I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Claire wakes up on a mountain and doesn't remember how she got there. All she knows is the friends she was with are missing. If only she could remember what happened. Unlike a lot of thrillers that don't really peak until the end, this book kept me on the edge of my seat from the beginning. There weren't any parts that seemed to drag on and I didn't want to put it down. This was my first book by this author and made me want to read her other books. Highly recommend #netgalley #thatweekend

This book is a quick and easy read that definitely has you craving more in search of answers. It also had a few twists that I couldn’t say I was ready for and definitely did not expect. Although, it’s those twists that made me feel a bit disappointed and left me feeling not as satisfied as I would have liked.

It’s the uneasy feeling that as I finished that leaves me not sure what I want to rate this book. The author did a great job of keeping me on my toes and wanting more, and with creating unguessable twists, but I was also left a bit unsatisfied and unsettled. However, to the author’s credit this does have me wanting to read more of their books which is always a good thing. So while I would probably give this book a 3.5 stars, I’ll round up just for that alone.

That weekend SHOULD have been one of the best of their lives...instead, Claire is left with a giant gap in her memory and the knowledge that her best friends have gone missing. What happened on that mountain on prom weekend? Claire leads readers through her investigations in the months following that dreaded weekend...and through the realization that her friends are likely dead. But Claire isn't a quitter...and she WILL figure it out. A page-turner!

This was my first book by Kara Thomas.

Claire goes for a weekend getaway with her friends. Everything is going fine until she wakes up alone and disoriented in the mountains with a major head injury! She has no memory of the last day and a half and her friends are no where to be found. What happened??? Clair is determined to solve this mystery.

I do enjoy mystery/thrillers and I did enjoy this book. I can see how many young people would really like this.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I don't know about you, but the thought of being injured and consequently losing part of my memory is terrifying. Just thinking about that possibility makes my stomach turn a bit. So, when That Weekend begins with a scene of Claire coming-to, alone on a mountain hiking trail with no memory of how she got there and in pain, my heart rate felt like it picked up just a little. The fun part about this kind of a beginning to a book is that as a reader, I only know what the characters of a book reveal. So, if Claire doesn't know how she ended up where she did, I don't either. Creepy, right?

As the story moves on, Claire is found by some hikers and taken into a hospital and treated for injuries. At one point, Claire abruptly asks where her friends are, and it becomes clear that at this time the friends she was supposedly camping with preceding her losing consciousness are missing, and Claire may be the only one who knows what happened to them, if she can only get her memory back.

Through chapters that go backward and forward in time to reveal new twists and turns leading up to the day that Claire can't remember, we learn a little bit more about Claire and the friends she was spending time with. Frustratingly, Claire still cannot recall what happened on the mountain, despite the fact that two of her close friends are missing and foul play is beginning to be suspected. The investigators that are handling the case aren't giving Claire much to work with, and she begins to worry that they might begin to look at her as a suspect rather than a victim.

Saving the best for last, That Weekend becomes even more intriguing in the last quarter of the book. Upon reaching the end of this book, I was relieved to feel like all of the loose ends were tied up and I wasn't left with the feeling that I was waiting for closure, which is always a good thing. I enjoyed this book immensely and can't wait to read more from Kara Thomas!

Review of a Digital Advanced Reading Copy

KAREN MCMANUS WHO??!!

Kara Thomas is an amazing writer. Let me just say that first. The Cheerleaders was a phenomenal book, and That Weekend far surpassed it.

Claire wakes up on a mountain, seriously injured and in need of rescue, with no memory of the previous 36 hours. Her friends are missing and she can't remember what happened.

The story snowballs from there, with suspense building at every turn as the mystery unfolds and we're left with more questions than answers.

I gotta say, the twist is one I hadn't considered, so bonus points for that!

My favorite part, however, wasn't the twists and turns and thrills and chills. No, it was the depiction of trauma; the aftermath of how a person REALLY would be after such a traumatic experience. I read a lot of novels where the main character will just brush off missing friends and assault as if it were nothing, but in real life, most people would suffer from PTSD. Claire does, and it was refreshing and reassuring to read, even though I felt horrible for her.

Bottom line is, read this book. I really hope it gets turned into a movie; it would be amazing to see!

We are delightfully once again in Kara Thomas’s niche: an atmospheric thriller with an on-the-edge teen girl at the center. While it delivers the anticipated revelations and slippery reality, I got a little confused by the complicated timelines.

Claire wakes up on the side of a mountain - she has a head injury, a cut on her hand, and no recollection of the last 36 hours. As it becomes clear that the two people she was meant to be with - her best friend Kat and Kat’s boyfriend (and Claire’s crush) Jesse - have disappeared, the police and the FBI seem to be circling around Claire as a suspect.

As with all Ms Thomas’s mystery novels, she creates vivid and authentic characters that inhabit a real world. Claire’s middle class background contrasts with Kat’s upper crust family and Jesse’s slightly wrong side of the track upbringing. The scene of the disappearance, Sunfish Creek, echoes those contrasts with the gated private lakeside community and the working class village attached to it.

The novel starts out with a typical Now and Then structure but then adds in some further complexity. Maybe I was reading a bit too fast, but I got somewhat bogged down in the different stories of what ‘actually’ happened and a little confused about why some things happened as they did.

Anyway, this is still an absolutely solid mystery that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys well-grounded thrillers led by teen girls.

Thanks to Delacorte and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Full review on Goodreads. I don’t really love it and found it unrealistic, but I can see some young people really liking the mystery and characters and twists. So, I’m going with a 2.5/3 rating for how young people would like it. Probably just 2 stars for me because it at least had a lot going on, but I would’ve been much happier reading something else.

That Weekend by Kara Thomas is WHOA! I’m still very mad at some people. I’m still shook at certain events. I still have questions! Kara Thomas does it again!

I really enjoyed this one. It captivated me from start to finished and I love all the secrets in this story. It had me guessing the whole way through.

Kara Thomas is an auto-buy author for me. Will definitely be recommending this for purchase and for patrons who enjoy a dark twisty mystery (a la Ruth Ware, etc.) I have to confess, I read enough thrillers that I can usually figure out what's going on. Not this time. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything. But I loved that it didn't follow the traditional route of main character wakes with amnesia and must figure out what's happening before time runs out. The author completely upends that (beloved) trope, and I thought it was fantastic!

This was full of twists and turns and it was hard for me to put it down! I loved the way Thomas jumps back and forth in time and how I really had no idea what was going to happen next! Hard to say much without spoilers, but I really enjoyed this and I will continue to check out more by Thomas! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

LOVED this title. Really liked how as soon as I thought everything was going to settle down, it very much didn’t! It was twisty and turny and my students will devour it. Thank you for allowing me to read!

I love Kara Thomas’ books. When I found out she was local author I was even more excited to get my hands on her upcoming title, which partially takes place on Long Island, That Weekend. That Weekend follows Claire, who is found injured in the woods after a weekend she was spending with her two friends in a cabin. Her friends? Missing. Her memory? Gone.

This book is filled with plot twists. I mean FILLED. Right when you think the story is heading down one road, Kara grabs the steering wheel and jerks it so that you veer off into the woods. I read this book is one sitting because I needed to know the truth and what had happened. The story is very reminiscent of one of those true crime shows that combs over every little detail and thing that’s said. Definitely check this book out if you love true crime and complex characters.

I received an advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

After her recent breakup, Claire is invited to spend prom weekend at a lake house with her best friends, Jesse and Kat. Things seem to be going well until Claire wakes up alone in the mountains, with her friends missing, and no memory of the weekend. She spends the following weeks and months digging for clues in her memory and in real life to figure out what happened to Kat and Jesse and why she can’t seem to remember any of it.

That Weekend is a GREAT YA mystery. A lot of the mystery genre in YA is watered down and feels so unauthentic to real teenage lives, but not this one. Kara Thomas did not hold back from all the real things teenagers deal with, especially in the face of tragedy. Some of the timeline did get a little hazy to me while reading. I’m used to the back and forth past/present chapter style but for some reason I had several instances where I had to go back and reread sections of text to clarify.

I could never have imagined how this book would end - it was a wild ride. This twisty novel of suspense is impossible to put down until the very last page!

Definitely Kara Thomas's best book yet! If you have not read her others, do that next!
That Weekend is a fast paced thriller that I was unable to put down.
Claire wakes up on a hiking trail, with no memory of how she got there, or the day before at all. She knows she went to her two best friends, but they are nowhere to be seen. So, what happened to Kat and Jesse?
That Weekend jumps around in time to give the readers some background information about what was really going on between the three friends. Kat and Jesse had been together for about a year, but Claire was struggling with her feelings for Jesse. She and him had been best friends for years, and she knew him better than anyone. When the police, and the public alike, begin to think Jesse must have hurt Kat, Claire knows that is not possible. She is determined to get to the truth about that weekend, even if it means putting herself in danger. Again.
A MUST read for fans of thrillers! I loved it!

Thank You to Random House Children’s and Netgalley for providing a free E-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own


4.5 Stars

Kara Thomas did it again!

I can't believe in was over two years ago since I discovered Thomas's books. I then binge-read them, reread them, and obsessed over each thriller. When I found out she was releasing another, I literally squealed.

That Weekend is a twisty YA mystery about a weekend camping trip gone wrong. Claire, her best friend, Kat, and Kat's boyfriend, Jesse, decide to spend prom weekend camping in the mountains. But Claire's only memory of that weekend was waking up covered in dirt and blood. And after a stay at the hospital she finds out she was unconscious for over twenty-four hours and due to her concussion, she remembers nothing. Claire may be injured, but Jesse and Kat are the real mystery. They are missing, and no one can find them, dead or alive.

Let me start off by saying I had high expectations. And fortunately, That Weekend did not disappoint.

The plot pulled me in from page one. A peaceful camping weekend gone wrong, resulting in a girl with no memory, and a missing couple. Just the concept alone was unique enough to intrigue me.

Claire was a typical protagonist, but written with enough events surrounding her to make her interesting. The book starts by Claire waking up on the mountain, then the setting soon switching to her waking up in the hospital room.

But the setting changed constantly. We had flashbacks to before prom weekend, then friday night, and finally back again to present day in which Claire is still unstable. But right as I got pulled in, just as Claire was begging to recover and the detectives started their work on this case, something strange happened...

The plot jumped forward six months in time, and now it was new year. This perspective was now called "the present." And the strangest thing about this was that now, six months later, it shows that the detectives had found evidence and suspects and closed the case for good about what happened to Jesse and Kat.

I was so confused at first. Not only was the transition a bit rocky, but the plot was just getting good, and Kara Thomas basically just solved her whole book a fourth of the way through. There were victims, culprits, evidence, and everything you need to conclude a mystery novel.

But, stop right there. Kara Thomas did something that was most certainly risky.. She created new mysteries and questions bubbled up again, and despite the perfect conclusion, this case was not officially over.

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The author took a risk, but it was worth it. Unlike no other thriller I've read before.

And what was even more amazing was the plot itself. A huge web of discoveries and events, all intertwined with each other. I can't say much without spoiling, but as I flipped the pages, suspense bubbled and rose within each chapter. I gasped multiple times and my teeth chattered at certain parts... especially the last third of the book.

And the ending itself? I loved it but hated it. Nowhere near the same events, but it reminded me a lot of Sadie. Imperfect to the reader, but truly an astounding end to the story when you look at the craftsmanship put into it.

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Overall, That Weekend, is truly one of a kind. It will keep readers intrigued from page one.

This was a great, immersive read. From the first page you wanted to know what had happened to Claire and her friends, and it was a slow burn to the end to get to the bottom of everything that happened. In the vein of We Were Liars, the reader is left with only a guess as to what happened until Claire, the protagonist, finds out herself. This kind of writing makes you want to keep reading and not put it down and I live for those books.
It's complicated to say without spoiling, but there are a few plot points that make you sympathize with two people for very different reasons, and it creates a small division in that I didn't know who to feel sorry for the most. Usually there's a very clear cut 'enemy' or reason to dislike someone, but that wasn't the case in this book. I appreciate the additional resources found at the end of the book.

You’ll start to think you’ve figured this out and then you’ll realize that this is a Kara Thomas book so you haven’t really figured it out. This was compelling and you will compulsively read this just to find out what happens! So good and twisty!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started on That Weekend, and it was a huge shift in genre from what I had been reading previously. The story of Claire and her friends and the weekend that changed their lives was suspenseful and completely different from what I was expecting when I went into it. My mystery and suspense readers will definitely enjoy this book.