I absolutely loved this book, kept me gripped from the start and couldn’t put the book down!

Really well written in so far that the electric feel of Lisbon came alive and you felt real empathy (and disdain) towards the main characters!

The story focuses on 2 long time friends Orla and Kate and they are taking their annual break overseas and this time it is Lisbon!
This is such a gripping story in that both get on the plane and only one will return!
After their first night out, Orla awakes with little memory of leaving a bar and Kate having dissapeared. Orla struggles to remember any events that happen and we slowly start to piece things together with her throughout the story.

This book really does have it all, just when you think you’ve figured out what’s happening, another curveball is thrown and you are left guessing again. The plot flows all the way through right to the very end.

One of the best books read so far this year!

Strong characters, intriguing plot and a great setting.

I loved The Weekend Away. It's the perfect, quick summer read. Just when you think you've figured it out, there's another twist in the road. Superb,

Sarah Alderson introduces us to the atmospheric streets of Lisbon, and sets up an intriguing mystery to follow. Kate and Orla's friendship is created well in the first few chapters so when Kate goes missing we already have a good idea of who she is as a (vibrant) character. Orla then spends the novel piecing together what happened that first night in Lisbon.

There's a litany of great characters -- creepy Sebastian and Konstandine the Kosovar Uber driver were my favourites, both for totally different reasons. Orla, the narrator, was a bit repetitive in her distress and rhetorical questions. But the other characters around her kept me reading on. That and the mystery itself.

The ending is fantastic. Twists right up until the final page, and the last line was just perfect.

This had me gripped all the way through! I felt sick for Orla thinking how I would feel if I was in a foreign country and my friend went missing - it actually gave me nightmares! There were parts of it where I had to suspend reality a little as some of Orlas choices through the whole saga were a little questionable but altogether it was a good tale! Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Avon for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This had me hooked from the very first page to the very last. A fast paced mystery thriller that had plenty of twists and turns. Set in Portugal it gave the story an extra edge as the protagonist grapples with the unfamiliar, a language barrier and different legal system. Good stuff.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book definitely a top 202o read.

Orla and Kate have been best friends for years after Orla becomes a mum they decide to go on a weekend away together like the good old days. Kate is going through a divorce and Orla is letting her hair down so their evening turns a little wild and when Orla wakes the next morning Kate is gone! Orla is unable to remember much about the evening leading to the disappearance so we follow her on her journey to discover the truth. I loved the mystery and the book kept me guessing right up to the final reveal! You will not be disappointed if you read this book a well deserved 5*

It’s been a few years since I read a Sarah Anderson book and I was excited by the premise of The Weekend Away. Orla and Kate have been friends for years. Orla is a new mum whilst Kate is going through a messy divorce so they take themselves off to Lisbon for a weekend away. After a boozy night out, Orla wakes up to find Kate has gone. What follows is a frantic few days trying to find her. This book features secrets, lies and some great twists and turns. I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and the author for the chance to review.

What a brilliant book this was, it got me interested from the very first page and soon became a fast paced thriller which I couldn't put down.

It was extremely well written, brilliantly addictive and I was holding my breath until the very last page. A very worthy five stars from me.

Well done Sarah, I look forward to reading more from you in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic book.

A very enjoyable read, this book starts off almost like a chick lit with two best friends off to Lisbon for a weekend break. That changes pretty quickly though and the story suddenly evolves into something far more sinister. Well paced and crammed with horrible people, a good summer read.

First, a thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I didn't like this quite as much as T.M. Logan's The Vacation, it's similar in tone and one of those 'great summer thriller reads.' I found that I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would, which was obviously a very nice surprise. While it's not particular unique in story line from other books of the same ilk, it has enough twists to keep you mostly guessing I wasn't particularly surprised by how it came to pass, but I wasn't entirely sure, so not so predictable as to be a disappointment. The very ending was very abrupt, which was I believe was the author's intention - mixed feelings about it, but...can't say I hated it.

This was an entertaining psychological thriller. It was filled with twists and turns. I got through this one quite quickly, and really enjoyed reading it!

I loved this book, thoroughly enjoyed. It had lots of twists and turns, which kept me guessing right to the end of the book. I didn't want to put the book down, very hard to put down. You just want to keep reading to find out more. I highly recommend this book :) Am left wondering if there will be another book to follow....

Two friends enjoy a weekend in Lisbon. Kate and Orla have been friends since university and Kate has arranged this. What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a lot does go wrong actually. Kate is missing and the police are singularly unhelpful. The only person who comes through for Orla is taxi driver Konstantin. He helps her though out the events that unfolds. When her husband Rob arrives even he acts strangely. Was he more than a friend to Kate? Orla and Konstantin work out the events that have unfolded discovering Kate was not a good friend but a manipulative jealous woman. This is a brilliant mystery and even right at the end Orla gets a huge shock.
Excellently written and I had to keep reading right to the end as soon as possible. This is a story well told and constructed so we can work it out along side Orla. This is a strongly recommended mystery.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this as the book had a good plot with great characters and kept you guessing throughout what had happened to Kate.

I gave it 4 stars because towards the end there was a bit too much going on that seemed a bit far fetched but I can’t say why as I wouldn’t want to spoil the story. It’s just my personal opinion as others may not even have thought about it.

Will definitely look out for more books by this author.

Lots of twists and turns, some of them quite predictable. Mostly enjoyable all the same although I did find a lot of Orla's decisions really frustrating.

We seemed to learn a lot about Konstandin but would have liked to have had a bit more background on the husband and Kate especially as with what we had seen of Kate in Lisbon left me with not a lot of sympathy for her outcome.

An easy read that would go down well with a cocktail at the side of the pool.

My feelings on this book are all over the map and I'm pretty sure I was reading a different book from everyone else.

Let's just start with the summary: Long time friends Orla and Kate go on a weekend holiday together. They've done so once a year for a while now, but this is the first time Orla has dared get away since her baby was born and she's scared yet excited for the freedom.

After a wild night of partying (to include snorting coke in the back of an Uber and a refusal to tip because god forbid the driver's looking at you wonky for snorting said coke in his car), Kate and Orla return to their Airbnb with two men they just met. Orla's barely coherent and is in no way ok with this whole situation, because, well, she is married and just had a baby. But when she finally wakes up the next afternoon, Kate is missing.

Orla is now her friend's only hope. The police aren't taking her seriously, so she decides to retrace their steps in the hopes that she'll find Kate. But the discoveries she makes along the way threaten to destroy everything she knew...

Ok, the good: I love the premise of the book. This is a great setting for a mystery/thriller involving friends and the secrets they might both be keeping from each other. The last 40-50% of the book unfolds at a good pace and the ending is a satisfying twist that leaves you with big questions.

Unfortunately, the execution left me wishing for a different book altogether. Like Konstandin's book. He was the only character I didn't want to pitch into the Atlantic.

I can't get into too much about what I didn't like, because it would give too much of the plot away, but let me just say this. Kate and Orla need to put on their big girl panties. Aren't they supposed to be 40-somethings? They run around speaking and acting as though they're 16. Kate is just gross. I couldn't muster any sympathy for her.

Orla, on the other hand, made me want to toss the book aside for something else. Had I been reading this for anything other than the purposes of a NetGalley review, I wouldn't have finished it.

Why?

First, she can put away her Catholic insults. And did she actual just say she thought Portugal would be different because they're Latin and have loose morals? And for all her bluster about backward, prudish Catholics and their prudish, backward attitudes towards sex, she...doesn't understand why anyone would wear crotchless knickers? She doesn't know what male escorts are? Inconsistencies like these made reading frustrating.

Not only that, but Orla's way too gullible/naive/frantic for me to take her seriously. She's got the self preservation skills of someone who time travels for the purposes of eating paint chips. Her decision to move into the main house of the Airbnb guy sealed that for me. She acts irrationally for the entirety of this book, but paints Portuguese police as wholly incompetent. And we can cut out every time she puts on her "woe is me, I'm so fat and ugly after giving birth that no man will ever desire me again" face and we won't be missing a thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing this copy for review. It's clearly popular with the majority of people; it just wasn't for me.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Avon Books UK in exchange for an honest review.

It's that time of the year where I want thrillers to deliver on sun as well as murder, and I'm pleased to say The Weekend Away does not disappoint. Orla has gone away with her best friend Kate for a weekend in Lisbon, an old tradition that they've neglected for a few years. Unfortunately Kate seems to want a wilder weekend than Orla had planned for and things go even more awry when Kate vanishes on the Friday evening. With only a local taxi driver to help her, Orla is left to try and work out what happened to her friend.

I really enjoyed this book. It is extremely well-paced with events happening at exactly the right moment. I loved following Orla around and there is plenty going on to keep you invested. It isn't strongly holiday-focused but there are some nice scenes (especially at the start) which would make this a great thriller to take away with you somewhere. The characters are also great and Orla felt very real to me as a person. She still makes some questionable decisions but you can get a better sense of why she is making them than some other thrillers so it didn't end up bothering me.

If this book has one weakness, it's that it didn't really surprise me at any points. There was one or two plot elements I didn't necessarily expect but I didn't feel that huge shock factor either. I think that many characters came across as suspicious or creepy so, when they were revealed to have done something, it lost some of the impact. That's what really stopped this being a great thriller for me, although I still enjoyed it hugely.

Overall, this is far better than most of the summer-themed thrillers I have read and I recommend considering it if you're looking for a good summer or holiday book. I would definitely check out more from this author on the thrillery-side.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Very much out of my comfort zone with this genre of book (I'm more of a chick lit kind of girl) but I really enjoyed it.
Orla and Kate head off on a girls weekend to Lisbon. After a wild night out, Kate disappears. This happens pretty early on in the book and the rest of the book is around trying to unravel what happened to her and who did it...
Its a very fast paced book, with so many twists and turns and it leaves you guessing right until the last page!! I would definitely recommend this book and will be looking out for more books from Sarah Alderson.

The Weekend Away was a quite pleasant surprise.

While it didn't bring anything new to the table, it was very well written, the characters were beautifully fleshed out, the misdirection was well done, and the Lisbon setting added a nice ambiance to the story.

Narrated entirely by Orla, a wife and mother who reluctantly left her family for a weekend getaway with her long-time best friend, Kate...I believe Sarah Alderson nailed the voice of the brand new mom who wanted nothing more than to get back to her baby, as the world in Lisbon crashed down around her.

All the little twists and turns kept me reading through the night to see where they led, and I didn't shut off my Kindle until I finished the novel at 4:45 AM. Admittedly, the conclusion was a bit mundane and predictable, though I will say, I didn't get it all right.

Overall, this is a very decent little thriller and a perfect beach read. 3.5 stars, which I opted to round up because I was so compelled to keep reading.

Available for purchase July 23, 2020.

**My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for my review copy.

Orla and Kate have been best friends for years. Over the years they have taken weekend girl trips all over. Life has taken them in different directions, Orla a married mom and Kate a recent divoroced woman who still likes to party and play. But through it all Orla is determined to keep their friendship alive.
The first night of their weekend in Lisbon, the girls go out to eat at a bar. Determined to have fun, Kate insists they invite two men they meet back to their apartment. Resisting Kate is useless, and besides Orla finds herself too drunk to put up much resistance. Soon after they arrive back to the apartment, Orla passes out. When she wakes up the next morning, both the men are gone, but so is Kate. Trying to piece together the events of the night before to determine what has become of her best friend proves more frustrating and eye opening that Orla expects. Because secrets always have a way of coming out. Will Orla find Kate and be able to move past all that she has uncovered about her best friend?
This is a great thriller, fast paced, lots of twists and turns, and really keeps me guessing until the last paragraph. Recommend this book to any suspense thriller fans. My only complaint was the way it ended. I won't spoil it but left me wanting more!
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a nail biting thriller with many twists and turns that kept me guessing all the way through - and I was wrong! Orla and Kate are seemingly long term best friends, but from the start their weekend away starts to reveal cracks in their relationship. When one of them goes missing, the other is left to try and discover what has happened. But who can she trust? Both obstacles and help come from unexpected sources as the tense mystery gradually unravels to reveal the shocking truth. A strong and interesting mix of characters, some more likeable than others, kept my attention to the last page.