Gone Tonight
Author: Sarah Pekkanen
Narrator: Kate Mara
Macmillan Audio
Release Date: 8/1/2023
Mystery & Thrillers

I was so wrong when I initially thought I knew the direction that Pekkanen's plot was taking in Gone Tonight. The gripping story of a mother and daughter relationship is intense and full of unexpected twists. As the past and present collide, the tension builds as readers learn of secrets, deceit, and danger.
This book is skillfully told in alternating points of view of Ruth the mother and her daughter Catherine. Ruth fervently tries to keep Catherine from moving away to pursue her career. If you like psychological thrillers as I do, add this to your listening list. Narrator Kate Mara is phenomenal with her powerful delivery of the story. Her voice does not overpower the story, but is completely in tune with both chills and tender points in the book.

Thank you to Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for the advance listener's copy. My review is my own.
#GoneTonight #MacmillanAudio #SarahPekkanen

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Drama. Suspense. Complicated mother-daughter relationship. Kate Mara as the narrator. Great job. Intriguing from beginning to end. Enjoyed the different POV of Catherine and Ruth. I liked that the past and present were merged together throughout the book as the story unfolded. A really good read.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the arc.

This book didn't work for me. The plot was somber and dragged on. Also, the plot was very convoluted and full of holes

This is so good! I read Sarah Pekkanen's previous novels and especially loved The Wife Between Us. This feels like a similar creepy, eerie psychological suspense that built the longer I read. I LOVE the way she built the mother/daughter relationship, how the eerie events increased, and the pace. It was fantastic. Definitely recommend to those who liked The Wife Between Us!!

“I’m good at disappearing. We women do it all the time. We vanish in the eyes of men when we hit our forties. We dive into roles like motherhood and our identities slip away. We disappear at the hands of predators. We are conditioned to shrink, to drop weight, to take up less physical space in the world.” Real talk.

“Our minds do this all the time. They talk us out of things we don’t want to know.”

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.

Woah! Told with the dual POV of a mother and daughter, this book is the definition of a page turner. They each tell their story from their own perspective and you’re not sure who to believe and who may be lying. As the story unfolds you want to yell at each of them to warn them against what you can see coming that they are blinded to. This is a listen at 2x speed type of book!

The ONLY thing that would have made this audiobook, narrated by actress Kate Mara, more enjoyable would have been to have two different narrators or distinct voices for each pov. Even though each chapter is titled for either Ruth or Catherine I did find myself needing a paragraph or two to be reminded whose story we were listening to. Overall a very fast paced and crazy but believable story. I loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for the gifted audiobook.

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen AUDIO opens as a simple tale of a woman dealing with her mother’s early onset Alzheimer’s but it quickly morphs into a thriller in which her mother reveals herself as an accessory to a murder, which took place before Catherine was born. Ruth has done a fabulous job of covering it up, not only from the authorities, but from her own daughter as well.. Ruth is writing in a journal, telling the whole story. Catherine knows something is not right and is investigating on her own based on the minimal information she has gleaned from Ruth. It is all pretty much accurate, but very misleading. It is an exciting listen.

Both are strong characters. Ruth has believed she is acting in the best interests of both Catherine and herself. Catherine feels lied to and rightly so. James, who is far from innocent, I read as maybe not as bad as Ruth believes, at least as far as she is concerned. Maybe he loves her. Maybe not. It is full of emotions which can often present as confusing. Both Ruth and Catherine are clever and that almost leads to their downfalls. It was a compelling listen. Very well done.

Kate Mara is the reader and holds an even tone no matter what is happening, which really adds to the horror of it all. In the beginning I was confused as to who was who, but that was not her fault. I was not listening carefully enough. Good reader. It was an excellent read, both in audio and print, possibly easier to empathize in print. First of Pekkanen’s novels I’ve read so I have little to compare to.

I was invited to listen to a free audio version of Gone Tonight Macmillan Audio and print version by St. Martins Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #MacMillanAudio #StMartinsPress #SarahPekkanen #KateMara #GoneTonight

This was a quick read/listen. I was pulled in from the start with QUESTIONS! The first half of the book was so well handled as we switched POVs and tried to see what was going on with Ruth and Catherine. Once the pieces came together in the second half, the story took a new twist and kept me invested all the way to the end. Thumbs up from me!
I was excited to listen to Kate Mara’s narration. While I like her voice, she could do with some inflection and character training as the narration itself was kind of flat.
*Thanks to St Martin’s Press, MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance review copies.

Considering I'm all packed for a three week trip, I would fit right in with the characters in this book who have up and moved at a moment’s notice a few times. Told in dual POV chapters alternating from Christine (24 year old nurse) and Ann (40 year old waitress and Christine’s mother), Gone Tonight follows their relationship as Christine prepares to move away from home.
I did a mix of the audiobook and the ARC - thanks to both Macmillan Audio and St Martin's Press for advanced copies from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Being that there is only one narrator of the audiobook, I had to follow pretty closely with the text in the first few chapters to make sure I knew which character’s view was being heard (thanks for the heads up about this, Laurie!). I enjoyed the narration once I got over that hurdle. Although marketed as a thriller, this felt more like a contemporary fiction read - there are some mystery and thriller devices and plot points, but the twists seemed secondary to the mother-daughter relationship and the mother’s backstory. I enjoy contemporary fiction so that’s not a problem for me, but I just want other readers to know the emphasis for this domestic thriller. It will be available Tuesday 8/1!

Not at all what I expected... Way better!

This book turned out in different than I had thought it would be in the beginning. It was a tense thriller dealing with dark past secrets and current deadly consequences.

Told through the lenses of a mother and daughter, these women are strong and resourceful and really end up testing their trust in eachother.

I was enthralled with this novel, trying to figure out what was true, what was meant to mislead, and who it is that the women need to run from.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator could have been better about distinguishing voices for characters or had 2 narrators. Love this author, she is great about writing books that are both suspenseful and emotional.

Are you looking for a gripping page-turner to end your summer with a bang? Here’s one for you!
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for the gifted copy of Gone Tonight {partner}

Genre: Mystery
Trope: Family Secrets
Format: 🎧
Audiobook Narration: ☆☆☆☆
Pub Date: 8.1.2023
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆

The first half of Gone Tonight read more like a contemporary fiction novel - I knew there wasn’t something quite right about Ruth and Catherine, but it never gave me that propulsive mystery feel. But, after the 50% mark, the suspense increased, and the rest of the book flew by!

Gone Tonight illustrated the relationships between mothers and daughters and how so many daughters don’t realize their mothers are people, too; they have secrets and histories that they don’t want to be uncovered.

I chose to listen to Gone Tonight through the Netgalley app, and I’m so glad I did because the audio was phenomenal. I was hooked and kept finding excuses to put in my AirPods and get lost in Ruth and Catherine’s captivating story.

3️⃣ Told in three parts
✌🏼 Dual perspective
🫂 Complex relationships
🎧 Highly recommend the audiobook.

Gone Tonight by Sara Pekkanen is perfect for fans of Ginny & Georgia.

I have read other books by this author but the adult and child content made me uncomfortable so I will not be able to finish the book

I really enjoyed Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen and loved the mother/daughter relationship. In college, as my English thesis, I tracked the emotional journey of mother and daughter in many works of literature and I cannot help doing the same now. Even though Catherine and Ruth seem close, there are many lies, secrets and hiding gong on. Ruth doesn’t want Catherine finding out about her past but the life she planned comes crashing down around her. I loved the twists and turns and could not put this one down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gone Tonight is an enjoyable, twisty novel about a mother and daughter keeping secrets from each other. Ruth Sterling has run from her past for the last twenty-five years. Around that time, she had a daughter, Catherine. Ruth has been a devoted, but seemingly codependent mother. Ruth is only in her early 40s and has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. Though she was headed to Johns Hopkins for graduate school, Catherine feels compelled to stay home with her mother. From there, we learn more and more about Ruth's past. The story is riveting, though I did see some of the reveals coming. I enjoyed Kate Mara's audiobook narration, but it would have been easier to follow if there were two narrators for the dual viewpoints.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ebook / audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I did enjoy the tension of the story, but I couldn't help be think that had the mom and daughter just communicated, things would have worked out a little differently. It's like the miscommunication trope from romance but make it thrilling.

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you @MacMillan.Audio and @StMartinsPress for the #gifted ALC/eARC of GONE TONIGHT.

I seem to be in the minority when it comes to Sarah Pekkanen’s first solo thriller. I enjoyed the fact that this was a thriller centered on a mother-daughter relationship and that it had a bit a of a cat and mouse aspect where you never really knew who was outplaying the other.

But the author used something as a plot device that I found personally disgusting and I just can’t get over it. I guessed the twist early on and it left me with a bad taste for the rest of the book. The character who did it later admits that it’s a despicable thing to do but I just think that there could have been better ways to shock the reader than the way that this was done.

After that big twist that I guessed, I found the rest of the book fairly predictable and underwhelming. It could just be that the twist put me off of the book. And it doesn’t seem like it’s bothered many of the other early reviewers I’ve seen so if the synopsis still interests you then give it a try.

And if you’ve read this and are also bothered by the twist, drop me a DM.

GONE TONIGHT comes out on August 1.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5719533301
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvNLT4WrJyC/

It has been Catherine and Ruth Sterling since the day she was born, but now, at 24 years old, Catherine has a job opportunity that requires her to move to a different city away from her mother, Ruth. Shortly before the move Ruth begins displaying signs of early Alzheimers and has Catherine questioning whether she should move away or not. As the story continues we learn that Ruth has many secrets and will do whatever she can to make sure her daughter is never far from her sight.
This is definitely a slow burn and felt a little long and boring at times. I really enjoyed that we got to hear the story from both Catherine and Ruth's perspectives and really enjoyed the journal entries that brought us into the past to learn Ruth's story. This wasn't as suspenseful and action packed as other books I have read from Sarah and Greer but was still a decent story with some twists. The narrator was a good choice but I think it would have been much better to have a different narrator for the two women as I often got confused as to who was speaking at the time. Ok read but not my favorite.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sarah Pekkanen for allowing me to listen to an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was twisted in the best way! It starts as a slow burn and picks up about halfway through. I loved how determined Ruth was to keep her and Catherine safe. I didn't know which direction the author was going to go, but I really liked how this ended. As a single mother, I know the sacrifice to make those hard decisions and to do what's best for you and your child. Great read!

This book is everything I love in a thriller!!! Fast paced, addictive, twists and turns - I absolutely flew through this audiobook!! Nothing is as it seems and as the layers of the past slowly get peeled back, the anxiety for the current situation starts to build.

A few things I loved::
•The complicated mother/daughter relationship. What seems like a seriously overprotective mother desperate to keep her daughter from leaving her is actually SO much more!
•Catherine works on an Alzheimer’s unit and I appreciated the focus on the reality of the disease.
•The duel timelines. Finding out tid bits of the past at a time definitely kept me guessing and kept the pace moving so fast!
•Duel POV. Hearing both women’s POV definitely kept the mystery going on longer. I was super invested in Catherine’s sleuthing!

If I’m being picky, I would have loved two voices for the audio.