The Night Before by Wendy Walker #TheNightBefore #NetGalley

4 Stars

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Date of publication: May 14th, 2019

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Where you can find The Night Before: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Goodreads synopsis:

The night before…and the nightmare after.

Rosie and Laura are as different as two sisters can be. One is stable and has a perfect family. The other struggles to break free from her troubled past. When Laura disappears after going on a blind date, Rosie takes matters into her own hands. 

But as Rosie begins to search for her sister, her greatest fears come to the surface. Could Laura be more of a danger than the stranger she meets or is the night before her last night alive? 

Told in dual timelines—the night before and the day after—The Night Before is a riveting thriller about family loyalty, obsession, and what happens when the desire for love spins out of control.

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My review:

Laura is getting ready to go on a blind date. The first date she has gone on since her boyfriend dumped her by text months before. Taking her sister, Rosie’s minivan, she goes on the date. When Laura doesn’t come home, Rosie isn’t too worried. Then Rosie’s van is found, but Laura isn’t there. Going to the police does nothing. Rosie is soon on an all-out desperate search for her sister. Where is Laura? What has Laura done?

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I am a huge fan of psychological thrillers. So when I saw that Wendy Williams had another book up for review, I jumped on it. I was a big fan of Emma in the Night. I figured that The Night Before would be as good. And guess what, it was.

When I first started the book, I wasn’t a fan of the dual timelines. But, as I got into the book, I started liking it. It grew on me. This is going to sound weird, but it made sense by the time Laura went home with Jonathan Fielding.

This book had a lot of twists and turns. When I thought one thing was figured out, the author threw another monkey wrench into the mix. I will say that the after plotline got the most monkey wrenches thrown into it. I felt terrible for Rosie. She had a whole lot of information, true and false, thrown at her. If that were me, I would have been in a tailspin.

Laura was a broken person. It came across the pages during the before parts of the books. I liked how the author chose to have her therapy visits highlight the beginning of her chapters. I will admit, I did think the same thing as Rosie at one point during the book.

I did feel for Rosie during the book. She was a mess, as she should have been. There were certain scenes in the book where I wanted to hug her. I also would have acted the same way if I thought what she thought about her husband.

The end of the book was a mind screw. I couldn’t believe what was happening when I read it. All I kept saying was “No way, no way, NO WAY.” The author did a fantastic job of keeping everything under wraps.

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I would give The Night Before an Adult rating. There is sex (not graphic). There is language. There is violence. There are triggers. They would be stalking, attempted sexual assault, child abuse, and mental illness. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Night Before. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.

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I would like to thank the publishers, the author, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Night Before.

All opinions stated in The Night Before are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**