This book was a great, slow burn thriller. Ruth has spent her whole adult life in hiding to protect herself and her daughter Catherine. The alternating points of view were interesting and I felt many times that Catherine was undermining Ruth’s efforts to stay hidden. Catherine wanted to jump at her new opportunity in Baltimore but Ruth tried to get her to stay put. I know a bit about nature vs nurture but I thought sometimes the inference that Catherine was a psychopath because her father was a murderer was maybe overdone.
I really enjoyed the ending and the freedom that both Ruth & Catherine attained to live the lives they wanted. My favourite was Ruth’s reunion with her family. That was lovely.

The narrator Kate Mara was pretty great. I enjoyed listening to her read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I just keep loving anything Sarah Pekkanen writes. Her latest has two strong female characters. Ruth and her daughter, Catherine, are both keeping secrets from each other in this twisty tale of what do we do for those we love and what we’ll do when we aren’t sure if we can trust them. So intense and a definite five stars for me!

The audiobook is read by the talented actress, Kate Mara.

Thank you, Sarah Pekkanen, Macmillan Audio, St Martin’s Press & Netgalley for my early audiobook copy. All opinions are my own

Sometimes, having a lot of characters work. Sometimes, it makes me confused and I get lost. Unfortunately, it was the case of the later for me :( Maybe I should've tried the physical book instead?

Ruth has been forgetful lately. Lost keys, getting lost on her way home, forgetting the word for something that's just on the tip of her tongue. Her daughter, Catherine, is a young twenty-something just on the verge of leaving the nest, but decides to stay put to take care of her mother. But as the story unfolds, something about Ruth's diagnosis just doesn't add up for Catherine, who is intimately aware of the realities of dementia through her work in a memory care ward. Told in alternating voices, Catherine tries to uncover the truth while Ruth excavates memories from her past.

Sarah Pekkanen delivers solid mystery with a slow start. The first 20% or so of audiobook I wasn't sure if I would keep listening, but I'm glad I did. The dual narratives work really well here- neither mother or daughter knows everything that the other does, which keeps both the readers and the characters guessing. Ruth's memories keep the story interesting as the action in the present ramps up. I LOVED the ending, which wrapped up the mystery and still managed to keep me guessing until the last page. It left me unsettled, but in a good way, and I'm still thinking about it days later.

The narration by Kate Mara was spot on. I could listen to her read all day.

Thanks again to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audiobook.

I have loved every book co-written by Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks, so I grabbed the audiobook of Gone Tonight by Sarah as soon as I saw it on NetGalley.

Is there anything more prone to volatility than the mother-daughter relationship? That always makes for an interesting book, and this story is no exception!

Catherine Sterling is convinced she understands her mother completely. Ruth Sterling is a reserved and diligent woman whose sole purpose in life is her daughter. Throughout their lives, they have faced the world together as an inseparable duo.

However, Catherine is now eager to venture out, leave their home, and embark on a new career. Ruth Sterling, on the other hand, is determined to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.

Ruth Sterling firmly believes she comprehends her daughter entirely. Catherine would never defy her or question anything about her mother’s past or origins.

Nevertheless, as Ruth desperately strives to keep her daughter close, the relentless pursuit starts to expose fractures in Ruth’s meticulously crafted existence. Consequently, both mother and daughter find themselves entangled in a web of deceit and deception.

If you liked Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter, I think you’ll enjoy this one too! It has that same great mother-daughter tension where the mother is desperately trying to protect her daughter from her past.

This wasn’t a story with a big shocking twist you never saw coming. Instead, it doles out details from the past in small pieces that keep you coming back for more. Done well (like this one is), I think these kinds of stories are every bit as good as the ones that make you gasp from shock when the big twist is revealed.

I listened to this one as an audiobook (thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio), and it was really well done. You might even recognize the voice—Kate Mara from shows and movies like House of Cards and The Martian.

I’ve been a fan of Sarah Pekkanen for years, and even more so when she started to coauthor with Greer Hendricks, so I was excited to see she was putting out her own thriller. This was definitely a slow burn, and when I got the 40% mark I couldn’t believe I still had more than half of the book to go as the pacing was very slow. The only real compelling pieces of the first half of the story were Ruth’s backstory. While the beginning was predicable, the second half picked up, held more twists, and was much more compelling. Overall this was a solid thriller, and I’m looking forward to more from the author!

📚 Gone Tonight
✍️ Sarah Pekkanen
📖 Thriller
⭐ ⭐⭐⭐.5/5

I have been in a thriller rut for a few months now and thankfully listening to Darah Pekkanen’s new thriller, Gone Tonight, helped get me out of it.

Synopsis
Catherine Sterling’s mother, Ruth, has been the only family she has ever had. She is about two weeks away from heading off on her next big adventure, Solo. Catherine started to notice that her mom has been extremely forgetful for the last few months. Something just doesn’t feel right. Catherine works in a nursing home and specializes with people who have early onset Alheimers and dementia, so she started thinking that maybe her mom was starting to fall into that category. She took her mom to the doctor after Ruth got lost on her way home from work one evening. Ruth then confided in Catherine and the doctor that she had found out that her mom died from early onset Alzheimer’s and she didn’t want any testing done.

Catherine goes on a mission to find out more about her moms past in hopes to see if there is any other family out there that she can connect with. But Ruth is a very private person and has been hiding a much bigger secret than Catherine realizes. When the truth starts to surface, trust will be shattered and relationships broken.

Review
I loved how this novel was written from both Catherine and Ruth’s perspective. Throughout the book during Ruth’s perspective she writes in a journal for Catherine to read one day which gives us flashbacks as to how Ruth got to where she is today.

At one point it almost felt like a miscommunication trope. It was perfect because we were able to know both of the characters' sides without them knowing each other's side.

This was a very easy audiobook to listen to. I never felt confused and it flowed really well!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC. Unfortunately, it was not my favorite. This book is about a mother and daughter who are both a little unreliable and a lot morally gray. Catherine is an adult but she still lives with her mom and is a huge part of her mom's world. Ruth is the mom and has a lot of secrets. Catherine works in memory care and starts to notice signs of Alzheimers in her mother. But is it real or is it just a ploy to keep Catherine close? I feel like thats about all I can say about the plot without spoiling things but my general thoughts are that this was fine, but very forgettable. I would get engaged with the story while reading it, but as soon as I put it down it was kind of out of my head. We are TOLD about Catherine and Ruth's close relationship and how they're each other's ride or dies but everything we SEE is them distrusting each other. The whole climax of things seemed to lack a little clarity in motivations for me. Overall this was a decent enough thriller, but not one I"ll remember next week.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
Ruth is on her 3rd identity. She and her high school boyfriend killed her cheer coach for being abusive. Her boyfriend went to jail even though it was technically Ruth that did it. Then he gets out of jail and comes after Ruth (and by extension Catherine) and Catherine (the daughter of 2 killers), murders him. The Alzheimer's thing was fake in order to keep Catherine safe from James.

This book started out well with the promise of mystery and intrigue but it soon fell short of its promise. At first I enjoyed the dual POV of both mother and daughter and the mom's journal style entries. Unfortunately, I soon became a bit bored as nothing was really being revealed that wasn't already obvious.

There was no real mystery in this book. There were some red herrings thrown around that never turned into anything. I was hoping for a big reveal that never came.

The narration was also a bit flat as the narrator sounded the same for each character male or female. I was very disappointed by this since she is a really good actress.

I was really looking forward to this book and perhaps that influenced my disappointment when it just turned out to be fairly mid. I will however still read this author as I have enjoyed her prior work.

From the cover and author, I thought Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen was a suspense or thriller novel, but after the first few chapters, I was confused. It read like women's fiction about a woman and her adult daughter navigating a health crisis. Slowly some hints surface that all is not as it appears, and then the plot escalated quickly!

I appreciated this slow burn suspense novel. I was never completely sure either main character's motives, which I enjoy in stories with a mystery to solve. The involvement of the daughter's workplace was an interesting aspect; I'm relieved I no longer have family members who reside at a senior living facility. I questioned the detailed flashbacks to the mother's high school years ... until I didn't.

Occasionally I anticipated a minor twist in the plot, but for the most part this story surprised me time and again. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Kate Mara which was the perfect balance of intensity, although at first it was a bit confusing to track the daughter vs. the mother voiced by the same narrator.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the review copy of the audiobook.

Gone Tonight grabbed me from the beginning. A woman on the run. A daughter trying to find out who she is. Which is stronger-nature or nurture?

This book was a wild ride! And once again if people could or would just communicate their life would be so much easier! But also so much less of a tense story! I love the happy ending in this one but worry about Catherine! Is she or isn't she also a psychopath like her father? This was my 1st book by Sarah Pekkanen but will not be my last!

This is one of the better thrillers I have read recently!

I was nervous that I had guessed one of the big twists early on in the book, but the plot kept evolving and kept me on the edge of my seat.

What I realized as the book went on is that both our main characters, Ruth and Catherine, both had interesting backstory and little details that made the overall feeling eerie and kept you wondering who you could really trust.

The inclusion of dementia/Alzheimer’s as part of the story was a really interesting aspect I haven’t really seen in a thriller before (I have seen memory loss/amnesia, but not dementia).

I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 stars because I enjoyed 1 POV more than the other, and also because some parts of just every day activities were a little tedious and overwritten. However, I really enjoyed the book overall and would recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced listener’s copy in exchange for an honest review; thoughts are my own!

I always judge a mystery by the ending. I figured this one out but I think I would have hated any other ending s I it worked. It’s worth the read but it won’t be your favorite mystery of the year. It’s one of the good ones but not great enough to be memorable a few months later.

I love a good mother/daughter story, and my gosh, did Sarah Pekkanen ever deliver with her latest, Gone Tonight! I binged the audiobook because the narrator, Kate Mara sucked me in immediately. I happily folded laundry, washed the floors, and organized a messy closet all afternoon. I COULD NOT STOP LISTENING!

WHAT I LOVED:

- Dual perspectives
- Past & present timelines
- Slow-burning mystery
- Highly character-driven
- Family-focused
- Complicated mother/daughter relationship
- Unique & captivating storyline
- Secrets and lies galore

My best advice is to go in completely blind, and enjoy the twists and turns as the story unfolds. There’s a lot of them—like right up to the very last chapter. Super impressive, and much appreciated. Gone Tonight is available now, and it gets 4.5/5 stars from me! Highly recommend!

Gone Tonight [out tomorrow, 8/1!]

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Ruth and her daughter Catherine have always had each other, but now at 24, Catherine is finally ready to move out on her own for her new nursing job. Right as Catherine is about to go, however, Ruth begins showing worrying signs of early-onset Altzheimer’s. As Catherine looks more closely at her mother, she begins to see things that aren’t adding up … and as she learns more of the truth, Catherine puts herself and her mother into more and more danger.

Sarah Pekkanen is known for her thrillers with Greer Hendricks (“The Wife Between Us,” and “The Golden Couple”) so I was excited to see her on her own… and honestly, it did not disappoint! In my opinion, this book is more mystery than thriller, but regardless, I found it really entertaining. I listened to the audiobook on a road trip — the chapters are short & end on cliffhangers, so it wasn’t hard to start and finish this one all in the same day.

There are several different phases to this book, and I find the summary doesn’t actually do the real plot justice (but you can’t really without spoilers!). My favorite parts were the flashback journal entries, clueing readers in on the backstory — these chapters set the stage for the present day really well and were the most jaw-dropping for me. The ending was a bit wild, but I was here for suspending disbelief and going along for the ride.

Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a fun mystery / thriller rec for a summer read — you’ll read this one quickly, and it’ll keep you on your toes. Thank you to @stmartinspress for the advanced copy!!

I had so much fun with this fast paced domestic thriller I could not put it down and finished it in one day. This book follows a mother and daughter Claire the daughter is about to become a nurse and move away leaving Ruth alone. That is until Ruth starts displaying strange memory lose symptoms and strange messages start showing up leaving Claire to question if she ever really knew her mother. I loved this book it was so fast paced and intriguing I just couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. The characters is where I felt this book was lacking some of the things I found hard to believe and there wasn’t to much character development so I didn’t really feel any attachment to any of the characters. That being said the plot more than made up for the lack of character development there were so many twists and turns in this book I didn’t know where we were headed next. To me this felt like a great vacation book that is fast paced and easy to follow. I did listen to the audiobook for this one and really enjoyed the narration the narrator was engaging and easy to understand. I would like to thank net galley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

𝙂𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙏𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 - 𝙎𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙝 𝙋𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙣
Pub date: August 1

This book was pretty twisty and messed up. This story is about a mother and daughter been through some stuff. Catherine has been living with her mother he whole life and that’s exactly how Ruth likes it. She’s gone out of her way to keep it that way. Catherine is getting tired of the game and decides she better take a look into their past and see what’s keeping them so tied together.

I enjoyed the way this story unfolded in the present and the past by both characters’ perspectives. It is quite a unique plot. I didn’t find it very thrilling until the first quarter in though. Then you were in for a bit of a ride where you weren’t sure what to believe.

Thank you to @netgalley and @dreamscapemedia for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

I can’t wait to have my book club read this twisty tale of a mother on the run, hiding everything from her past from everyone - including her daughter. Told in alternating Points of View (POV), Mother Ruth and 24-year-old Catherine, this is a quick-moving psychological thriller that doesn’t quit - not even at the last page. I loved it.

One caveat: I love actress Kate Mara’s characteristic deadpan delivery, but it is unusual for an audiobook narrator. While it perfectly suits the characteristics of Ruth and Catherine, Mara doesn’t shift or modulate her voice between the two characters, so if a reader isn’t paying attention, they can be confused. Each chapter does lead off with the character’s name, but sometimes I forgot and couldn’t tell if it was the mother or daughter “talking.”

If you enjoy a twisty thriller chock full of lies and deceit with a backstop of unrelenting parental love, this would be a great choice. The storyline kept me guessing and emotionally involved, and I love that in a book.

Thanks, NetGalley and MacMillan Audio, for a pre-pub copy of GONE TONIGHT, available now.

3.5⭐
Utterly reviting!

This is my first book by Sarah Pekkanen. She has a way of building a suspenseful story by alternating between mother and daughter perspectives with a good dose of flashbacks.

Life hasn't been easy for the pair in Harrisburg, PA. But single mom Ruth Sterling and daughter Catherine are super close. At 24, Catherine landed a golden nursing opportunity in Baltimore at John Hopkins' Geriatric Department. However, her dream came crashing down when her own mother show early signs Alzheimer's. Would Catherine be able to leave her mother behind?

I was drawn to the story from the very beginning. As more secrets are revealed it was impossible for me to put this book down. Ruth has plenty of secrets and I love her flashbacks part the most. Meanwhile, Catherine is trying to piece the puzzle about her mother she thought she knew.

Gone Tonight really kept me on my toes. I wanted to know how the story unfolds and for me, this was a 4 solid star story until the last third of the book. Without any spoiler....Yes, it sort of make sense and NO, it does not. LOL. I happened to care about the third character and wish there was more.

I listened to Gone Tonight narrated by Kate Mara. As much as I like her in movies and enjoy her familiar voice, I don't think she brought anything extra to the story. It was difficult to know whose chapter it was because the narrator gave the same voice for Ruth and Catherine. As a listener, you have to make sure you don't miss the chapter heading. Absolutely, most of the time the story is a big tell of who is doing the talking but wish the narrator differentiates the characters through some voice acting.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for my ALC.