This was such a great read! It had me hooked and I flew through this audiobook. I loved to hear about each point of view with the mom and daughter, such likeable characters. It actually wasn’t too much thriller and mystery so I am surprised at how much I liked it. It was a fun read and I loved hearing the daughters pov while you already knew things about the moms. Would love to explore more from
this author!

Ruth and Catherine Sterling are the perfect mother-daughter duo…Or so they thought. At first glance, Ruth Sterling appears as any hard-working, quiet woman, and a loving mother. She lives for her daughter and would do anything for her. Quite literally. When Ruth begins to show signs of early onset Alzheimer’s Catherine is devastated. She puts her plans to move across states for a new and exciting job opportunity on hold to help Ruth and get her the care she needs. Her mother is her first preference. That is until their carefully constructed world comes crashing down as anomalies and inconsistencies begin to show up in the stories Ruth had been telling Catherine about her past. As Catherine starts to pick up on the inconsistencies and dig deeper, Ruth panics and tries to hold on to her daughter tighter than ever, setting a game of deception between the mother and daughter in motion.

One of the best things about this fast paced psychological thriller is that it is told from both Ruth and Catherine’s POV alternately. While most of the story is in the present, the Sara Pekkanen has cleverly sprinkled the past into the chapters. As we read on between the mother and daughter’s POV, we learn more and more about Ruth and Catherine and what led Ruth on this obsessive journey with her daughter.

In this journey, we also learn to what extent Ruth will go to protect and keep her daughter! The question that lingers long after we read the book … Was her path justified?

I was hooked from chapter one and couldn’t wait to find out Ruth and Catherine’s journey. Gone Tonight is a gripping, suspenseful read that kept me read well into the night!

Sara Pekkanen wrote a captivating, masterful thriller with this book! This book has earned a place amongst my top favorite Thriller books for this year.

Thank you to Netgalley for sharing the audiobook version of this book with me. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this one. I guess it falls into the category of thriller, but it wasn't too scary and no twists and turns, which I liked! I don't like when thrillers are so over the top with reveals and twists. This was a really interesting story and the way the details unfolded kept me interested. The ending was sort of a letdown, I'm not sure what o expected but it fell a little flat. Overall I really liked the book. The audiobook read by Kate Mara was done really well!
Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced copy of the book.

This book was a slow burn but then we slowly peel back history to find what it is Ruth has been hiding all these years. We alternate back and forth between Ruth and her daughter Catherine and there are times I think both of them are unreliable narrators.

This is hard one to review because I don’t want to give anything away and she does a great job at weaving the truth and the red herrings together that I don’t want to accidently say the wrong thing!

Narration by Kate Mara was very well done she made the two women voices just enough of a difference where you knew whose story we were hearing.

This author always does a great job at suspense and this is no exception.

3 ½ Stars

I received this audiobook from the publisher Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

This was a good book. I thought I knew what the book was about pretty quickly but that issue was made clear early in the story. It was then that the book went in an interesting direction. Little rabbit trails in the story kept me engaged. I really liked the narrator.

Thank you to the author Sarah Pekkanen, publishers Macmillan Audio, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of GONE TONIGHT. The narrator, Kate Mara gives an excellent reading for this book; it might actually be my favorite performance from her ever.

This is one of those books that had me making wild guesses the whole way through, and I was always wrong, and always wildly entertained! Red herrings galore, and twists and turns, which were entirely appropriate, given how far this story travels both in time and along the different character arcs. I was just astounded as I watched Pekkanen peel back the layers, a petal at a time, and I'm thinking the whole time she's taking me into the eye of a peony, but...it was something else altogether, not even a flower at all. More like a hurricane, all frilly and purple at the edges where she'd torn away to reveal the fury of her fiction.

"My headlights shone on a black corvette tucked in the furthest corner of the lot. James was leaning against the rear bumper. He looked so good in his jeans and white t-shirt...The sight of him washed away the ugliness of the previous hour. I parked and walked toward him. I was a mess. I hadn't even brushed my hair....But James was smiling by the time I reached him....He...rubbed his thumb against my cheekbone. There was a dot of blood on my face, he said. It wasn't mine. It was [my little brother's.]...I told him everything. Before I was even halfway through, he reached out and put his arms around me; it was the opposite of how my father restrained me,...he drew me to him tenderly. It wasn't exactly how I planned to start our first date...." chapter 12

So much happens in this story. I enjoyed the plot because it kept making me drop my jaw into my lap. But also, because so much happens in this story, I think sometimes I had to be more willling to suspend my disbelief than I normally would. A few rabbits out of hats in this plot. But The author does take the time and effort to go back and stitch up every end she unravels, for those readers who love a very thorough denouement.

I have a quibble with the major theme this book builds upon for its story logic, which is the idea that behavior can be congenital or hereditary.

"Catherine has James's eyes. They're midway between round and oval. They're the shade of a favorite old pair of jeans. They radiate gentleness and calm, but I have never once kidded myself that they reveal every facet of her soul. There's this thing Catherine does when she's sleepy. She rubs her feet together, like they're giving each other a little massage. They move slower and slower as her eyelids droop, then they stop right as she drops off. James use to do the exact same thing. The first time I noticed it in Catherine, she must have been two or three..." chapter 8

This scene conflates a hereditary trait like eye shape or color with a learned behavior like feet rubbing, pure and simple. This is a stigma that harms mentally ill and other disabled popuilations, so it's not my favorite. Honestly, this book could have been written almost identically without that trope in place. If you read this book, I'd love to hear what you think about it!

GONE TONIGHT is an intelligent, twisty slow burn that pays off multiple times throughout the narrative. Can't wait for more from Pekkanen!

Rating: ⚾️⚾️⚾️.5 / 5 baseball bats
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 27 2023
Format: Audiobook, NetGalley, narrator: Kate Mara
Read this book if you like:
👤 Psych thrillers
👮🏾‍♂️ Crime thrillers
🔥 Slow burn
🔪 Serial killer stories

This book follows a mother and daughter relationship and their devious dance against each other.

Both daughter and mother are hiding secrets from one another and as the story unfolds both of them are thrown into a messy situation that helps both uncover their secrets.

Trigger warning:
Sexual assault

It was sad at times but it was necessary for the plot to move along.

Audiobook thoughts:

Loved the narrator so much!

When it comes to audiobooks it's important to find narrators that can inbody the characters and bring them to life.

I enjoyed this audiobook experience so much thank you!

Would I recommend? Yes, absolutely!

I've read all of Sarah Pekkanen's books and this is definitely one of my favorites! The twists were unique and I was on edge several times. The story resonated with me especially because I work at a nursing home and see what was being described. I think this will be a fan favorite!

Great story and twists along the way. The two perspectives keep it interesting and you get a birds eye view of all the lives this has affected. Are they victims of choice or chance?

The narration was excellent. My only suggestion would be two
narrators, to help bring each character to life.

I guess this is a page turner as I started it yesterday and found it very hard to put down. The chapters alternate for the most part from Ruth, mom, to daughter, Catherine. Ruth is a single mom who works hard and loves and supports her daughter, who also works hard, graduated college and is a nurse in an assisted living facility. As the story moves forward, things in her mother's life just aren't adding up for Catherine and she wants to know why. As the back story of Ruth's childhood emerges, I couldn't help but emphasize with Ruth and hope for the best but prepare for the worst. This is my first book by Sarah Pekkanen and definitely not my last. This suspense/thriller was very well narrated as well.

Friends, may I present to you my latest 5 star read! I was totally hooked in this slow-unravelling thriller and the dual narration was on pointe! (Bravo Kate Mara!)
 
Ruth will do anything to protect her daughter, Catherine, from her past. Anything. Her daughter can NOT know the biggest danger and threat that may be coming for her at any moment. Catherine is slowing figuring out things may not be quite as they seem as she also grapples with her mom’s early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As a nurse in a home for Dementia and Alzheimer’s, she knows all the signs, but facts aren’t exactly lining up.
 
As Ruth continues down the path of living in fear for, and protecting Catherine from a huge past mistake, Catherine creates her own path separate from her mom’s knowledge as she digs deeper to uncover the truth.
 
I couldn’t not stop listening to this story and devoured every detail. The details, btw, made me feel as though I was in the story with the characters…the empty roads looking over my shoulder and dark bedrooms alone with my thoughts as I map out the best possible way to get out of the situation I’m in…I was both Ruth and Catherine and ‘just one more chapter’ led to may late nights for me.
 
Sarah is definitely becoming one of my fav mystery/thriller authors.
 
Gone Tonight will be published on August 1, 2023
 
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of this amazing thriller!

I have read all of Sarah Pekkanen's books and have loved them, so very excited and thankful for NetGalley, MacMillian Audio and St. Martin's Press sending me this Audiobook Listening Copy! I enjoyed it enough to finish it in one day! I actually replayed chapters 1-4 4x because I was driving through Nashville and lost track of listening...LOL This is my third book of hovering mothers this week. GEEZ!!!

Ruth thinks her daughter Catherine is the perfect child. She never dreamed of her finishing college as a nurse and moving away from her. 24 year old Catherine sees through her mom's antics and investigates her past. After she discovers several relationships have been punctured by her mom and the secrets her mom is hiding, she becomes afraid of her. The beginning of the book is all about the timing of her escape and how she will do it.
Catherine is working at a memory wing for dementia patients when Ruth decides to fake Alzheimer's so she won't leave. There are so many flaws with these two and some very irrational decisions that you may have a hard time staying with it, but when Ruth's past resurfaces and the crime she committed comes to light...It will pick up!!!!

1 like

In Gone Tonight, we read about a young girl who flees home after a crime she helped commit with her boyfriend when she was only 17. Once Ruth is out on her own she realizes she is pregnant and has to protect her daughter Catherine. 25 years pass by and when a ruth finds out that her ex boyfriend is up for parole, she know a she must do whatever it takes to protect Catherine. Now more than ever.

To me this book read more like a family drama than a “thriller” until the very end of the novel. I had high expectations for this after reading The wife Between Us that Sarah co-wrote, but I felt a bit disappointed in the overall pace of the novel. However, I did like the narrators voice. This was a 3 star read For me.

Gone Tonight is the first novel I have read by Sarah Pekkanen without her co-writer, Greer Hendricks. I have loved almost every book they wrote together, so I was unsure what to expect with this solo outing. I need not have worried. Gone Tonight was just as addictive and fun as the others. I really appreciated the story being about a mother and adult daughter. That is not a common theme in thrillers. Narrator, Kate Mara, was excellent.

Gone Tonight takes place over two time periods. One is current day where 24 year old nurse in training, Catherine starts to learn that her mother might have been lying to her about who she is Catherine's whole life. The other time line is from the perspective of Ruth, Catherine's mother, when she was in high school and events that transpired that brought her to the mysterious life she built for herself and her daughter.

The cat and mouse aspect is more fun because at first Ruth doesn't even realize Catherine is digging. But once she does realize, the reader stays in the dark about whether there is something malevolent at play as Catherine fears. The book was fun and I am so glad to know that even on her own, Sarah Pekkanen will be a must-read author for me.

This is not my favorite unfortunately because I love this author when she cowrites.
Spoilers ahead - I think I shouldn’t have listened to this right after binging Scamanda because I instantly caught onto Ruby and her plan. I thought the story was slow between the reveals and wasn’t shocked by any of them.
Also, I wouldn’t recommend the audio. The narration is flat and it was so hard to keep the characters straight because there were no changes in tone or anything between character switches. Really would’ve benefited from dual narration.

What a great book!!
I listened non stop until I finished!
The entire complex story kept me on the edge of my seat!
And the narrator was superb!
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced audiobook copy.
5 big fat stars!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts!

I love this author, so I was super excited to pick up this book. I found it to be a bit of a slow burn for me, the first half was pretty slow, but the second half was a lot more fast paced and exciting. I feel like there were a couple elements to the story that didn’t make it a lot of sense to be in the book. I did love the mother daughter experience in this!

As far as the narration, I love the actress Kate Mara but found the narration to be a bit flat. I enjoy different characters having at least somewhat different tones, especially when they’re different ages, but she kept it all one tone.

This was an absolute read for me as a fan of RuthPekkanen and Green Hendricks’s books! I had the opportunity to listen to the audible, which kept me in my car longer than I needed to be on multiple occasions.

Thrillers are my new favorite, and I love reading/listening to them and trying to figure out what’s coming next; I am never right!

This book is told in dual POV - Mother (Ruth) and daughter (Catherine). They have a relationship that is so close that they often find each other having the same thoughts, saying the exact words. A young single mother who loves her too, maybe a little too much?

Catherine has worked hard and finally landed her dream job as a nurse at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. She’s gong to move away from her mom. She has worked in a nursing home caring for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients for years. She’s a bit worried about her mother as she sees similarities between her and the patients she cares for.

There is so much more here than meets the eye. The twists and turns of Ruth’s life before she had Catherine has fueled her unreasonable need to be close to her daughter - at all times.
Catherine begins to see a different side of her mom, and her life as she knows it begins to unravel, and I was there for every heart-wrenching, twisty, turny moment.

I went into the book Blind, and I think doing that is much better! I was on the edge of my seat for hours listening! There is a slow-building story, and I found this to be riveting and one of the best thrillers I have ever listened to. The narrator did a fantastic job differentiating her voice for both mother and daughter. She brought them to life!

A slow- burn thriller that amps up the suspense more towards the end.

Interesting having a mother and daughter that don’t trust each other and there are a few times when I just could trust Ruth.

As her past is revealed through her journal entries we understand why she keeps herself isolated and is so over protective of Catherine.

The slow-burn aspect was hard for me as I prefer more fast paced thrillers. I did find it predictable as well. Those two things dropped its rating a little for me. There were definitely great suspenseful moments I really enjoyed and trying to figure it out and the ending was interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed it. The mystery unraveling and the end. The audiobook was done really well.
Thanks to Macmillan audio and netgalley.

This was not my favourite of the books I’ve read by Sarah Pekkanen. It was a slow moving mystery which I appreciated. However, I didn’t feel like the plot was interesting enough. I feel like the part about the mother faking Alzheimer’s was a little bit much for me. And then we spent too long with the past and the killing of the coach. Before then I really liked the past chapters. But once we got to that point I felt like we just dragged the story line until the end. And that’s not that far into the book when the coach dies. In the end, I felt underwhelmed.