I think I may have overdone it with the thrillers!! Oh no! The intense curiosity of Ruth’s daughter, Catherine, and the deception that is orchestrated to keep Ruth’s story from being uncovered, is very well done. However, when I reached the end, my first thought was, “Cool reveal, but my mind isn’t blown.” I think it’s just a “me” issue, though!

I don't generally care for slow burns...and in the realm of thrillers, this book wasn't entirely thrilling. I'm not well versed on the breadth of all genres, but this feels more like general fiction more than a massive mystery.

One of my biggest pet peeves in first person stories is when an author is intentionally vague about information that a character would actively think about as the story unfolds solely because they are wanting to avoid spoilers for the reader. If we're living inside of the character's head, there needs to be a reason why we aren't being told everything beyond doing so to not spoil the story. It's a very lackluster approach to writing that screams a lack of creativity on the part of the writer. It is a complaint that I make often. I don't mind the hiding of bits and pieces because that's just how you tell a story, but it needs to serve a valid purpose other than skipping over it to prevent spoiling the ending for the reader very early on. This author does a fantastic job at coming up with a valid way of hiding information that works for the story that doesn't bring the reader into it at all.

This book is centered around a mother-daughter duo with a close bond and hidden secrets. As we know, secrets have a way of coming out, especially when the person hiding them is becoming increasingly desperate. We are following the story through the first-person perspective of both mother and daughter, where one is trying to unearth the truth and the other is desperately trying to keep them both safe by any means necessary.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book despite not generally being a fan of stories that lack action and take a while to unfold because it was just that well written. Every aspect of the book from the very first chapter was interesting and made me want to know where things were going. The characters were intriguing and complex and made me want to learn what made them tick. I did wonder how much of the middle of the story could have been solved by merely communicating with each other honestly, but I don't think it was a significant enough flaw to take away from my enjoyment of the book.

I am not generally offered books on NetGalley out of the blue, so I'd also like to thank the publisher for reaching out and offering me a book that is relevant to my tastes and my reading style. I have been a near exclusive audiobook listener/reader for the past year, which means this book was most likely offered by someone who took the time to look into my interests and reading preferences rather than them taking a shot in the dark.

I'm so torn on this one. On one hand, it was a really interesting idea, and I love a secret family history undone by an unwitting accomplice. On the other hand, the who "like father like daughter" thing is so overplayed, and the twists along the way were predictable at best.

I listened to the audiobook version, and the reader was pretty bland, almost bordering on monotone. It felt like she was almost reading against her will. It was also impossible to tell the two characters apart if you weren't paying close attention the the chapters because there wasn't any differentiation. Additionally, the audiobook chapters weren't labeled as anything other than the title, which is a huge annoyance and a big pet peeve of mine. It makes it cumbersome to navigate and keep track of where things are.

All in, I struggle to say if I would or wouldn't recommend this one. I think if you're very new to the thriller/domestic suspense genre, you may really enjoy it, but if you've been around the stacks a few times, you'll probably be less wowed over this one.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book. It's not that I wasn't enjoying the story, but instead it was hitting a little too close to home for me. I did not realize that there was a large portion of the plot dedicated to the main character's mother beginning to lose her memory and likely succumbing to early-onset Alzheimer's. I have been experiencing something similar in my own life with my father, and this book just ended up being more than I could handle. At some point in the future, I would like to try to read it again, but for now, I just can't.

It was okay. Slow build up and then when you got to the main conflict, it was a little disappointing

Boy are you in for a ride with this one!

This thriller follows mother and daughter duo Ruth and Catherine Sterling. Ruth is a waitress at a local diner. Catherine works in the memory care unit at the local nursing home. Catherine is set to move away from home to begin work at Johns Hopkins when her mother is diagnosed with Early Onset Dementia. This puts a stop to Catherine's plans but things start to get a bit fishy. Catherine wants to know more about her family- after all, it's been just her and her mother her entire life. When she starts digging into her mother's past, she soon finds quite a few things that don't add up. Before you know it, Catherine and Ruth are on the run for their lives.

This novel kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the dual point of view. I loved the unreliability and the fact that you never knew what was going to happen in this crazy, yet believable story. I highly recommend this novel- especially on audio- Kate Mara does a fantastic job!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

An insanely intense mother/daughter thriller!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
“Gone Tonight” is a mother/daughter thriller that turns insanely intense as Catherine discovers all the secrets her mother has kept throughout her childhood. No daughter knows everything about her mother but how can you hide so much for so long?

This dark and entertaining story is told from alternating viewpoints. Mother and daughter each tell their story, so the reader hears the secrets they are keeping from each other. I love hearing secrets. Especially when I don’t have to keep them to myself!

Ruth Sterling left home and became a single mother at 16 years old. She has a plausible explanation. It was her only choice because of her family’s rigid religious beliefs. Her life hasn’t been easy. Without a high school education, Ruth didn’t have many opportunities. She worked hard as a waitress and put Catherine through nursing school.

It’s finally time for Catherine to leave home and have some freedom. Then a big revelation prevents that from happening. This story is shocking and emotional as we slowly learn how Ruth ended up where she is.

Pekkanen has written another gripping five-star read! The narrator also does a wonderful job.

Sincere thanks to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for providing this gifted ARC through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

#GoneTonight #SarahPekkanen #macmillanaudio #stmartinspress #audiobook #womenwriters #giftedARC #justfinished #comingsoon #igbookreels #thriller #ad #honestreview #thrillerfriendsunite #mysteryandthrills #thrillerobsessedbookishclub #suspense #mystery #lovetoread #bookworms #lovebooks #lovetoreadbooks #fortheloveofbooks #booknerd #bookreviewer #booksbooksandmorebooks #instabook #readaholic

Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen is an incredible book that beautifully weaves the story of a relationship between a mother and her daughter. We slowly see the mother's past and how they are both dealing with ramifications from it. There are tense, sad, funny, and scary moments throughout; it's definitely a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Although voiced the exact same, Sarah writes in such a way that makes it easy for readers to tell who we are hearing from. I love how things are casually revealed in a way that is still shocking without being jarring.

Kate Mara is so good that I felt like I was listening to her autobiography. I had to tell myself multiple times that it's a work of fiction 😂

I originally was going to rate Gone Tonight 4-4.5 stars because it seemed like there were loose ends, but everything was clarified in the epilogue in a logical way (not a data dump!). Because of this, it's a solid 5 stars from me.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC.

A loving and functioning mother-daughter relationship is what many hope for. But what happens when that relationship is plagued by secrets that threaten to break mother and daughter apart? Gone Tonight is a fresh and riveting read from start to finish.

Catherine Sterling is a 24 year old woman who has the opportunity to move and work as a geriatric nurse at John Hopkin, but this means having to leave her mother, As Catherine prepares for her move, her mother Ruth Sterling, begins to display signs that Catherine knows all too well due to her current job working in the Memory Wing of a facility where people who experience memory loss, among other diseases, live.

Catherine is compelled to learn more about the family she never knew, now that her mother seems to be declining. Time is of the essence. Or is it?

We join this cat-and-mouse game between mother and daughter in their quest to both uncover and hide truths. Truths that may rip this duo apart.

Thank You to St. Martin Press for the gifted copy through NetGalley.

Available everywhere August 1, 2023!

Mother and daughter have always lived together. Now Ruth is showing symptoms of dementia right at the same time that Katherine is about to move away for a job. Katherine is worried about her mom. Ruth has secrets. And the shocker is something I didn’t see coming! This book switches POV from both main characters.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest review. I was excited about this book because of the author. I also thought the book sounded interesting. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook but I wish that they had a narrator for each main character’s chapters. It would have helped me keep the MC’s chapters separated. I thought “who is talking now” a lot.
I thought this book was slow until the end of “act 1” then it became more interesting. I liked that this is a book with a theme that I haven’t read before, so it hasn’t been overdone. 3.5 stars

"If there's one thing women do better than disappearing, it's protecting our children."

I've read plenty of books where Sarah Pekkanen teams up with Greer Hendricks, but this was my first time reading her solo. I could see the similarities, but this one seemed darker to me...and i loved it!

We alternate POV's from Ruth (mom) to Catherine (daughter) and speaking for the narration, i wish there were either two narrators or she'd maybe changed her voice some, as it was really hard to distinguish without looking at the chapter title.

This was a slow burn, which I personally really like in thrillers, however the action picked way up at the end. But that last chapter though?! Yes ma'am!

Sarah Pekkanen never disappoints!
Another smart psychological thriller that grabs you from the first page. The premise of this was riveting, and it didn't fall flat along the way. Vivid characters, strong writing and a killer plot! Bravo!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I found this book a little slow pace. I kept waiting for some big thing to happen and it never did. It was just an ok thriller.

This story helps us to appreciate our parents and our lives, all while putting this puzzle together. I like the dynamics and the relationships that we get to experience. It made me wonder what I would do in this situation. I wouldn’t call this a thriller, until the end , but definitely suspenseful and mysterious. The audiobook narrator does a great job of changing chapters so you know who’s voice she’s doing.

I like the past and present timelines and the way I was sucked in from the start! I couldn’t go to bed until I finished this one.

Wow. What a book! The mother daughter bond, the suspense, both POVs, everything about this kept me figuratively turning the pages, since I was listening to it as an audiobook. Which just added suspense, I think! I’ll definitely be recommending this to anyone who enjoys this genre. Such a twisting and captivating story set up in such a great way. I’ll be reading more of Sarah Pekkanen’s books ASAP.

So good! What would you do if you didn't know who your your mom truly was behind all the lies and faced a future of never knowing her? It took a minute to get into, because it was really sad at first getting into the headspace of what dementia can do to a family. But is that really what's going on? Ruth has dedicated her life to doing everything for and to protect her daughter Catherine. But when she starts asking too many questions and is preparing to move away, Ruth will stop at nothing to keep her daughter close.

If you liked Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter, you'll love this! It has that air of secrecy and slowly unraveling what's truly going on kind of vibe.

Thank you for the audio ARC!

24 year old Catherine receives devastating news that her mother, Ruth, is showing early signs of Alzheimer's. Ruth has raised Catherine alone, often moving from place to place when money was too tight to make the rent. But with this diagnosis, Catherine reconsiders her plans to move away for a new job to care for her mother. As Catherine scrutinizes her mother more closely, she notices that there are some contradictions and that things are not quite adding up. Ruth is definitely afraid of something from her past that could destroy the careful life she has constructed for herself and her daughter. What she doesn't know is that Catherine has caught on to this and is digging into her past to find the truth. And that could have dangerous consequences for both women.

Told from alternating POV of Catherine and Ruth, the reader is well aware of what's going on even though neither of the characters know what the other is doing. Some of Ruth's backstory was hard to believe for me but I was able to suspend my belief as the intensity of the story kept me flipping the pages. I listened to this on audio and Kate Mara's narration was fantastic.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an ALC of this thriller. It will be available in all formats on 8/1/2023.

How far would you go to protect the person you love most in the world?

Catherine’s world is turned upside down when her mother, Ruth, is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Catherine comes to terms with the fact that she will have to stay home to care for her mother, giving up her future career at Johns Hopkins. After Ruth’s diagnosis, Catherine starts digging into her mother’s past. She can’t find anything on her mother, and she finds her questions being evaded by Ruth. What is her mother hiding?

Ruth spirals as she realizes Catherine is trying to dig into her background. She will do anything she can to stop her daughter from revealing her true identity. Every choice Ruth has made in her life was for her and Catherine’s safety. But it may be too late.

What I liked:
- Pekkanen is such a descriptive author. The way she described the isolation and loneliness young Ruth felt was SO well done
- Amazing characters and character development! I felt for both women from start to finish
- The story unravelled from both Ruth and Catherine’s perspectives — I love a multi-perspective story
- Kata Mara’s narration for the audiobook was fantastic
- The sharp turn from a sort of mundane story of Ruth and Catherine’s day-to-day lives to a crazy, gripping thriller!

This was another 5 star read for me, and one of the best novels I have read in 2023. Gone Tonight is a refreshingly original, page-turning thriller. I burned through this book so quick!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced reading copy!

Although this felt a lot more like a contemporary drama with some tension than a thriller, I still really enjoyed the emotional story and the darkly poetic prose.

I cannot deny that I found the reveals easy to predict, but I didn’t mind that. The character depth and intriguing development held the story together well, with or without surprises.

And, yes, I have seen the criticisms noting that this is a highly implausible scenario. I won’t argue with that, but don’t most books ask us to suspend some level of disbelief?

I found this wholly immersive from start to finish and that was enough for me. I finished in just a little over 24 hours. It was just that good.

I am immensely grateful to Macmillan Audio for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Kept me glued to the pages. Fabulously entertaining. Loved it! I switched between book and audio book. The narrator did a wonderful job and kept me engaged rather than drifting off. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.