Skip to main content

THE PLAYDATE

 



SYNOPSIS

Arranging the playdate was easy. Child’s play. Preparing the house was more difficult. It was only now she realized how many photographs there were: the picture-perfect unit. Wife, husband, child. All of it a lie.

I made a new friend at playgroup today. She’s different from the other mothers. She feels like someone I can trust. Someone I can confide in.

But there are some things I can’t tell her. Things I can’t tell anyone.

Because I have a secret that no one else knows. One that still haunts my dreams, wakes me up in a cold sweat at night.

Even another mother would never understand. Unless, of course, she’s hiding something too.

Title: The play date
Author: Victoria Jenkins
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: May 21, 2021



Victoria Jenkins lives with her husband and daughter in South Wales, where her series of crime novels featuring Detectives King and Lane is based. Her debut novel The Girls in the Water is an Amazon UK top 30 bestseller, and top 5 bestseller in the Amazon US chart.

Her first psychological thriller, The Divorce, was published in July 2019. The second, The Argument, was published December 10th 2019 and The Accusation was published June 9th 2020. Her latest novel, The Playdate is out now.
 

Buy Links

Amazon: https://geni.us/B08XWFWZMHsocial

Apple: http://ow.ly/1l3v50DOGlR

Kobo: http://ow.ly/OonD50DOGim

Google: http://ow.ly/vEKn50DOGoU



Social Media Links


Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/victoriajenkinswriter/

Twitter:      @vicwritescrime

https://twitter.com/vicwritescrime

 



REVIEW


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐


There’s a Spanish saying that says that man is the only animal to stumble twice on the same stone (I don’t know what would be the English equivalent). Well, it must be true cause now I’ve “stumbled” thrice with Victoria Jenkins’ twists and have been caught completely unaware once again. Did I not learn anything after the shocking twist in The argument? Apparently not, cause halfway through The playdate I had one of those “Wait! What??!!” moments that forced me to go backwards and re-read some chapters. Well done once again with the misdirection! I’ve always thought that making the reader think one thing while actually reality is nothing like that must be terribly difficult.


I could not help but feel some sympathy for Dani. Yes, she might have done some not so great things in the past, but being a young single mum with so little support network must be overwhelming. I know I got overwhelmed when Dani’s daughter, Layla, had one of her tantrums. When she meets Adele at a playgroup it looks like she has finally found a friend, but Dani isn’t the only one with secrets.


Although the story took off at a slower pace I found myself completely engrossed from the beginning. Who is targeting Dani in that smear campaign? A little bit into the story the pace picked up and didn’t let go until the very end. The ending was satisfying although I would have liked to know a bit more about Adele’s background.


A really enjoyable domestic thriller, well written and with several turns you won’t see coming. You might think you have it all figured out but…wait for it! cause once the unexpected happens you will not be able to stop reading.


Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HELLO, IT’S ME!

  I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to read... MY BRAND NEW BLOG! (Look at me plagiarazing   drawing inspiration from Adele for my very first entry).                                                               She approves! So, if you're here reading this...THANK YOU for tuning in! For those who don't know me my name is Javier and after more than a year writing reviews on sites as Goodreads and NetGalley I decided to create my own blog to share my love of books with the world. When I first started writing reviews I was not able to put two sentences together, but as I kept writing I realized I had lots to say about the books I read. Rest assured my reviews will always be honest (no problems here telling when I don't like something) and spoiler free (I hate spoilers!). My personal preferences are:...
10 comments
Read more

MURDER IN MANHATTAN

SYNOPSIS Glitzy parties, sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty and strolls through Central Park with Gladstone the bulldog… Lady Eleanor Swift is loving her first trip to the city that never sleeps, until she witnesses a murder! After crossing from England on the SS Celestiana, Lady Eleanor Swift sets up her home-away-from-home in a lavish apartment in New York City. She is soon the toast of the town, with no high-class soirée complete without her presence. Of course, she drags her butler Clifford and Gladstone the bulldog along to every party too. But when she witnesses the charming doorman of her building, Marty, knocked down and killed in a hit-and-run, she finds fashionable society suddenly closes rank. The only local detective interested in helping her find the culprit is street-smart beat cop, Officer Balowski. Resolved to get justice for Marty and his family, Eleanor searches Marty’s tiny apartment and is shocked to find five rolls of banknotes tucked under the floorboards. Money...
1 comment
Read more

THE SANATORIUM

SYNOPSIS EVERYONE'S IN DANGER. ANYONE COULD BE NEXT. An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it's beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous - as does her brother, Isaac. And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancée Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic. But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're ...
2 comments
Read more