This was such a fun read! Sarah Pekkanen truly knocked it out of the park with this one.

The novel follows Catherine Sterling and her mother, Ruth. It has only ever been the two of them but Catherine is ready to venture out on her own and start a new life. When Ruth receives an unexpected diagnosis, those plans must be put on hold and the life Catherine hoped for starts to crumble. As time goes on, Catherine realizes that not all is as it seems and she may not have really known her mother, at all.

I loved this story. Sarah did an impeccable job of weaving a twisted web of lies and deception that was both complex and riveting! This was my first novel by this author and will definitely not be my last. I love listening to Thrillers on Audio and this one was no exception.

It’s always been Catherine and her mother, Ruth against the world. But now that Catherine wants to move from home, it seems her mother may be hiding something. As Catherine delves into her mother’s secret past, she might uncover something she doesn’t want to know.

I’ve loved all of Sarah Pekkanen’s books that’s she co-wrote with Greer Hendricks so I was really excited to get advanced copies of Gone Tonight! Pekkanen did an amazing job of drawing me into the story and kept me guessing throughout. This psychological thriller delved into the mother/daughter relationship so well, and I was invested in both of these characters.

I was able to get an advanced listeners copy as well as the eARC, and listened along while reading. The chapters are labeled by whose story we’re getting, Catherine or Ruth, and I felt that the narrator, Kate Mara, was able to differentiate between the two POVs.

I loved the dual timelines of present day and Ruth’s past and thought writing her past as a journal entry was a really smart move. Pekkanen had me thinking throughout the book about the mother/daughter dynamic and what a mother would be willing to do to protect her daughter. I would have liked a little more from the ending, but overall I thought this was a great psychological thriller that I didn’t want to put down.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

Sarah Pekkanen's Gone Tonight is a thriller that had me hooked from the beginning. A seemingly steady and strong mother-daughter relationship begins to unravel as secrets are discovered. Both lead characters are smart and resourceful as they work to uncover truths and save themselves. The audiobook narration is easy to listen to, and it held my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan audio, and the author for the opportunity to review this book.

A page-turner of a thriller that will keep you guessing. Are you with mother or daughter, Ruth or Catherine? They are close, but do they really know one another? So many questions and so much deception makes for an interesting read that certainly kept my attention. The first I have read by this author but I will definitely be seeking out more books by her. The narration was excellent.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the audio ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a near perfect thriller! Right from the start it kept me gripped to the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next, and the characters were fantastically flawed and conflicted! It's hard to say too much about the story without giving anything away, but it's told from 2 points of view: Catherine, a young nurse, and her mother Ruth. Both of them are quiet, hardworking, alone together in the world, and harboring some dark secrets.

The story just kept surprising me with where it was going.. I thought I had it figured out at a few points only to learn that no, this wasn't the twist, in fact Sarah Pekkanen led me down this path and now.. there's more! I loved the ending and also that it asked a lot of interesting, controversial questions, like every good book does! Sarah Pekkanen is an author to watch - for me each of her books has been better than the last but this one will be hard to top.

Kate Mara was a fantastic narrator, she just became the characters so completely that I didn't even notice it had a narrator, it was just Catherine and Ruth telling me all their secrets.

This story drew me in and never let me go. I had to keep reading because of the way it was structured with alternating viewpoints between Ruth and Catherine. I liked how more and more truths kept coming to the surface until the full picture developed in the end. This was an intriguing thriller with lots of twists.

Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my ALC

Sarah Pekkanen's new novel is Gone Tonight.
Catherine and her mother Ruth have lived a quiet, under the radar life together. But Catherine is ready to spread her wings. And her mother is determined to have that not happen. But Catherine is just as determined to live a larger life. Why won't her mother be happy for her? And why do they have to move again...?

Well, you might have an idea as to why they often move and why Ruth is so adamant about keeping Catherine close to her. But, you'd only be partially right. Pekkanen puts her twist on the plot, taking the narrative down a twisty tale.

Gone Tonight is told from two points of view and a past and present timeline from both Catherine and Ruth. As listeners we know are privy to what Catherine and Ruth both know. The supense kicks in as the secrets fall one by one...

I chose to listen to Gone Tonight. I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I often become more immersed in a book when I listen to the audio format. And that was definitely true for Gone Tonight. The narrator was Kate Mara. She has very unique, somewhat husky, tone to her voice, that is so pleasant to listen to. It just draws in the listener. Mara speaks clearly and enunciates well. She captures the emotions, dialogue, actions and more with her voice. A wonderful presentation of a really good book!

You'll have to listen to the name at the start of the chapter to know who is speaking. But on the flip side the narrative goes back and forth and it's not to hard to determine. I do wonder if a secondary voice would have worked in this case?

I loved this book! It’s the first I’ve read (listened to) by Sarah Pekkanen on her own. I wasn’t disappointed! I don’t want to give anything away, but I was on the edge of my seat. The narration was spot on and flowed nicely. Didn’t hear any breathing or other noises. Thanks for the opportunity!

📖 🎧: Gone Tonight by: Sarah Pekkanen | 📅Pub Day: OUT NOW!!! (Tuesday August 1, 2023)

To start I absolutely L O V E D this audiobook and it was such a pleasant surprise that Actress Kate Mara was the narrator. Her voice acting really solidified the thrilling and dark mood of the whole novel!

All in all this audio book was so so so good and I could talk about it for days, but I’ll leave it brief because it’s better if you know little to nothing about this book before diving in!!!

✨Masterfully Crafted Domestic Psychological Mystery Suspense
✨Narrated by Kate Mara (actress in A Teacher, House of Cards, and most recently Class of ‘09)
✨Mother Daughter relationship
✨Dual POV
✨Multiple Timelines
✨False Truths & Manipulation
✨Unreliable Narrator(s)???

4.75⭐️

The best comparison I could give is Netflix’s Ginny and Georgia, but much darker and more ominous!!

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

This was an interesting mystery-thriller. There wasn't really much "thriller" involved. It was more about learning the mom's history and figuring out why certain things were happening. I enjoy this type of story, where it's a mystery until the end, then there's the thriller moments. I don't want to say too much and spoil anything for anyone, but I will say that these characters probably won't be your favorite people.

My personal preference would have been to leave off one or two the "twists" at the very end, but that seems to be something many people enjoy so I may be in the minority on that.

I had both an ebook and audio. The audio was narrated by Kate Mara. She did a wonderful job. She distinguished between Ruth and Catherine and I never felt confused as to which character was narrating the current the chapter.

Overall, I thought it was a good story and I wanted to know what was happening or would happen, so I am going with 4 stars.

Received as a free digital ARC (audiobook).

I loved the narrator, Kate Mara, and felt she did wonderful. The sound was clear and professional. I would definitely love to hear more stories she narrates. She has such a lovely voice, cadence, and does both main characters well.

The story alternates between 2 points of view, Ruth, the mother, and Catherine, her daughter. It explores the relationship between mother and daughter and what and to what cost would you go to protect that daughter. as Ruth shares her past, bit by bit, we learn her daughter is no dummy. She sees right through her mother and does her own research. There are a lot of assumptions on both sides of the relationship and as the story comes to a head, it may be more of a story of fear and survival. Some plots and twists of the book were predictable. The ending was a bit of a surprise.

I have been thinking about the nature of mother-daughter relationships a lot lately. Mothers can be "bad" at parenting. It is just that sometimes when they are demonized, they shouldn't be because their actions' source is unclear. Gone Tonight is a look into the mother-daughter relationship of Ruth and Catherine Sterling. On the surface, Catherine wants to know more about her mother and her past, but she can't get past Ruth's walls. She starts to question whether or not the things she knew about her past (like moving from city to city) were a lie. Catherine's upbringing has made her sheltered. Knowing simple trivia about Ruth is difficult from high school attended to childhood friends and family. Ruth is fortress and calculating, but is she a bad mother? Why is she so guarded? Catherine finally wants more independence as a new college graduate, but her mother seems to be trying to keep her close. This motivates Catherine to uncover her mother's past, especially after catching her in lies. Gone Tonight moves slowly between the mother and daughter's point of view allowing the reader to understand and empathize with both characters.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced audiobook copy.

Happy Pub Day! 4.5 stars - Gone Tonight is the story of Ruth and Catherine Sterling - a close-knit mother and daughter whose world slowly unravels as Catherine follows a long-buried trail in order to find out more about Ruth's past and present. I wouldn't consider this to be a thriller, more suspenseful, although there are some thrilling moments. The strongest part of this story is its character development. I really connected to both Ruth and Catherine and their decisions and motivations. I appreciated the strength of their relationship and also its complexity. I thought the scenes when Ruth recalls her struggles as a young, solo, pregnant teen were especially well done.

A few small complaints - I enjoyed the narration by Kate Mara, but I wished that two different narrators had done Ruth and Catherine's voices. It sometimes became confusing who I was listening to if I picked it up mid chapter.

Also, I felt that the big ending was a little rushed. I wish the tension had been drawn out a bit further to build to a bigger climax. The epilogue was great, though. Really tied it together.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review this book!

This summer has been so abundant with amazing new releases in thriller genre. But this novel in particularl stands out because it explores so deeply the mother-daughter relationship and probes at how far a mother is willing to go to protect her child.

The story alternates between two POVs, one of Ruth Sterling, the mother, and one of Catherine, her twenty-four year old daughter. This story has a peculiar quality to lead you through the maze of assumptions about mother's motives and character. But as Ruth shares about her past, bit by bit, you begin to realize that things are not what they seem, and that the reasons for Ruth's actions lie much deeper. What seemed to look like an obsessive mother's behavior or mental illness, turns out to be as terrifying as the primal fear and survival instinct.

Catherine is so clever to see right through her mother, and I was impressed at how quickly she begins to unravel the deception carefully constructed around her. The ending gave me some Natural Born Killer vibes, and I felt a hint of disappointment in Catherine's character. I wanted so badly for her to be good!

What a great action and psychological thriller! Unique premise and terrific execution makes this a must-read.

I won’t be posting any reviews or ratings on social media simply because I don’t feel like this story was written for me. The story was interesting enough, but lost me at times. I found myself asking “But why?” throughout the whole book and I never felt any satisfaction when answers were given. And when I was supposed to feel satisfaction, it would be taken away from me in the next perspective. For example, there were multiple times when we would be given a piece of information and the daughter would naively think one thing, but in the next chapter, the mother would immediately tell you exactly what the daughter was supposed to gain from that piece of information. I completely understand the excitement that the writer would feel while writing bits like that, but as the reader, it didn’t hit me right. I feel like the story would have benefited from being told in a different perspective, not one that constantly jumped from mother to daughter.
It was a great concept, but if it was told a little differently, it would have a been a great story.
As for the audiobook, the production was great. The sound was clear and professional, I never heard any weird audio hiccups, and I thought the actor did a wonderful job.

I really did enjoy all the twists and turns that this novel took although it wasn’t very mysterious and I could see a lot of the plot evolving before it actually evolved in the page

Gone Tonight had me on the edge of my seat as the story unfolded both from Ruth’s perspective as she details the past and reacts to Catherine suspicions, and all the discoveries Catherine was making! I enjoyed this mother/daughter dynamic! This is one I was happy I made time to listen straight through as I had to know how it all turned out! There were parts I could predict, but also some surprises, especially at the end.

I alternately read an e-copy and listened to the audio version narrated by the actress Kate Mara. I’ve listened to her in the past and enjoyed her performance, as I did here. She has a pleasant voice that keeps you hooked. I will say that this was more like her reading the story than acting out the different voices, so there wasn’t any big change between characters. This wasn’t an issue because each chapter is labeled as either coming from Catherine or Ruth’s POV. I listened at my usual 1.5x and sometimes 1.75x normal speed. I’d recommend either version!

Mother and daughter, Ruth and Catherine, are close knit and Ruth will do anything to keep her adult daughter safe. This motherly protection grows more erratic as events from Ruth’s past start to catch up with her. This novel is fast paced and the chapters switch between Ruth and Catherine’s point of view. Kate Mara is a wonderful narrator, however at times I struggled distinguishing which character corresponded to the chapter. Overall a great book and I would recommend it to readers that enjoy thrillers.

I flew through this book!! So good!! I couldn't help but be engrossed in this story. I just needed to know what was going to happen. Also, I listened to the audiobook in addition to reading along with the egalley, and the audiobook was so nicely done. I really enjoyed the narrator. Great read! Highly recommend!!

*Thank you @macmillanaudio and @stmartinspress for the #gifted audiobook and egalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This book’s POV alternates between Catherine and her mother, Ruth. A recent diagnosis from Ruth’s doctor has sparked an interest in Catherine to want to know more about her mother.

Slowly but surely the more research Catherine does, she begins to realize that her mother has been hiding a lot of crucial information from her.

Ruth never thought her daughter would question her, but Catherine is acting weird and she senses she’s doing things behind her back. Ruth would do anything to keep her past buried. Anything.

I literally can’t say more without giving everything away, but it’s been a long time since I read a psychological thriller that was this good.

The narrator’s voice was spot on and full of emotion which made the hearing experience even more pleasant for me. I can’t wait to get my hands on more books from this author!

Thank you so much Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for this ALC.