The Island - Adrian McKinty

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

IT WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE A FAMILY VACATION.
A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT CHANGED EVERYTHING.
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE CAPABLE OF UNTIL THEY COME FOR YOUR FAMILY. After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they're deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.
When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.
When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.
Now it's up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don't trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.
Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book, it was completely unrealistic, but it had my heart beating out of my chest in fear for the characters’ lives.
On a bonding holiday in Australia, the Baxters decide to visit a remote island to see some of the nation’s famous wildlife. However, this one split moment decision will change their lives forever. Once on the island, a terrible accident leads to the Baxters being hunted and fighting for their lives. For Heather, the new mum to two kids, this certainly tests her devotion to her newly acquired ready-made family.
The entire story is completely implausible, but I’ve never been to a remote island in Australia inhabited by one family, so what do I know? However, it all felt very real in the throws of reading this. I completely devoured the book as it was fast-paced, and I felt like I was running along with the characters. I was out of breath reading this, and I just had to know would they get out alive, intact or maimed!
The situation they find themselves in just seems impossible; I didn’t know how Heather would get them out of trouble and off the island. They had no phone reception, there was no law enforcement, and the only way off was a boat controlled by the people hunting them!
This is a tense and exciting book, and I was gripped the whole way through. I can certainly see this becoming a film as there was so much action. A fantastic five-star read!