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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
4.5 Glorious Stars!!!
Wowza!!!! Do NOT pick up this book is you have things you need to do, because you will be neglecting said things!
I will not spoil any of the fun by giving anything away. This book opens with Pete, a stay-at-home-dad, whose world is shattered when a stranger knocks on his door to tell him that their sons were switched at the hospital the day they were born. This new friendship starts off wonderfully, bringing the two families together, but soon tensions arise and everything goes sideways.
I loved the constant tension that this book brought. The whole time reading it, I was on the edge of my seat with a knot in my stomach, waiting to see what happened.
I'm looking forward to reading more of JP Delaney!
A special thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and JP Delaney for providing me with an ARC.
Wowza!!!! Do NOT pick up this book is you have things you need to do, because you will be neglecting said things!
I will not spoil any of the fun by giving anything away. This book opens with Pete, a stay-at-home-dad, whose world is shattered when a stranger knocks on his door to tell him that their sons were switched at the hospital the day they were born. This new friendship starts off wonderfully, bringing the two families together, but soon tensions arise and everything goes sideways.
I loved the constant tension that this book brought. The whole time reading it, I was on the edge of my seat with a knot in my stomach, waiting to see what happened.
I'm looking forward to reading more of JP Delaney!
A special thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and JP Delaney for providing me with an ARC.
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A premature and difficult birth and a challenging adjustment - but commercial producer Maddie and stay at home freelancer Pete are managing OK with 2 year old challenging and willful Theo. They learn that Theo is not their biological child - Brain damaged David, who lives with Miles and Lucy is! Apparently they were switched while in the NICU. What starts as as an amicable approach between the four parents quickly devolves. Told in alternating chapters by Maddie and Pete the author skillful reveals their individual perspectives on the unfolding events and the reader feels their despair as they realize that no matter what they do, it doesn’t look good. I won’t say more other than to say that this was a good story well told. (Though you may wonder - as I did - how a two year old manages to articulate some key phrases so well.) I wondered how things were going to improve as they continued to move toward what looks like a logical conclusion. There are some blind alleys and good twists in the last 25% of the novel.
Playing Nice is a terrific read that is very hard to put down.
It is the stuff of parental nightmares in the extreme and a book that found me screaming inside my head at events that sent the lives of Maddie and Pete spiralling out of control.
I felt queasy and uneasy, alarmed and shocked, terrified and horrified.
Pete and Maddie have a son, born prematurely. Miles and Lucy have a son, born prematurely. In fact both babies are so poorly they spend a long time on NICU - the neonatal intensive care unit.
Theo thrives whereas David is brain damaged.
The families do not meet properly until 2 years later when one family claim the babies have been swapped and they both have the wrong child.
Not the kind of house call any parent would expect but a situation that allows the author and reader to explore the nature/nurture debate and the legalities surrounding biological parents caring for a child or continuity of care for a child remaining with its non biological parents.
The read is tense. I honestly haven't read a book that has made my heart race, not just at a certain point briefly, but consistently over many pages!
The sheer horrors of a legal system and the role of CAFCASS that can both make so many devastating decisions on behalf of a child without any way of parents fighting back is terrifyingly realistic and morbidly fascinating.
The plot so cleverly engineered, written in a way so that one small action, like writing an article for a newspaper can come back at a later stage and complicate matters, casting doubt and suspicion on characters that have so far been portrayed as decent human beings.
The hints at domestic abuse, mental illness, alcoholism, and most of all psychopathy all conspire to produce a chilling and suspense filled story, with some amazing twists towards the end that I just didn't see coming.
How far would you go to protect your child and what would you strive to keep secret?
Is there a happy ever after or will the two couples always hide their darkest thoughts and motivations?
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, but please do set aside a day when you don't need to get anything done, otherwise you might be late for work, leave the house in a mess or burn the dinner!
Thank you to the publisher, JP Delaney and Netgalley for the opportunity to read ahead of publication in exchange for this honest review.
It is the stuff of parental nightmares in the extreme and a book that found me screaming inside my head at events that sent the lives of Maddie and Pete spiralling out of control.
I felt queasy and uneasy, alarmed and shocked, terrified and horrified.
Pete and Maddie have a son, born prematurely. Miles and Lucy have a son, born prematurely. In fact both babies are so poorly they spend a long time on NICU - the neonatal intensive care unit.
Theo thrives whereas David is brain damaged.
The families do not meet properly until 2 years later when one family claim the babies have been swapped and they both have the wrong child.
Not the kind of house call any parent would expect but a situation that allows the author and reader to explore the nature/nurture debate and the legalities surrounding biological parents caring for a child or continuity of care for a child remaining with its non biological parents.
The read is tense. I honestly haven't read a book that has made my heart race, not just at a certain point briefly, but consistently over many pages!
The sheer horrors of a legal system and the role of CAFCASS that can both make so many devastating decisions on behalf of a child without any way of parents fighting back is terrifyingly realistic and morbidly fascinating.
The plot so cleverly engineered, written in a way so that one small action, like writing an article for a newspaper can come back at a later stage and complicate matters, casting doubt and suspicion on characters that have so far been portrayed as decent human beings.
The hints at domestic abuse, mental illness, alcoholism, and most of all psychopathy all conspire to produce a chilling and suspense filled story, with some amazing twists towards the end that I just didn't see coming.
How far would you go to protect your child and what would you strive to keep secret?
Is there a happy ever after or will the two couples always hide their darkest thoughts and motivations?
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, but please do set aside a day when you don't need to get anything done, otherwise you might be late for work, leave the house in a mess or burn the dinner!
Thank you to the publisher, JP Delaney and Netgalley for the opportunity to read ahead of publication in exchange for this honest review.
Was going to be a 5 star but the fact that the story is about TWO children being swapped but the main focus is only on Theo while David is ignored for basically the whole story ?¿
Very interesting and surprising!! Editing because the more I think about it the more I don’t like it as much
Wow, what an intriguing story. I'm not interested in having children, and perhaps as a result don't read many books centered around child-rearing issues, as I find myself unable to relate. I found Maddie and Peter incredibly relatable, however, and found myself feeling for them throughout the book. Delaney showed great expertise in getting the reader to empathize with his characters, and rally with them against the 'villains'. The character progression was perfectly paced, as was the plot and storylines that led off of or were nearly completely separate from the main plot track. I thought Maddie's character showed a surprising amount of gained awareness at the end of the book that I would have expected Peter to have, which was a neat turn of events.
I will say that while I enjoyed the way the conclusion came up all of a sudden but resolved in the right way for the book, I still would have liked it to have been a bit more fleshed out. The ending lines were a bit of a cliched happy ending, but they fit in line with the story and characters and didn't feel forced for ratings or status quo.
Overall a great book which only took four days to read, but just didn't have that 'wow' factor that I look for in a book in order for me to give it five stars.
I will say that while I enjoyed the way the conclusion came up all of a sudden but resolved in the right way for the book, I still would have liked it to have been a bit more fleshed out. The ending lines were a bit of a cliched happy ending, but they fit in line with the story and characters and didn't feel forced for ratings or status quo.
Overall a great book which only took four days to read, but just didn't have that 'wow' factor that I look for in a book in order for me to give it five stars.