VERY well-written twisty mystery! Two girlfriends go to Lisbon for a “weekend away” from their troubles and there is a LOT of trouble on their so-called “vacation” that snowballs into a huge, tangled mess. Several théories as to exactly what happened, and a little sleaze if you like that sort of thing. The creep factor is ramped UP in this book with many strange and creepy characters. I wasn’t impressed with Orla, she doesn’t appear too bright, and way too trusting for someone middle aged. The characters were fleshed out, excellent descriptions and details, and a surprise ending. This was a great read, and was hard to put down. In between readings I thought of the book, but needed more to sleep. Highly recommend if you like sleuthing and mysteries. Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

8/10 stars

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: The Weekend Away is a mystery/thriller novel that was written by Sarah Alderson and released by Avon/Harper 360 books. (The Kindle edition is available right now; the paperback, at least in the US, shows a release for April 2021 but may be out sooner.) Alderson is the author of such novels as The Sound and Hunting Lila, and has also written contemporary modern fiction as Mila Gray. The tagline for this novel reads, “Two friends go on holiday. Only one comes back.”

PLOT RUNDOWN/BASICS: Orla is about to go on her first weekend away with her oldest friend, Kate, after giving birth to her daughter nine months before. It’s the first time she’s leaving baby Marlow alone with her husband, Rob, and while she’s anxious about being so far away from her family, she’s excited to have a weekend away with her best friend of more than 20 years.

Once upon a time, Orla and Kate had vowed to save one weekend a year to travel to some exotic foreign location together - the type of promise made by young, naive friends, Orla assumes. This was before she and Rob spent years trying to conceive via IVF and failing, until miracle Marlow came along...and before Kate married a man she’s now desperately trying to divorce and forget, in spectacular fashion. It’s been years since they took one of their trips, but now they’re in gorgeous Lisbon, in an apartment - with a view and a hot tub - that seems too good to be true. What could go wrong?

To Orla’s shock and dismay, their first night together includes a late-night dinner, drugs, a trip to a bar, and - to her utter horror - Kate insisting they bring two gorgeous single men back home with them. Suddenly drunker than she’s ever been - despite having only had a little to drink - Kate has no defenses, and the men escort them back to the apartment. The next thing Orla knows, it’s mid-afternoon the next day...and Kate has disappeared.

The only thing worse than having a friend go missing is having it happen in a foreign country on a weekend trip...and having to try to convince the authorities to take Kate’s disappearance seriously. Orla is overwhelmed with confusion, and doubt, and a black hole where her memories of Friday night should be. Who can she trust in this strange place? And who is lying to her? As she spirals further into the mystery and her own rogue investigation, trying to figure out what happened to Kate, she leads herself further and further into danger - and, possibly, directly into the trap of a potential murderer.

MY THOUGHTS: This was my first novel by Alderson, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would categorize this as a guilty-pleasure read, and a fast-paced one at that. It’s not a genre-bending or envelope-pushing type of story; you won’t find a social message or soliloquy on injustice in this novel. This is for fans of twisty and juicy mystery stories like those told by BJ Paris, or Shari Lapena, or maybe Ruth Ware (God help us) - but well-written.

There’s always something extra dark and creepy about the thought of a loved one disappearing while you’re vacationing in a foreign country. Things and places are unfamiliar, systems are structured differently, and having authorities take the disappearance of a tourist seriously seems like an uphill battle no one would ever want to take on. If anyone reading this is from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark generation, like myself, you might remember a particularly haunting story about a mother and daughter vacationing in a foreign land, and she woke up one morning to find her mother completely gone - vanished without a trace. When she asked the hotel employees about her mother, they told her no one else had checked in with her...and when everyone who’d seen them together refused to admit that her mother had ever been there, she began to question her own sanity.

In the same way, Orla begins to doubt Kate’s motives, and her own faulty memory on what happened that fateful evening...and the farther along she gets with her investigation, the more it looks like she should have been questioning her friend all along. But who can she trust in Lisbon (and back home, for that matter), and is it possible someone might be working alongside her just to cause her harm in the end?

I admit that the ending is one I vaguely saw coming in the first few chapters, only because the overall motive is very reminiscent to one used in a book I refused to finish a year ago by a popular mystery author I’m not a big fan of (not Ware, you’ll be thrilled to know). However, that did not deter me from continuing with this book at all, because the twists and turns the story took were very entertaining and did not solidify what I’d guessed until the very last couple of pages. I found this storyline refreshing and different from many of the cookie-cutter thrillers out there now; having it take place in a foreign city, with only strangers to aid Orla, and with very few clues, made it a definite page-turner.

This is absolutely a thriller I’d recommend to any fan of the genre, especially if you’re tired of the typical plotline and are looking for more international intrigue. And I’m happy to say that while I skimmed the book again page-by-page for a detailed plot review, I was intrigued and amused to see many hints that I’d never have picked up on without knowing the ending - which is not something I think I’ve ever said about a mystery story before. (Usually I see every single red herring and “hidden-but-obvious” clue with a 97% precision rate. Just guessing.)

The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson was okay. I wanted to sink into a thrilling mystery from the synopsis, but I felt the book felt a bit short of that. The story was fine, and the characters were mediocre. I didn't feel this book added anything new to the genre, though. It's not a bad book, but it just wasn't that page-turning for my taste.

#TheWeekendAway #NetGalley

My gratitude to Avon and Netgalley for this ARC.

I read three books this week, not my usual speed at all, mainly because I devoured this one in a day. Longtime friends Orla and Kate plan a weekend getaway every year and this time they go to Lisbon. They rent a cute apartment with everything they need, and they’ve made lots of plans for activities they want to pursue.

The first night they go to a high-end restaurant and afterwards to a speakeasy-type club. Kate insists on bringing two men they meet at the club home with them. Orla says, “no” but her decline falls on deaf ears. She feels very drunk so just wants to sleep.

When Orla awakes the next day Kate is gone. The rest of the book is spent looking for her, which isn't easy when you don't speak the language.

This story drew me in like a magnet because of the pull of the writing. Every sentence was well-crafted to engage the reader and many of those sentences shed culpability on most all of the characters.

Although I guessed part of the whodoneit, I was very surprised at the ending. Masterful plotting and an author I’d very much like to read again. She’s written 20 novels and YAs and writes for the TV show, S.W.A.T.

This twisted, thrilling book blew my mind! Perfect weekend read for psychological thriller junkies.

This is my first book by Sarah Alderson, but from what I can see she is a very prolific author. Great, because I will definitely check out her other books. The Weekend Away was such a delicious treat that helped me completely lose myself in a book and forget all about my problems.

The main characters in this novel, Orla and Kate, travel together every year no matter what. That's why they stay best friends after all these years, no matter what life throws at them. This year is no different as the friends go to Lisbon. But after one shady night, Orla wakes up with only some scraps of memory of what happened the night before, Kate has vanished. Orla needs to do everything to remember what happened the night before, which is especially hard because there are some things she would rather not know...

My favorite thing about this novel is that it is so misleading. Hear me out: the narrative picks up on so many blind alleys and misleading clues that as a reader, I didn't know what was true and what wasn't. I absolutely loved that - I mean, hwy read a thriller when everything is obvious and clear? And in addition to it being a wild ride, I liked the personal side story of the friends - their feelings, problems, insecurities. It felt realistic and captivating.

Highly recommend for a weekend getaway in your house - or anywhere!

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Surviving the Weekend

The premise caught my attention immediately. A missing friend while on vacation sounds like a good mystery! But the twists and turns is what made it an excellent mystery & thriller. There were a couple twists that I didn’t even see coming. The author makes it clear from the beginning that you can’t trust anyone...

What feels like a slow start in the beginning, ends up being great background information. Keep your eyes peeled! Orla was an interesting narrator to the story and does what anyone would do if their friend ends up missing on a trip. I enjoyed her character evolution, although she may be too trusting at times. All in all, it was a great read!

1 star deducted due to the main character being an unfortunate combination of obtuse and naive that made her really frustrating to read after awhile. 4 stars awarded for general readability and the lack of glaring plot holes.

Orla must be the unluckiest person in the world of psychological thrillers. In the space of two days her world falls apart on a girls getaway weekend in Lisbon. Orla, a comfy clothes and sensible shoes kinda woman and her best friend, Kate, over the top red carpet ready at all times, go out for dinner and drinks the first night and Kate disappears. With as many twists and turns as the Lisbon streets, Orla needs to find Kate and unravel what happened. Instead, she unravels her life and that of everyone around them. Loved Friends Like These and this was a great read too. I just had to keep going as I couldn’t wait to discover who was responsible in this enjoyable cast of characters.

Wow what a book!! Loved every second of it. Such twits and turns you never know what is going to happen next. Definitely one to pick up and enjoy.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this title. I enjoyed the premise of this book, but the execution fell short for me. The plot of two women going away on a weekend vacation, but only one coming back is interesting. But the obvious signs of what was going to happen were too much. Plus, there were way too many characters involved in a once simple plot. I truly wanted to like this book but only finished it to find out what would happen to everyone in the end.

The Weekend Away keeps the reader.s interest! The twists and turns throughout the book keep the reader engaged. Each character is very well developed and portrayed in an accurate way. Well worth the read!

In this mystery with several twists, new mom Orla searches for her friend Kate, who has gone missing during a vacation weekend in LIsbon. Their friendship has been strained, and despite the hard partying that marked the pair's younger days, Orla is taken aback on their first evening out when Kate snorts cocaine and has a one-night stand--encouraging Orla to do the same. The consequences are dire, and Orla encounters several nasty surprises in her scramble to find Kate. Although neither character is sympathetic--Kate is at best a very bad friend, and Orla's willingness to risk her own safety for Kate's sake makes little sense-- this is certainly an entertaining beach read with nice twisty plot twists.