It’s interesting how much the parents seem to have hidden! Just when I thought I had everything figured out, more backstories kept coming to light. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC.

#ParentsWeekend #NetGalley

Five families gather for dinner and cocktails during parent's weekend at their children's private college. They are making small talk while noticing that not even one of their children has shown up as planned to join them. The parent's get it; they were once students. Things come up, things get in the way, but for all five of them to be no shows????? hmm It will take a few hours but eventually the parents will begin to worry, then panic, and finally call the police. Agent Keller is called in to investigate....


First off, there are a lot of characters in this book! A lot. The characters range from the parents to the missing students, to the other characters who are interviewed or doing the interviewing. There are also multiple POV's Whew! I soon found my footing and was pulled into the mystery.

While I did find this book to be fast paced and entertaining, it missed the mark a bit for me. I have loved the previous books that I have read by this author. I had high hopes for this book and while Parents Weekend was enjoyable it was lacking a little bit of OOMPH that would have earned a higher rating.

I had both the book and the audiobook. The narrator of the audiobook did a great job brining the characters to life. Others are enjoying this book more than I did, so please read their reviews as well.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I listened to an ALC of this one on NetGalley and I want to start this review by saying I loved the narrator. I always love her work but for all the different POVs in this book, I think she did a great job keeping everything exciting throughout the story.

However, it was the many POVs that I didn’t love from a storytelling perspective. I found that there were too many different things happening at once to keep it all straight. 5 missing college students, parents of each student, random other POVs, it was too much in my opinion.

I can appreciate that this is the author’s style. Creating suspense and building the story with so many different people’s accounts of the events all converging to a single conclusion. I think for an audiobook, it would have been better to have more narrators and from a storytelling perspective it would have been better to have fewer POVs.

All in all, I’d definitely read more from this author and I already knew I loved this narrator so I will be listening to more of her work.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I like that he had the idea for this book from going to a parent's weekend at his child's school. It seemed like he knew what he was talking about. I was confused at the beginning because there are just so many characters that are being introduced. I was listening to it and I couldn't keep them all straight. It did become less confusing as the story went on. I would say it was an okay thriller. It wasn't a surprising twist, but it was a good story overall.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the advanced audio copy of Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay.

This worked really well for me. There was a great amount of drama, who can you trust, what is going on, all of the stuff I like. The multi-pov also worked for me. While it took a minute to get an understanding of each family and their "intricacies" I was easily able to follow the storyline. I loved the interconnectedness and the messy each character brought to the table. I love Special Agent Keller and found her endearing throughout.

I am so glad to have done this as an audibook because Brittany Pressley is so talented. Loved her narration.

4/5 for me!

This was a solid read. I especially enjoyed the author working in modern day references, like slang and TikTok in a way that made sense...looking at you Say You'll Remember me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

3.5 ⭐️
I love Alex Finlay, but this was not his best work, in my opinion.
The story begins with students and parents preparing for parents weekend at a private university in California. When 5 of the students never make it to dinner, worry starts to set in, and the hunt for the missing young adults begins.
I was excited to read this. The premise, location, and mystery seemed awesome, however, there were far too many characters. Finlay could have cut them in half, and it would have been more manageable to read. I didn’t care about the characters because I didn’t get to know them.
Thank you netgalley for this arc! I enjoyed this read.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for my gifted ALC! And thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted ARC!

Alex Finlay is an easy auto read author for me. He never misses. Every one of his books is a page turner. Filled with well developed characters and brilliantly crafted twists and turns. Parents Weekend was no exception. This is the type of book you can easily fit in two sittings, because it’s just that good. I loved seeing Agent Keller again, because she is such a badass. I hope we get to encounter her in another novel in the future. 😍

Parents Weekend was a suspenseful mystery. Parents are at their children’s colleges for parents weekend. When a group of students do not show up panic ensues.

3.5⭐️
Different POV’s a bit confusing and a little hard to follow for the first half of the book. Wish the narrator did slightly Different voices to help differentiate that being said she was still nice to listen too.
The overall concept was really interesting and the ending was excellent. The way all the clues came together, I wasn’t not expecting the outcome. I also like how we got to see what happens with each family.

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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!