I am a pretty big Alex Finlay and particularly love his series (? can I call it that) featuring FBI Agent Sarah Keller. Once of the things I love the most about these books is the incredible character development Finlay invokes while exploring incredibly emotional yet realistic plots. This entry is another real page turner that I raced through--but it didn't quite hit the sweet spot of the other two Keller novels as far as character development.

The book follows lots of characters. That's by design, of course. Five families are featured here; they come together at a Parents' Weekend at Santa Clara University. But the night of the reception dinner, the students don't show up. Little by little, we find out the history and baggage of each family, which makes you wonder if any of their misdeeds, real or perceived, might have contributed to the students' disappearance. It makes for a great page turner. However, what it didn't allow for me was the strong character development and connection I was hoping to make with any of the characters.

If you like Finlay, then you'll want to read this. But it felt a bit more like his standalones than the more emotionally charged entries in the Sarah Keller series. I'm looking forward to his next novel!

The best part of this novel was hands-down Keller, the FBI agent who features in other novels of Finlay's. Everyone else...absolutely insufferable. This is a popcorn thriller I was able to get through in a day, centered on a group of students that disappears during Parents Weekend at their college. There are entirely way too many character for how short the novel was - there was no development or even really space to build empathy for any of them. Not a must-read, but a good quick airport novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Just finished reading Parents Weekend by the talented @alexfinlayauthor and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. This fast-paced thriller had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. 👀 With 5 families visiting their kids for parents weekend, things take a dark turn when the students go missing and chaos ensues. The multiple POVs and short chapters made it an addictive read, perfect for binge-reading. Alex Finlay has quickly become one of my favorite authors and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next.

Awesome book!! Great author! Will be looking for more!!!!!!!!!!! Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to preface this with - I LOVE Alex Finley. There isn't a book of his I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. He is an auto buy author and an auto request author for ARCs.

I didn't love this book but I flew through it. There were a few things that really bothered me. The amount of characters in this book was insane. Up until the very end, I couldn't keep people straight. There were like...6 parents and 5 college students. Not to mention Kellar (FBI) and her family and then the other police working the case! Come on, man.

I feel like the story itself lacked substance and felt a little juvenile. For having so many POVs you really only got the investigation side and the parents POVs. It would have been nice to get the kids POV throughout instead of the parents. That seemed totally unnecessary. You could have gotten interactions with them in Kellar's chapters. We got maybe 3 very short chapters from some of the kids and they seemed totally unnecessary at the end.

Don't get me wrong this book was definitely entertaining and it had me until the end. I'm mad I didn't figure out who it was because it's incredibly obvious.

Anyway, read it or don't, but I think it's still worth a read through. Lol

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for this arc in exchange for review.

I'll admit that even though I didn't love this book, I do think it is very superior to Alex Finlay's last 2 books.
I enjoyed the setting and the beachy vibes, and although I didn't like any of the characters, none of them truly annoyed me.
As for the conclusion: well, Finlay's has done better before, in my opinion.
It still can be entertaining and fun as a beach read if you're looking for easy-to-read, kind-of-unrealistic-events type of book.
Just don't take ti seriously and might have some fun with it.
Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press , for providing me with a free eARC of this novel.

This had such a great plot, setting, pacing, and twists but WAY too many characters. It was very difficult to keep each character straight and understand how they were connected. Hopefully the final version of this book will have a “family tree” for readers to flip to and minimize confusion.

Five families arrive for Parent’s Weekend only to discover that it will not be the weekend that they expected. When the students do not show up for dinner and nobody hears from them, the parents start to panic.

This was a thriller with an ending I did not expect. While I did find it different to follow the many perspectives, I liked the twists. This is one of my favourite authors and cannot wait for their future books!

Alex Finlay is always a fun read, and this one was quick and action-packed, with a lot of different characters. But it wasn't my favorite from this author. The characters felt one-dimensional and there just wasn't much explanation or insight into the motivation behind their actions, so even though there was a lot of action and a lot going on, it was still hard to feel too invested.

Finlay is an auto-read for me but unfortunately, this was my least favorite book of his. It just felt like any other popcorn-y thriller and lacked the thrills and feels of his previous book. There were a LOT of characters which made it hard to go in-depth with them. Usually, the endings for his books are explosive, but this one was just Meh in my opinion. I won't stop reading Finlay but this was one fell Flat for me.

First - this book cover is amazing!!!! It’s so beautiful…yes I judge books by their covers.

I loved the premise of this book. The author did a great job of building the back story of each college student. Each family had little secrets that were unveiled during the investigation and search of their missing children.

I was a bit taken back by the ending. No spoilers… I just didn’t think it would end so dramatically. I liked the extra chapters at the end to catch up with each family and see where they went after the graduation.

So sad to report that this was a big miss for me. I would consider Alex Finlay an autoread author but not all of his books have been winners and sadly this was my least favorite of the bunch.

There are a LOT of characters and I didn’t find any of them well developed. It was nice to see Special Agent Keller (
and her MVP of a husband again, but even two of my favorite characters from Finlay’s previous books couldn’t save this one.

The plot is fast paced, albeit ridiculous, but all the characters and random information thrown at you just made for an eye roll of an experience. I absolutely hate to say this (especially considering EVERY LAST FEAR is one of my very favorite thriller) but this one felt like an rush job and almost as though someone much less talented than Finlay cranked it out.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay delivers an intriguing mystery with plenty of twists and tension. While the pacing keeps you turning the pages, some characters felt underdeveloped, and the ending was slightly predictable. It’s a solid read for fans of suspense but didn’t leave a lasting impression.

I'm a big Alex Finlay fan, but Parents' Weekend was disappointing. Five college kids go missing, which is a great premise, but it falls flat with no character development and a predictable ending. I did like the short chapters and that we see Agent Sarah Keller again, but, really, this is one you can skip. Unless, of course, you like Scooby-Doo mysteries and Smurf masks (literally!).

If you like your thrillers fairly straightforward -- no thinking really necessary -- with basic college freshmen and their families involved, this is an easy read. Five students fail to show up to dinner with their parents on Parents' Weekend--this seemed like a great hook. But following the five families and their dirty laundry (how many affairs??) along with Agent Keller and her mild family drama was tedious. There actually wasn't enough detail about the actual students and what made them targets, besides their parents! And why on earth did it take an entire squad of detectives to spot the eventual connection that solves this case? I mean, seriously, that should have been their first stop. Overall, I'd probably give this to high school students-no real inappropriate parts-and yes, there is literally a Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine van and Smurf masks.

Alex Finlay does a great ensemble cast as always. On the positive side the book was fast paced, compulsively readable, and the characters that elicit some degree of investment. I loved the atmospheric backdrop of the story and the setting (parents weekend) was really good!

On the negative side the "who" of the whodunit aspect fell flat. Despite many attempted red herrings, it was evident from the get-go who the only character(s) were that had a motive for targeting the students.

So by the time we've gotten to the end of the ride, the reveal was anticlimatic. I would still read and recommend Alex Finlay and this book to readers, I just felt it was not Finlay's strongest.

I am generally a big fan of Alex Finlay’s fast paced thrillers so I was disappointed when this one fell a little flat for me. The concept of five college friends going missing over parent’s weekend was alluring, but the action throughout the story felt slow and stagnant. I wanted more from the characters and from the plot, and the ending didn’t hit home for me. I will recommend this to a fan of Finlay but rank his other books, like The Night Shift, or Every Last Fear, higher on my list.

I really flew through this book! I loved the setting of Parents Weekend on a college campus. While I still feel like a college student, I had to sadly admit to myself that I’m a parent now and had to stop relating to the kids. Ha!! But seriously, I couldn’t imagine my kids missing from their college campus, how terrifying and scary. The points of view from each of the kids and their families was easy to read and follow. Sometimes when there are too many characters, books get overwhelming and hard to follow but this book was quite the opposite. It flowed perfectly and kept me engaged until the very end. I would highly recommend it! Thank you to NetGalley, Alex Finlay and your publishers for giving me the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Alex Finlay does it again with another great thriller. A combination of locked room meets atmospheric coast, I genuinely did not see any of the book coming and usually I have the plot predicted early.

Alex Finlay does a great ensemble cast as always. Pros: fast paced, compulsively readable, characters that elicit some degree of investment - even if I didn't like them, I cared what happened to them and who did it. Cons: The "who" of the whodunit aspect fell flat. Despite many attempted red herrings, it was evident from the get-go who the only character(s) were that had a motive for targeting the students. So by the time we've gotten to the end of the ride, the reveal was anticlimatic. I would still read and recommend Alex Finlay and this book to readers as everyone likes a fast readable thriller in their repertoire.