Well written novel but took to long for the story to become more interesting so I lost interest and did no finish. Might go back to it one day

This sounded right up my street unfortunately just wasn’t for me and I ended up skimming to the end.
Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book had me riveted, the story begins in an innocuous manner with time to get to 'know' the main characters which was almost like lulling you into a false sense of security but from the point when the children go missing I did not want to stop reading. It is a story of suspense, drama and
at times horrific dread of what is to come. Well written, I would definitely want to read more by this author.

Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy is a fast-paced thriller which races through South American like a non-stop action film. This book has it all; the rich, the poor, drug barons, a film star, a film producer, bickering cousins, a cruise ship, criminals, corrupt cops, cheating, lies, kidnap, train robbers, car theft, car chases, car crashes, murder, sexual assault, I could go on.

More of a thriller than a mystery, the book follows cousins Liv and Nora as they embark on a glamorous cruise around South America over the Christmas period. When a planned excursion results in a crashed van and what looks like a long wait for recovery, their guide suggests they improvise and spend their day at a local secluded beach. From here, their dream holiday spirals out of control as disaster after disaster finds the children separated from their parents and circumstances taking them further and further away with no hope of being found.

Told from multiple perspectives; each of the mums, each of the dads, the children, the police detective searching for them and plenty of other characters in between, we know what is happening to everyone all the time. The mystery is how these parents and children will ever be reunited when things keep spiralling even further out of control and if they’ll even make it back alive.

The book is an enjoyable read and I was intrigued to see how this would pan out. Which made it a little disappointing in the end as it was full on action at 100mph and then just over and done and everyone’s moving on!

I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. Nora and Liv aren’t particularly likeable and come across very annoying and their squabbling over where blame should lie was just annoying. I felt it was very clear who was in the wrong and who should be blamed!

Do Not Become Alarmed is fast paced and action packed if not a little over the top in my opinion. An enjoyable read that I’m sure will be loved by some and has the potential to get the heart pounding if you’re into it!

Thank you to Maile Meloy, NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

As a mother, the description of events in this book terrified me. It's your worst nightmare depicted on paper.

Two couples take their collective children on a two-week cruise in South America. On the ship, they meet an Argentinian family who they welcome into their group. One day, after they disembark the ship in an unnamed place, the group separates; the men leaving to play golf while the women join forces to take their children zip lining. Owing to a chain of unfortunate events, the women become separated from the children and what follows is an account of adults scrambling to search for their children, while blaming each other and themselves, and piece back together their shattered lives.

Here's what's good about this book: Its premise is promising, its setting culturally astute. The pace is effective in setting the scene for a pretty decent thriller. I liked how it pulled me in, as a mother, tugging on my heartstrings and making me eager to find out how it would all end.

And here's where it fell a little short: Some of the scenes and situations were just a little too conveniently set up for my liking. And while I liked the varying narrative perspectives, I felt that moving between the multiple voices of both adults and children resulted in a busy and ambitious delivery where some of the characters came out a little one-dimensional. The ending lacked the punch this book promised but I enjoyed reading it all the same.

Much enjoyed, maybe puts me off cruising to that region!

Couldn't connect with or get into this book, sorry. I abandoned fairly early on as it wasn't grabbing me. Thanks for allowing me to read though, much appreciated.

The thought of my child going missing is just scary, so it was difficult to read how these parents had to cope with it. But it was still an entertaining read. Recommended.

Well I did enjoy the book though some of my friend didn't?

It's basically about two couples and their 4 kids who go on a cruise to amaerica and all that entails, they mainly stay on the boat but decide to go on a. Day trip whilst their hubbys play gold and somehow the kids get separated from their parents and from then on the book gets going and things go awfully wrong for them all.

I was terrified throughout the book I have two children myself who are 9&10 and I know the fear of when they've just disappeared for a few minutes in the supermarket never min din a foreign country full of drugs, thugs and bent coppers! The parents blame themselves and then each other and it all goes to pot big time!

I won't say too much but honestly this book was riveting and terrifying at the same time. I certainly kept my kids even closer after reading this

Great book scary as hell ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from netgalley

Liv and Nora decide to take their American families on a two week cruise over Christmas. All's great until each couples two children, and an Argentinian couples two children, go missing.

This book was good, written well and easy to get into!! The reason I didn't score higher was because it just wasn't what I expected. I was expecting twists and that horrible 'imagine if that happened to me' feeling. But the plot progresses without twists and on a journey I wasn't expecting.

But an easy and fun read that I would recommend. Through writing this I've changed my rating to 3.5 stars, rounded to a four.

Sorry to say I DNF'd this at 20%, just wasn't for me.

I was looking forward to reading this book and must admit I was slightly disappointed. To me, the story was slightly manic, implausible and erratic. I thought there were too many story tellers and I did not like any of the adult characters which didn't help me whilst reading. As the blurb says, it's the story of 6 children who go missing on a day out from their Christmas cruise. What has happened to them and will they be returned safely?

WARNING SPOILERS!
Do not become alarmed is the first book that I have experienced by Maile Meloy and as a whole, I found it ok.
It wasn't awful and I did finish it but it failed to grab, falling a bit flat for me, I found myself emotionally uninvested in the characters, in fact, I actually down-right disliked some of them.
So overall this really made it pretty hard for me to connect with the story.
I am actually rather disappointed with this one considering how much I was looking forward to it as the description is what initially pulled me into this, it made "Do Not Be Alarmed" sound so much more than what it
is.First things first this review is going to be a bit spoilery, so fair warning. look away now folks, you have been advised.
and also a trigger warning, there is a rape of a teenager (14) in this tale so avoid if this is an issue for you, it's not graphic but it's there all the same.
So the general premise is that Nora and Liv (who are cousins) and there hubby's, along with their four kids take a cruise and during a ship excursion they go missing along with a couple kids they have met on the holiday.
The story then flits from parents to children, so you really get to see this incident, which is every parent's worst nightmare, from both sides.
So what worked for me with this, Well the whole scenario is really imaginative and as I said earlier the synopsis itself is a real puller.
You get to see the vast contrast between the lives of our families and the poverty surrounding them while lost in Central America, it's such an eye-opener in that respect.
Also, some of the inner monologues are fairly amusing, there was one in particular that made me smile when Nora is thinking of Penny.
"Nora recognised this for the humble brag it was and thought she had never known a more slappable child."
We have all known a child that just rubs us up the wrong way while in their parent's eyes there such little angels.
actually, I found Penny a right know all little madam as well so completely get you, Nora.
We get to see everything collapse inwards and disintegrate with all the players then seeming to turn on each other.
It's a complete car crash as the once two close families fall apart at the seams each blaming the other.
Now for the negatives, the characters themselves were an unlikable bunch which made it for me hard to find that connection with them, this, in turn, made it, oh so hard to empathise with their situation.
Yeah, I felt for them but with a very disconnected vibe.
I also found the kid's reactions odd,
I'm a mum of five and I know if this sort of thing happened to any of them they would be totally freaking out I mean major meltdowns and my kids are not drama queens at all, in fact, I would think most children would be like this.
The kids in this were so calm and collected it was unreal.
Even Isabella after being raped was so indifferent to what had happened, I myself tried to put her reaction down to shock, but it was not how I would imagine a fourteen-year-old child, upon being violated behaves.
I also didn't understand the relevance of Neomi and her uncle it felt like they were just included to show the contrast of wealth and poverty between our characters. overall I found them a pretty pointless addition.
One final gripe was Poor Gunter I really thought at some point during this story we would have revisited him properly, not just assumed his fate he really got a crappy deal in all this.
I said final but I've just thought of one more the ending I didn't like it at all it seemed so unconnected and abrupt.
And that's all folks.
So overall I found this was an alright read, It kept me amused for a few hours, but it just didn't quite do it for me.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK and The author for supplying me with an advanced reader copy of "Do Not Become Alarmed" this is my own honest unbiased opinion.

This is a story of a cruise gone wrong. Not, mind you, at the all-you-can-eat buffet. But instead when three mothers on the cruise lose the six children between them during a shore excursion. Needless to say, those mothers DO become alarmed, but I never really did.

Children-in-peril is usually a sure-fire way to get me, and probably most readers, to care. But the problem with this novel was there were so many characters to keep track of-- the aformentioned six children, but also three mothers, three fathers, three gangsters, one maid, one maid's son, one refugee, one refugee child, and various police officers and embassy officials. I literally lost track of one character until someone mentions him near the end. "Oh right!" I thought. "Him! What happened to him?" It's never a good sign if not only you lose track of a character, and then don't even care what happens to him.

I always feel slightly guilty slating a novel, given how hard it is to write one. But this one just wasn't very good. The author Maile Meloy was trying to make a point about American wealth, third-world countries, the resilience of children and the dangers of overeating at unlimited buffets (I made up one of those things), but didn't quite pull it off.

The title of this novel declares, "Do Not Become Alarmed". Guess what? I didn't.

I had high hopes for "do not become alarmed" but unfortunately it didn't come anywhere close.
The story starts off with you getting to know three families that are setting off on their cruise holiday. The start was ok but then when it gets to the beach disaster it goes downhill very quickly.
The story could and should have been a page turner but sadly was as far from this as you could get. I found I was skipping chunks to see if I got better but unfortunately not. The writing was of a very simple style with far too many characters. The parental reactions from all three sets were unbelievable but maybe this is due to the simplistic writing? The ending was poor, this also could have been so much better but relied on too many coincidences.
I would like to thank netgalley and penguin books for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book in return for my independent honest review.
This book is about every patents nightmare. Two families go away on a luxury cruise and the children go missing. !What strikes you about it is that it could so easily happen in real life.
If you want a fact paced thriller then perhaps this book isn't for you. It has a very slow lead up to the main plot thread,where the children go missing. Don't give up too soon.
This was an enjoyable read,ideal for holiday time. I didn't particularly feel invested in the characters, so didn't feel as emotionally involved as I could have been with such an important topic. This had the potential to be a great book,however for me it was only a good read which left me
somewhat disappointed as I was so looking forward to it.

I loved this book - could not put it down. It is set in Mexico and Central America. Two cousins take their families on a Christmas cruise - and at first, all goes well. The mothers and children pal up with an Argentinian family for an off shore tour while the men play golf.. A bungled car accident sees them having to abandon plans for the organised zip wire excursion and go swimming in a quiet river which their tour guide assures them is very safe. One minute the kids are playing in the water, building rafts, so far, so good. Next minute, ALL of the children disappear. There's a jungle out there! And crocodiles, drugs barons, crooked medics, train robbers add to the suspense. The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of the children and adults. Thank you, Netgalley for sending this advance copy to my Kindle.

Interesting premise for a holiday thriller; kids napped during a cruise. Big misunderstandings with hardened gangsters, pretty bad luck when all they wanted was a bit of sun. Can the parents get them back? Who knows...probably.

Honestly as a mother of two young girls who holiday a lot as a family this book scared the living daylights out of me! But, I couldn't put it down, I had to know what happened next and really enjoyed the plot of the story. I would recommend this book

Do Not Become Alarmed is a tale about 3 couples and their children on a cruise that goes horribly wrong. The main basis of the story is that the children go missing during an excursion and what follows is the desperate hunt to find them in a foreign country, full of corruption, drug lords, and witnesses too afraid to come forward. Do Not Become Alarmed is an unusual mystery novel in that you (as the reader) know where the children are the entire time as parts of the book are written from their perspective.

I had very mixed feelings whilst reading this. Whilst I devoured the book in very short order and was compelled to keep reading it because of the drama and suspense - I still found it lacking. Some of the subjects that were touched upon (mainly referring to the adultery & sexual assault here) weren't handled particularly well in my opinion. They were dealt with clinically and there was a real opportunity here to confront the issues and show the massive devastating impact that both situations can have on the families, but it was all briefly touched on & then we were moved on. Like either situation could easily be healed with a cuddle from a cute puppy.

There was little to no psychological dissection of the "baddies", they were just "bad" and there was no in depth look into their psyche's to give the reader a bit of an understanding of them. Which meant that I wasn't actually afraid for the children in real terms. The Crocodile on the bank was more terrifying than the humans.

I also had a slight problem with the way the parents perspective was put across. I read their words of panic and frustration at the detectives, but I didn't feel their pain. As a mum to a toddler and a baby this book confronted one of the million fears I have for my children. Because I fear anything that could hurt them or take them away from me. And whilst reading this book I could feel the tightness in my chest that I do whenever I read something and think "oh god, if that was my little girl", but I couldn't relate to the parents very well because I didn't feel that they responded in the way that a parent would have. There is no part of me that feels that I would go and sit in a cafe in the country I lost my children in. For any reason. Every waking second I would have been searching or pacing or crying. And as much as I believe there would have been a conflict in Nora regarding the adultery, I don't believe that she would have been so panicked about her husband finding out that she would have lied to the detectives trying to find her children, nor would it take a second of her time afterwards. All of her instincts would have kicked in and the fear for her children would have trumped the fear of revealing her indiscretions. I'm not sure if Maile Meloy is a mother, but I assumed not as she did not manage to capture the reactions of a parent trying to save their children. I know I certainly show more panic when my daughter almost falls off of a chair. Let alone if she were swept up a crocodile infested stream.

All that aside, I still devoured the book in one day (which is no small task when you have a toddler and a newborn), so Meloy did something right in her style of writing. I was gripped despite the lack of character depth. Perhaps it was my mothering instinct needing to see the children brought home safe, or maybe it was because it confronted a parents worst nightmare... whatever the reason, I was well and truly hooked from start to finish.

I would still recommend this book to others, but perhaps more of a holiday book - something to read on the plane or by the pool along with some tragedy magazines. But if you're looking for an intelligent, emotionally challenging book - this isn't that. More like a really lengthy article from Chat Magazine.