What a great book! It was thought provoking and exciting. It was well written and the characters were all well developed and believable. I was suspicious of Miles from the start and was so intrigued by how Pete and Maddie handled the situation. It would make a great book club selection - it would provide a lot of discussion about what would you do if you found out your child had been switched at birth. I did feel that Pete and Maddie went along with Miles a little too easily right the beginning. I highly recommend this book - thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Netgalley copy*
4.5
Wow, what a read!! I was hooked from the very beginning & the ride never stopped!! Such an interesting and scary idea. I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to be in the position these parents are placed in. The characters were interesting & complex & while you might not always like all of them they were engaging!! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys this kind of book, basically meaning if you think it sounds interesting I think you’ll enjoy it!!

Knockout of a book about a young couple’s nightmare of an ordeal when they find out their son was switched at birth. Not only do Pete and Maddie find out their son really may not be their own, but the man who is claiming paternity may be a psychopath. When Pete answers a knock at the door on a normal afternoon he has no idea that the course of his life has just been altered. As Pete and Maggie try to come to terms with the information they have been given, they also have to try to come to an understanding with the couple who may have their biological son. Excellent story of a young couple trying to do what’s best for their family. Highly recommended!

Pete Riley opens the door one afternoon to two strangers and the news that his two-year-old son isn't actually his child. Two infants were switched in the NICU.



All of those words that other thrillers put in their descriptions -- thrilling, unputdownable, gripping, harrowing -- definitely apply to this book. I did a lot of cringing and holding my breath and worrying about what was going to happen as the relationship between the two sets of parents went from amicable to uncomfortable to downright dangerous.



I can't recommend this one enough if you're into domestic thrillers that explore parenting.

I absolutely loved this novel and could not put it down! I am a huge mystery\thriller reader and Delaney's work might be the best I have read all year. I was intrigued that these two boys were switched at birth without their parents knowing and two years later Miles realizes that his "son" is not really his son and he goes to Pete and Maddie with the news. Pete is shocked because their son is his entire world as he is a stay at home dad. The two couples decide that they will keep each other in their lives until Miles takes things a little too far. This novel kept me on the edge of my seat and I will be recommending it to everyone as soon as it is out.

This was an AMAZING book!!! Make sure that you have no plans before you start reading this because you will not be able to put it down! "Playing Nice" is extremely suspenseful and filled with twists and turns. I really felt connected with the characters and couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen. The ending was very surprising!!! If you like suspense thrillers, you won't want to miss this!!!

Summary:

One morning, a man shows up at Pete Riley’s door to explain to him that his son was switched at birth. Apparently Theo was switched with Mike Lambert’s son. Pete and Maddie are confused and devastated at what happened when the two boys were switched in the neonatal intensive care unit. Once the families begin to investigate and plan to sue the hospital, many agencies begin to investigate the families and some disturbing information begins to arise. Pete and Maddie are ready to do anything to protect their family.

My Thoughts:

I got to finish this Mother’s Day morning with the amazing meal my daughter cooked me!

As usual, JP Delaney does not write a disappointing book! This book kept me in suspense wondering what secret will come up next regarding the custody battle. I can’t imagine being in the position of possibly losing my own child!

I definitely recommend this suspenseful book for your list of summer reads!

This book will be released on July 28, 2020. I was lucky enough to get a free advanced reader’s copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

On an ordinary day, Pete Riley opens the door to find a stranger with news. He claims there was a mix-up at the hospital and their two children were switched at birth. And he had already DNA-tested the man’s child. Immediately both families are thrown into a dilemma about care and where a child belongs. Does a child belong with a biological parent, or the parent who has raised them for the past two years?

The Rileys and Lamberts come to the mature and responsible decision to co-parent. Surely this can’t be too hard—they must be more responsible and enlightened than other families with switched babies! How can this possibly go wrong?

Playing Nice was an engaging read with topics too good to ignore. The major theme of nature versus nurture, a child’s place, and parenting styles make this an interesting read. Add into the mix that this became a bit of a thriller and it was impossible to put down. A great story and must read.

Oh. My. Goodness.
This book caught me by surprise. I've enjoyed Delaney's previous books and the synopsis of this one caught my attention, but I thought it might be a little too "soap opera" for me. It was anything but. It had me captivated from the first page and I couldn't break away.

Imagine you are home and someone drops a life changing bomb in your lap.....

What if you are suddenly told that the child you are bringing up-the child you have fed, bathed, played with, taught the letters of the alphabet to, parented for two whole years-isn't yours? What if you discover that your child had been mistakenly switched with someone else's at birth?

Do you first believe this person? How do they have proof? Do you question anything and everything? As a parent you only want what's best for your child, right? But there's oh so much more to the story than what you can even imagine. What ensues is a crazy ride of trying to make things work in a world that is anything but black and white.

2 sets of parents. 2 children. Can these couples be amicable? That's what it appears at the beginning, but Delaney brings in more issues to play and twisted us on our heads. The addition of health issues, alcoholism, psychological health, etc brought a good balance to the whole "switched at birth" storyline. This was an excellent, character driven story that had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen and if anyone was going to put anything together. It messed with my head in the best possible twisted way.

That's all I'm giving you. It's intense. The characters show many traits that you may or may not like and the ending is quite satisfying. Would definitely recommend for a book to entertain you and get you a little frustrated and emotional too.

Playing Nice is a chilling psychological thriller that will have you guessing until the end!

Pete is a stay at home dad to his two-year-old son, Theo. One day a man shows up at Pete’s door and states Theo is not his biological son. He claims there was a mix up in the NICU. Pete and his partner Maddie agree to meet the other couple, and hopefully come to a mutual agreement on how they should approach this unique situation. However, what starts as a good situation can quickly turn bad.

JP Delaney has become one of my favorite authors. I highly recommend her latest thriller.

J.P. Delaney is a best-selling author who publishes under different names. I thought very highly of his first psychological thriller, The Girl Before, and enjoyed his next two (Believe Me and The Perfect Wife) as well. I was therefore really looking forward to reading his most recent, Playing Nice, and it definitely did not disappoint!

The gist of the narrative is that one couple, Pete and Maddie, is confronted by another (Miles and Lucy), who claim that their two-year-old boys had been switched at birth. Although these couples have wholly different personalities and parenting philosophies, they attempt to have an amicable relationship as they try to sort out what would be best for the two children. However, events soon spiral out of control, slowly going from the shocking news of the switch to bad and then to worse.

The story, which sucked me in from the first page, is told mainly from the alternating perspectives of Pete and Maddie. It includes elements of mental illness, abuse and murder, as well as spell-binding twists and turns along the way, and seems to get darker and bleaker by the minute as it focuses on answering the question of what should one do to keep his/her family together.

All in all, this is a fast-paced, eventful and very satisfying quick read, and I look forward to J.P. Delaney’s next work.

I finished Playing Nice in one sitting. It is THAT good. When Pete opens the door to Miles and learns the truth about his and Maddie’s son, their lives will never be the same. This is a cat and mouse game, a thriller woven so tautly, I was literally on edge reading it. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to be an early reader.

Unputdownable! That is the only way to describe the psychological thriller Playing Nice by JP Delaney. Two babies swapped at birth, one brained damaged, the other a real handful. Two sets of parents, as different as night and day.

Pete and Maddie, an unmarried but committed couple, are raising Theo, a two-year-old kicked out of nursery school for hitting other children. Miles and Lucy, a married couple, are coping with David and his various health needs with the aid of a full-time nanny. Both children has been born prematurely.

When Miles finds out that David is not his biological son after DNA testing reveals a defective gene that neither he nor Lucy has, he goes on a mission to find and reclaim his biological son, Theo. Anyone who gets in Miles’ way in the course of the book is suspiciously involved in a hit and run accident.

Miles first cons Pete and Maddie to go after the hospital for a lucrative settlement for negligence, before his real intent is determined: to have custody of both boys. Pete and Maddie play by all the rules but at each turn, Miles has been ahead of them in his ghastly plans.

JP Delaney has absolutely infuriated me with the character Miles – he’s that good of a writer. The story was compelling as were the previous Delaney books I’ve read: The Girl Before, Believe Me, The Perfect Wife.
JP Delaney, a pseudonym, was born in Uganda. Educated at St Peter’s College, Oxford, he graduated with a First in English Literature. He has also written books under the names Tony Strong and Anthony Capella. Married to a pig farmer, he is the father of four.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting May 30, 2020.

I would like to thank Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

This book was an overall “eh” for me. The characters were all such extremes it wasn’t very believable. It was still interesting to read and learn about things I haven’t personally experienced though. Looking forward to giving this author another try next time.

It’s almost impossible to believe. Pete Riley discovers that the child he has raised as his own, is actually the sone of Miles Lambert. Evidently the two infants were mixed up in the hospital years ago, and the two families have been raising the wrong children. But the more Pete investigates what happened, the more suspicious he becomes of the Lambert’s. How much of what Lambert said is true? And if it is, what will Pete and Maddie do? A twisty tale of unimaginable choices

I love love LOVE this book! A family is blindsided when they are approached by another family claiming their children were switched in the NICU. They claim they have been raising each other’s biological children. After the shock, the two families want to work together and get to know both children. But things don’t always work out.

I loved the character development in this story. The two families are very different, both in parenting styles and economically, which leads to tensions.

I would highly recommend this book!

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of PLAYING NICE by JP Delaney in exchange for my honest review.***

3.5 STARS

Imagine if you’re told your two-year-old son is not your biological child, that he had been switched with another child. At first Peter and Maddie welcome the friendly relationship with Miles, Lucy and David, their biological child who looks just like Maddie. Though disabled from his premature birth, Maddie bonds with David more than Theo, the son she’s raising. But Miles isn’t as friendly as he appears. In fact, he’s gaslighting Peter and Maddie, who stand to lose both boys.

PLAYING NICE is my first JP Delaney and it won’t be my last. I’ve been interested in switched at birth kids since the Kimberly Mays story in Florida from the 1980s so reading PLAYING NICE was a natural selection. I immediately suspected Miles was up to no good and didn’t trust him as he breached boundaries and manipulated situations. I had no idea the level of his depravity or how far he’d go.

I immediately liked Peter and Maddie, though they were woefully naïve. My first call would have been to an attorney, not inviting Miles and his PI into the home. Perhaps this is because people can be sue-happy in the USA and the story was set in England. I wish Delaney had made Theo more affable, though his behavior is explained later in PLAYING NICE, rooting for an unlikable child is difficult.

The social workers involved in the case should have been better trained to see through Miles and his BS. I’m a child psychologist and parents like Miles are more transparent than they think. Lucy’s passivity was maddening. She could have been the poster child for learned helplessness.

After a while, I had difficulty reading Miles continued manipulations. I was so mad and frustrated I didn’t want to see one more terrible deed. He reminded me of every narcissistic parent who wanted to win custody seeing his child as an extension of himself. I skimmed through some chapters for fear of throwing my kindle against the wall and shattering it.

Some of the twists at the end surprised me, but one seemed too convenient. Despite my criticisms, I did enjoy PLAYING NICE enough to bump up to 4 stars.

This was a wild ride. There’s lies, betrayal, legal procedure, mental illness, abuse, addiction and murder, as well as the psychological idea of nature vs nurture. So many different things in one book but JP Delaney weaves them together seamlessly.

From the beginning of this book when the Lambert’s appear on Pete and Maddie’s porch you’re filled with a sense of foreboding. You want to shake Pete and Maddie to knock some sense into them. You don’t know how things are going to bad, you just know they’re going to.

This is a domestic thriller that left me with so much anxiety. The premise is terrifying- what would you do if you found out your baby was switched at birth? I definitely recommend this upcoming thriller!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

What would you do if a strange man turned up on your doorstep one day and said, "hey remember the day 2 years ago when you had a traumatic c section and had a baby in the NICU? Well, guess what? He got accidentally swapped with another baby and isn't your biological son!"

I'd be pissed and confused and the characters in Playing Nice are both of those things. The scenario described is just what happens and what the plot revolves around. As a currently pregnant person, this book was terrifying to read!

This author always tackles difficult and interesting topics and manages to make the story new and exciting!
I'll continue reading books by this author, but this one felt a bit repetitive with more naive than typical characters. Definitely an intriguing idea and suspenseful story, but not as well plotted as I'd wish.

Pete Riley and Miles Lambert would never have met, been friends, or even talked, ever. The one thing that brought them together was Miles knocking on Pete's door and announcing that he was their child's father.
After having a heart stopping, reaction, Pete is told that their sons were switched somehow when they were both in NICU at the hospital.
Both babies were born prematurely. Both were taken to the Sam emergency hospital, the same NICU center.
Theo is two and a half years old. He's Pete's and his partner's world. Now this man wants to take him away. He has proof, DNA.
The families will be torn apart as Miles assiduously uses the court system to tear down the Riley family. One way or another Miles will not only get his son back but also keep theirs.
A psychological thriller at its best!
Jump out of your plane, pull on the ripcord, your in for an unforgettable read!!