

Early in the book, Ruth provides Catherine with some hard news: she has early onset Alzheimer’s. I tell you this in particular, because when I saw it, my eyes glazed over with boredom and I thought that this thriller wasn’t going to thrill me at all. I nearly slid the book onto the bottom of my stack, and that would have been a terrible mistake, because this is *not* an Alzheimer’s story.

Catherine has never met any of her relatives; Ruth lies to keep her from investigating them. But now Catherine is an intelligent adult, and there is the internet. It’s mighty hard to keep a secret these days, and that’s rough for Ruth, because she’s got a lot of them, some bigger than others. As Catherine digs, she is surprised, and this makes her dig even harder. She keeps finding things, and Ruth keeps changing her explanations. It isn’t long before Catherine realizes she’s been lied to, and she stops telling Ruth what she discovers.

The format Pekkanen uses is an effective one, and it’s easy to follow. She changes the point of view in the standard way from one to the other and back with both sides told in the first person, but the tricky part is how to provide Ruth’s narrative. Catherine can give us her first person narrative and we think nothing of it, but Ruth talks to no one except her daughter, and even so, she lies to her daughter all the damn time, so under what circumstances will she spill her guts to us? The solution isn’t all that original, but it’s effective and reasonably believable. Ruth has a secret diary that she’s writing for Catherine to have when Ruth is gone. It requires me to overlook the unlikelihood of someone as obsessively private as Ruth sitting down and documenting the whole shooting match, including names and dates in writing, but this is such a fun book that I set my momentary disbelief aside and keep reading, because I have to know what happens next.

Once we are past the Alzheimer’s passage, my attention is rapt, but friend, the last ten percent of Gone Tonight is one for the ages! I rarely say this, but this creepy little novel would make an amazing movie or miniseries.
Actor Kate Mara reads the audio version, and she does a fine job. Highly recommended!

Gone Tonight is a domestic thriller that at the beginning makes you wonder if it is a thriller. Catherine has recently completed her nursing degree and is preparing to move to Boston to accept a nursing position. Ruth, her mother, will do anything to stop Catherine from moving. When Catherine realizes Ruth is trying to keep her in Pennsylvania, Catherine realizes it is time for some answers. Ruth has never revealed much information about herself. Ruth and Catherine have no other family, it's just the two of them. As Catherine starts to investigate, she realizes there is much about her mother she doesn't know.

This was a very quick read for me. I found myself wanting to keep returning to read to see what was going to happen. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There are few relationships closer than the one between a mother and her daughter, and in this story it’s amplified by the fact that Catherine and her mother, Ruth, have only ever had each other.

This split POV thriller is filled with suspense and mystery from the start, and doesn’t slow down as you move through each Act. I loved how each chapter switched perspectives, and some of Ruth’s story was told in the format of personal journal entries. This kept me really hooked on both the past and present timelines in this story.

I read this one in a few sittings, and was genuinely excited to come back to it every time. Definitely recommend to fans of psychological thrillers, family dramas, and stories with multiple/ alternative POVs!

Wow! What a great book! Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is one of my favorite thrillers so far of the year! I couldn’t put it down.

The story follows the mother daughter relationship of Ruth and Catherine. As the story unfolds you find out what transpired in Ruth’s past.

Through twists and turns Gone Tonight is filled with the complications of a mother daughter relationship, revenge, hope and forgiveness.

I’ve previously read other thrillers by Sarah Pekkanen, but this is her first independent thriller and I will definitely pick up anything she writes in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.