Wow, I flew through this book! With its academic setting, short chapters, and compelling mystery, "Parents Weekend" was an unputdownable popcorn thriller. I enjoyed Finlay's last book, but I think I liked this one more. It was a quick read, and I finished it in just a few sittings. My only real complaint is the number of characters. There were a lot of families involved, and it was hard to keep track of who was who. With so many characters, I didn't really feel a strong connection to any of them, but I did enjoy all of the family drama. I also really liked the FBI agent, Keller, and the campus security officer, McCray, who were working together to find the missing college students. Their investigation was intriguing, and while there wasn't a huge plot twist, the story still held my attention the entire time. Overall, a bingeworthy story that I couldn't put down.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Brittany Pressley. I've listened to so many of her audiobooks, and I thought this was one of her best performances. She really nailed the emotions, accents, and voices of the many characters of all different ages, genders, and backgrounds. She did a great job building suspense and keeping me engaged in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This was good, but not great. I feel like Alex Finlay is usually middle of the road for me, and unfortunately this was no exception. I liked Keller's character, but I didn't love the predictability and I definitely wasn't a fan of the jokes about police manipulating perps. Overall, this was just okay.

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Pub Date: 5/6
•
I will read absolutely anything Alex Finlay writes. I just love his work, and I feel like every book has such a different and great premise while maintaining that thriller / mystery vibe.
•
Parent's Weekend hooked my right from the prologue. I had to figure out what was going on. It was steady to fast paced and kept me on my toes the entire time. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, Finlay comes with a curveball and throws you on a different path. The ending has a lot of different pieces to it, and I love not only that he did this, but how it was explained; it made the book wrap up perfectly.
•
This story is told in multiple POV's. It starts out by family and then at times it will go to individuals. It definitely will help to have a physical copy of the book in order to get down every character. And speaking of characters, I really liked all of the characters, even the morally gray, questionably bad ones.
•
I listened to this one via audiobook and it was narrated by the Queen - Brittany Pressley. As per usual - she did a phenomenal job with the narration and giving certain characters certain voices. I was so happy to have a copy of the eARC while listening to this story because there are a ton of characters in this one and having both really helped me differentiate who was who.
•
Overall, really enjoyed this one, cannot wait for the next one! Mystery/thriller fans, you need to check this one out! It's fun, it will keep you on the edge of your seat and you will constantly be wondering just what happened until the very end! Huge thank you to NetGalley, Alex Finlay, MacMillan Audio and St. Martins Press for the ALC and eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The story follows 5 students and their families as we try to figure out who kidnapped them. The number of characters makes the story a bit complicated, but the author does a great job of navigating that and anchors the reader to the main FBI agent. Someone wrote that this is a popcorn thriller (in a bad way), but I mean it in a good way. Read it in one sitting and felt like the motive and outcome were believable. I’m a big Finlay fan, and enjoyed this book as much as his others.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well paced and held my attention the whole time I was listening to it. The narrator did a great job.

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬
During the thrilling start of their children’s first year at a small private college in Northern California, five families gather for a night of dinner and cocktails to kick off Parents Weekend. While the parents enjoy a rare night out, staying up later than usual, their children—residents of Campisi Hall—never arrive at the event.
At first, it seems like typical college behavior: the students might have flaked or chosen a party instead. But as hours turn into a second day without any contact—not even a text—worry turns into alarm. Campus police escalate the situation, search parties are organized, and media descends on the quiet college town. Whispers, theories, and online speculation explode.
The missing students—Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—quickly become known as “The Five,” a name picked up by podcasters, bloggers, and social media sleuths. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, the question looms: what drew them out that night? Are they victims of their parents’ past mistakes, or was the danger lurking among them all along?
Told through alternating timelines and perspectives—including the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend is a gripping story about family secrets, expectations, and the unforgettable early days of college when friendships form fast and deep.
𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
I was really looking forward to Parent Weekend—the concept of a college campus thriller involving families and secrets had great potential. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. I struggled to keep track of the families and found the student characters a bit too similar and underdeveloped. The focus was mostly on Agent Keller and the parents, and I wished we got more perspective from the students to deepen the story.
That said, the pacing was solid, the setting was unique and atmospheric, and there were a few good twists along the way. The narrator also did a fantastic job bringing the story to life. While it wasn’t a favorite for me, it has its strengths and might appeal to fans of character-driven mysteries.

I think this story had a lot of potential, but the audiobook experience fell a bit short for me. I really believe it would have been much better with multiple narrators, especially since the story includes different characters and perspectives. The female narrator did a solid job overall, but when she attempted to voice the male characters, it pulled me out of the story. It just didn’t feel natural and made it harder to stay immersed. I think I would’ve enjoyed Parents Weekend more if I had read the physical book instead of listening to the audio version.

The biggest problem with this book was the amount of characters and the lack of development of them. It was so hard to keep straight who everyone was and even by the end of the book, I was still catching myself stopping to think about who people were in relation to others. I was engaged enough in the story that I wanted to see how it ended and get answers. It just was a struggle getting to that point. Narration was good but with so many characters, a cast of readers might have been helpful in distinguishing voices.

Premise - It's parents weekend a pricey private college in California (think: safety school for Stanford near-misses) and one student is already dead, with five more missing. Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella - The Five - don't seem to have much in common and neither do their parents. It's up to Special Agent Sarah Keller to figure out what hidden connection binds The Five together before it's too late.

This is well-paced! There were many possible culprits, all of whom felt like pretty real characters, which was great for keeping me unbalanced throughout. At a few points in the story I was worried it'd be too straightforward and moralistic, but Finlay was just faking me out every time. I should have held the faith! She delivered a twisty tale well worth the read (or listen, if you're going for the audiobook).

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Brittany Pressley. Pressley did a great job, as always! She's a skilled narrator, delivering an engaging read every time. She has one of those voices that makes anything feel cozy, even a mass kidnapping with lives on the line, but she injects energy into all of her characters so it's like watching a really good tv show (plus the extra room for imagination that books/audiobooks allow). I highly recommend listening to this story as an audiobook!

Thanks, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Something I really enjoyed is that it went back & forth between the families involved. I only wish that there had been a few narrators doing the audiobook rather than just one. I also liked that it felt like a more fat paced thriller!

Update. This book stuck with me for some reason so when the audiobook became available I wanted to give it another go and I’m glad so did as it raised my opinion of the book to a 4⭐️ thanks to the narration.
Brittany Pressley did a great job with her recitation. She spoke at a proper pace to easily keep up with and gave enough emotion to draw you into the prose without going overboard.

It made me appreciate the story a bit more and made it less “fluffy” which is how I described it after my first read. It’s coming out soon on May 6th 2025 so get it on your TBR now!

Original review
3.75⭐️
This books description intrigued me as I loved the concept of something happening on parents weekend.
Overall I enjoyed it. I wanted to know what happened which propelled me for to the end.
I would say that it’s a “fluffy” thriller. Like an elevated Hallmark movies and mysteries type where you don’t have to invest too much into it.

That being said, while I generally like multi POV this was a bit too much as the characterizations of the different folks weren’t fleshed out too well. The chapters were short and choppy. I wouldn’t have minded 30-50 pages being added so things could be fleshed out a bit more. The little dabbles into the sub plots just left you feeling a bit lacking.

But for folks that like a tiny bit of the police/fbi procedural type thrillers this is an easy entry into it as you get a taste but it also has soap opera level drama with the private lives of various families.

It is very predictable so if you don’t like being able to easily figure things out, this may not be for you. But again, nice fluffy thrillerish book to pass the time!

I am thankful to have gotten an eARC for free from St Martins Press through NetGalley to enjoy which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Dangit, I had high hopes for this book. Finlay normally gets 4+ stars from me but this one missed the mark. Too many POV's. I love, LOVE, love the narrator but even she couldn't make this one.

When I saw this book would be narrated by the Brittany Pressley, I was like give it to me asap! As always, she nailed the audio for this book. Since this book had so many characters, the narration was a great way to differentiate each of them. Another reason why this book made it a good one was because a repeat character from Finlay's previous books was a huge character. Anytime Agent Keller makes an appearance in an Alex Finlay book, I get so very excited! His books can be read as standalones, but I did like the little tidbits she mentioned referring to the other books. I thought this storyline was pretty interesting as well. I do wish that the podcast element that was mentioned would have had a little bit more of a purpose within the story, but that's more of a personal preference. I would say overall this was am entertaining read and would make for a great summer thriller!

I was disappointed in this book. There were simply too many POVs, which made it difficult to stay engaged or connect with any one character. By the time the big reveal came around, I struggled to tie everything together—it just didn’t land for me. This leaned more toward a police procedural than a true thriller, which wasn’t what I expected.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the e-arc & ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Parent’s Weekend is more of a police procedural than a thriller, though the ending is definitely very suspenseful. Five students go missing during parent’s weekend at a small private college on the CA coast. While we learn a little about the students the book is really more about their parents and how what they have done has affected not only their children but also others involved. I loved Sarah Keller’s role in the investigation, even though she was supposed to just be in a supporting role she soon showed that her instincts and ability to get people involved and talking were what was important.

After praising Alex Finlay's last novel as "one of the best mystery thrillers I have read", I could not wait to read his next one.

A quick overview: The story begins with parents traveling to their children’s college for "Parents Weekend." Along the way, we get introduced to their less than perfect lives. Upon arriving, things take a tense turn—their children are nowhere to be found, and there’s no communication from them. News circulates about a young student who drowned earlier, and now five more students are missing. Law enforcement steps in, and the frantic search begins.

It seems to me, to be a common thread in Finlay's novels to feature multiple characters and points of view. This approach works well when the writing is clear and engaging—which it is here, but to me it just seemed there were simply too many perspectives this time around for me to truly connect with any of the characters. The story is a slow burn, and unfortunately, the ending didn’t deliver the heart pounding payoff which happen in some slower paced books. If slow mysteries are your thing, this one might be for you.

Although this wasn’t my favourite of Finlay’s works, I still think he’s a talented author, and I will looking forward to future works of his.

Also, a quick note: I experienced the story both by reading at home and through the audiobook while driving. Brittany Pressley’s narration was exceptional—her distinct character voices and captivating tone were fabulous. I really love her voice.

Five college students disappear into thin air one night as their parents gather to celebrate their children’s first year of college. The story blows up on social media, with amateur detectives on all social media platforms speculating on what has happened to the five. After a slow start, the story really gets going in the last half, and it’s worth the wait

Im a huge fan of Alex Finlay so was so excited to get early access to his latest book. I listened to the audio version which may have impacted my review slightly. For the first 1/4 of the story I had a difficult time following characters storylines and connecting whose parents were connected to each kidnapped student. With that being said, once the plot started to really open up the story was captivating and kept me in suspense until the wrap up. I would categorize this as a strong read for the year.

This was a good one! After The Night Shift I was so excited to see the bad ass Special Agent Keller was back! I enjoyed the setting of the college/beach and the premise of the crime taking place at Parents Weekend. I felt that was a unique idea for a thriller. It gave it a domestic thriller feel which I loved. My only gripe is that there were a lot of characters to remember due to the 5 students and their families! Other than that I thought it was well paced, interesting and had a great ending I didn’t see coming. Brittany Pressley narrates (One of my faves) and she does a great job with it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my copy of this audiobook which publishes 5/6.

A domestic thriller involving multiple families, lots of secrets and motives as five college students disappear over the parents' weekend and the police race to figure out what happened. I thought this was just okay, I liked Brittany Pressley as the narrator (she's one of my favs) but I didn't especially get invested in the story. I also didn't guess the ending so if you like books by Shari Lapena or Mary Kubica you may enjoy this one too. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!