This is my fifth Alex Finlay novel - and I read that this one has already been slotted for the big screen, so we have that to look forward to! Finlay writes great thrillers and I do love a good thriller.

Description:
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.

My Thoughts:
There's a lot going on in this book - it's complex. How in the world can five college students disappear at the same time. Then, multiple suspects because the parents have haters. I was glad to see FBI Agent Sarah Keller again in this book - I liked her from the other books and she really steps up in this one. Unravelling the disappearances was difficult and fascinating - lots of red herrings. If you like a good mystery or thriller, you will enjoy this book.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books through Netgalley for an advance copy.

It’s Parents Weekend at Santa Clara University! The capstone group has invited their parents to join them at a sit down dinner, but when 5 of the students don’t show up, everyone is left worrying about where they are and what happened to them.

This was such a great read! Told from quite a few different POVs, which can sometimes be a bit confusing, but I was able to easily jump into each storyline with everything flowing smoothly. I loved reading about each family’s dynamics, and the FBI agent had me rooting for her the entire time! Definitely a page-turner; I needed to know what was going to happen! Will absolutely be recommending this book!

Fast-paced, suspenseful thriller featuring the return of Agent Sarah Keller. Several sets of parents descend on a private university in Northern California to visit their freshman students for Parents' Weekend. One student is already dead, and several more are missing after they don't show up for the initial dinner. The story moves fast, revealing secrets, betrayals, and red herrings as the parents' worst nightmare unfolds. I really liked the premise of the story, but found the number of characters a little overwhelming at first.

Recommended for fans of Agent Keller from Alex Finlay's The Night Shift, and fans of twisty mysteries in an academic setting, like In My Dreams I Hold a Knife.

This was a very enjoyable thriller! I appreciated the multiple viewpoints and the unique characters. The story was bingeable and full of interesting details and twists. This is my second book by the author and I really enjoy their writing.

Another WINNER from Alex Finlay! WOW! Fast paced, unputdownable! Many characters with story’s that will have you guessing until the end! I listened and read along. Fabulous narrator!

Thank you to everyone for this ARC!

Alex Finlay’s books have been hit or miss for me and unfortunately, Parent’s Weekend was a miss.

There were several things I did enjoy about this book- with the short chapters, I flew through it. I also enjoyed seeing what the character Keller was up to after really loving The Night Shift. Another aspect I liked was the different pov for different chapters- I love this in thrillers!

However, too many things didn’t work. The ending was predictable, the characters were surface level and didn’t feel real, and the plot wasn’t all that interesting. Honestly this is my least fave of his of the ones I have read.

In my opinion, skip this one!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Parents Weekend is a binge-worthy thriller centered on the disappearance of five first-year college students during Parents Weekend. I devoured it in just 24 hours! The ultra-short chapters made it totally addictive (always a win in thrillers).

I’m a huge fan of dark academia!! I thoroughly enjoyed the campus vibes, tangled family secrets, and solid twists. The story follows five families. With such a large cast, the story leans more plot-driven, but it was easy to follow thanks to clearly labeled POVs, especially helpful in audio.

I guessed the culprit early - which is rare for me. So, that made me feel clever. 😂 However, it didn’t take away from the suspense or the fun. I have to shout out my favorite character: Annie, the intern. Smart, determined, and a total standout. Maybe Agent Sarah Feller can hire her after graduation - just a thought, Mr Finlay. 👀

🎧 Narration Note: Brittany Pressley delivers (as always!), giving each character a distinct voice. I was glad to have the eBook for quick POV references, but the audio alone is excellent.

Unfortunately, I think this had a lot of potential. There were way too many POVS and timelines to keep up with, it felt jumbled and all over the place. I also didn't connect to any of the characters. This was a fast read however.

A solid 3.5 star read! I thought the characters were well built, and one I got the character straight it was easier to tell them apart because of their development. The plot line was intriguing well developed. I think where the book falls short is introducing all the characters (parents) right in the first few chapters. I actually had to take notes in a post it in order to keep track of who was who and what kid belonged to which set of parents.

I love Alex Finlay and will continue to read all their books!

I wish that this story had had more character development. It felt like I was just thrown into the story that was already in motion, and as a result, I didn't really feel invested in the people and what happened to them.
The "action movie" plotting isn't my favorite.

I have read other Alex Finlay books and really liked them. But this story wasn't holding my interest at times and I found my mind wandering a good amount. I wish the college students had more backstory at the beginning, because I honestly was not invested in their lives and did not emotionally care what happened to any of them by halfway through the book. I think other readers will enjoy the book, and it wasn't a bad story, so this is why I gave it an average three stars rating.

This was my first Alex Finlay book and unfortunately, I see why I haven't pushed myself to pick up his books before. While I feel like the author had big plans for this novel, the concepts fell flat for me. It felt like there were these big reveals with nothing in between. I also didn't feel attached to any of the characters and there were times I had a hard time differentiating who was who because none of them had huge personalities, just different job descriptions. There were just so many characters that it was hard to keep track of who was who thoughout this novel. The only saving grace for me was that this book was super fast paced and an easy read. I would recommend this more for someone who is getting into thrillers over someone who is a well-seasoned reader of them. Overall, it was fine and I don't think I'll be rushing to read more from this author.

Parents Weekend started on a high note but ended with a bit of a letdown for me. The premise of five teenagers go missing, and their families come together for the weekend was very intriguing.

I was pulled into the narrative early on, and at first, all the events added to the tension and thrill. However, after a while, the twists and turns felt a bit overdone, and at times the story dragged. That said, there are definitely some great thriller elements here, and I think readers who enjoy multiple POVs and layered mysteries will appreciate this book.

Thank you to Minotaur books for the copy.

I found this a different style from Finlay's other books, but not in a bad way! I love that we get the perspective of the parents of 5 college kids (6 if you count the dead girl). Finlay heads each chapter up with the family name, so even though there are multiple characters (couples, their kids, some secret service detail, an ambitious intern), you can still keep track of who is referenced.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella - the Five, are each unique, but have made fast friends with each other. One of them is pledging a fraternity and one of them is the son of a government official with security issues, and there might be a couple of affairs, which add to the confusion when the Five fail to show up for dinner at a Parents Weekend event. Is it a fraternity prank? A disgruntled client or spouse? Or just college students being college students?

Thanks to a persistent FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller (who we have seen in a couple of Finlay's earlier books), the crime is unraveled, but not before another person is unalived, something Finlay is not afraid to do.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance reader's copy.

This was such a fast, addictive read! The Parents Weekend starts off with a fun college tradition and quickly turns into a parent's worst nightmare when five freshmen suddenly go missing. I loved how the story was told from different parents' perspectives—it added so much drama and tension, and made it easy to get pulled into each family's secrets. The mystery unfolds in a really compelling way, with twists that kept me guessing (even if a couple felt a little over the top). It also brings back FBI Agent Sarah Keller, which was a nice surprise for fans of Finlay’s earlier books. Perfect if you’re in the mood for a smart, twisty thriller that’s hard to put down.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books in exchange for my honest review

3.5 stars!

A thriller with short chapters, multiple POVs, and an intriguing mystery? Sign me up!

This was a wild ride from start to finish. I started out with absolutely NO idea what happened to these kids and my theories were running wild. The parents were almost all horrible people with so many crazy secrets and the kids all had something fishy going on. There were a lot of characters to keep track of which did get slightly confusing but I just rolled with it and enjoyed the ride.

I of course loved the short chapter which kept me interested and I felt like the whole story wrapped up well, although a little too quickly. I was also so so sad for Felix and his mom. Overall though, a solid thriller!

Parents Weekend is an intriguing and refreshing take on suspense and family dynamics, offering a different kind of thrill. The premise alone grabbed my attention: five families, with children attending a small private school in Northern California, come together for a weekend celebration only to find that their kids never show up for dinner. What starts as a seemingly innocent college student oversight quickly spirals into something far more sinister as hours pass without a word from the students.
The family dysfunction was so compelling -The dynamics between the families and the friendships among the students create a captivating backdrop for the events that unfold, as the past catches up with them all.
This book was a fun and suspenseful read—something a little different than what I usually go for, but I really enjoyed it! A great pick for anyone who loves family drama mixed with a mysterious twist.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for this ARC!

Unfortunately this book was quite disappointing.

After The Night Shift and the interesting premise of this book I excepted a lot, but the final reveals were not surprising and I saw both of them coming from a mile away.

Most of the characters in this book apart from Keller and her family were so unlikable. Especially the college kids, I couldn’t have cared less about what happened to most of them. They felt a bit like caricatures of the different types of kids you find on a college campus, none of them had any depth to their personality. There were also so many characters introduced too quickly, up until halfway through the book or so I barely knew who were talking about most of the time.

It was fast paced enough at least and it didn’t feel like a drag to read.

I will still try another book from the author in the future, hopefully the next one is better.

Absolutely loved this book!
Alex Finlay's books are fast paced with lots of plot twists and this one did not disappoint. I did not see the ending coming.
This is my second book I've read of his and I've enjoyed both books.
If you like crime thriller reads with good plot and lots of twists and turns, you will love this book!
It was so good!

Also, huge fan of Keller!

Parents weekend delves into the secrets held by each set of parents attending a parents weekend at a small coastal college in California. The disappearance of the students is handled well in the story development as is the participation in solving the crime by FBI agent Keller. I enjoyed Keller and will go back and read the other novel in which she is featured. Unfortunately I struggled with the writing style for the first half of the book. I found bouncing back and forth between the points of view of each family to read more like a screenplay and, for me, it took away from my enjoyment of the plot.