Two friends go on holiday. Only one comes back.
If you loved The Holiday, get ready for your new obsession… their annual weekend away.
This year, they’re off to Lisbon: the perfect flat, the perfect view, the perfect itinerary. And what better way to kick things off in style than with the perfect night out?
But when Orla wakes up the next morning, Kate is gone. Brushed off by the police and with only a fuzzy memory of the night’s events, Orla is her friend’s only hope. As she frantically retraces their steps, Orla 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…
A twisty holiday read for fans of The Holiday and Date Night.
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This book was given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Kate and Orla go to Lisbon for a girls weekend. They have been best friends for 20 years. Orla, married and is a new mom and Kate is in going through a divorce.
Kate wants to go out like they did when they were in their 20s – dinner, bars, clubbing- but Orla just wants to stay home and sleep. Orla gives in and they go to dinner then a bar, where they meet two attractive men. Kate’s invites them back to the apartment.
Orla wakes the next morning with not much memory of the night before. She discovers that Kate is missing. Orla spends the whole day searching for her.
From there, the search is more uphill. She can’t get anyone to take her seriously and she has to go out on her own with the help of her Uber driver to investigate the disappearance,
This is literally a book that you don’t find out what happened to Kate until the very end. And I mean the very end. This is a fast, easy read. The last paragraph had my heart pounding.
Thank you NetGalley, Sarah Alderson, Avon and Harpercollins360
I’m giving this five stars because it kept me up all night. It had a lot of twists for me. I suspected everyone and I mean everyone. Towards the end I was trying to decide if I liked where it went when I was smacked in the head again with a twist! I was entertained.
Orla and Kate are two best friends who use to travel together yearly. Life gets in the way of that when Orla decides to have a baby. A few months after the birth of Marlow, Kate asks Orla to go on a girls weekend away, just like they use to do. Orla thinks it will be good to get away, recharge, and spend time with her best friend. Kate, getting a divorce, is expecting more of a getaway like they did when both were single. The weekend goes sour when one of them ends up missing.
I’m not that certain I really liked any of the characters. I liked Orla the best. I’ve known the Kate type. I would think Orla could have seen a bit more into the type of person she is. I don’t think the Kate’s of the world try hard to hide who they are. They are more the type that believe everyone should accept them and excuse any bad behavior because they are spending time with you. I think instead of asking, “do you really know your best friend?”, we should be asking, “do you really know anyone?”. Everyone has secrets. Everyone lies…to themselves as well as to others. So do you really know anyone?
*I received an electronic copy through NetGalley for voluntary review purposes. All opinions expressed are my thoughts based on my enjoyment of the book.*
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.
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.
Orla is looking forward to a weekend away in Lisbon with her girlfriend, Kate. They have tried to take a short vacation together each year but now that Orla is mother to baby Marlow, she can’t help but be reluctant to leave her and her husband.
Kate is in the midst of divorcing her husband, Toby, for cheating on her. She has decided to spend lots of money, putting charges on his credit cards. Orla is worried that she seems to be quite stressed.
Kate wants to go out to a club after dinner and there she starts to participate in some risky behavior. Orla is simply tired and wants to go back to the apartment they have rented. By the time she convinces Kate to do so, both women appear to have had too much to drink. When Orla wakes up the next morning, Kate is missing. Searching everywhere, she cannot find her. She finally enlists the help of the Uber driver who took them to the club the night before and he becomes a great help to her as he knows the area and the type of people who hang out at the club.
This story builds well as the police step in and think Orla may be guilty of doing away with Kate. I really liked Konstandin, the uber driver from Kosovo. The family story he reveals to Kate is heartbreaking and very typical of the horrors that area has seen. Orla was irritating at times saying she wanted to scream and throw things. This was a good book which I enjoyed and I found myself surprised at the perpetrator.
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson is a great escape read and an excellent chance to take a book vacation to Lisbon, Portugal.
What I Liked
I love the setting. I have been to Lisbon and can confirm a city that makes an excellent backdrop for a psychological thriller based on a girl’s weekend away. The streets are so steep and narrow; it gives me goosebumps just thinking about running through them in the dead of night. And the architecture is beautiful in its old world meets new world way. All along the Iberian Peninsula coast, the Moorish influence is still reflected in the aesthetics and creates much to dream about. I had a wonderful book vacation as I read it, thinking back on my actual time there and exploring the book’s sites that are new to me.
I could not put the book down. Even though the ending did not surprise me, I did enjoy many twists along the way and wanted desperately to find out what happened to Kate. Did she pull a Houdini? She has been known to do so. Or did something more nefarious happen to her?
Finding out kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through from beginning to end.
The character development was done so well that I could easily visualize the characters and see them on Lisbon’s streets. Konstandin Zeqiri has a very compelling back story that would translate wonderfully into a book where he is the main character. He is the most developed character in this first-person narrated book, which was told by Orla, who was frantically searching for her best friend, Kate. Orla is not developed as well, but she tells the story so her development can be gleaned by the little innuendos or hints she gives at various points.
What I Wish
I felt let down by the ending, wishing it been more of a surprise. There are just so many options that I could think of that would have been a delicious twist, but none came to fruition. Also, the creepy open-ended conclusion really was not that creepy to me. It provided a slight twinge, but nothing in the novel supported the creepiness, so it failed to ring true or have the desired impact.
To Read or Not to Read
If you are looking for a psychological thriller that you can escape with, The Weekend Away is all that and more.
We all have that one friend….fun to be around, life of the party, friends forever who we know everything about. Or do we? Orla and Kate have been friends for years. They’ve enjoyed many a girls getaway together. This is the first one in a while, since Orla became a Mom and Kate’s divorce. They are looking forward to a beautiful long weekend in Lisbon, girl time, sight seeing, a AIRBNB with a view. But, this time, things just seem off and the first night goes from bad to worse and Orla is thrown into an unbelievably stressful situation…waking the next morning hungover with no memory of the night before and Kate is missing. What happens in a few days will change her life forever.
I flew thru this book. It pulled me in and kept me in the story till the ending. Great beach read or me time book. Characters were well written, realistic for their situations. You could so feel Orla’s pain and fear throughout the book. Everything she knows and loves is put into question. Who can she depend on?
Thanks to Ms. Anderson, Harper 360 and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone
Best friends Orla and Kate go to Lisbon for a girls’ weekend. After a night out clubbing, Orla wakes up the next morning to discover Kate is missing. Trying to locate her friend proves difficult with Orla not speaking Portuguese, not remembering what happened the night before and not knowing where to start. Add to the mix an unhelpful police force, an Uber driver from Kosovo, the creepy landlord, Orla’s husband, Kate’s ex (or is he?) and the two male escorts….Orla has a lot of people that she is suspicious of.
A tad predictable but quite twisty and the ending was a bit of a surprise. I try not to predict what’s going to happen next but was able to a couple of times in this book. First time reading this author and will be checking out her other books.
The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson captures your attention fairly quickly and doesn’t let up until the very last page. It starts with longtime friends Orla and Kate going to Lisbon for the weekend. They go out to a bar/club and one of them disappears. Add a creepy landlord, Kate’s ex, Orla’s husband, two male prostitutes, a Russian uber driver and two police officers and you are off through a maze of deceit and secrets. The only negative is the end left a small question unanswered but in the grand scheme of things the main questions are answered. A fun read that keeps you guessing. Great characters and well written. I recommend this novel!
I would not say that this was a totally compelling and riveting book, but it had enough interesting twists that I kept returning to it to find out what Orla was going to discover about her friend Kate in the next chapters. It was paced just right for building the suspense, with some chapters teasing to the next one. When Orla goes on vacation to Portugal with her best friend Kate, she was just looking for a relaxing weekend away from baby, diapers, bottles and the general demands of the life of a young mother. What she did not expect was for Kate to disappear their first night there after a long night of drinking with handsome young men. Narrated by Orla, the voice is an authentic one of a tired, new mom. As I read, I didn’t know who to trust, but there were definitely some likable characters. Konstandin, the Russian Uber driver who befriends Orla, was the most helpful but at times, the one I suspected the most. Sebastian, the landlord in Portugal, just gave me the heebie-jeebies. He was creepy in the “Adams Family” kind of way, just totally creepy. There were too many twists and red herrings for me to keep count, but those did keep my interest in a story that fell flat for me at times. In fact, by the time the ending came (which was a surprise), I just wanted the whole vacation to be over. I think the book was well-written but could have been a lot shorter and still entertaining. There were too many scenes with the police, a team that was completely uninvolved in Kate’s disappearance and not at all sympathetic to Orla’s plight. Of course, by the end, I wasn’t too sympathetic either, so there is that. Fans of suspense thrillers may enjoy this slow burning novel of a vacation that ends in disaster.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harper Collins via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
Best friends forever Orla and Kate leave London for a long weekend away to Lisbon. Orla thinks it will just be a relaxing getaway leaving her baby daughter and husband at home. But, the first night there, Kate insists they go to a bar, and then bring two men back to their Airbnb. Orla wakes up the next morning thinking she must have been drugged as she can’t remember much, and Kate is no where to be found. While trying to piece together what happened and convince the police Kate is missing, Orla finds out some devastating information about her best friend, and her own marriage
A real “who done it” Kept you guessing all the way.
Couldn’t put it down
I had no sympathy for the main characters and found the plot predictable. Had to really work to finish it.
I enjoyed this book, mostly. It dragged a little, but an interesting plot.
I felt that the book had good plot elements. However, the characters left a lot to be desired. Characters should be people the reader wants to advocate for or, at least, understand. I don’t recommend the book.
Just when I figured out my theory about what happened, something happened. Kept me at the edge of my seat till the last pagr
I really enjoyed this one! A long overdue weekend getaway for best friends Orla and Kate in Lisbon starts out great but soon becomes tragic, as Kate disappears. To make matters worse, Orla can’t remember most of what happened the evening before. She passed out soon after returning to their lodging following a night on the town and now she’s in a strange country alone and searching for her best friend. Thank goodness she gains the assistance of the helpful Uber driver from the night before, but can she trust him? And as she soon discovers, can she trust anyone?
This was a fun story and the author did a great job characterizing the paranoia and fear that such a situation would bring. Not only does Orla have no idea where to look for her friend, but she doesn’t speak the language and knows no one, making it seem impossible to find answers. She also has a husband baby girl back home whom she misses terribly and it puts her in such a bad position, as she wants to return home but just can’t do it without Kate. There are surprising discoveries regarding those closest to her that makes it that much harder for Orla to solve this mystery. But the question becomes, does she really want to know the truth?
This is a fun read that you will find hard to put down until you, too, find all of the answers!
New mom Orla goes on a weekend away with her longtime friend Kate. Kate’s single and ready to party, while Orla is anticipating a relaxing holiday away from her husband and newborn. The first night they go out for dinner then hit a bar, after which Kate decides to bring two men home with them despite Orla’s objections. The next morning, Orla can’t recall what exactly happened and Kate is nowhere to be found. The police aren’t concerned, so Orla begins an investigation of her own.
Content Warnings (SPOILERS) below:
Possible sexual assault while passed out/drugged, plus victim blaming (Orla states her husband would have a right to be angry and blame her for it because she flirted with the potential perpetrator and didn’t put her foot down strongly enough when her friend decided to bring the guys back to their place. Much later Orla makes a generalized statement about it being unfair how women are blamed for their own injuries); Racism, for example Orla (who is Irish and lives in London) thinks “I just assumed because it was a Latin country the morals were looser but I could be wrong.”; Stalking via hidden cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms END SPOILERS
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions in this review are honest and my own.
Thank you to Netgalley, Avon Books UK and the Author Sarah Alderson for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
All I can say is WOW!!! This book was an absolute page turner.
The epitome of a cat and mouse thriller.
I couldn’t read it fast enough.
My first read from this Author and certainly won’t be my last.