I was fortunate to have both the Kindle version and audiobook of this novel.

This was a solid thriller with some very unpredictable twists!!

Ruth Sterling and her daughter Catherine have always lived together. Catherine is now 24 and has been offered a great job in Baltimore, miles away from Ruth.

Catherine is packing up and getting ready to quit her current job at Sunrise Nursing Home. Just a few weeks before her departure Ruth begins to exhibit signs of forgetfulness and some unusual behavior. She gets lost coming home from a familiar place, she puts her glasses and keys in places and then forgets them.

Ruth finally shares part of her past – she tells Catherine and a physician that her mother had Alzheimers that progressed aggressively.

Catherine is ready to change her plans and stay put but as she thinks about her mom she starts to wonder if the puzzle pieces are fitting together. Her mother has always adamantly refused to share her past. She begins to look for clues to her mother’s past. She finds more questions than answers!!

Why is Ruth so intent on keeping her daughter with her? Is she scared that she will need her help or is there something else more terrifying behind this charade?

The novel is a little slow to get going but I found the twists and reveals in the second half to be very good!!

I thought the narrator did a good job with the dual voices. I felt the tension more in the audiobook than while reading, just me I guess!

I can recommend this to all thriller lovers, in particular those who love a great mother/daughter novel.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss. I received the audiobook from the publisher and MacMillan audio on NetGalley.

It was my pleasure to read and listen to this original novel!

When I started reading this book I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, they quickly went away. I can't really explain why without spoilers, so I'll just say that it started as if there was going to be a good psychological premise, and then it was abandoned for less believable ideas. Also, it would have been better if two narrators were used, one for the mother, and one for the daughter. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow ! What a spectacular book. ! It was me engrossed and listening as often as possible. Well thought out characters., great storyline of a subject I had not read about before , and an ending that covered all loose ends successfully.

A pregnant teen, leaves home after a bad event that sends her boyfriend to prison. From that day on, she is in hiding. Twenty four years have passed and when he is released will he be coming for her and their child to seek revenge ?

Only issue I had was some events were unbelievable. I’m willing to just “go with the story” since the story was so captivating. Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

4.5 ⭐️
I loved, loved, loved the Golden Couple so I was extra excited for this novel. This was a gripping, suspenseful and mostly unnerving novel. I had a bad feeling in my gut almost the entire time. I was unsettled. The story takes a ponderous look at inherited traits. Nature or nurture per se. Will I be like my parents? And how can I tell?
I’m not going to talk anymore about the story, I’m just going to say that if you like creepy suspense with murderous behavior then I think you’ll like this one.

This was an audiobook and Kate Mara was good as the narrator. Sometimes I couldn’t tell which character was talking but that’s probably my fault. 😆
Her voice remained the same throughout the story and took some getting use to.
Thanks St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

This was really good!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, St Martins Press and Macmillan Audio for my advanced copies of Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen.

What I Enjoyed-

✨ The Audio- Kate Mara did an amazing job bringing this book to life.

✨ The Dual Timeline / POV- This book jumps between characters (mother and daughter) and timelines (the present and the 1990's I wanna say)

✨ The Mystery- I loved piecing the mystery together between the two timelines. Especially when Catherine started doing her own investigation. I felt like we were sleuthing together lol.

✨ The Relationship Dynamics- The lengths that Ruth would go to protect her daughter at times felt creepy af but there is real love there and a strong bond.

Overall- Highly Recommend. I look forward to more books written by this author.

While reading Gone Tonight by @sarahpekkanen, I switched back and forth from the book and the audiobook. @katemara narrates the audiobook and did a fantastic job with the narration!

I could not put this read down! The story is told from different POVs and has dual timelines. The two POVs are mother and daughter, Ruth and Catherine. The characters are well developed and the twists begin early and continue throughout the book.

I highly recommend either the book or audiobook for your TBR lists, especially for reading during those late summer trips!

Thank you @stmartinspress @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for allowing me to read and listen to this book/audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

Sarah Pekkanen is one of my favorite mystery/thrill authors. This is her third book and it is just as good as her other ones. I listened to the audiobook and narrative done by the actress Kate Mara is superb. The story main characters are a mother, Ruth and daughter, Catherine. It is filed with lots of twists and turns and kept me guessing until the end. Gone Tonight is my favorite by Pekkanen.

Thank you #NetGalley, #MacmillanAudio, #St.Martin’sPress, #SarahPekkanen, #kateMara and #GoneTonight for the advance audio version for my honest review.

It’s Ruth and her daughter Catherine against the world. They’ve struggled financially, and moved frequently while Ruth took on low paying jobs, but it’s always been just the two of them. They are as close as a mother & daughter could be.

Catherine has now graduated college and ready to embark on a life of her own in a new city, when Ruth begins to exhibit signs of early onset Alzheimer’s. Catherine, a new nursing graduate, begins to investigate. What she finds will turn her life upside down.

Both mother and daughter have secrets, and as each is revealed, it becomes clear that perhaps mother and daughter didn’t know each other as well as they thought.

Told in alternating points of view and timelines, this story explores the bond between mother and daughter and the darkness that lies within. I particularly enjoyed Ruth’s backstory.

I absolutely loved this one, and appreciated the take on the psychological aspects of the characters. To some readers, this may be a bit of a slow beginning for a thriller, but buckle up, as things take a decidedly darker turn at around 30%.

The pieces of the puzzle click together and it becomes an enthralling story. The ending was clever and thought-provoking. The author excelled at misdirection while leaving bread crumbs for her readers.

Definitely one of the better thrillers I’ve read this year, and highly recommended!

At seventeen Ruth left home. At the time she wasn’t aware she was pregnant. As time wore on she found ways to survive. Ruth has been on the run for twenty-four years. Her daughter Catherine had no idea, until recently, that her mother has been lying to her. Ruth lied to protect them. Ruth’s one lie leads Catherine down a path of discovery and danger.
…
Gone Tonight is about the relationship between a mother and daughter. Ruth devoted her life to raising Catherine after getting pregnant in high school. It’s been the two of them ever since.
…
Catherine is excited to start her new job out-of-state. She’s been planning this move for the last five months. This will be the first time Catherine will be away from her mother. It’s not an easy decision to leave her mother, but she’s worked hard to earn this position.
…
Ruth was excited about Catherine’s new job until she wasn’t. Ruth has a secret that she’s kept from Catherine. Ruth will do anything to protect her and her daughter.
…
Sarah Pekkanen tells the story between mother and daughter with alternating points of view. This is truly my favorite way to deliver information about two characters. As Sarah Pekkanen navigates between these two different perspectives readers gain a better understanding of how each character’s thought process was at the time. It’s the best execution in my opinion.
The story is divided into three parts starting from the point when Ruth tells Catherine one more lie which leads down a path into the past. The second part is Catherine hiding secrets of her own. The final part is the past colliding with the present.
…
As thrillers go this one was slow brewing. I enjoyed the picking up the secret pieces along the way. The best form of excitement came when the pieces completed the puzzle. This is when the story comes alive and thrives.
…
Kate Mara is the solo female narrator who gave an amazing performance of Gone Tonight. This is my first listening experience by Kate Mara. I listened using the Netgalley app at 2.1x speed. This is an unabridged audiobook allowing readers such as myself to follow along. Listening to the audiobook as a second visit is worth it. It didn’t matter that I knew how it unfolded. The pace was better when I knew the direction of the story.

💭Thoughts:
This book was so good! I was hooked from the first chapter. The pacing was perfect and kept me listening late into the night. If I could have, I would have devoured this book in one sitting.

The book is more of a mystery than a thriller. Though I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what was going on. The story unravels slowly, but the author still managed to keep me engaged. Even had some twists at the end I didn’t see coming.

Kate Mara was a great narrator. The only negative about the narration was that she gave both Ruth and Catherine the same voice. There was no differentiation between the characters. A second narrator would have been better. I loved Kate’s voice, so it’s really to bad that the narration was the way it was.

Overall, I recommend this thriller to readers who enjoy mother/daughter drama and a slow burn mystery. Looking forward to reading this author’s backlist.

Catherine has grown up with only her mother Ruth. Sudden moves and leaving behind friends has been the norm. Now in her 20s and beginning her nursing career, Catherine starts to question what she has always been told by her mother and secrets start to come out. While this mystery/thriller isn't jam-packed with action, it was a very enjoyable listen! I can't say I didn't see most of the twists coming, but I didn't even care. As Ruth and Catherine's stories unfold, we discover why Ruth has kept them on the move for 25 years and what she's been hiding from her past. But is there more to Catherine as well? And what really happened that fateful night all those years ago that triggered Ruth to run? Having read too many mediocre mysteries lately, Gone Tonight was a pleasant change of pace!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Ruth Sterling and her daughter Katherine live a frugal simple life. Ruth a waitress and Katherine a new nurse works at a Nursing Home for memory care. They are all each other has, their own little world. [Insert helicopter parent picture here] Ruth is "subtly" in control of her daughters life, but as the reader comes to find out, with reason.
The man that led "Ruth" to flee her former life is released from prison and wants his revenge....but there is more to the story.

Pekkanen had all the elements for a potentially exciting thriller. But..........
There was no twist what so ever, very straight forward. (I guess there was a small twist in the epilougue, but nothing that left me shocked) This was more like a "suspense" I felt like I was on edge the whole time awaiting the crecendo scene (which actually was not that exciting)
This book was a very slow burn, and Pekkannen went out of her way to over explain ordinary task:
-Ruth's "shopping" in target (okay girl, eat something other than granola bars please), and how she used the flashlight like her dad had, or the ball point bic pin from the front counter--honey I don't care, just give me some thrills please.
-I did appreciate her shoutout to one of my favorite mid 90's movies "Where the Heart Is"-
I was given the audio version of this book and I believe one thing that would have made this book a lot better is if the narrorator had used a different voice/accent for Ruth and Katherine. It was hard to distinguish the "tone" the author was trying to convey for each character. A different voice would have allowed me to connect with the characters better I believe.
-The other things that bothered me were; The day James is released he manages to escape his parol AND connect with Katherine...?? Very unbelievable

This book lacked the "wow" factor I was expecting. There was a lot of extra detail on unimportant things, yet the actual mystery/suspense part of the book was done on the surface level.

Maybe a beginner thriller reader would enjoy this one....but I am a "seasoned" thriller reader so I wasn't buying into this one.
I will for sure continue to read Pekkanen, I have enjoyed her other books.
Thank you Netgalley for this advanced copy read. I was not influenced or paid for this honest review.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC audiobook of Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen.

I've previously enjoyed co-authored works by Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks, so I thought I would like this book as well. It was a middle-of-the-road read/listed for me. Kate Mara did a wonderful job with the narration.

Ruth Sterling and her daughter Catherine have always been together - just the 2 of them. Ruth begins to show signs of <spoiler> Alzheimer's disease. Which I find completely unnecessary to the plot and ridiculous seeing as how Cathering works at a memory care facility. A little too on the nose, there. </spoiler> Catherine was supposed to move to start a new job, but because of Ruth's recent situation, Catherine is re-thinking her move and starts to discover new things about her mother. Little does Catherine know, that the further she keeps digging, the more dangerous things become for her and her mom.

I saw the ending coming from a mile away - the final 'twist' is very predictable. I do enjoy Pekannen's writing a flow, which is why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2.

How would it feel to learn your entire life is a lie?

Katherine has graduated from nursing school and secured a job at John Hopkins Hospital. As she begins her transition into adulthood, she can’t help but wonder why her mother has never disclosed much about her own childhood or the people to which Katherine is related.

Ruth did the best she could to raise Kathrine but a dark secret kept them moving from place to place and job to job. When Katherine raises questions about this style of living, Ruth closes up or makes up a lie. Her goal is simply to keep Katherine safe.

As this story progresses, the lies that Ruth so carefully constructed begin to slowly peel away. Since she can’t learn the truth from her mother, Katherine implements other ways to learn about Ruth’s past. But these tactics may put both of them in jeopardy.

This novel is intriguing, face paced and totally absorbing. It is a definitely a stay up all night to finish book. The characters are complex and change as each lie is shattered and truth takes its place. The book switches between Ruth and Katherine as narrators. This might confuse audio listeners on occasion but is not detrimental if the reader listens closely. The narrator is fantastic and perfect for this book.

I have enjoyed all of Sarah Pekkanen’s books. This one is outstanding, as usual. I preferred the audio version simply because the narrator brought the words to life.


I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

Fear, excitement, concern, curiosity and joy! A book to be remembered!
Ruth sterling experiences trauma, injustice, retaliation, and a life of constant fear for her daughter, Catherine. Catherine senses deception about what her mother is experiencing and her own life. Alternating perspectives enable you to walk through their lives simultaneously.
The narrator, Kate Mara brings this story to life through vocal inflection, emotion, character depiction with a steady, comfortable pace.
Overall, I loved this book! It was a struggle to walk away for life’s duties. The end brings everything together.
I would recommend this book to all, but especially to suspense readers.
Thanks to Sarah Pakkanen and MacMillan Publishing for allowing to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars

25 years ago Ruth disappeared from her home town and never went back; it has always just been her and her daughter, Catherine. She has worked in dinners and kept their identities quiet to keep people from her past finding them. But for Ruth the past few months have been rough as she is becoming more and more forgetful and an early onset Alzheimer diagnosis sends her and Catherine reeling. Catherine is about to transfer to John Hopkins to pursue her love of elder care but has to rethink her plans as her mother's own care takes precedence. Ruth is encouraged to begin writing in a journal to share her past but it begins to unravel secrets of her past, secrets that will change both of their lives forever.

I have been a very big fan of Sarah Pekkanen's work with co-author Greer Hendricks so I was excited to see read some of her own work. I enjoyed Pekkanen's writing style and the pacing of the novel. The story is told from the POV of both Catherine and Ruth which allows for a slow unravelling of the deceptions that has gripped their lives. As a thriller, the story itself is fine, not as exciting as I would have hoped. There were some plot holes and storylines that drop off and the ending twist was too predictable. Overall, it was good but not great.

I had the audio version read by actress Kate Mara who does an excellent job. She is easy to listen to and engaging. I would love to listen to more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC audiobook of Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen. I am a fan of her writing as well as the narration by Kate Mara. However, I find separate narrators for each character in an audiobook more engaging than the same narrator reading for more than one character as in this book. I think a different narrator for the Catherine character would have been ideal.

At first I was confused as to why this book was categorized as a mystery/thriller but then deceptions and past crime surfaces. Regardless, this book overall felt like a domestic/family drama more than a thriller to me.

First there was personal history and character development told from both Ruth’s and Catherine’s points of view. I at first enjoyed getting to know each character and learning about their respective backgrounds. 

25 years after first running from her life, Ruth begins a journal to account for her actions. These were my favorite parts of the story. I just did not feel as interested in Catherine’s experience as she learns of her mother’s past.
I found Catherine’s sleuthing chapters a bit slow, perhaps because I as the reader already knew what she was learning about her mother’s secrets.

Ultimately, this book for me lacked any sense of real suspense or danger. I found myself barely paying attention at the climax. I mostly loved hearing about Kate’s teenage runaway experience such as living in a Target.

Three stars.

3.5 stars, rounded up for Goodreads

What lengths would you go to in order to protect the person you love most in the world?

Ruth Sterling has raised her daughter Catherine on her own; moving frequently and living paycheck to paycheck. Catherine thinks she knows nearly everything about her mother, that they have no secrets, but she's soon to find out that that isn't the case. So who IS Ruth? And why is she hiding it?

I enjoyed this story on audiobook. It kept me entertained and engaged on a road trip. The story flips back and forth between current day and Ruth's past. The pacing was slower than I expected. It has the thriller elements, but it also has a lot of Ruth and Catherine's relationship. I did find the shifts in their relationship compelling as Catherine learns more and Ruth tries to adapt. A big chunk of the reveal happened a lot earlier than I expected, which made the pacing for the rest of the book feel slower. The final resolution felt like it relied far too much on luck and the big reveal at the end was something I'd predicted so it lacked impact for me.

Overall this was an enjoyable, though only medium-paced, thriller. If you don't demand nearly constant big reveals, then this is a good option. The writing was solid despite the pacing.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I thought I had picked up the wrong audio when I started listening to Gone Tonight. Surely this lovely story about a daughter who was going to put her life on hold so she could spend more time with her mother, who had just been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, couldn’t be the psychological thriller I expected from Sarah Pekkanen. There were a few hints that all may not be as it seemed. And then, there were bombshells. Suddenly it was an intense thriller that never let up. Gone Tonight is a true example of a slow burn that quickly becomes an inferno.

Gone Tonight is going to be in my top 10 reads of the year - it was sooo good! I loved the slow burn, dual perspective/timeline, and the mother-daughter relationship. There was depth and suspense in every chapter and scene, and the writing was spectacular. I would highly recommend this book.