Quick, and entertaining from the beginning, but mostly forgettable. There were a lot of characters and it took a bit to keep the families straight. And a lot of drama with all the families, distracting from the fact that the 5 students were missing. I think the ending was a little too quick and there weren't really any major twists.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I had to DNF after about a quarter way in. The book introduced way too many characters and backstories in the beginning which made it hard to keep track. Also there wasn't a hook to keep me interested in the "mystery" and it didn't feel like a mystery. I just wasn't interested to keep on reading.

The first parents' weekend for college freshmen should be fun and exciting, but this weekend is different. Upon arrival, the body of a missing freshman is found, and her parents have shown up for answers. Four other freshmen are set to meet their parents for dinner, but they never arrive. As the campus and local police along with the FBI, are looking for the missing children, a new FBI agent slowly fits the clues together for an unexpected ending.

This was a good thriller that kept me guessing. The storyline flowed easily, and the editing was effective. There were several times throughout the story when I was surprised by what was occurring. The lead up to the ending was interesting, and the actual culpnt was unexpected and could not be guessed throughout the story.

Finlay always has and always will be an auto read for me. Unfortunately, I did not quite enjoy this one as much as I hoped. I felt like it was very rushed, and it just was not pulling me in like his books usually do. I will still continue to read and buy his books; this one just was not a favorite of mine.

Alex Finlay's Parent's Weekend promises an engaging thriller, especially for fans of his previous works. However, while the book starts with an intriguing premise, it ultimately struggles to maintain clarity amidst a multitude of characters, which may leave readers feeling overwhelmed.

The story kicks off with a gripping opening that sets the stage for a suspenseful narrative. However, as the plot unfolds, the sheer number of characters introduced can be disorienting. For readers who appreciate a more streamlined cast, this aspect may detract from the overall enjoyment of the story. I personally found it difficult to keep up with everyone.

One standout character is FBI agent Keller, who brings a sense of depth and determination to the narrative. Fans of Finlay may recognize her from previous novels, and her presence adds a familiar touch to the story.

As a fan of Alex Finlay, it’s disappointing when a highly anticipated read doesn’t quite deliver, but it’s a reminder that not every book will resonate with every reader.. There seems to be a number of readers who loved this book so I encourage you to give it a try. It could just be that I wasn't the right reader for it.

On a more positive note - the cover art for this book is beautiful.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Five college kids go missing on Parents Weekend, and someone is dead. "The Five" - are they friends or are they enemies?
Told in multiple POVs, this thriller will keep you guessing until the end! This is a great who-done-it story. I thought I had it all figured out but in the end....bam!

Great characters and a really good story. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur for the ARC of this book.

Several parents come to town for Parents Weekend. They show up to dinner, but five of the kids don't. Agent Keller is called in to help find them and time is of the essence.

I really enjoyed Parents Weekend! It had multiple POV's which can sometimes get overwhelming. There were a lot of characters involved which, for me, is usually a thumbs down. However, the author did a great job of managing a large cast of characters and making it easy to keep track of who was who. The chapters were short and seemed to fly by. There were several red herrings sprinkled throughout but since things moved so quickly, as soon as you'd start to suspect someone, they'd be ruled out.

My only real criticism that the majority of the main characters seemed to be quite unlikeable. I like Agent Keller but I think that was pretty much it as far as main characters go. Overall though, an enjoyable and fun read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Agent Sarah Keller is back—and this time, she’s on the West Coast. Ten years after The Night Shift, Keller has relocated her family to Northern California following her father-in-law’s cancer diagnosis. Barely settled in, she’s pulled into a high-profile case when five freshmen vanish during Santa Clara University’s Parents Weekend.

Each of the missing students has their own secrets, and so do their families. Even more so. Finlay masterfully unravels the mystery through multiple POVs while keeping the pacing tight and the twists coming. The characters are complex, the emotional stakes are high, and even though I figured out the “who,” the journey to the reveal still delivered.

I especially loved Keller’s husband Bob (more of him, please), and standouts like intern Annie and Chief McCray. Keller’s boss? Not so much—but Cynthia Roosevelt’s off-page takedown of him is something I’d pay to witness.

This is a binge-worthy, layered thriller that fans of fast-paced mysteries will absolutely devour.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Another fun-filled tale of college students behaving badly, and their parents behaving even worse! Everyone is suspect and no one is the same by the time the story reaches the end. I can always count on Alex Finley to deliver a twisty popcorn thriller that keeps me listening on the edge of my seat. I always enjoy listening to Brittany Pressley. She made the experience even more fun!!
*Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley

✨The unstoppable FBI Agent Sarah Keller is back and still my absolute favorite. This was a solid campus thriller with just right pacing that kept me engaged and entertained. I loved it!

🌿Read if you like:
✨Campus settings
✨Domestic suspense
✨Family drama
✨Multiple points of view
✨Dual timelines
✨Returning characters
✨California settings

Unfortunately, this is a DNF for me. I have the same problem with this book that I did with If Something Happens to Me: too many characters that aren’t distinct enough; a cheesy plot; all style and no substance. I think this author simply isn’t for me.

Parents Weekend | By Alex Finlay
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fast paced, short chapters, various POV

This book is short and packs a punch! I could not put this book down it was so fast paced and thrilling!

Parents weekend takes place at the parents weekend for a college. First a girl dies, then a few students go missing and Agent Keller (yes the same one from The Night Shift) along with some agents are tasked with finding the college students before it is too late! The book had 5 points of view which was both entertaining and a little hard to follow at times; however, I still really enjoyed the book! The narrator was great - Brittany Pressley - such a wonderful and expressive voice!!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press - Minotaur books and Macmillan Audio for the digital advanced readers and listeners copy!! This novel will be published May 6, 2025! Add it to your TBR!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

A thriller that once again will remind parents that they have no idea what types of secrets their children are hiding. In defence of the children above, their parents are not exactly citizens of the year either.

What I liked:

(1) FBI Special Agent Keller and her family. Keller is in California, on a special leave, while she and her husband, Bob, support his father during his cancer treatments.
(2) The early chapters and the multiple viewpoints had me flipping the pages. Some storylines take readers everywhere and present all sorts of different suspects. I like to be kept guessing.
(3) The Prologue created a great atmosphere for the novel.
(4) Annie, the intern, who works alongside Keller, wants to see more of her.

What I had mixed feelings about:
(5) The five college students are missing. None of them seemed likeable.
(6) The parents. None of them appeared likable, except for Alice.
(7) Epilogue... too darn long



What I didn't like:
(8) I didn't care for the reveal of whodunit.
(9) 60+ chapters seem like a lot of story, I felt a little impatient to find out where these kids were.


Maybe my expectations were too high, but I am not sure I would recommend this one.

Expected Publication Date 18/05/25
Goodreads Review Date 18/04/25

<u><b>Parents Weekend</b></u>
Alex Finlay
Narrator: Brittany Pressley
Release Date: May 6, 2025

ARC courtesy of St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley.
ALC courtesy of Macmillan Audio and NetGalley.

<i>Parents Weekend</i> is a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller featuring a comeback by author Alex Finlay’s FBI agent Sarah Keller. It involves the disappearance of five friends, coeds at a Northern California university during Parents Weekend.

The narrative is brisk, with short chapters told from multiple shifting pov’s. I feel that this method also has the downside of making the story seem convoluted and confusing, and the multiple characters suffer from being two-dimensional and underdeveloped. Mainly because of the former, I shifted to reading the ARC midway through the novel, which helped me keep track of the narrative. Nonetheless, the story is exciting and compelling, and surely will appeal to readers of the mystery thriller genre.

3 stars
4 stars for the narration

3.5 rounded up. I love Alex Finlay's books and was so excited to get an ARC of Parents Weekend.

This book is bingeable! Short chapters and a plot that makes you want to know what is going to happen next makes for a quick read. I enjoyed the timelines and the multiple POV. At first the multiple POV was tricky until you got to know all of the families.

Red herrings definitely keep you on your toes wondering who did it. I did feel that the ending was kind of anti-climatic and predictable.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for an ARC of Parents weekend for an honest review.

I've enjoyed other Alex Finlay books and that's what made me interested in his new book Parents Weekend.
Wow does this book have a lot of characters and a lot of POV's, so be prepared for that. All those people made it hard to remember what kids go with what parents and vice versa. I was lucky enough to have both the book and audiobook. I went back and forth a lot to try to figure out and remind myself who goes with whom. I was very happy to see that Agent Keller was back to do her thing and solve the mystery of where the college students disappeared to during Parents Weekend. Narrator Brittany Pressley is always great and gave life to this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced readers copies of both the audiobook and the book.

5/5 stars: This is Finlay's Police Procedural Mystery that features an FBI Special Agent as she investigates the lives of five college freshman and their very different parents after the students fail to show up for a Parents Weekend dinner. Finlay's masterfully crafted a fast-faced non-stop police procedural with plenty of twists and turns that will leave you on the edge of your seat. I really appreciate the deft way Finlay unfold the plot and investigation; this is an incredibly cinematic read. Written in multiple POV, Finlay's writing and character work are stellar; the characters are well-rounded and complex while remaining incredibly likable. This book follows a lot of POVs (each of the five students, their parents and the FBI agent investigating the case) but Finlay manages to balance all these “voices” and weave them all together to tell a compelling story without losing the plot. It's also great to catch up with FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller (who also appears in Every Last Fear and The Night Shift) and her family. With tact and sensitivity, Finlay touches on some sensitive topics; so take care and CWs. Highly Recommend!

I received this eARC thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

I liked this one! It's a good popcorn thriller that kept me engaged in wtf was going on.
There are a LOT of characters, but I didn't find it that difficult to keep track of everyone. More so at the beginning, but once I got it into it was much easier/better.

I am not a fan of domestic dramas. More times than not, I end up feeling sorry for all the messed up kids who got stuck with crappy parents. So why would I voluntarily choose to read a story about a bunch of missing college kids and their crappy parents who descend on their kids for parents’ weekend? Two words: Alex Finlay. This is only the third book of his that I have read, but it most certainly won’t be the last. I like Finlay’s work; he’s a good author and a really good storyteller.

The book summary basically just introduces the primary storyline of the missing students and their parents. However, there is so much more going on here. There are the Roosevelts, mother Cynthia, an Asst Sec of State with her own Secret Service detail, and father Hank, a failed writer and unemployed adjunct professor, and rebel son, Blane. Then there are the Akanas, father Judge Ken, and mother Amy, a former attorney turned caregiver and stay-at-home mom since their son was diagnosed with cancer and later died, and their forgotten and neglected daughter, Libby. There are the Maldonados, father David, a good-looking, successful plastic surgeon and perpetual philanderer, and mother Nina, a stay-at-home mom, who puts up with her husband’s cheating, and their rebel daughter, Stella. Then there is the Goffmans, single mother, Alice, the Dean’s assistant, and her son, Felix, who is a scholarship student. Lastly there is Mark Wong, whose father is a sexual offender, who was recently released from a 10yr sentence of sexual assault.

Every one of these parents and their kids are harboring secrets about their pasts and current activities. Way too much to unpack in a book review. Once again, I have so many moments where I feel so sorry for the messed-up kids whose crappy parents have totally screwed them up. However, in typical Finlay fashion, there are just way too many other intriguing things going on with the missing kids and scary scenes playing out among all of the parents and their own ridiculous drama. It isn’t until deep into the second half that I start to suspect who the kidnapper is, but I’m also prepared for Finlay to blow me away with a shocking ending. While I wasn’t way off base about the kidnapper, I was so absolutely wrong about the killer, but I am not disappointed with the shocking end.

The character development of the parents and their kids was pretty good and even the continuing character development of the returning FBI agent, Sarah Keller, and her hubby and their twins was nice to see since we didn’t get much the last time back in Every Last Fear. The pacing was fast, and flipping back and forth between the ebook and the audiobook made for a pretty quick reading experience. The storyline was interesting and the writing typical Finlay, in other words, well written and shocking. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.3 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review. I want to thank NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for sending me these eARC’s in exchange for my honest review.

NetGalley #StMartinsPress #MacmillanAudio #ParentsWeekend

Alex Finlay with another book of twists! I really had no idea who the person behind everything was until the very end. I would recommend checking this author out if you are in the mood for some thrillers.


Thank you for this ARC!