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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Very dry story telling with little character growth. Only the pond scene was riveting.
4.5 stars! This was my third JP Delaney novel and I really enjoyed it! The premise of the story was so intriguing to begin with. Imagine, one day someone comes into your home to inform you that you child is not actually yours, biologically. That your child was switched at birth at the hospital with another couples. The proof is all in the DNA test performed.
The question is, what do they do with this information? Was the hospital at fault for an accidental slip up, or was this done intentionally for another sinister reason? We dive into the perspective of Pete and Maddie and the actions and steps they take in order to be with their son, but which son will they choose? Theo, the son they have known to be theirs for the last two years or their biological son who is now with another family?
Overall, the book was very interesting to me and although there was a small twist at the end, it wasn't exactly a thriller in my opinion. It is a nice break from reading thrillers all day and night though as it offers a different kind of story. Would recommend!
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Okay, a few things I don't necessarily understand, first off, at the ending we learn that Maddie kills Miles in order to save her children (both Theo and David) from Miles. Does she imply at the end that she, like Miles, is a psychopath and carries many of those same qualities that he does, but just in a more mild way?
Also, was it just me or were you also annoyed at the fact that whenever Theo is mentioned, it sounds like they are either referring to a 4 year-old (at most) or someone much older? They always say that they want to speak upstairs to ensure that Theo doesn't hear about what happened and when Pete lets David run around a grocery store to pick out items, how would a 2 year-old know how to do that and in what mind, would a parent allow a 2 year-old to do that? When I think 2 year-old's, I'm thinking about toddlers who barely speak or understand much. That's the only thing that really kind of annoyed me about the book. It seemed very unrealistic in that sense.
The question is, what do they do with this information? Was the hospital at fault for an accidental slip up, or was this done intentionally for another sinister reason? We dive into the perspective of Pete and Maddie and the actions and steps they take in order to be with their son, but which son will they choose? Theo, the son they have known to be theirs for the last two years or their biological son who is now with another family?
Overall, the book was very interesting to me and although there was a small twist at the end, it wasn't exactly a thriller in my opinion. It is a nice break from reading thrillers all day and night though as it offers a different kind of story. Would recommend!
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Okay, a few things I don't necessarily understand, first off, at the ending we learn that Maddie kills Miles in order to save her children (both Theo and David) from Miles. Does she imply at the end that she, like Miles, is a psychopath and carries many of those same qualities that he does, but just in a more mild way?
Also, was it just me or were you also annoyed at the fact that whenever Theo is mentioned, it sounds like they are either referring to a 4 year-old (at most) or someone much older? They always say that they want to speak upstairs to ensure that Theo doesn't hear about what happened and when Pete lets David run around a grocery store to pick out items, how would a 2 year-old know how to do that and in what mind, would a parent allow a 2 year-old to do that? When I think 2 year-old's, I'm thinking about toddlers who barely speak or understand much. That's the only thing that really kind of annoyed me about the book. It seemed very unrealistic in that sense.
I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I would like to thank the author, publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book.
I was very excited to be approved for this book, as I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the last book by this author, and I couldn't wait to get started on it. The story is - wow. It's hard to talk about it too much, more than what the publisher's summary states, without giving away details about the story with spoilers, so I'll have to go with my impressions. And this is a very hard book for me to rate with a star rating, because there were some elements I didn't care for, some places it slowed down a bit, but the writing was there and it is certainly a different topic than most books out right now, so bonus points for that. But even as a mother, I do't' care to read lots of details about pregnancy, birth, small children. The beginning of the book dealt with some of that, so it was a bit hard to really get into it for me.
And the book does bring up one of the scariest ideas for parents - your baby isn't your baby. I can't imagine hearing news like that. I've often heard people make jokes about 'switched at birth' and it's a startling idea to me!
I had a hard time bonding with the characters. I don't need to have something in common with a character in order to enjoy a book, but sometimes it just helps to get into the story when you like the character. Some of the choices these folks made - I don't know, I just wonder if it would all work out that way.
I felt like this book was another variation by the author. I can't say I loved it, and I can't say I didn't like it. I may have found a new go-to author, though, just to mix things up and try something different! Once I got into the book, it was hard to put it down for daily life things, like cooking, feeding kids, laundry - I wanted to see what happened next. I can say, once I got into the book, I could almost see it all in my head. I saw some turns coming, but not all, and I could see it playing out in my mind. I think going back and re-reading this one after some time has passed would be an interesting experience too. Would some areas make more sense to me? Would I like the characters more? Maybe check out the audiobook when it comes out!
I was very excited to be approved for this book, as I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the last book by this author, and I couldn't wait to get started on it. The story is - wow. It's hard to talk about it too much, more than what the publisher's summary states, without giving away details about the story with spoilers, so I'll have to go with my impressions. And this is a very hard book for me to rate with a star rating, because there were some elements I didn't care for, some places it slowed down a bit, but the writing was there and it is certainly a different topic than most books out right now, so bonus points for that. But even as a mother, I do't' care to read lots of details about pregnancy, birth, small children. The beginning of the book dealt with some of that, so it was a bit hard to really get into it for me.
And the book does bring up one of the scariest ideas for parents - your baby isn't your baby. I can't imagine hearing news like that. I've often heard people make jokes about 'switched at birth' and it's a startling idea to me!
I had a hard time bonding with the characters. I don't need to have something in common with a character in order to enjoy a book, but sometimes it just helps to get into the story when you like the character. Some of the choices these folks made - I don't know, I just wonder if it would all work out that way.
I felt like this book was another variation by the author. I can't say I loved it, and I can't say I didn't like it. I may have found a new go-to author, though, just to mix things up and try something different! Once I got into the book, it was hard to put it down for daily life things, like cooking, feeding kids, laundry - I wanted to see what happened next. I can say, once I got into the book, I could almost see it all in my head. I saw some turns coming, but not all, and I could see it playing out in my mind. I think going back and re-reading this one after some time has passed would be an interesting experience too. Would some areas make more sense to me? Would I like the characters more? Maybe check out the audiobook when it comes out!
Delaney is one of our foremost writers of domestic, or psychological, noir, and all his work (I was convinced he was a she for ages, but apparently Delaney is the pseudonym of a male author) is both utterly addictive and really quite good, despite the melodramatic plots. Playing Nice deals with the scary implications of an accidental child swap, and, like many contemporary domestic thrillers, invests in the notion of the common or garden psychopath. The scenes where one character forces/manipulates his way over the boundaries of the others are nauseatingly believable, even if the actual story might not be.
This is a wild book. But then again, most of Delaney's books are. Summary first (taken from my notes); thoughts second.
Told from several perspectives. The parents of Theo and various police/PI reports. Pete and Maddie - Theo’s parents. Miles and Lucy - David’s parents. Maddie struggled with connecting to Theo as a baby. When Theo was a baby, Pete does a fundraising bike ride and Maddie has a mental breakdown. Pete, in Maddie’s eyes, is an almost too perfect parent to Theo and their bond seems to be instantaneous. David seems to have suffered brain damage and is “fragile. Maddie seems to long for David, her biological son. Miles seems to be pushing into their lives to see Theo, his biological son. Theo has a hitting problem. Just got kicked out of his nursery program and Miles sweeps in to suggest they share his nanny. Shit hits the fan. Miles, becoming overbearing to the extreme (continuing to show up uninvited and then becoming belligerent), decides to take action. He serves Pete and Maddie with official papers that he and Lucy are going to petition the courts with custody of Theo AND also try for a special guardianship of David. Citing lack of caring or interest in David by Pete and Maddie. It only gets crazier after this. People who might support Pete and Maddie or might speak out against Miles suddenly start having really bad "accidents." After a series of catastrophic events, Pete and Maddie go to see Lucy, Miles' wife. Turns out he's basically a clinical psychopath. She's been living in fear of Miles. She knows about the car Miles keeps hidden that has mysterious dents and windshield cracks. Finally the court case ends (after Lucy is seen on video coaching Theo what to say to swing the decision in favor of Miles) and Pete and Maddie are given custody of Theo. The novel ends with Maddie running Miles down and killing him with his own car.
This was a great book. Was it perfect? No. Am I being nitpicky not giving it a 5 star? Maybe. But it was well written. The characters were flawed but still easy to root for. (Although, I did struggle a bit with Pete...he just seemed so...together.) The end might have been a teeny bit cliche, but it was a good enough story and well written enough that it didn't bother me.
I will keep reading JP Delaney books.
Told from several perspectives. The parents of Theo and various police/PI reports. Pete and Maddie - Theo’s parents. Miles and Lucy - David’s parents. Maddie struggled with connecting to Theo as a baby. When Theo was a baby, Pete does a fundraising bike ride and Maddie has a mental breakdown. Pete, in Maddie’s eyes, is an almost too perfect parent to Theo and their bond seems to be instantaneous. David seems to have suffered brain damage and is “fragile. Maddie seems to long for David, her biological son. Miles seems to be pushing into their lives to see Theo, his biological son. Theo has a hitting problem. Just got kicked out of his nursery program and Miles sweeps in to suggest they share his nanny. Shit hits the fan. Miles, becoming overbearing to the extreme (continuing to show up uninvited and then becoming belligerent), decides to take action. He serves Pete and Maddie with official papers that he and Lucy are going to petition the courts with custody of Theo AND also try for a special guardianship of David. Citing lack of caring or interest in David by Pete and Maddie. It only gets crazier after this. People who might support Pete and Maddie or might speak out against Miles suddenly start having really bad "accidents." After a series of catastrophic events, Pete and Maddie go to see Lucy, Miles' wife. Turns out he's basically a clinical psychopath. She's been living in fear of Miles. She knows about the car Miles keeps hidden that has mysterious dents and windshield cracks. Finally the court case ends (after Lucy is seen on video coaching Theo what to say to swing the decision in favor of Miles) and Pete and Maddie are given custody of Theo. The novel ends with Maddie running Miles down and killing him with his own car.
This was a great book. Was it perfect? No. Am I being nitpicky not giving it a 5 star? Maybe. But it was well written. The characters were flawed but still easy to root for. (Although, I did struggle a bit with Pete...he just seemed so...together.) The end might have been a teeny bit cliche, but it was a good enough story and well written enough that it didn't bother me.
I will keep reading JP Delaney books.
Great plot, good story line. Dig drag on a bit in the middle, but I enjoyed the read!
This was a pleasant surprise. I generally don't look at recaps again once I've added a book to my 'to read' shelf, so I had no idea what this one was about. Took a couple of chapters, then I was hooked. Listened to audiobook.
This was just a mess. I got nothing else but that. It didn't make a lot of sense and then Delaney tried for a twist that had me laughing out loud the entire time. I think having the different perspectives as well as texts, emails, letters, etc. just made it too hard to stay fixated on the story.
"Playing Nice" follows Pete Riley and his partner Maddie. They have a lovely little boy named Theo who is 2. One day a man named Miles Lambert appears to tell them that their son is really his and that during a hospital stay the two boys were switched. This book focuses on who could have switched the boys and why along with the courts deciding which parent gets which boy in the end.
Ehhh. I can't say much about any of the characters. Pete seemed very lacking after a while. Maddie was too. There reactions to the news just felt off. And it didn't help that they of course had secrets from each other. And as another reviewer said, if some dude showed up at my house claiming that my son was his, I would politely tell him to leave before I called the police. The reactions to this never made any sense and the families trying to work out a deal also made no sense either. The NHS gets involved and I really wanted to be like what about the police like ten times. This book just threw too much at you that nothing hung together very well.
I also have to say the way that the author reveals who switched the boys and why had me going BS a few times. I don't know. Maybe it's not the same everywhere, but in the U.S. you get IDs put on you right away. You have to confirm that the baby/kid is yours. I just have a hard time with how this whole thing was even done and no one realized it.
The dialogue was whatever and then the dialogue of one character switched from how they had been talking the whole time to a different tone/reasoning and I just rolled my eyes. The flow was really bad due to the book jumping between Pete, Maddie, and then cell phone texts, emails, etc.
The book ends on a weird note and I just felt bored by it.
"Playing Nice" follows Pete Riley and his partner Maddie. They have a lovely little boy named Theo who is 2. One day a man named Miles Lambert appears to tell them that their son is really his and that during a hospital stay the two boys were switched. This book focuses on who could have switched the boys and why along with the courts deciding which parent gets which boy in the end.
Ehhh. I can't say much about any of the characters. Pete seemed very lacking after a while. Maddie was too. There reactions to the news just felt off. And it didn't help that they of course had secrets from each other. And as another reviewer said, if some dude showed up at my house claiming that my son was his, I would politely tell him to leave before I called the police. The reactions to this never made any sense and the families trying to work out a deal also made no sense either. The NHS gets involved and I really wanted to be like what about the police like ten times. This book just threw too much at you that nothing hung together very well.
I also have to say the way that the author reveals who switched the boys and why had me going BS a few times. I don't know. Maybe it's not the same everywhere, but in the U.S. you get IDs put on you right away. You have to confirm that the baby/kid is yours. I just have a hard time with how this whole thing was even done and no one realized it.
The dialogue was whatever and then the dialogue of one character switched from how they had been talking the whole time to a different tone/reasoning and I just rolled my eyes. The flow was really bad due to the book jumping between Pete, Maddie, and then cell phone texts, emails, etc.
The book ends on a weird note and I just felt bored by it.
I sped through this book- the story was interesting and the characters entertaining. A quick read full of twists and creepiness while also a sweet look at what really makes a parent.
this was so good. the visceral anger that this evoked in me was actually overwhelming at times. love it!