Dani is a young single mom that doesn’t have many friends. When she meets Adele she is glad to have a new friend and Adele’s daughter is the perfect playmate for Layla. When Dani starts receiving threats, she assumes it’s from the wife of Layla’s father. The real truth is much more sinister and makes Dani face secrets of her past.

I thought this book was going to be pretty predictable, but it was actually full of things I didn’t put together. I will definitely recommend it to others!

Thanks NetGalley, my favourite publisher Bookouture and Victoria Jenkins for an ARC to review.
First half of this book i was somewhat reluctant to read, not that the writing style wasn't good..on the contrary I liked the writing style, the real flawed characters but I thought it was going in a certain direction where it turned out wrong..
22 years old Dani is struggling to build a good enough life to herself and her baby girl whose father isn't in the picture
When she starts receiving mysterious threats and warnings she suspects it's the dad's wife
When the mature capable compassionate Adele befriends her in a playgroup she thinks she found the mother figure she is missing in her strained relationship with her mother.
A slow burn not how it appears psychological domestic thriller, full of twists.
Loved it.

Nothing like a good psychological thriller with lots of twists and turns you did not see coming to keep you up at night! The Playdate was a well developed mystery, with believable characters and a storyline that kept you constantly guessing. It started out slow but grabbed you about midway through and took you for a ride in crazy town. I have never read any books by Victoria Jenkins before but I will definitely look forward to reading more of her books.

Thanks to net galley and the author for an advanced copy of The Playdate in exchange for my honest opinion.

Adele and Dani live very different lives. Adele lives a life of affluence, Dani is a single mother, struggling to keep her hairstylist job. They meet at a playgroup both of their daughters attend and become friends. Both, however, have secrets they are hiding.
This story definitely did not turn out as I expected, the twist was a surprise, but I found it all a little extreme and far-fetched. The first two thirds of the book were a bit slow, it finally picked up towards the end and the ending was satisfying enough.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this new one from Victoria Jenkins. It took a while to figure out what was amiss which ratcheted up the tension! You just never know when you've made an enemy and the lengths they will go to to exact their revenge.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

Since I am not a mum I was not sure whether this was the right book for me. And honestly in the beginning it gave me a bit of a hard time. But I loved all the books so far by Victoria Jenkins so I had to give it a try.
Just imagining a community playgroup where you are are supposed to do social networking gave me the thrill. But for Dani and Adele, two mums, this seems to be perfect. They both made some decisions in their lives that are not a common playdate-topic... These make up the twists and turns in this story with a totally surprising ending.

Thank you so much #NetGalley #Bookouture for an ARC

When Danielle and her 2 year old daughter Layla, meet Adele and Ivy at a playgroup, unlikely friendships are formed. Danielle is living with her mother, working at a salon, training to be a hair stylist and working hard to give her child a good life.
Adele is older than Danielle and lives in a wonderful house in a great neighborhood, so why is she keen to be friends with Dani? Each woman has secrets they are battling with. A few mean people to give it a real life feel, though I haven't come across such characters ever.
An interesting storyline and had fun guessing what would be the secret and was pleasantly surprised at the twist. Again a story told by the 2 main characters and kept me hooked.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture (you have such amazing authors who give us such gems, Thank you so very much) for the ARC.

4.16 stars


Adele and Dani meet at a playgroup. Their children like each other. They become fast and unlikely friends – they don't have a lot in common; Dani is single, living with her mom, struggling financially and young. Adele is unhappily married, wealthy, and older. But they both have something to hide.

Dani's past comes back to haunt her first as she starts getting threatening e-mails and being cyberbullied. She leans on Adele for support, and together they try to figure out why Dani is being targeted. Adele's home life seems to be far from the perfection she projects, but will she trust Dani?

When your past threatens your child's future – can you really trust anyone?

The Playdate was a solid book. It started off slow, but the suspense was built well and gradually. I loved how we were made to constantly doubt our gut instinct and were take many different directions before we got the final picture. The book's brilliance was that Jenkins played utterly fair; she didn't use any red herrings to deceive us. Instead, she opted for wonderfully dubious storytelling.

The pacing of the reveals was organic; not for a moment the narrative was held back or suffered in favour of shock value. Quite the opposite, reading The Playdate was like that visual puzzle we get a part of the picture at a time. With each pixel, the whole picture becomes more evident. Even if we guess the puzzle before the end, the final product is always more vivid and a worthy revelation in its own right.

Dani's need for a more mature maternal figure was crucial to her character's arc. I felt that Dani's relationships with her mum and Adele were really well developed and their purpose respected. Jenkins captured the cattiness that can happen in playgroups really well; some people might be surprised at how competitive some mothers can be in such settings.

Although I enjoyed Jenkin's depiction of the children – they felt natural, and I understand their importance to the plot. I just wish their development could have been pushed just a little further.
My personal feelings:

I enjoyed The Playdate; it was addicting and easy to get invested in. Jenkins masterfully built all her twists, and I appreciate how she chose to reveal them. Her timing was impeccable.

The Playdate pulls at my worst fears as a mother – I couldn't bear it if anything I have ever done came back not only to haunt me but to harm my son. The way Jenkins described the mother-child relationships are relatable and easy to empathize with. We never know what measures we will take at desperate times until we need to act. I would have done some things differently than some characters. However, even at the height of my shock, horror, disapproval, and repulsion, I can still see the character's motivation and relate to their pain.

I was particularly touched by the different ramifications grief can have in one's life. Grief was present in more than one character's development, and it affected each one differently. This literary choice was very insightful – to say more might spoil the book, so I apologize if I leave it at that.

Overall, I felt that Jenkins executed a psychological thriller brilliantly, and I will be picking up more of her books.

Disclaimer: I first read it as an ARC. In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Victoria Jenkins, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Playdate.

Recommended for fans of: Friend Request and The Girl on the Train

I found this book slow and ponderous to start with and a lot of the plot unbelievable. I had sympathy with Dani who I think was too hard on herself. Adele was too complex to be believable. The ending was exciting but the rest of the book dragged somewhat.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

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

Dani, a single mum, and her daughter Layla live with Dani's mum Caroline in their family home. Dani and Adele meet at a playgroup where there children attend. They are two completely different women from different backgrounds. Both women are flawed and hiding secrets. The story starts off slowly but the pace does eventually pick up. The chapters alternate between Dani and Adele's points of view. We learn more about Dan's background than we do about Adele. Then someone starts a smear campaign against Dani. This is a well written story with a satisfactory ending that's filled with twists. The second part of the book was the better part.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #Bookouture and the author #VictoriaJenkins for my ARC of #ThePlaydate in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the storyline of this book, it kept me interested throughout. I liked seeing the development of the characters relationships and didn't expect the twist towards the end!!

Dani’s life is a big mess. She is living with her mother and raising her 2 year old daughter. Layla’s father doesn’t know she exists because Dani found out she was pregnant very soon after she found out he was married. When Dani starts getting threatening messages and people around her begin to hear stories about her past, she is convinced it is the wife. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who she is. She begins looking for the culprit at the same time that she becomes friends with a couple of women at the local playgroup.

One of the women, Adele, is quiet and mysterious. Half of the chapters are told from her point of view. The reader soon learns that she has a lot of secrets, too. She befriends Dani but we are left to question her motive in doing so. It is obvious the author is leading you to a red herring about her identity and motives.

I liked that this was a quick read with some pretty constant action. There is some misdirection that isn’t really hard to see and the final reveal was onlyn a surprise in as much as there are some important characters that are not introduced until they are needed for then. Overall, a decent thriller.

Dani makes friends with Adele at playgroup. That’s when strange things start to happen. Who knows Dani’s past and is trying to get their revenge?

This is a slow burner for sure, but kept me reading until the end. The last few chapters were fast paced, nothing that I found a massive surprise, but entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Play date.

I absolutely loved this book! It took me a little bit at the first to understand who all the characters were but then i found myself unable to put it down! I highly recommend this book i will be looking into her other books

This has been a read filled with tension and suspense and I have been completely hooked. I have adored the way this has been written and fully engaged in this novel.

Dani is in a spot of bother when someone from her past is out to get her by sabotaging her reputation and relationship with her friends and mother. Lucky she has Adele to confide in but it’s only a matter of time before Dani’s past comes back to haunt her.

An enjoyable read but a little slow paced at times and the ending was good but needed a little more suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This was my first novel by Victoria Jenkins. This was a pretty interesting domestic thriller/drama. It was pretty intrigued with the story following the two main characters Dani and Adele. They both feel prisoners to their own lives for different reasons. The only thing I struggled with was the age difference between these two women. I found it kind of difficult to believe that a friendship would happen in real life like this, . Overall though, I enjoyed the final twist. I’ll definitely catch more by this author.

I really enjoyed The Playdate. It started off as a slow burner but once it got going there was no stopping it with twists and turns a plenty. I enjoyed the characters and I loved the ending that I did not see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

This book had plentiful twists and turns, some of which I saw coming and some of which were a genuine surprise, which is a rare occurrence for me as an avid thriller reader. The story was a bit of a slow burn to a lightning-speed finish, and I thought the pacing could have been evened out a bit. Overall, though, it was a solid read.

Perhaps at times we are so lonely that we accept friendships that can be both dangerous and have hidden purposes. Dani has lived a lonely life so when she meets Adele at nursery school their daughters attend, she is happy at last. A single mother with a mother who is cold and somewhat uncaring, Dani is so happy to have a friend.

The ladies are quite different especially their backgrounds as Adele comes from a well to do part of town while Dani does not. It just might be someone to share wishes and secrets with, but there is one secret that Dani will never share and it is that one which eventually propels the story forward. Friendships do form among different people and the ladies do seem to care for their children. Both of the ladies also hold secrets but it seems as if Dani's secret is about to take on frightening proportions as insidious threats start to appear against her. Dani's mind reels as she suspects another mother at the nursery school is behind all the threats and innuendoes. Could it also be the wife of the man whose daughter she had? All of this leads to a dilemma for Dani.

Meanwhile, a playdate is set up between Dani and Adele for their girls. However, more seems to emerge about the past in both the ladies lives and it does lead to a nightmarish problem that might involve someone's death. Are the ladies safe or is it the daughters who are in peril?

This was a twisted story that had quite a few hidden clues and yet drove to a conclusion that was hard to puzzle out. Recommended to those who like spiraling stories that take a circuitous route to their conclusion.

My thanks to Victoria Jenkins, Boohouture, and NetGalley for a copy of this story due out May 21, 2021.