Gone Tonight tells the story of Ruth and Catherine Sterling, a mother and daughter who think they know everything about one another. But when Ruth is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Catherine starts to notice some cracks in the stories her mother has told her about her family and her past. Leaving Catherine to wonder if she knows her mother at all. As Catherine investigates her mothers past she accidentally uncovers secrets that put both of their lives in danger.

This is the first solo novel I have read by Sarah Pekannan and I was not disappointed with it! This novel is told through the alternating perspectives of Ruth and Catherine, both of which are interesting and strong female characters. The way the author only reveals tiny bits of the backstory at a time creates a high level of suspense and makes it impossible to put this book down!

I enjoyed the narration by Kate Mara. Her voice was perfect for this novel and I loved the way she brought the story to life!

I listened to this book in one day! I couldn’t turn it off! Gone Tonight would make a great addition to your summer reading list!

Sarah Pekkanen created a brilliant story with “Gone Tonight” that captivated me from the very beginning. The truth of this family history spirals out of control while the wholesome balance of this mother-daughter relationship begins to crumble.

I found myself nervous with excitement while the story began tying up loose ends. The little side road the novel takes at the tail end of the story is also perfectly crafted.

I also want to shoutout the narrator of this story. She added an extra layer of flavor to this masterpiece, for sure!

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the best thrillers I’ve read all year! It had similar vibes to Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter (in the very best way). I loved the mother daughter dual perspectives and there were so many twists! The narrator did a fantastic job with both voices too.

This was a great read. A fast-paced story between a mother and daughter that shows how far a mother will go to protect her daughter.

I like a good domestic thriller and I think if you are looking for a beach read, this one would be perfect. Solid storytelling though I do think that the narration would have been helped with having separate narrators for each point of view. I will say that the whole "miscommunication or failing to communicate" trope gets to be a little tiresome for me personally, but I think that the book is entertaining and I would recommend it.

This book was a huge surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started because I had previously read only one book by this writer - The wife between us - which I really didn't find to my taste. Unlike that book, Gone Tonight dives deep into the plot and delivers a twisty and intense psychological thriller that you'll remember for a long time.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the audiobook arc.

I love this story of Ruth and Katherine - the mother daughter best friends forever - they know every detail about each other and share the best relationship - or do they?

Loved that this story was told chapter by chapter alternating mom and daughter as it really helped fill in all the details, yet kept you wondering as it one story "ended" when the others started.

I love Sarah's writing style always - and this book did not disappoint with its twist!

Gone Tonight - Sarah Pekkanen

🎧Audiobook review🎧

I'd only read The Golden Couple previously from Sarah Pakkanen (which she co-wrote), I confess it wasn't a favourite. Gone Tonight came highly recommended by a trusted book friend so I had to give it a go.

First of all, I haven't read a thriller like this before, I'm not saying there's never been one, but I haven't read it. It's got a very original dynamic which added to the curiosity and surprises.

Secondly, I think the blurb goes into a lot of detail. I like to go into a book blind so I won't say too much about the plot, and less than the blurb tells you.

Catherine is in her twenties and lives with her mom Ruth. One of these characters is keeping secrets, telling lies, and the other is determined to get to the truth, with no idea of the trouble it may cause.

Wow!

This book goes deep, gradually sets up a very detailed back story alongside the current tensions. The two main characters are wonderfully detailed and believable. It's quite brilliantly done with the threat and tension ramping up hard as we get further into the story.

The highly original plot opens up very fresh angles, I had no idea where this rollercoaster ride was going. It thrilled, it made me cry, it kept me hooked from start to finish.

Excellent! Very highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press

Sarah Pekkanen's thrillers, which she typically co-authors with Greer Henricks, are addicting and hard to put down. When I saw Pekkanen was releasing a new book solo, I was intrigued. When I read the synopsis, my interest deepened and when I saw that Kate Mara would be narrating the audiobook, I knew I had to listen.

This book did not disappoint. The plot was a bit different than I expected, based on the other Pekkanen books I've read. This is more focused on mother-daughter bonds, and the ways in which we may behave suspiciously in an attempt to protect our loved ones. Catherine is 24 years old and very close to her mother, Ruth, a 41-year-old who always seems overly concerned about her daughter's whereabouts and acquaintances.

Catherine doesn't know about Ruth's past and soon, the secrets that Ruth has worked tirelessly to keep hidden start to emerge. What follows is a gripping, emotional tale of motherhood, mother-daughter relationships, dark secrets, and fear.

Highly recommend this one.

𝗚𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁
𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗣𝗲𝗸𝗸𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗻
𝟴/𝟭/𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you @macmillan.audio for my ALC.

📖 Gone Tonight follows a mother and her daughter, Ruth and Catherine, respectively. For years, it's just been the two of them. But when Catherine is ready to spread her wings and leave the nest, Ruth is determined to keep her close. But why? What is she hiding? What is she afraid of?

💭 The story itself was a 4.5 star for me. It's creepy, atmospheric, and very well written. That said, I think I did myself a disservice by reading this as an audiobook. Because while the narrator had a great voice, and overall did a wonderful job narrating, there was little or no differentiation between the mom and daughter characters, and I was often confused by whose perspective I was in.

Though I definitely still recommend this book!🥰

Review posted to my IG 7/20/2023

I was immediately hooked on this book! I read a review of this novel and knew i had to know more. The drama and tension between the mother and child were enough to keep me hooked on its own, but adding an outside factor that neither could control ramped up the tension so high i could hardly focus on anything else. Great characters and character development as well as a good plot. This book is gripping and suspenseful and will have you staying up past your bedtime.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advance readers copy of this audiobook

I really enjoyed this book. The narration was amazing!! The ebook was really good too!! I definitely need to get a physical copy for my home library and a copy of this audio book on my phone to listen to again

I liked this one but didn't love it. I was always interested in what was going on, but it didn't help that I'd already read a book very much like this one before which did this premise much better. I saw pretty much everything coming. It's well done, though, despite my being frustrated at the disbelief I had to suspend, that Catherine's mother Ruth never told her what was really going on. The reasons given just didn't really work for me. I also think the author could have done a better job making the antagonist more fully fleshed out, not just to us as readers, but to Ruth and Catherine as well. Catherine spent barely any time at all with him after she realized what kind of person he really was, but she acts like she knows exactly how he will react at any given moment. I thought the ending was a bit anti-climactic, and didn't do much for the story thematically.

I liked Kate Mara as the audiobook narrator, but she uses the same voice for both Catherine and Ruth. She could have done more to distinguish between the two first person POVs.

All in all, if you like thrillers more than I do, this is probably well worth checking out, but it's probably not going to stick in my mind for very long.

✨BOOK REVIEW✨

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen

I seem to be the major outlier here but this was just okay for me. I switched back and forth between audio and physical but mostly did audio. While it kept my attention, the “reveals” were extremely predictable and I kept waiting for the “big twist” that never came.

The author leaves you little breadcrumbs throughout the story that kept it moving along but I felt like there was some pacing issues in the middle. Overall, I just didn’t rate this one higher because I was very underwhelmed with the “thrill” and I needed more.

I think if you’re new to the mystery/thriller genre then this one would be a great one to start with!

Read if you like:
-mother/daughter duo
-unreliable narrators
-slow burn suspense
-past, present timeline, dual POV

Despite not connecting with this one, I really enjoyed “The Golden Couple” by this author & Greer Hendricks and I have “You Are Not Alone” on my shelf to be read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ruth had Catherine at the tender young age of seventeen and they have been a team ever since. Always on the poor side and frequently running from one place to the next, Catherine has just taken it all in stride. Now at twenty-four Catherine is ready to stretch her wings and start a new career. She’s accepted her dream job as a nurse at John Hopkins, but she has to move away. As her move date draws closer, Catherine starts to notice things about Ruth. She’s forgetting things, losing things and getting lost. Catherine is all too aware of the devastating affects of dementia as she works in an Alzheimer’s care home. Willing to give up her dreams, she starts to notice other things amiss, her mother has secrets and she’s determined to find out what they are. Ruth is also determined to keep her secrets to keep Catherine safe, but Catherine won’t be stopped. What is her mother hiding? Told in two voices as well as journal entries, this was a slow burn of a book, but as the story builds, so does the tension. With an original storyline. Pekanen keeps the reader riveted until the very end. Thank you to Saint Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC and ALC of this book.

Gone Tonight started out slow but picked up a lot of speed and had my full attention going towards the conclusion.

Gone Tonight is told from two perspectives, Ruth and her Daughter Catherine. This is where some of my problems started with the audiobook. Narrator Kate Mara does a great job but she narrates both perspectives and does them exactly the same. I often forgot who was who before the book fully sucked me in. After around the 25% mark enough happened that I was fully invested and this stopped being a problem for me.

This was a suspenseful thriller and was excellently crafted. Both Ruth and Catherine have secrets, they share some of these secrets with the reader but not with each other. Catherine is supposed to be moving to start a new job but her mom is suffering from early stages of Alzheimer’s which makes Catherine question her decision to move.

To figure out what is going on with Ruth in the present Catherine has to figure out her past. It's a wild ride across two timelines filled with suspense and thrills.

My only complaint was how slow it started. There was a lot of information thrown at us in the beginning and it didn’t all seem relevant to the story. Once the story picked up, I never looked back. Check this one out.

3.5/5
Gone Tonight was a slow burn thriller. It started a little slow and then the started to pick up when Ruth and her daughter Catherine began unveiling each other's secrets. It really picked up at about 70% and became much more heart pounding and exciting. I definitely enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel and I was pleasantly surprised when the pace picked up. Layer by layer the characters grew on me and I appreciated the approach of the book.

I really wish there were two different audio readers for Catherine and Ruth. As an audio it was hard to know which character was speaking if you resumed listening in the middle of the chapter. I enjoyed the narrator, but I felt like two different reader was warranted in this scenario.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for granting me a free copy in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 stars

Not too bad for this author’s first solo journey. She has co-authored a number of other psych thrillers, all of which I’ve really enjoyed so I was delighted to receive an advanced copy of this book.

In this slow burn, we meet Ruth and her grown daughter Catherine. The two are as close as close can be between mother and daughter. In fact, one might even think too close. Neither have any of their own friends. They spend most nights together. Ruth even has Catherine’s location on at all times so she always knows where her daughter is. It’s always been just the two of them, with Ruth regularly packing up and moving them suddenly every few years while Catherine was growing up, which made it impossible for her to sustain friendships.. But Catherine has been offered a nursing position in Baltimore and will finally be leaving the nest…or will she? Ruth has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which puts a big wrinkle in her plan. As Catherine starts to look more closely at her mother’s diagnosis, she starts to notice that maybe Ruth hasn’t been as honest with her over the years as she thought.

There was a lot to love about this book. The dual first person narration that alternated between Ruth and Catherine’s perspective was atmospheric and ominous. It moved the plot at a good pace and kept me intrigued to know what was coming next. Ruth also used a journal format to share backstory from an older time line of when she was a teenager. The execution of this worked well. There was a decent twist and the ending packed some punch. The audio narrator delivered a solid performance.

What didn’t work as well for me was the shift in plot dynamic from suspenseful to action/adrenaline. The reader learns fairly early on what’s going on with Ruth, which took the plot in more of a cat and mouse direction. I was hoping for pure suspense. Some of the plot elements were also far fetched so one needs to be able to suspend disbelief to some degree. And the audiobook version could have used a second narrator to perform Catherine’s perspective. This would have added depth and animation in bringing the storyline alive via audio.

There were some hits and misses in this one but overall it was engaging and kept my interest. Would recommend to others.

Thanks #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for an advanced ecopy and #MacMillanAudio for an audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine works at a memory clinic so when her mother is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease, she is filled with dread for their future. She knows what is ahead for her mother and that there is a high risk of her inheriting the same fate. She decides it's time to get some more details about her mother's past before those memories are gone for good. But as she begins to ask questions, her mother clams up and gives confusing answers. She realizes that there is something very wrong with her mother's past and decides to do what she needs to get those answers. Little does she know, her mother will do anything to keep her from finding out the truth and to keep her safe.

I like when stories have dual POV and this one had both viewpoints as well as two different timepoints. I did it on audio, so it took a minute or so when they switched to get the POV right in my mind, I do feel like Catherine and Ruth were quite similar in thoughts and actions. But other than that, I liked the story and the lengths each went to find the truth. A simple conversation would have halved the book but where's the fun in that? The ending was worth it, I loved the theme of inheriting things from your parents being turned on its head.

Thanks to Macmillian Audio and St Martins Press for gifted access to the audiobook via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. I really liked this story. I found the main two characters (Ruth, a waitress who is hiding from her past, and her 24 year old daughter Catherine, who doesn't have a clue that most of her life is a lie). We slowly get to find out who Ruth really is and why she is so protective of Catherine as the truth starts to unravel. Catherine grows suspicious and starts to pursue the truth and decides to find out exactly what her mother is hiding. It's definitely more than Catherine bargained for. I enjoyed the scenes where Ruth explained her past, as she wrote it into a secret notebook, that she planned to give to Catherine someday. I found it interesting and it made me feel closer to the story and the characters. In the end, there is a good balance between the mystery/thriller aspect of the story and the mother/daughter relationship. There is a nature vs nurture theme and an overall story of what a mother will do, and how far she will go to protect her child. We learn that everyone has secrets and sometimes there are sides to ourselves that even we don't know exist until circumstances bring them to light. The end was satisfying and provided a good resolution. There was also a revelation near the end that I didn't see coming...one last secret that Ruth had kept from her daughter and always would. I will definitely look into other books by this author. I enjoyed the writing style and although I really loved it as an audiobook, I'm certain it would have been a great read as well. The narrator (actress Kate Mara) was great. Her voice was pleasant to listen to and her pace/tone were good. Great job! I give this a 4.5 easily.