Thank you so much @StMartinsPress for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 01 Aug 2023)

SYNOPSIS | Ruth gave birth to Catherine at 17 years old and they have been on the run their whole lives since. 25 years later, Catherine begins to question why she has been uprooted every time she starts to feel comfortable somewhere and begins to investigate what her mum is actually hiding from.

WHAT I LIKED:
- flashbacks to Ruth's past & diary entries
- messy mother daughter relationship

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the pacing was pretty slow until the 80% mark
- the dual POVs weren't equally interesting (I much preferred Ruth's chapters)
- a lot of extra details that felt like filler & could have been edited out

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen.

Decent storyline and plot, well written characters. But something fell a bit flat for me reading this one.

While I enjoyed Ruth’s backstory, I felt like that was all it was. The present time was a bit mundane. Mother and daughter living together, going to work, an early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis changed Catherine (daughter’s)plan to go to school. Little clues dropped a long the way help Catherine to discover secrets Ruth has been hiding from her for 24 years.


The whole time the reader knows there is more going on than what’s presented but it was just a slower paced read.

The end picked up nicely, yet it felt anticlimactic.

I enjoyed the book, but it was easy to put down and didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat.

I didn't know what to expect from this book and feel like its best to go in blind. The story kept me guessing up until the end.

Great story told from 2 viewpoints. Ruth tells the story of a young girl who found out she was pregnant and exiled from her family. Catherine, her daughter, has plans to move away to pursue her goals. As the story progresses there are holes in Ruth's stories and Catherine begins to wonder what is true. The story pacing was strong with just enough ambiguity to leave one wondering what was the truth.

Sarah Pekkanen stands true to her reputation! This was the first book I read by her that was only written by her and it didn't disappoint! How well do you know who your Mother was back in High School? This was a fast read as I couldn't put it down until I knew their stories that brought them to the present

Thank you Netgalley, St Martin’s Press and the author Sarah Pekkanen.
What a story, secrets abound. The love of a mother for her daughter.
What happens when your secrets come out, because eventually they will.
Love the characters, the story. Fast read.
Recommend. 4 stars

I really enjoyed this and watching the dynamics play out between mother and daughter. It was interesting to see how they maneuvered with and against each other as the plot unfolded. Always love Sarah's work!

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

All in all, this was a good, solid read. There were quite a few moments that had me literally hooked to my Kindle (which means neglecting my sleeping habits), and overall it was a fast paced story. However, I wasn't a fan of how the author used shifting POVs to progress the plot; the chapters were short and they shifted between Ruth and her adult daughter, Catherine. Basically, Ruth was hiding some major secrets from Catherine, Catherine started to grow suspicious of Ruth, and those suspicions led Catherine to begin investigating Ruth to discover the truth for herself. While it wasn't necessarily a bad way to do things, I found myself growing somewhat bored by this dynamic. I think it was drawn out a little too much, and the end was a bit too predictable for my tastes.

Overall, I'm happy that I was able to read it and I'd still definitely recommend it if you like alternating character perspectives. I'm just not sure this author is for me.

Gone Tonight is told from 2 viewpoints, so the reader gets both Catherine and Ruth’s side of events. The chapters mostly alternate between the two. The story of Ruth’s past and how it connects with her illness is doled out in tantalizing segments that keeps the reader rapidly turning pages. The love a mother has for her child, can’t be replaced. And it is evident in this book.

This is a good quick read thriller. There are some heavy and emotional topics and not so much twisty as it is tense and mysterious. But I enjoyed it. Catherine and Ruth are two strong women which is always good to see.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy.

I absolutely loved this book! I loved how original it was, I get sick of reading the same old thriller over and over again. This was like contemporary fiction mixed with a thriller, and it kept me engaged until the very end. I love her writing style, as well...It seems very matured, compared to a lot of juvenile stuff I've been running into lately. Actually 4 and a half stars!

4.25 Stars

Ruth Sterling is young, naïve, and insecure when the unthinkable happens. Soon after she’s forced to assume a new identity and run for her life, she realizes hers isn’t the only life at stake.

Catherine Sterling has her whole life ahead of her, the college education she’s dreamt about within her grasp. But just when she thinks her mother Ruth has come to grips with cutting the apron strings, Ruth reels her back in, and suspicion builds as Catherine questions Ruth's past and her true motivation for keeping her close.

A propulsive duo-POV, GONE TONIGHT, at its core, is a riveting story commemorating the sacred bond that exists between mother and daughter…and the kind of secrets capable of shattering it. Suspenseful and heart wrenching, this is one readers won’t want to miss. My thanks to St. Martin's Press, Sarah Pekkanen, & NetGalley for the ARC.

Unfortunately, after reading a third of this book, I just couldn’t continue on. It may not have been the right book for me or just not the right time. The writing felt very juvenile and simplistic.

I requested to read and review this book for free from St. Martin Publishing Company. This book had many twists and turns. There is drama, mystery, suspense and slight romance. A mother's bond with their daughters can be unbreakable for some. Can you inherit traits from family member youve never met? Your mistakes have a way of catching up with you at some point and ypu never know when. How far will you go to protect the ones you love? Ruth has been through a lot in her life will she ever stop looking over her shoulder. Catherine has no idea how much she has been protected. But she can protect the ones she loves when she needs to? This is for a mature reader only and can be read anywhere.

This is a solid thriller by Sarah Pekkanen. It starts out a little slow but builds as the story continues, leading to a very fast-paced last third of the book. Great twists! Despite a somewhat slow start, the book held my interest throughout. Really well done.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

I LOVE Sarah's books with Greer. I always devour them. I was so excited for this one, even more so when I got the arc.

This didn't work for me for many reasons. The writing was so choppy, closed captioned, and cringey dialogue. The plot was silly. Catherine is a "Nurse" but her knowledge is terrible and medical misinformation is within this book that irked me, as I am an actual nursing student who finished nursing school.

I wasn't excited to pick this up when I put it down. No twists really excited me, shocked me, or made me care.

This is 1.5 stars rounded up, as I did like one "twist".

🌝I waited so long to read this book! I heard about it a few months ago and couldn’t wait to get my hands on an ARC. I am so glad I did.

Ruth and Catherine Sterling are mother and daughter. Ruth has raised Catherine on her own and has given vague stories about her past and who Catherine’s biological father is. Catherine never thought to question anything because she and her mother have always been close and love each other tremendously.

🚘Catherine is now an adult and wants to be on her own. She begins to pull away from her mother a bit when she begins to question the validity of the stories her mother has given her over the years. She decides to question her mother but gets cookie cutter answers or an angry response from her. It’s time to take matters into her own hands and do some research of her own. However, sometimes poking your nose where it doesn’t belong can have dire consequences.

🔪Pekkanen has a way of giving a lot of detail that allows the reader to feel like a fly on the wall watching play by play but not too much detail that it is repetitive or unnecessary. She is one of the authors that keeps me up at night! Reading until I finish the book! I savored every morsel of this domestic thriller and without giving spoilers I will say that I was left wanting to know more about Catherine’s future in the end.

👩🏽‍⚕️The character development never ended. It kept building throughout which is exciting because I continually learned something new about them. The action picks up about halfway through and it’s a guessing game from there on out. Great plot and the relationship between Catherine and Ruth is mysterious and perplexing until the end. Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have read all of the books by Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks. I had never read one by Sarah Pekkanen alone. That ends now. This was my first book - and it will not be my last. I am going to run and buy up all of the solo works of hers!

I am happy to see that the same formula that is used for the books she has co-authored carries over in to her solo works. Gone Tonight had everything I love about her books. Some twists and turns, well fleshed out characters. I was intrigued from the first page and could not put the book down.

Definitely recommend!

This book was the first solo work by this author i have read, such a quick easy read with so many twists and turns. It was so engaging from the very first page, honestly was just gonna start it while i was waiting on James Pattersons new Womans Club to arrive-but i could not put it down, with each turn of the page i was dreading what would happen to just turn everything upside down, Sarah drew everything out perfectly and only gave little bits of information to keep the readers hooked, everything was explained so thoroughly, all the ends tied up perfectly and the ending was so crazy !!! i do think Catherine and Ruth both are a little crazy and the things a mom will do to protect her child!! An amazing story-will definitely read more solo works by this author! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!!!

Gone Tonight was a great slow burn thriller that kept me up late reading! The story is told from two point of views, the single mother Ruth and her only daughter Catherine. Ruth’s POV goes between the past and present while Catherine is only from the present. Ruth has recently been having memory issues and at Catherine’s insistence she goes to a neurologist that informs her she likely has early onset Alzheimer. The already strong bond between the mother /daughter is tested as Catherine starts digging into her mothers past, as she realizes she knows very little about mom. Ruth realizes she has little time life and needs to focus on protecting her daughter. I thought the pacing in this story was excellent, each chapter gives us just a little more information. I loved the unrelaiable narration as we continued to learn more about Ruth’s past. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that loves a good thriller!

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