Playing Nice

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An addictive psychological thriller, perfect for fans of The Silent Patient and Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door. What if you found out that your family isn’t yours at all? How far would you go to protect them? A gripping new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Girl Before. . . . And when Theo is thrown out of nursery for hitting other children, Maddie and Pete have to ask themselves: how far do they want this arrangement to go? What are the secrets hidden behind the Lamberts' smart front door? And how much can they trust the real parents of their child - or even each other? Pete Riley is a stay-at-home dad; his partner, Maddie, works in advertising. After Pete drops two-year-old Theo off at nursery one morning, he's politely accosted by a man who looks just like Theo. However soon things crop up that challenge that ever so civilized understanding. There are discrepancies between the families. Pete and Maddie struggle making ends meet while Miles and his wife are wealthy. The babies also are markedly different. Theo is an active child, headstrong and showing signs that are concerning in his behavior while David, deprived of oxygen at birth, is brain damaged.

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If I were Forrest Gump, or perhaps his mother, I would say, “J P Delaney books are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” I guess that was a motherly denial as for her something like that was unimaginable, she couldn’t even think it’s a possibility. That’s why reading this book was an intense stressful unimaginable experience. Because it’s too scary to think about something like that. The book was so gripping even though the thrilling aspect of it wasn’t so strong, but the main idea of the book was enough to creat a stressful read. Wow, what a horrible thing to happen to a family, to two families! Two years after Maggie and Pete have the agonizing time of their son Theo being born months early, and all the heartbreak that goes with such a tiny premature baby, a man enters their life and tells them that Theo is his son, that their babies were accidentally switched not long after they were born and sent to the ICU for babies. Miles and Lucy, who have baby David, have had him DNA tested so they are positive he is not their son. Miles has also secretly had Theo tested and they know that Theo is their son. Miles claims that they want to work with Maggie and Pete, to not disrupt the life of either boy, but allow both sets of parents to play a role in each boy's life.

DNA tests have been done on the Lamberts, and Pete and Maddie will do the same. They make plans to visit with Miles and Lucy and meet David. It is already obvious that Theo shares facial similarities with Miles, and this is reinforced when Pete and Maddie clearly see a resemblance between themselves and little David's face. He did not have as successful a stint in the NICU as Theo did, and has both physical and mental challenges that most likely will be with him for the rest of his life.Things are so strange these days in my community - the sky is sooooo ugly filthy and dark ( ashes from fires)...that it looks we are living on Mars... And we’re working on sharing, too,” I added. “Taking turns who chooses what to have for lunch, that kind of thing.” However, where things really went wrong for me was how the 'real son' of Pete and Maddie was handled in the book. He is almost completely ignored in the story, and I just felt that was really unrealistic. If I just found out I had a biological child out there somewhere and that the child I thought was mine wasn't actually mine, I would be EQUALLY distraught about both children. Because both children would feel like mine. I would want to know everything about my 'real' child. Instead we just get a book completely focused on Theo. And when Theo is thrown out of nursery for hitting other children, Maddie and Pete have to ask themselves: how far do they want this arrangement to go? What secrets lie hidden behind the Lamberts’ smart front door? How much can they trust the real parents of their child – or even each other?

Guess what? Your son is not your son. He was switched at birth. But we want to work all this out amicably, k?” Pete Riley answers the door one morning and lets in a parent's worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, a stranger who breaks the devastating news that Pete's son, Theo, isn't actually his son--he is the Lamberts', switched at birth by an understaffed hospital while their real son was sent home with Miles and his wife, Lucy. For Pete, his partner Maddie, and the little boy they've been raising for the past two years, life will never be the same again. I’m sure. It’s just that we don’t always think about the consequences of things like that.” She smiled, but I could almost see the thought process behind her eyes. Stay-at-home dad equals aggressive kid. She wouldn’t have asked Jane Tigman if she played Call of Duty. A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path”. The Lamberts have taken steps toward suing the hospital and invite Pete and Maddie to join them. The two couples then awkwardly decide on how to move forward with this extremely uncomfortable and unexpected set of circumstances. Miles is very well off and wants to take care of Theo any way he can. He offers Theo a spot in boarding school, which David obviously will not be using, and this catches Pete and Maddie off guard. Maddie is still somewhat fragile as a result of the serious postpartum breakdown she had with her difficult birth, and Pete is so likable, always looking to please others, that it makes an already delicate situation that much more awkward.

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Maggie had run Miles over in his own car. Pete and Maggie provided alibis for each other, and finally left no electronic evidence. The Ending: To make matters more complicated, one family is wealthy while the other is not. One family has a healthy child, while the other child has significant developmental delays. Parenting styles are different and the age old question of nature vs nurture is explored. The characters are well-developed and I found myself questioning everyone. Who to trust when everyone involved is harboring secrets? I confess, after The Perfect Wife, a story of which I was NOT a fan, I honestly didn't have high hopes going in. However, since I really enjoyed The Girl Before, I was absolutely willing to give J.P. Delaney another shot. A secretly carried out DNA test bears this out, not to mention the fact that Theo bears such a strong physical resemblance to Miles. The Lamberts are bringing legal proceedings against the hospital, which triggers an official investigation into what happened there. Initially matters are cordial as Pete and Maddie agree to the well intentioned and understanding civil decision for both couples and the children to get acquainted with and getting to know each other better. The couples are markedly different from each other, the Lamberts are wealthy, Pete and Maddie are more ordinary, struggling to make ends meet. Maddie feels a strong connection to David, her brain damaged son that the Lamberts have raised, a David that will need life long care. However, as it becomes clearer that the psychopathic Miles has every intention of getting hold of Theo, by any means, matters spiral into a living hell for Pete and Maddie.

I turned. It was Susy, the woman who ran the nursery. It looked as if she’d been waiting for Theo to go. “Can I have a word?” she added. The sensational new psychological thriller from the internationally best-selling author of The Girl Before.

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As the tale continues, we see the four characters play out one against the other and as we delve more into their personalities we find very troubling details that threaten the very being of both the children and the couples involved. Delaney] has taken a rare event like the swapping of children at birth and used it as the fuse that is lit and surely will blow up in the final twists and turns of this hotbox of a thriller." Miles’ behaviour seems slightly odd, at first; you could dismiss it, perhaps even attribute it to his over-enthusiasm and excitement at getting to know his biological son. But the warning signs are there, even if Maddie and Pete are slow to spot them for what they are and protect themselves by putting appropriate boundaries in place. When they do realise the full extent of what’s happening, they have to decide what part Lucy plays in all of this – she’s a more enigmatic character and harder to read for reasons which only later become apparent – and then decide how they’re going to react.