This mystery was a slow burn and cat-and-mouse dance between mother and daughter who is trying to figure out her mother's history. Her mother on the other hand is trying everything she can to make sure her past doesn't melt into her present life that she's constructed. This was bit of a slower burn of a mystery, but once the engine was at full speed it was going and I was pleasantly surprised.

I absolutely loved this book as I do with most of Sarah Pekkanen's work. It was well written, captivating and kept me on my toes.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
Pub date: August 1, 2023
Narrated by Kate Mara
Length: 10H 8M
Pages: 352

Catherine and her mom, Ruth, are extraordinarily close. So close that Ruth will do just about anything to keep Catherine from leaving.

When Ruth learns that Catherine wants to progress in her nursing career, she realizes that Catherine will have to move. Not. Acceptable. Then Cathrine begins to ask questions and mucking about in the past. Secrets will be unveiled and they are doozies!

This is an absolutely phenomenal thriller with a twist filled plot and mounting tension that kept me so invested! I hesitate to use the word shocking but I’m going to! LOVED!

I don’t want to ruin this for anyone so I’ll stop here but I cannot recommend Gone Tonight enough!

Narration: Kate Mara does a stunning job with her vocal acting, but she kills it with Ruth. I listen at 2.5x and it was perfection. Well done, Kate! I look forward to listening to more from you!

Thank you to @StMartinsPress for this gifted DRC and to @MacMillan.Audio for this gifted ALC.

Slow start, but a great finish. Enjoyed the switching character perspectives. Would have been better if there were two narrators for the two main characters.

I have long been a fan of Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks as co-writers. When I saw Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen, it was an automatic request. I could not wait to read this one. Pekkanen does not disappoint. This book was propulsive and full of suspense. The pacing was great, with twists, turns, and reveals perfectly placed.
I flipped between reading and listening for this one. I loved having access to both formats as I didn’t have to put it down even when I needed to get stuff done around the house. I burned through this book so fast. I couldn’t wait to reveal each new secret.
Kate Mara does a great job with the narration. I saw another reviewer mention that they would have preferred two different voices for Catherine and Ruth. I agree that the audio experience could have benefited from a second voice, as I had to pay close attention to the flips in point of view. However, this didn’t take away from the story for me. Just worth noting for listeners to pay attention as they get started with listening.
4.5 stars.
Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the digital and audiobook ARCs via NetGalley. Pub date Aug 1, 2023.

I don’t listen to many audiobooks but after this one I’m going to give them another try. I am usually taken out of th story when the narrator attempts to give each character a different voice. Makes me feel like a child being read a bedtime story and is disconcerting as the subject matter usually isn’t child friendly. Kate Mara is the narrator here and she does not do that which made this a much more pleasant listen. I think she did a great job and I would definitely listen to more audiobooks where she is the narrator. Now, on to the story. I really enjoyed this story of a mother daughter relationship. What starts out as story of an ailing mother and the daughter determined to care for her takes many unanticipated turns. I have enjoyed Pekkanen’s work before when she has written with Greer Hendricks (I loved The Wife Between Us) but this book makes me want to read some more of her solo work.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Narration: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Gone Tonight is a slowburn thriller about a mother and daughter navigating a very complicated relationship. Catherine believes she knows her mother, Ruth. However, when Catherine wants to go out on her own, Ruth will do anything to prevent that from happening. This push and pull reveals cracks in their relationship and secrets are revealed.

This was a very interesting mystery full of complex relationships and characters. Kate Mara does a masterful job of bringing the story to life. A very gripping story that is excellent on audio.

ALC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Pekkanen did it again! I absolutely loved last years thriller the Golden Couple from them and Gone Tonight is another fun twisty thriller. It had me on edge of my seat and I loved it.

Catherine Sterling thinks she truly knows her mother, Ruth, but when Catherine declares her intentions to move to Baltimore. Her mother will go to great lengths to keep her daughter from moving away and one way Ruth will go about this is to fake having Alzheimer’s. Catherine grows suspicious about her mother and ends up going down a spiral of learning her mother’s past, which just seem to be built up on lies.

Why I Read It:
Back in December 2017, I ordered my first ever Book of the Month and that month one of their picks was The Wife Between Us by Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks. After reading that book, I fell in love with the thriller genre and the writing duo. But, over the years I started to fall out of love with thrillers due to the being predictable for me.

Since I loved the writing duo, I saw Sarah Pekkanen was coming out with Gone Tonight, I decided why not when I saw it on NetGalley.

I decided that I was going to go into this book with low expectations and I ended up rating this book 4 stars.

Plot:
The plot of Gone Tonight does have remarkable similarities to other thrillers, but I found it to be executed well and I found it to not be predictable like many other thrillers I have read lately.

Also, this is a multi-pov book and we mostly follow Catherine and Ruth. Also, there is a dual timeline of Ruth’s past and then the present day. I personally enjoyed the past chapters due to finding it interesting to learn about Ruth’s secrets and how Sarah tries to make you feel for Ruth and her predicaments, which causes her to create all the secrets as well as the ways Ruth tries to shield Catherine from her past.

Characters:
When it came to the mother and daughter relationship, I thought Sarah did well creating the love between these two, plotting the seeds of doubt, and then creating the tension for both characters.

I can totally sympathize with Ruth most of the time due to the nature of the situation that presents itself in the story. She becomes overbearing for Catherine in order to protect her from someone who we find out towards the middle of the book.

I enjoyed watching Catherine go about looking at her mother’s past to find the truth about her and her secrets. It was well done with the leads being followed.

There were times when Ruth mentions certain things about Catherine that we the reader do not pick up on about Catherine and its usually from the past or off screen, but with those things that were mentioned, I wish that could have been expanded upon.

Pacing
The pacing was for the most part fast paced, which I really enjoyed. It does have that buildup of the reason why the characters find something suspicious, the plotting seeds of doubts, and the discovery, but even though it has the buildup it still moves fast.

The only issue I found with it being fast paced is that towards the end with the book wrapping up, I felt like it was a bit rushed.

Final Thoughts/Recommendations:
Overall, I really enjoyed Gone Tonight and am glad that I went into it with low expectations, and I think because of that it made me enjoy it. I was very much invested into Ruth’s secrets and what was going to happen when the discovery came out. I would not say the twist was a super surprising, omg twist, but it was still satisfying and did not leave for predictability. There were a few times while reading Gone Tonight that I kept thinking of the movie Where the Heart Is (stars Natalie Portman) due to what the teenage version of Ruth had to go through. The movie is actually referenced when Ruth talks about that time in her past.

If you are looking for a thriller that involves secrets from the past, an overprotective mother who just wants to protect her child from something in their past, fast paced, and where you do not know how it is going to turn out in the end, then this book is certainly for you. Also, if you have enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendrick’s books, then you will like Sarah Pekkanen’s Gone Tonight.

Kate Mara is an excellent narrator. Her voice is distinctive and easy to listen to. I hope she narrates more novels.

This is my first standalone book by this author. I’ve read her co-authored books and enjoyed them.

I binged this in 36 hours and ultimately it was just okay for me. I was waited for some crazy twists and turns and unfortunately predicted the whole story.

It was more of a mother-daughter drama to me than thriller.

An enjoyable albeit predictable summer read.

I listened to this audiobook and thought Kate Mara did an excellent job. However, I do think the audiobook would have benefitted from having a second narrator since there are two different POVs from this book. I felt having the same narrator for both got a little confusing at times.

I would call this a slow mystery rather than a thriller, and in the grand scheme of things it was fine. A lot of the plot relied on very unlikely events happening, which I can handle to a certain degree, but this was too much. I can't get into specifics without spoiling, but I think a lot of the backstory was just too unbelievable for me.

The book was written well, but it just didn't blow me away. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I think it's a good listen for anyone who loves listening to thrillers, but it doesn't stand out as one of my favorites.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @macmillian.audio for a free download of the audiobook.

This alternating POV story had me turning pages and not wanting to stop. Ruth is trying to protect her daughter, even as an adult. Catherine is confused by her mom’s actions and needs to know what she’s hiding, not knowing that there could be danger around the corner.

Pekkanen writes a great suspense book and this one won’t disappoint. The history and current day character building will keep you on the edge of your seat.

4 stars

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I was so excited to read this one, “Gone Tonight” by Sarah Pekkanen. She did not disappoint! It was a page turner from the start.

This is a hard one to put down!

Ruth and her adult daughter, Catherine are each other’s worlds. As Catherine is finally ready to leave home and begin her own life, Ruth is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Catherine begins digging into her mother’s past to find out more about who she is, and what Catherine finds is nothing she ever would have suspected.

The beginning and middle of this book is amazing! I couldn’t stop reading and was dying to find out what had happened to Ruth and who she really was. I didn’t love the resolution, but I didn’t hate it either. 😂
This is definitely a great read for thriller fans.

Gone Tonight was such a unique thriller in the way that there were twists constantly popping up!

Every time it felt like there was a build up to a twist, I'd think to myself "wait that's obvious is that it?", only to find a twist I didn't see coming only moments later! There were twists throughout the entire book instead of at the very end which I loved because it kept the book refreshing throughout!

I also didn't guess the twist at the end, and I also think there's potential for a second book if this author wanted to, just because of the way she ended this one!

Gone tonight features a mother (Ruth) and daughter (Catherine). The daughter is about to move away for her placement at a Hospital, as she is studying to become a nurse. Only a week or so before Catherine is about to move away, the two of them discover that Ruth is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. This sends Catherine into a spiral and in her worries about her mother, she decides she should not move away to do her placement. Little does she know, this is exactly what her mother wanted.

Ruth doesn't think Catherine would ever dig to find out more about her, never step out of line, and stay how she always has been, a quiet, trusting little girl. But when Catherine learns that her mother is trying to keep her with her, she begins to dig into her mother past to figure out the truth of where she came from, and why her mother has kept it a secret all this time.

Great work Sarah Pekkanen, such an amazing read!

The three star review was not to indicate it was a bad book, or even mediocre. In reality, it is a good read. Intriguing, absorbing, page turning. The problem with it was the ending. The ending fell incredibly flat and was entirely untrue to the characters. Ultimately, I felt robbed.

Review of Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

Chances are you’ve been seeing this book all over bookstagram lately. I know I have. I listened to this book in one day. I absolutely loved it and couldn’t stop thinking about it after I finished it. I loved the main character Ruth. She was very mysterious, but overall just a fierce mother. I had mixed feelings about her daughter, Catherine but I found her an extremely interesting character who added a great deal to the story and mystery. This one has a lot of layers to it, and will keep you guessing until the end. I highly recommend the audiobook as well.

Synopsis:

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.

Anyone else love an unreliable narrator during thrillers? I tend to love that they throw me off when I’m trying to guess what’s going on before the end. This was no different. We have unreliable narrators weaving us this slow burn, twisted story of a mother who’s doing everything to keep her daughter close to her. Even going so far as having a sort of opposite munchausens.⁣
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Catherine is a 24 year old nurse, who’s ready to move to Baltimore for bigger and better things, only is now having to choose to move or stay back to take care of her mother. ⁣
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During the three different acts of this story lies are uncovered, secrets are dug up and Catherine learns that her mother may not be who she seems. ⁣
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How far will a mother go to protect her child? How long does it take for a dark past to creep up on you? This was such a mind bending thriller. I really enjoyed it.⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Truth be told, I was avoiding this novel because I got the author mixed up with another whose books I haven’t liked. Luckily I decided to give it a shot and it was so good! I loved how the mystery unfolded and the suspense kept me reading nonstop. I highly recommend this for fans of domestic suspense with lots of twists.

4.5/5

Wow this book is addicting ! I listened to the audio book and Kate Mara does a great job. This story follows a mother and daughter and the changes of growing up. And daughter realizes she doesn't know her mother at all.
This was a fast paced book. I did not see the ending coming so this was all so good and I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading thrillers.


I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this audio book, all opinions are my own