Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this riveting novel. From page one, I was on campus with these parents and students. As the tangled web unraveled I couldn't put the book down. Finlay is a master story teller and creates twists that keep you in suspense until the very last page. A must read for anyone looking for an exciting page turner!

I enjoyed this story. I read a lot of it in one sitting, and that was mainly because if I stopped reading I had to re orient myself to all of the characters. It was a bit much learning the students, their parents, and then people in each parent’s life, plus their last names.

Right before Parents Weekend a student dies. And the first night after the parents arrive for a dinner, five students go missing. Special Agent Keller, is put on the case to track down the missing five. However, she finds that most of the parents have secrets of their own. This leads her down several different paths to try and find where they went and if someone took them.

I did enjoy the story. It was fast paced and kept me invested. I’ve seen people say it was predictable, but it wasn’t to me. I had some issues with the number of characters, but overall, it did feel necessary to increase tension and suspicion with each different parent group.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

I know what I'm expecting when I read an Alex Finlay book: multiple POV that tell a suspenseful and layered story. The premise of Parents Weekend was fantastic: a group gathers at a Northern California college to hang out with their kids, who have mysteriously vanished. While I did find the ending predictable, I think his fans will enjoy this one! P.S. I loved the return of a familiar face!

Blog review goes up May 6 and I will come back and link it!

2⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of Parents Weekend.

Five sets of parents are all headed to visit their children at college. All of the parents have secrets and issues going on in their lives and little do they know that their children also have secrets. When the parents are at dinner one night waiting for their kids none of them show up but they chalk it up to being in college. But when none of them have heard from their children the next day they are all worried.

This book was so confusing because it had way too many characters to try to keep track of. I also felt like that made the story difficult to follow. The ending was way too rushed. I was not a fan.

Solid mystery with lots of red herrings. The chapters were mostly told through the different parents who were visiting campus for Parents Weekend. I enjoyed this layout a lot. I also like the epilogue chapters that covered how each student and parents were doing three years later. I have not read this author before, but want to try more of his books now.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for this thoroughly enjoyable ARC

Good pacing, interesting premise and solid suspense. I can see this being a popular summer read.
Thanks for the chance to read and review.

This book has a great hook with the beginning with The Five and their realization that they have done something terrible but not knowing what and it drew me right in! I love the way this author writes his thrillers, nicely twisty with rotating view points with the parents (where you get to see how their actions might be the reason their kids have gone missing), to the students (ramping up the tension as you see what terrible mess they are in) and of course FBI Agent Keller whom I absolutely love and am glad she has made a reappearance in solving this current case. She is smart and knows how to use all the resources (including taking along local agents and one eager intern as they know the area and people) to solve the case. She really does shine and I hope we get to see her and her family in more of these thrilling books.

This was a fast and thrilling read and kept me on the edge of my seat as I urged Agent Keller and the other officers to find out the truth and where they missing students have gone, hopefully before they end up dead! Yes, there is sadness in this book, but I really enjoyed it and the ending was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this awesome book. I love this author and look forward to reading all the novels her writes!

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay has an engaging premise: five college students go missing during their first Parents Weekend at a small school in Northern California, and the investigation unravels the tangled web of family secrets and campus dynamics. The setup promises intrigue, and Finlay delivers a suspenseful atmosphere, blending college life with a sense of growing dread as the missing students' fates remain uncertain.

The multiple points of view keep the story moving, with a range of characters who bring different perspectives on the case. However, while the mystery is compelling, the characters feel more like types than fully developed individuals. The family dysfunction and the idea of generational issues affecting the next generation is explored, but the depth doesn’t go far enough to make it truly resonate.

The return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller is a nice touch, but the narrative feels somewhat disjointed as it bounces between timelines and characters. While the tension builds and the reveal is satisfying enough, the pacing could have been tighter, and the payoff didn't quite live up to the intriguing setup.

Parents Weekend is a decent read, but it leaves you wanting more, particularly in character development and emotional depth. It’s a good choice for fans of suspenseful mysteries with a family drama twist, though it doesn’t quite stick the landing.

I'll start off by saying I like Alex Finlay as an author. I absolutely loved If Something Happens To Me and I think about it to this day. Unfortunately, this book, Parents Weekend, was not a hit for me. It just felt very flat, although I loved the idea of 5 college kids going missing while their parents are visiting for the weekend. Cool idea, but poor execution. I think it's due to there being so many characters in this story and not enough plot building. There are the 5 missing kids, their parents and extended family, FBI agents, school staff, other random kids.. it was a lot to keep up with. Sadly, this was a 2 star read for me.
Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Alex Finlay for this ARC.

I found all the characters and multiple POVs very difficult to keep everyone straight at first. Once I started to keep them straight this was a quick read. I needed to know what happened and why.

Let’s call this one what it is…..a quick and easy police procedural. To be fair with all the different POVS, the only people I did care about was Agent Keller and her family…..and oddly enough I still was kind of hoping her husband might be the bad guy 🤓. Perhaps because he seems too good to be true.
Otherwise I just went along for the ride. The five and their parents all have some massive issues. Everybody is hiding something……so yeah if you’re just ready for a easy read that doesn’t require a ton of brain power then this is it!
I received an ARC of this title, all opinions are my own.

"Parents Weekend" by Alex Finlay is a thrilling 5-star read! The story follows a group of parents attending Parents Weekend with their college freshman children. Things quickly go off the rails—for both the parents and the students—prompting FBI Special Agent Keller to step in with her expert investigative skills.

The story is fast-paced and kept me hooked from beginning to end. I really enjoyed Alex Finlay’s writing style, especially the short chapters that alternate between the perspectives of the different parent groups, Special Agent Keller, and “The Five.” Each character has a rich backstory, and you’ll find yourself either loving or hating them.

This book has it all—infidelity (lots of it), illness, violence, and death, just to name the more prominent themes. This was my first book by Alex Finlay, but definitely not my last. I’ll be adding more of his work to my TBR!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, Alex Finlay, and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest review.

Alex Finlay always delivers on a quick-paced thriller!

The cast of characters in this book felt a bit large, and it took some time for me to remember who everyone was. Once we got more into the action, however, it was easy to get swept up in the story. I liked that the chapters alternated between POVs, and getting to see what was going on in different peoples heads. I do wish there was maybe a bit more time spent on the lives of the students to make me feel more connected to them, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker for me.

I really liked the chapters from Agent Keller’s POV, and her connection with Bob felt special. The other side characters were a fun addition to the story as well. The short chapters made this easy to binge, and I was entertained the whole time.

Five college students go missing and an FBI agent rushes to find them.

This book was so… mediocre. The characters were flat, underdeveloped, and unlikable. The story was - fine - but I didn’t find myself at the edge of my seat. There weren’t any twists and turns and there wasn’t any tension or thrill to the story. Did not feel engaged or connected to any characters. This was a miss for me.

2.75 ⭐️ rounded up to 3

The five that’s what they are call in the head lines me the five missing college kids that went missing over parents weekend.

We follow five families though a weekend that changed them all. How the miss communications and haze week and social media changed the way one even that happen to something that cost three lives

Alex Finlay does it again in this new thriller! You will find yourself on the edge of your seat through this crazy ride and will have a hard time putting it down once you start. Highly recommend!

🅣🅗🅞🅤🅖🅗🅣🅢: I really enjoyed this read. Solid, entertaining suspense. Starts slow building backstories, but quickly picks up. What works for this book is the balance between character perspectives adding depth to the story. For me, once again Agent Keller steals the show with her sharp approach. This was a twisty and layered page turner.

🌊Missing Students
🌊Layered Perspectives
🌊Family Secrets

Thank you for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. ・❥・

It’s Parents Weekend at a posh California university. A small group of students are supposed to meet their parents for a planned student-parent dinner to start off the weekend. None of the students show up. The parents can’t get ahold of their children and realize something must really be wrong. As time goes on the worry increases especially since another student recently drowned.

I really enjoyed the story told from different POV’s. It gave insight to each family’s dysfunction and kept the story suspenseful. The shorter chapters and cliffhangers kept it moving at a good pace. After each chapter I’d say “just one more” then read about 5 more. I really liked the FBI agent, Agent Keller. The ending was a surprise but not jaw dropping.

Thank you to the author @AlexFinlay as well as to @Minotaur and @NetGalley for a free e-ARC. The opinions are mine alone and not biased in any way.

Good fast paced thriller with a few twists in the end to keep the reader hooked. As a fan of the author's previous works, I was satisfied.

Overall this was a fast paced read that kept its intensity high enough to keep me hooked. I loved exploring the mystery and just had to keep reading to find out the truth.