A decent thriller, while by no means life changing, left me satisfied. Two friends go on vacation to Portugal. Lots of drinking and drugs are involved. One goes missing. There is a super creepy vacation rental owner (made me really reconsider AIrBnBs traveling as a solo female), inept/uncaring police (but of course), overly helpful Uber driver (very suspect), Lots of twists and turns, some expected some not. Would I recommend to people, sure. Not as a way to get into the genre, but for people who already like this style.

**The one where I realize I shouldn't wait 2 months to write a review because I have to look back at the synopsis to remember what happened.**

In a nutshell: Best friends Kate and Orla go on vacation to Lisbon, and Kate goes missing. The police are of little help and Orla ends up tracing her friend's whereabouts with the help of the rideshare driver who took them to a club the night before.

This wasn't bad but I didn't love it either. I actually do remember a lot of details about it and I *think* I had an idea about the ending... but not until the very end. I don't want to ruin anything by saying too much. Twists though?? Yes, most definitely twists upon twists. 🙃 Overall, a decent thriller but not the first one I'd recommend to anyone.

The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson was definitely a twisted holiday read! Super entertaining and I couldn't stop until the book was done!

I received an eARC of The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson from Harper 360/Avon Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Even though this book kept me engaged, I give it 3 stars. It was somewhat predictable but well written. I can see fans of psych thrillers enjoying this one.

I found this one almost too predictable in the story line and I REALLY disliked Kate. It’s a quick read and while it was predictable it was still a good read. I’d recommend it for a quick thriller!

A weekend getaway to Lisbon goes horribly wrong for best friends Kate and Orla. When one of the two women go missing, the secrets revealed during the investigation will alter the course of their lives forever.

This fast-paced, twist-filled story is the perfect summer read.

They say that opposites attract. That is the case of Orla and Kate, who have been friends for twenty years. Kate is rich, a party girl who is about to be divorced. Orla is married, has a nine-month old infant daughter and she still hasn't lost her baby weight.

Every year they have planned a girls' weekend away. This time they're in Lisbon, staying in a great flat, and there are parties available everywhere. Kate wants to go, go, go and Orla just wants to sleep. However, Orla is persuaded to go out with Kate and off they go.

When Orla wakes the next morning .. Kate is nowhere to be found. Orla's memory of the night before is hazy, and the police shrug and don't seem to think a woman disappearing is anything to get excited about.

As Orla frantically retraces their steps, she makes a series of shattering discoveries that threaten everything she holds dear. Because while Lisbon holds the secret of what happened that night, the truth may lie closer to home…

This is well-written, with twists and turns guaranteed to make this a page-turner. The characters are deftly drawn, warts and all. Suspense starts at the very beginning and maintains a high level until the unexpected conclusion. I am a little ambivalent about the ending .. it didn't seem quite finished. Other than that, this was an entertaining read.

Many thanks to the author / Harper360UK / Avon BooksUK / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

The Weekend Away is a twisty thrill ride of a novel. When Orla and Kate, two best friends, go away for a long weekend together, they expect fun and relaxation. What happens is anything but, and plunges the characters into unexpected turmoil.

Just when you think you know what will happen, a curve ball is thrown and it seems the characters have hit a dead end. Truths come out that will ensure things are never the same.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who likes an unexpected, suspenseful novel.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Weekend Away is a thriller about a woman whose best friend goes missing during a weekend vacation they take together. The book brought continuous plot twists that I definitely wasn't expecting, but those made the book an interesting read and made me wonder what was going to happen next in the plot.

The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderspon

Two friends go on vacation. Only one comes back. Oral and Kate have been best friends forever. Together they have faced it all. They can always look forward to their annual weekend away..

This was a book filled with cleverly written intrigue. Kept you guessing, right up to the last page, who the killer was. I didn’t like cthecway it ended. It left you not knowing what the outcome would be. I recommend this book.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

Overall, I felt kinda meh about this book. Not necessarily bad, but not particularly memorable either. Giving it 2.5/5 Stars.

Thank you Net Galley for providing me a copy of The Weekend Away for a review. Sadly this one fell short for me. I wasnt very impressed with the writing and just could not keep my interest. I had to put this one down a lot and come back to it. I couldnt connect with the characters and just wasnt interesting in my opinion. I needed something exciting to happen and wow me but nothing ever did.

This was a very good book! Once I set down and had time to read, I finished this book in one setting. I would definitely recommend this book.

Great mystery/thriller for those who are fans of domestic dramas and untrustworthy friendships. What happens when two friends go out partying in a foreign country and one doesn't return home the next day? Vacation mysteries are some of my favorite thriller tropes because the characters are already in a vulnerable situation as tourists. I loved the quick pace of this book and the story kept me reading past my bedtime. Great for anyone who enjoyed Girls Night Out or The Lion's Den.

This book was a total page-turner! I devoured it in a single day. There were lots of great twists and turns. I would say it’s a beach read but you have to like a creepy book for this to be one for the beach! Trigger warning that there is some possible sexual assault and drinks being drugged. It was gripping and I enjoyed reading it.

Two friends go on a girls weekend. One is murdered. A decent plot with quite a few shady characters. Orla has a husband and baby at home. Kate is going through a divorce and needed the weekend away. 4 stars. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heart racing, what is she going to do now, what is going to happen next thriller that kept me guessing with equal parts of fear, frustration and sheer wonder at the insight that conjured the inner dialog in this novel.

Best friends off for a weekend of fun in Portugal. Kate is the alpha female handling all the details, making all the decisions. She is also totally out of control. Orla doesn’t want to drink, party and go wilding but she also doesn’t want to disappoint Kate. Blackness, when Orla wakes up Kate is gone. Everything that could possibly go wrong, does. You have to hold it together but your sanity is being shredding bit by bit until you turn to strangers for help and how does that help? But what else is there to do?

Orla finds herself on the precipice of a mountain. Her leap is going to determine what and how much she can reveal and still maintain her freedom and safety. She is a victim, suspect, liar, protector, detective, wife, mother, and very scared. Good reason for all of it. Well done Ms. Alderson and now about that ending - huh and OK then you really knocked it out of the park.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon HarperCollins for a copy.

While the Weekend Away was a fun and exciting read, it doesn't make too many waves. I enjoyed reading this, but it wasn't the most memorable thriller on my shelf.
When two friends go on a trip together and only one returns, it makes you ask yourself....how well do you really know your 'best friends'?

Wow, what a great, fast-paced mystery. I was hooked from the start. There were twists and turns, lies and deceptions galore. This was my first book by this author but won’t be the last. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

3.5 stars

This was a quick thriller, perfect for those days when you just want to get lost in a mystery that you don’t have to think too hard about.

Orla has been home with a new baby for months when her best friend, Kate, decides to whisk her away for a fun quick trip to Portugal, just the two of them. But after a wild night out, Kate goes missing, and Orla doesn’t remember much -- was she drugged? -- and the police are no help at all. So, with the help of her Uber driver, she decides to try to find out what happened on her own.

You definitely have to suspend some disbelief with this book, especially in terms of how unaware Orla seems to be about her own life and her inability to read other people, a point that is noted several times by several characters. And this is an important point because if she could have figured out other people’s motivations and was able to read their personalities, many of the big twists wouldn’t have been big twists because they really seemed obvious in many ways. And, you also have to suspend disbelief further when the police tell her she can’t leave the country, and instead of calling her consulate for help, she just goes along with everything, especially with a young baby at home.

But my favorite part of the whole book was the big twist at the end -- no spoilers, here -- and my stomach just dropped on the last page of the book.

Definitely a fast read, and I would recommend it for when you just need to reset your reading a bit and not take on anything too serious.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Harper 360/Avon Publishing in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.