That Weekend was a pretty engaging YA thriller. Right from the opening chapter of the book, the story was so exciting. It had so many plot twists and crazy revelations. I didn't expect the ultimate ending either. The book had multiple POVs and it was basically divided into 2 halves. One half narrated be Claire and the other by Kat.

Kat and Claire were best friends from when they were 5 years old. They knew everything about each other. While Kat was the uber cool, rich girl, Claire was a simple, normal girl. But Kat moved to Italy and that's when Claire met Jesse. They become best friends. Claire falls in love with Jesse but everything falls apart when Jesse's mom died.

The next summer, Kat was back in town and she was in a relationship with Jesse. This totally devastated Claire and she felt like she lost her best friends. She fell in with the wrong crowd and has a boyfriend, Ben. The weekend of the prom, the 4 of them plan to go to Kat's lake house. But Ben and Claire break up. So it's only three of them now. It becomes really awkward.

Then Claire wakes up hurt in the mountains and Kat and Jesse were missing. She remembers nothing. What happened to Kat and Jesse? Read to find out!

I was generously provided with an ARC of That Weekend by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a great novel. There were so many times when I thought I knew whAt happened but most of my guesses were wrong. There were many family secrets that came out, and it touched on a variety of topics that may interest teenagers- prom, beginning college, first love, domestic violence, over sharing on social media, drug and alcohol abuse, and more.

I love Kara Thomas books, that’s for sure.
So I was pretty hyped for this one. Loved the setup, the mystery and the characters. For about 70% I was quite sure, it’s gonna be the best of her books.
Yeah, the last quarter ... Ehm ... Didn’t do it for me.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a really good book. The mystery and writing is just great as always. The author is really good in writing characters and mysteries.
But I wished, Kara Thomas would have taken an other road for the resolution. It’s not a bad one, but it’s a bit ... wild. A bit over the top. Like Denver Clan meets Dallas meats Soap Opera over the top. And then just add a bit more wildness on top.
But still this book let’s you sitting on the edge of your seat and reading »just one more site before bed«.

OH MY!!

What a slam dunk for Kara Thomas! This is the first book that I've read by this author and it was so good!!

Prepare for creepiness, darkness, and shivering secrets that will be unfolded in this addicting and dark YA read.

The Weekend is a YA book about a group of friends that disappear in the woods. The meat of the novel was epic and the unfolding of the mystery between the friends was unputdownable.

The ending was little far fetched for me but overall I definitely enjoyed this one!!

Huge thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

4/5 stars

Pub date: 6/29/21
Published: 5/30/21

⭐⭐⭐.6 rounded up 4 stars!
I know I am not the target audience for this YA/Teen story.
As a high school guidance counselor, I loved to read Teen/YA stories, always fun to mention a book I read that my students might like.
I sometimes get discouraged as a lot of my reads seemed to be formula driven: Sex, drugs,
suicide, bulling, and of course a lot of foul language 🤔.
I still am still hopeful and a sucker for a good YA story!
In this story Clare and several of her close friends decide not to go to the prom. When Clare tells her parents, her dad (the Librarian) says something like ….” Think of all the books you can now buy for that $150. ..She thinks ~ he would say that because he is such a dork.
~ Did she just call me and other readers a dork?

Okay I am curious!
Three best friends~ a lake house~ a perfect prom weekend getaway ~ what could go wrong?
(We thriller fans are laughing out loud!!)

Claire wakes up bloody with no memory.
(Which also means Clare has no memory of calling dad and therefore many of us readers ‘dorks’!)
Okay enough of my dorky attempts at humor!

This story actually turned out to be so much better than I expected.
Twist and turns!! It truly was a page turner!
I always enjoy the Author’s Acknowledgements’. In this section author, Kara Thomas expresses her gratitude and also thanks us readers; then states she hopes this story was worth our wait!!
And the answer to THAT is “Yes”!

Want to thank NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacote Press for this early release granted to me for my honest professional opinion..
Publishing Release Date scheduled for June 29, 2021

A great read with plots and twists that had me on the edge of the seat. It's amazing how the narrator's perspective shift and you find yourself agreeing immediately. It's like every time something new is revealed you're at the square one. Not being able to guess h plot twist was annoying and thrilling at the same time. It was, a great read with amazing character development and and I keep on talking about the plot-twist, but they're honestly mind-blowing.

This book begins with our main character, Claire waking up to find herself in the woods, alone and bloody.
She's not sure what happened, but she DOES remember that she had been camping with her two best friends and they are no where to be found. From there, the book goes back and forth from before to THAT weekend, when her friends went missing. What if Claire can't remember? What happened thar weekend?

This book felt really long. It kept taking so many turns that at times, I wasn't sure when it would ever end. Somewhere around 47%, I thought it was going to be all wrapped up and then it took a few more turns. Confusing at times., but teens will probably love parts of it. Just not the ending.

Claire is alone on a mountain after waking up with no memory. The last thing she can recall is being at her friend’s family lakehouse for the weekend with Kat and Kat's boyfriend, Jesse. They had planned a little secret, weekend getaway that nobody knew about but them. How could she have wound up like this in the woods by herself with blood all over her hands? Better yet, where are her missing friends now? Are they dead?

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but after reading the blurb, it was one I couldn’t pass up. This is a new author for me, and I'm not familiar with her other books. <i>That Weekend</i> turned out to be twisty as all get-out! I couldn’t figure anything out until the last quarter of the book as the author intended. Once everything started coming to light, the twists were still surprising and shocking. Just when you think you have this figured out, you realize you're wrong again. The final twist just blew my mind!

With that said, this story wasn't necessarily a thriller for me; it was more of a suspenseful mystery trying to figure out what in the world went on that weekend with Claire and her friends and why. Closer to the end is when this morphed into more of a thriller because it was difficult to figure out what anyone was going to do. It was hard to know who could be trusted. Everything was unpredictable. Even though I found Claire somewhat annoying at times, it was awesome the way she took matters into her own hands and sought answers because nobody else was going to figure it out for her. Even with her memory shot, she perseveres until all the pieces are put together. The family secrets made this even more interesting. The writing style with two timeframes worked out well for me too.

Overall, this story is written well and held my attention throughout. I’ll be keeping my eye out for more books by this author.

4****

Claire wakes up with no memory of the 36 hours before she is found hurt on the hiking trail. Now her best friend, Kat, and Kat's boyfriend are missing. People who like plot twists are sure to be hooked by this book however, the last twist maybe an unwelcome one for some readers. Definitely an adventure filled read.

Claire, Kat, and Jesse are friends in their senior year of high school. They decide that instead of going to prom, they will sneak off to Kat’s family’s lake house in Sunfish Creek. They decide not to tell their parents they are going to the lake house because, well, they are teenagers and honestly, what could possibly go wrong?

Claire wakes up with a horrible headache, disoriented, in the middle of Bobcat Mountain with a woman standing over her. How did she get here? Where, exactly, is she? Where are Kat and Jesse? Soon, Claire is taken to the hospital to assess her injuries and recover from what was supposed to be a fun weekend with her friends. But why can’t she remember anything about what happened?

Claire soon learns that Kat and Jesse are still missing. She tries everything she can to recall what happened up on that mountain, but the doctors say it could be a while before her memory returns -if it ever does. While talking to the local police, FBI, and Kat’s family, and trying to piece together and remember everything she can, Claire is determined to find out what happened to her and her friends on that weekend. But as one of the FBI agents told her, sometimes the answers don’t make things better, they make them worse… Claire soon finds out that everyone has secrets, even her best friends, and not everything is as it seems.

I am struggling to put my thoughts together on this one because so much happened and it was SO GOOD. I really admire Kara Thomas’s ability to craft a complicated, twisty story and keep a reader hooked from literally the first page. I made the mistake of starting this book in bed at 10:30pm one night when I didn’t feel tired enough to sleep. Several chapters and a couple hours later, I had to make myself go to bed. It just snowballed from there because I read a good portion of this book with my jaw on the floor. Yes, it really was that good!

I loved that this book was an alternating timeline. The past, obviously, was everything leading up to THAT WEEKEND and included some back story as to the relationship dynamics between Kat, Claire, and Jesse. The present was after the incident on the mountain and Claire trying to regain her memory and find her friends. While the majority of the book was told from Claire’s point of view, there was also a dual timeline, switching between Kat and Claire, getting different points of view on certain events.

I liked the story leading up to the weekend on the mountain. It felt very “high school drama” and appropriate for the characters Thomas created. I also liked the story, though vastly different, after the incident because it showed a glimpse into the not-so-perfect family dynamics that the three friends had tried to hide from the world, and it definitely helped build the story and set the tone for what happened and why.

I did guess one of the twists, however, I did not know the why. And it was a bit more than I had expected. And then there was another twist, and I was shocked. And another twist and my jaw was on the floor again. The delivery of all these secrets and twists was so phenomenal that even if you could guess what was about to happen, it wasn’t disappointing because there was a more complex aspect hidden beneath the surface to surprise you.

Thomas wove a very complicated web of secrets and lies, and it was fantastic. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time, and I will also be ordering a physical copy for my bookshelf because I just need to hold this glorious masterpiece in my own hands.

5 stars from me for this amazing, shocking, thrilling story! Highly recommend! Thank you to Delacorte Press, NetGalley, and Kara Thomas for a review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Kara Thomas can certainly keep readers on the edge of their seats! I liked this better than The Cheerleaders-- the last half of the book was unpredictable, captivating, and well written. I think that Thomas writes perfectly for young (and old!) readers, and I will definitely recommend this to students.

I couldn't help but feel for the main character, Claire. She felt well rounded and realistic. Thomas definitely doesn't skimp on developing her characters, and I would recommend this over One of Us is Lying.

That Weekend is the newest novel written by YA thriller sensation Kara Thomas and it is absolutely epic. The plot, the writing, the characters, the atmosphere, the twists. This novel has it all! I dare you to read this and not be floored by how excellent it is. The story follows three best friends who go on a weekend getaway to a lake house and tell no one. That couldn’t possibly be a bad idea, right? Claire wakes up on a hiking trail covered in blood with zero memory of the last forty-eight hours and her two friends completely missing. What happened? The story alternates between past and present, as well as between character POVs eventually painting a picture of what happened. Readers will not be able to put this one together on their own. It’s not your typical predictable YA thriller. This one is the real deal! Kara Thomas has quickly become a must-read author. I truly cannot recommend That Weekend enough. Do not miss the release!

This is another well done YA suspense thriller that will keep you guessing to the very end and then will smack you in the face with a surprise that you will not see coming. If you have enjoyed this author’s previous works then you will definitely want to get your hands on this one.

Claire is an amazing young woman. She is pretty smart, although can be a bit naive at times. She is also resilient and will do what she needs to to figure out what happened to her on that mountain. No one else seems to be willing or able to help her, so she goes about finding the clues necessary to do it herself. The first half of the book is told from Claire’s point of view and what she remembers and how she viewed her life at the time. We also see a lot of memories of her friendships with Kat and Jesse, which at the time seemed like they were all really close. But perceptions can be so wrong.

Eventually we do get to hear from Kat and the true story of what happened on the mountain begins to emerge. I liked Kat for the most part, but I also felt that she could be cold and closed off even from her closest friends. Kat was really good at keeping her secrets which I am not sure was a good thing.

Jesse is the one character that we never hear from, but I really would have liked to. We don’t get to know him very well either, because we only see very short scenes between him and Claire at the beginning and then a few between all of the characters towards the end. He seemed like a nice guy, but he has some issues and some secrets of his own that don’t come to light until the end.

As usual there were quite a few twists to this story. It starts off with the mystery of what happened to Kat and Jesse, and as we only hear from Claire, we know only what she does, which wasn’t much. It isn’t until Kat’s story is being told that things start to come together. I had pretty much figured most of the mystery on the mountain before we heard from Kat, but there were enough twists that I did have my doubts many times before the end. The exact reasons why were not clear until the very end either which was what makes you want to finish the story. There is a final twist that comes out of nowhere which I know will bother some people, but to me seemed to make the background information and the family secrets more realistic.

Another great book by this author that will be an awesome summer beach read. It is one that will keep you guessing and entertained until the surprisingly twisted end.

For 90% of this book, I thought I knew exactly what was happening. But Thomas still managed to blow me away with a twist I did NOT see coming.

This isn't my favourite book from Kara Thomas, but I can not doubt that she weaves a fantastic and intriguing story. I was hooked from the beginning. Definitely a read for anyone looking for a quick who-dun-it that will keep you engaged throughout.

I fell in love with Kara Thomas’s last novel, The Cheerleaders and when I saw she had a new one coming out this summer, I knew I had to get my hands on it as soon as possible. There is nothing better than a young adult thriller, and this book did not disappoint.

That Weekend by Kara Thomas is about three high school friends that go away to a lake for prom weekend. When the main character, Claire, wakes up at the top of the mountain, she has no memory of the last forty-eight hours and has no idea where here two friends Jesse and Kat are. As police get involved and investigation starts, Claire wonders what happened to her and will she ever recover her memory?

This story resonated with me since I had a friend lose her memory. She was in a car accident with no recognition of the trauma, since its our brains way of trying to protect us. As I was reading, I was invested in Claire trying to remember what happened and for her to find her friends. There were many shocking twists throughout the entire novel, which made me fly through this book in a matter of days. I unfortunately guessed the ending, which is why the book was rate 4.5 stars out 5. I would recommend any teenager or adult to read this book since it was entertaining for all ages!

OH MY GOODNESS. Kara Thomas has absolutely done it again. Another fantastic, thrilling, twist taking mystery that I didn't want to put down. Every time I see that Thomas has another mystery book coming out, I am beyond thrilled because she is one of my favorite authors. She is so adept at taking what seems to at first be a simple and straightforward story and completely twisting it in all the best ways. I never know what to expect from her books other than the fact that I WILL be surprised and that I will love it. I also know that any questions that arise at the beginning will eventually be answered. Do yourself a favor and read all of her books.

Thank you to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and Netgalley for early access to That Weekend, by Kara Thomas in exchange for an honest review.
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If she hadn't broken up with her boyfriend just before prom, would Claire remember what happened the night she was camping with her two best friends? Would she know where they are and if they're ok? Would she not have a head injury and emotional trauma that makes her question herself?

That Weekend explores how different life experiences impact how we interpret the actions of others and how we respond to them. The first part of the book builds a great mystery, and fully drew me in to the story. The next two sections mostly fell flat for me for a couple of reasons. The twists, to me, were tropes (but perhaps wouldn't be to younger readers), and were overly contrived to ellicit a certain reaction. The biggest twist was unnecessary, and made that section feel like a completely different book.

I gave That Weekend four stars because of the central storyline, Claire's story. If I weighed the impact of the twists on my enjoyment as equivalent to the rest of the book, I'd have to drop it to three stars.

That Weekend is fantastic. I really can't stop thinking about it. The story is about a girl that is the surviving member of a group of three that went camping, or rather the only one who makes it down the mountain, as they haven't found the other two. It follows her through what she remembers and what she does next. Just a crazy, off the hook story that will keep you up reading all night. The characters are so well written, it's amazing. The atmosphere always feels a little panicky and tense which is perfect for the situation. This book is so good that I wish I had not read it so I could read it again fresh. I loved it.

Kara Thomas has once again written a tense, engaging, and well plotted YA thriller with THAT WEEKEND. There were numerous times where I thought I knew where the plot was going, but then the rug was yanked out from underneath me and I was taken by surprise by a twist or revelation. Claire is the perfect unreliable narrator, as between her memory loss and the slow reveals about how she, Kat, and Jesse have been interacting with each other as of late would certainly make it hard for the reader to trust her. But Thomas is more clever than all that, and what could have been predictable is instead suspenseful, addictive, and full of surprises. I also loved the ways that Thomas examines the weird morbid tourism that the public has with true crime, between rumors running amok online and a the mention of a venomous true crime TV host who sounds a lot like that nasty harpy Nancy Grace. Like I said, this book had so many surprises that kept me guessing, and even by the time I had figured one thing out, there were two more shocks in store. One strange final reveal was maybe a bit much, but it wasn't one of those moments that undoes everything before it, so I gave it a bit of a pass. Overall THAT WEEKEND was another awesome thriller from Thomas, and I now go back to eagerly anticipating whatever she comes up with next!

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HOLLLEEEEEEE WOOOOOW. This book was unputdownable. I simply devoured it in one sitting and was not prepared for the shocking revelation at the very end. The story opens with a bloodied and bruised Claire regaining consciousness only to find herself missing the memory of roughly the past 48 hours, as well as her two best friends. What follows is a story full of twists and turn and intrigue that will leave you guessing and questioning what you know and who to trust. This YA thriller was written so well that it had me gripping my ereader and shreiking. It is a captivating and unforgettable story that does deal with some heavy topics, but it's best to go in knowing as little as possible about the story to add to the suspense.

TW: for domestic/child abuse