The only gripe I had was with the naiveté of Pete. Personally, I’d be speed-dialing my lawyer before the visitor took his second step into my house. (While also dispensing a serious dose of Mace!) But that’s just me!💁🏻‍♀️ My thoughts: SUMMER HIT! This is the one I couldn’t put down. It made me angry, sad, scared, surprised... allllll the feels and I’m kid-free and it still punched me in the gut. The plot Pete and Maddie find out that their two year old son, is not their son, that they took the wrong baby home from the hospital, after a mix up in the NICU. At first, both families seem to have the best intentions, but what happens when they stop 'playing nice?'

is so cliche but Delaney adeptly adds the unexpected making for an amazing summer thriller. Had I merely read the description, I might have thought “meh”. Don’t do that! This is one you can’t and won’t put down! 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. The conclusion of the story and final twists are also well-played, well-written and well-developed.

Success!

Pete and Maggie Riley have a 2 year old son Theo, they’re having a few problems right now with his behaviour, he’s very naughty at home, and doesn’t want to play nice with the other kids at nursery, he resorts to hitting and biting them to get his own way, and there have been complaints from other parents about him - so much so, that he’s in danger of being asked to leave the nursery altogether, but do Pete and Maggie love him? Of course they do! Would they give their life for him? Absolutely! 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? There is a precision about Delaney's characters that propels his twisty plots into unexpected and utterly convincing scenarios' Daily Mail

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. An addictive psychological thriller, perfect for fans of The Silent Patient and Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door. This is the third book I have read by this author and definitely my favorite. I enjoyed the character development and how the atmosphere in the book changed from amicable to diabolical by the end of the book. What really wrapped this up for me was the great ending, of which I won’t speak a word!! These circumstances are hard to imagine and yet they have happened in real life! This thrilling suspense terrified me and also really got me thinking. What I truly appreciated is that this storyline provided lots of discussion between my book buddy Kaceey and I. While I enjoyed the novel admittedly, I found it to be a bit far fetched which is the sole reason for the lower rating. That said, on the whole I enjoyed this mystery/suspense and would recommend this tense read to everyone looking for a captivating thriller. 3.5 Stars.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.” This book raises all sorts of delicious questions and dilemmas. Nature or nurture? What is in the best interest of the child? How much say should the biological parents have in certain decisions? Delaney’s books are always based on ethical quandaries, this most of all. I also found it profoundly interesting that the current political climate played into Delaney’s reasons for writing this book. That he wanted to write “about two ordinary people who try to resolve a near impossible situation through dialogue and compromise…” 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. Expect a roller coaster and a feverish excited tense and amazing read right till the last full stop