When I started reading this book I couldn't help but feel a little put off by the curt manner in which the story is portrayed in almost fact like precision, through short sentences and itinerary like descriptions. One of two things however must have occurred, either the style of writing grew on me or the writing adapted as the story progressed. Regardless, I am exceptionally glad to have embraced the prose and was rewarded with a brilliant story.

The plot was brilliant, and had depth and nuances that kept the flow going perfectly. It was all intricately woven together and despite my previous comments about the pose, I really I got a feel for most, if not all of the characters. 

And what parent isn't going to relate to the fear that is so convincingly portrayed and summed up so brillianty in the end. Yes the fear is better then never having the opportunity to experience it.

Unfortunately I was not a fan of this book, which is a shame as I am a huge fan of thrillers and of cruise holidays.  For me the characters were two dimensional and underdeveloped for the most part.  It was a disappointing, forgettable read I am sorry to say.  On this occasion I will not be leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon.  

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book.  I am sorry I could not be more positive about my reading experience.

Liv and Nora are cousins and the two families decide to go on a cruise to South America. Their children are mostly primary school age and on the cruise they meet an Argentinian family with a son and daughter. All seems to be going well until the ship docks and the men decide to go golfing and the women and children go on a zip lining excursion. This does not go to plan and all the children go missing. The remainder of the story revolves around what happens to the children while they are missing and the agony their parents go through. It's engaging enough to keep the reader wondering if the children will manage to be found and how the parents will each deal with this nightmare. The experiences of all involved are quite harrowing but are depicted on quite a superficial level which prevents this book from being truly powerful as the trauma is minimised instead of exploited.

Liv arranges a cruise over the holidays as her cousin Nora has just suffered a bereavement.
Their husbands and children go along too and what develops on a shore trip is a parents worse nightmare. The children are there one minute and then gone the next.
What transpires is a journey through parenthood and the test of marriages and friendships. Liv and Noras close relationship is stretched to the limit and may be one that they cannot return to.
This is a brave journey exploring what people think,how they act and the persona they adopt during times of tragedy. 
It looks introspectively from the parents angles and explores how life ticks along until something occurs to help you reevaluate life.
The term heartbreak locker associated with being a parent with resonate with many and the honesty of Liv at the end makes you think about how much we all bargain with fate on a daily basis and the effects it has on us.
Beautifully written. Isabel's ordeal is described but thankfully not too graphically. The interplay between children is interesting and Nora's feelings towards Penny are insightful and will sit wistfully with some.
A real page turner.
Thank you to the author,publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

Really enjoyable; well written, engaging, and page-turning from beginning to end.

This book started off well but DNF at 60%. It just got boring and the writing style was clumsy and repetitive.

Do Not Become Alarmed presents an unsettlingly possible situation and shows the way in which different people react to trauma. Not a moment goes by without action or drama.

Cousins Liv and Nora decide to take their families on a cruise over christmas down the coast  of Mexico and Central America. While their husbands go on a golf trip they go on a excursion were the kids go missing.

This is the story of the children what they do to get home. Experiences of being kidnapped and the horror of the parents try and cope until their kids are found.


I  don't think this book is my type of read. I struggled with this book from the start. Although it was an ok read. I didnt think that there was any likeable characters in this story to connect to. The author described the different cultures very well. but some of the characters in this story was unnecessary.  Then the character Isabel was raped and I dont call  a child being raped a source of entertainment and didnt think it was necessary in this story.

Absolutely loved this book, a real page turner and I didn't want to come to the end.

Thank you Maile Meloy and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Two families go on a cruise for the Christmas break. All is well until they go ashore and the children go missing from a secluded beach. What happens next is straight off the news.  
I enjoyed this story, it felt like a holiday read (haha) and was easy to get straight back into if you had to put it down, which I hardly did. As an avid reader I feel at times like I have read a similar storyline but I certainly haven't had that here. 
A good solid read for me, I highly recommend it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked the whole idea behind it as it was a unique storyline. Would definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more by this author

There's something about children going missing in a foreign country that sends shivers down my spine. The total helplessness, the communication problems and the lack of local knowledge make an already horrendous situation so much worse. In this instance six children are missing in a South American jungle and three sets of parents are left to battle to get their families reunited.
This was a thrilling read, at times slightly chaotic but ultimately a great page turner. Meloy doesn't shy away from letting bad things happen although I did feel she picked on one family a bit. A great beach read (maybe not on a cruise though!)

This book shows how easy it is for children to disappear if they are not being watched. A fast paced easy read that will take you through plenty of emotions if you are a parent.

Nora's mother has died and is struggling to come to terms with the loss. Her cousin Liv thinks a solution would be for their families to go on a cruise. Everything starts well, theiy each have two children and they get on well and are good company for each other.. they meet an Argentinian family on board, who also have  two children but a little older. Things go very wrong when, unaccompanied by their husbands, the three families take a shore excursion in Ecuador and become separated from the children. The story is then told in parallel by the missing children and their parents. The children witness something they shouldn't see  and are imprisoned by their captors. Drugs, murder corruption all play a part as the story unfolds. It all moves at a good pace, with some twists and turns, some predictable and others not. I did not feel that the ending was fully explored and developed but overall was engaged with the characters.

This book is a page-turner and very entertaining. Something new happens during every chapter and I was constantly wanting to know how the story would play out. I really liked that the readers knew what happened to the children when the parents did not. This made it fascinating to see their reactions as they questioned whether they were still alive or not.
What happens to the characters is unique and something that you could not guess. I was rather interested to see what happened to the children and the outcome is quite creative. However, the overall fate of the characters is fairly predictable. It was easy for me to guess what would happen to Hector, who is one of the missing children. Although, the fate of the other children was very surprising and strange to see how it played out. Rather than having just one plot twist, there were many along the way, making it intriguing to read.
There were times where I was questioning who a certain character was because there are so many. There are six kids, the captors, the parents, the detectives, and some other minor characters, which seems slightly excessive. Considering the story is told from the perspectives of at least eight different people, there is definitely reason to be confused by who a person is. Using a large amount of characters needs to be justified. Some long books have a lot of characters, but the readers quickly learn who they all are because they are fully developed from the lengthy book. This book is an average length, so it is difficult to differentiate some of the unimportant characters. But it was not too hard to remember them as I read on.
Even though I only rated it three stars, I still enjoyed reading it. This book is very gripping and I was very invested in the plot. I was constantly wanting to know what would happen to the characters and what the outcome would be. I enjoyed how entertaining it was and read it in just a few days.

Do Not Become Alarmed is definitely a novel with a lot going on - but perhaps not one to pack in the suitcase if you're going on a cruise! 

Following a bereavement, two close North American families decide to skip the madness and mayhem of a traditional Christmas at home and instead take their respective broods on a festive cruise around Central America. They're loving the food and activities on board, the kids are entertained, Mums and Dads are having a grand old time and shortly after setting off they meet another holidaying family with two kids and make friends. A few days into the trip they decide to go on a Zip-Line excursion but the guys discover that their new friend is off to play golf with a local friend, and they decide to go along with him, leaving the 3 Mums to look after the kids on the Zip Line. From then on, things go badly wrong. 

When a minor accident knocks their journey off track, the guide calls for help and then takes the party to a secluded beach area where they can relax while waiting for help. A series of events involving cocktails, sunshine and naps takes place and by the time the women come around, the children have disappeared... 

The story moves quickly from here swapping narrative to a number of different people, but this is easy to follow and adds a certain tension to the tale. Sinister undertones run through this novel, and this might be upsetting for some, especially what happens to a couple of the children while they are away from their parents. There's a lot of focus on culture, relationships and race and of course, the devastation felt when a child or children are lost.

What stuck out for me was how plausible it was – how easy it could be for bad decisions and stress to combine and lead to a dangerous and deadly situation. It's also a bit of an eye opener into how desperate some people can get – and what can happen if things go wrong.

Do Not Become Alarmed is a book unlike any I've ever read before, in a number of different ways. The narrative style is unique – as opposed to having one main character which the book follows throughout, this novel utilises a 'head-hopping' style of narration. Although not my favourite style, this works for this book, as it effectively allows us to experience the novel's events from the POV of several of the characters. Although this sounds confusing at first, it's not, as the characters are well-developed, believable and distinctive, and each bring something new to the story. It's an impressive feat to manage to successfully write in this style, as I have read many books with multiple narrators that don't work. That said, I think the novel would have been just as interesting (and perhaps easier to connect with) if it was written from the perspective of two of the protagonists, perhaps one adult and one child. This however, is just. a personal preference of mine. 

The writing is descriptive and vivid, the storyline is captivating and Meloy's writing style is competent and enjoyable, although may take a little time to get used to at first. Although I would recommend this book to others, I would warn prospective readers to leave any expectations at the first page – to fully appreciate this book, one needs to read and enjoy it for what it actually is, as opposed to what they might expect it to be.

I liked this book but I didn't love it.  I found the writing was a bit irrelevant in the beginning and although it did get better, I definitely felt there was a whole missing storyline, in my opinion, that could have really changed the book. A shame really.  It was a bit elaborate in its descriptions in parts and then other parts felt put together because they needed to be in there in order to make a good story. 
The basic premise is that a couple of families go on a cruise and their kids get swept away down as river after breaking down on an excursion.  The story is based on the reasons behind the disappearance and the ways in which they try to get them back.  
I felt this author was just beginning out and perhaps with a bit more time the books could get better. Let's hope so.  It's only a 4 out of 10 from me.

It is Christmas and for a change two families decide to celebrate the holidays on a cruise to Central America.  The wives are cousins and their husbands and children are very close and spend considerable time together.  Everything is perfect; the women chat away together, the men do their own thing and the children have a degree of freedom and the Children’s Club.  They befriend an Argentinian family with a son and a daughter and they decide to go on an excursion.  The men depart to go to a golf club whilst the women and children depart with a local tour guide who suggests they go to the beach when they are involved in a car accident.

The beach is perfect; Nora goes into the jungle to ‘look for birds’ with the guide and Liv falls asleep on the beach.  When she awakes – all the children have disappeared.

The narrative is told from various perspectives alternating between what is happening to the adults, and what is happening to the children.  What was a dream becomes a nightmare and the perfect relationships between husband and wife, and between the couples starts to show strain.  

The disparity between the wealthy Americans and Naemi and her family serves to illustrate the perilous position the children are exposed to when they are without the protection of their parents – and where the very fact of their relative wealth can be a liability.  

The characters are incredibly well-drawn and I could only worry about Hector and Isobel and (like Liv) be somewhat irritated by Penny who likes to be the centre of attention.  Was there a sneaking bit of irritation with Nora’s husband Raymond – you bet there was?  But what about Oscar; the boy with the least to give, but gave the most – I loved him?

I thoroughly recommend this book but don’t take my word for it, read it if you like a mystery/thriller that is a bit different.  No gruesome torture scenes, just a very cleverly constructed plot that will keep you reading.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

A very disappointing book, far fetched story and unrealistic characters.