Playing Nice
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.
The two families, reeling from the shock, take comfort in shared good intentions, eagerly entwining their very different lives in the hope of becoming one unconventional modern family. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an official investigation that unearths some disturbing questions about the night their children were switched. How much can they trust the other parents--or even each other? What secrets are hidden behind the Lamberts' glossy front door? Stretched to the breaking point, Pete and Maddie discover they will each stop at nothing to keep their family safe.
Although this book kept me reading and I read it quite quickly, this was more to do with that fact that I wanted to find out what happened and not because I particularly liked it.
So someone turns up on your doorstep and says your son is not your son but his and that the babies were swapped at birth. The first thing I would be doing, despite what the other party was saying, was to contact a solicitor and not try to work something out. No way was that legal to get the sippy cup to do a DNA test.
OK, babies have been swapped before but it is rare and most probably only comes to light because of medical reasons as in this case. I don't buy that it would have happened in a NICU instance when there were two babies coming in at the same time from private hospitals.
The ending was also not believable, I felt it was a little too rushed as well after all the build up with the court case. The narrative swapping between Maddie and Pete also started to drag out a bit.
Disappointing as have previously enjoyed this author's books.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC in return for an honest review.