Having read many of this authors and writing partners previous books I was very excited to see this solo project especially after reading the premise.

As I was into the book and upon finishing it was definitely not your typical “thriller”, but I enjoyed this fresh take.

This story alternates between two different POVs. Catherine, the daughter and Ruth, her Mother. Catherine has lived a very sheltered chaotic close life with her extremely over protective Mother. Her Mother shares little to nothing about her past, but when Catherine has a new job opportunity that will cause her to move away from her Mother, her Mother gets diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Welllllll…. This starts the wild unraveling of a life and Mother that Catherine thought she knew , but boy was she wrong !! Suddenly Catherine wants to know more about her Mother’s past because she’s slowly starting to feel everything she thinks she knows about her Mother is a lie.

This does start out slow and continues to be a bit of a slow burn, but once things start to unravel I had to keep reading!
I thoroughly enjoyed the effortless transitions between the characters POV. I also found the way through each character’s POV we as readers find out their secrets they are keeping from each other long before the whole truth is exposed to them.

I really found this to be an interesting read as it does tackle some sensitive topics such as Alzheimer’s, and it shows the author did her research. It also brings in a little psychology on what traits and behaviors through generations.

I will say the ending was a little wild, and wraps up this books story it begs the question about how our past can knowingly and unknowingly shape a potentially wild future!!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martins Press, and the author for an ARC!

Sarah Pekkanen now has a solo thriller in “Gone Tonight” after two best-selling novels co-authored with Greer Hendricks, “The Wife Between Us” and “The Golden Couple.”

This is a mother/daughter book, told in alternating POVs. Catherine is a 24 year old nursing student whose only known family has been her 42 year old somewhat mysterious mother Ruth, who has often uprooted the two of them on a moment’s notice. As Ruth immediately declares, she knows how to disappear. Catherine is about to leave for a nursing scholarship in Baltimore and Ruth does not want that to happen. The “why” is wrapped up in Ruth’s background — she’s only ever told Catherine that she was a pregnant teenager who was forced to leave her unloving family and boyfriend. At this moment, it seems like Ruth is presenting symptoms of early-onset Alzeimher’s — but is that the truth or a ploy to keep Catherine from leaving? Catherine, believing her mother’s mind might fade away soon, starts an investigation into her mother’s past and starts to discover many uncomfortable things. This is not the perfect mother/daughter relationship at all.

The author does a great job of ratcheting up tension as the story of Ruth starts to unravel — we’re not sure who to root for, but as revelations build, the complicated story tugs at our emotions. 5 stars!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Ruth has hazel eyes and Catherine’s eyes are continually described as “denim” colored.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Although the “middle of the woods” plays an important part of the plot.

For me thrillers have to catch me by the throat right away, or be a tantalizing burn...this was neither. More a look at mother daughter relationships with a foreseeable twist.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Arguably one of the best books I've ever read. Gripping. Suspenseful. Heart-stopping. Sarah has done it again!

It has always been Catherine and her mother, Ruth, against the world. Catherine knows her mother to be a quiet, serious, and hardworking woman. They have always been together but now Catherine wants to advance her career and doing so means moving.

Ruth will do anything to keep Catherine with her. She wasn't expecting Catherine to want to move, to question things, or to dig into her past. What secrets will be uncovered?

How well do you really know someone? How well do you know your parent(s)?

This was a gripping and hard to put down book. I enjoyed how the book is told through the past and present timelines. As more is divulged, I found myself more immersed in the story. I felt for Catherine wanting to grow and move on with her life. She is an adult now and ready to spread her wings. Ruth is fearful and willing to do whatever it takes to keep Catherine close to her. I was intrigued with why she felt the need to keep her so close. As children, we only know our parents as parents, we don't know everything about them, their pasts, their experiences, only what they choose to share with us. Ruth has not shared much at all.

This was a well written and thrilling book. I enjoyed the mounting suspense, especially in the last half of the book. There are secrets and then there are secrets!!! Wowza! So good! What an enjoyable thriller that built into a thrilling second half. I enjoyed Catherine and Ruth's mother-daughter relationship, it's an interesting dynamic. I also enjoyed the role of secrets in this book.

Sarah Pekkanen has written another thrilling book that kept me on my toes. I had both the kindle and audiobook versions of this book and found myself listening to most of the book via audiobook as the narration was so terrific.

Gripping, suspenseful, thought provoking and hard to put down!

I wanted to read this book because I had enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen's books with Greer Hendricks. The story follows Ruth and her daughter Catherine. They are very close but when Catherine gets a job and wants to move away Ruth goes to extremes to keep her form going. The reason behind her overprotectiveness is what drives the book. The overall story was intriguing in parts but something was missing to make it a great book. I think what bothered me was the implication that Catherine was possibly a psychopath who had been violent since she was little. Still a solid book but just not my favorite. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This review is for both the audio and ebook version
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the ARC and early listen! Wow what a story! Enjoyed listening/reading about the history behind Catherine Sterling thinks and her mother Ruth Sterling. Reading this was like solving a puzzle. All the characters were great since they were all essential to the story and how it would all unfold.
This story is definitely a thrill ride with a few twists and turns.
Highly recommend!
Narrated by Kate Mara: Did a great job telling the story! Did not want to stop listening!

A sloooowww burn without much payoff at the end. I am a pretty fast reader, but this book took me weeks to get through because I just wasn't excited to pick it up. I've loved her books written with Greer Hendricks, but this one was not for me.

With appreciation to St Martin's Press for the ebook copy and MacMillan Audiobook for the excellent audiobook: Gone Tonight is a great slow burn tension filled suspense read, filled with effective twists and an uneasy sense that Catherine is stepping into dangerous territory with all of her questions (main character, trying to uncover a past that's been withheld from her... to uncover how much she doesn't know about her mother and their past). I was really drawn into the author's moody writing and how she took care to time the placing of new reveals/twists throughout the story, it kept me engaged and wanting to know how the story was going to tie up.

I found this to really work well on audiobook in particular and want to say that Kate Mara's narration was fantastic (and I am a fan, watching her on Class of 09 right now), I hope she continues to do suspense audiobooks as she captured Sarah Pekkanen's style and pacing effectively. The ebook format was great as well as I appreciated being immersed in the moody writing (I alternated between both formats as I found Mara's narration to really engage me when I could not sit to read but wanted to keep up with the story!).

What a great read! The twists!!! Omg. I didn’t see this one coming. I really loved the mother daughter relationship even as they unfurl all the secrets and work through it. & The secrets! So delicious!

I loved the journal entries as Ruth writes and divulges everything. This is just a wild story full of twists. I love how they were slowly released continuously propelling the story forward.

The different perspectives & past/present telling of the story brought so much depth and layers.

And the final chapter… shook.

Everyone seems to really think this was the bees knees, but unfortunately for me it fell a little flat.

I knew the first big reveal at only the 4% mark, but had to wait until 31% for confirmation. The journal entries regarding the past were quite deliciously horrible, but I found the present to be so lackluster until nearly the halfway mark that I was really just slogging through. And the last 25% could have been condensed to a few chapters and wrapped things up perfectly fine. So there you have it. Every reader has a different experience with each book they pick up. I wish I would have enjoyed this one as much as all of my friends did.

2.5 Stars

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

My thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to review this arc.

How far would a mother go to prevent her 24 year old daughter from moving away from her to take a nursing job? Even fake an Alzheimers diagnosis in her early 40s? That's exactly what Ruth Sterling is doing to her daughter Catherine. This story is told from the POV of Ruth and Catherine. When the WHY is revealed as to Ruth's actions, the reader will be very surprised.

Good book. Highly recommend.

Ruth has been on the run since she was a teenager trying to keep her old life completely separate from her and her daughter, Catherine, who knows nothing about her mothers past. She keeps any details about her past hidden, with only just small clues revealed accidentally or when absolutely necessary. Now Ruth is showing signs of Alzheimer’s & When Catherine starts to become suspicious of Ruth and wants to find out the truth, we finally get into some thrills and some action. Prior to that, it moved very slowly and felt kinda clunky.
While the narrator was good, being just two main women as the mains, it would have benefited from having two women narrate rather than just one to help distinguish them better.
I had hoped for more from this one. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t as good as I anticipated.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

A very twisty turns story that took me by surprise more than once. The plot was very dark and creepy - right up my alley. While I wished they wrapped a couple unanswered threads, overall it was a highly enjoyable read!

When I started reading this book I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, they quickly went away. I can't really explain why without spoilers, so I'll just say that it started as if there was going to be a good psychological premise, and then it was abandoned for less believable ideas. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 ⭐️
I loved, loved, loved the Golden Couple so I was extra excited for this novel. This was a gripping, suspenseful and mostly unnerving novel. I had a bad feeling in my gut almost the entire time. I was unsettled. The story takes a ponderous look at inherited traits. Nature or nurture per se. Will I be like my parents? And how can I tell?
I’m not going to talk anymore about the story, I’m just going to say that if you like creepy suspense with murderous behavior then I think you’ll like this one.

This was an audiobook and Kate Mara was good as the narrator. Sometimes I couldn’t tell which character was talking but that’s probably my fault. 😆
Her voice remained the same throughout the story and took some getting use to.
Thanks St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

This was really good!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, St Martins Press and Macmillan Audio for my advanced copies of Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen.

What I Enjoyed-

✨ The Audio- Kate Mara did an amazing job bringing this book to life.

✨ The Dual Timeline / POV- This book jumps between characters (mother and daughter) and timelines (the present and the 1990's I wanna say)

✨ The Mystery- I loved piecing the mystery together between the two timelines. Especially when Catherine started doing her own investigation. I felt like we were sleuthing together lol.

✨ The Relationship Dynamics- The lengths that Ruth would go to protect her daughter at times felt creepy af but there is real love there and a strong bond.

Overall- Highly Recommend. I look forward to more books written by this author.

While reading Gone Tonight by @sarahpekkanen, I switched back and forth from the book and the audiobook. @katemara narrates the audiobook and did a fantastic job with the narration!

I could not put this read down! The story is told from different POVs and has dual timelines. The two POVs are mother and daughter, Ruth and Catherine. The characters are well developed and the twists begin early and continue throughout the book.

I highly recommend either the book or audiobook for your TBR lists, especially for reading during those late summer trips!

Thank you @stmartinspress @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for allowing me to read and listen to this book/audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

Lots of twists and turns in this one and I really didn't know where it would take me. Loved the alternating points of view and getting to see the story from two different perspectives. Some questions were left unanswered but it worked in the story. Would recommend for sure this was 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
Published by St Martin’s Press
Releasing August 1st

Highlights:
Love the Pittsburgh references
Short chapters
Dual POV
Dual timelines
So much family drama

Ruth was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. It’s her daughter Katherine’s worst nightmare. Katherine is a nurse on a locked dementia unit. She’s acutely aware of how little time she and her mother may have left together.…so why is her mother being so dodgy about her past? Katherine knows virtually nothing about her. Unfortunately, Ruth has kept things hidden for a reason. Katherine stirring up old memories brings old trouble back too. This book feels like a dual mystery / thriller. We know what happened in Ruth’s past. We know she’s hiding things. Watching her daughter in the present try to figure that out… 🫣 so much drama.

This was a fast paced read. Short chapters make it easier to read when you don’t have a lot of brain power left at the end of the night. It was twisted. I definitely empathized with Ruth as she tried to keep her daughter from getting hurt.

Gone Tonight is out August 1st. Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me to read it early. I will definitely be purchasing a copy as a present for the library 📚.


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