The Playdate: A Novel

I'd read a bit about this book from another blogger somewhere in the blogosphere (I apologize that I can't remember where!) a few weeks ago, and and remember only slightly being caught by the idea that women were helping care for each other's children and something happened. That was enough to get me off my duff and out to find "The Playdate." With so many kidnappings and losses and killings of little children in this country in these times, it was a subject that I couldn't wait to see how a debut writer would handle. Old subject? New perspective! I thought it would be enjoyable to read but easy to figure out. Wrong!!! Not so easy to figure out...suspenseful and very full-bodied!Perfect pitch in the dialogs whether among adults or adults with children. Even internal dialogs are meaty and ring true...often anxiety-producing, often truly terrifying. And speaking of pitch, much of the suspense and anxiety of the book is built around sounds both good and bad that are built upon throughout the book. An unusual and fascinating technique that I enjoyed following. Sound as horror...and sound as holy.Easily deniable/ordinary happenings with sinister underbellies first make us think we're safe, and then confuse us! It's the use of these ordinary things we encounter every day, employed as background for a disaster just waiting to happen and juxtaposed with a pot boiling over that can hold us in the most tenderhooks. Does the vaccum cleaner noise from next door really follow you from room to room as you move around your own house? Who's watching your trash?While the book is set in London and country, it has none of the hard edge of the British writing that so many books of this mystery/suspense genre can have. It was easy reading, and such fun. I found absolutely all of Ms Millar's settings and characters engaging. Each character was so well described--down to their individual ticks and manipulations. It was a magical book to read.Often, I felt my heart racing with Callie, the single mother who just wanted to regain some of her "self" by returning to work at her beautiful job...which meant leaving her pre-school child in the after school care until she could get there. Scenes describing Callie's emotions, her racing home from work, her anxieties and her heart-wrenching moments were some of the best I've read in this genre. Just incredible writing that you could feel in your body.Suzy, Callie's best friend next door, was the best friend "every mom" so many of us know or have known who just seems to give it all for the children...hers and yours. She's the earth mother type who doesn't seem quite like everyone else. She's more devoted to her children than anything on earth, and her life displays that; is messy with it. Millar gives wonderful life to this character. The easy way Suze had of drawing in those who needed to be cared for, both mother and child. We've all known moms like Suze.My favorite character was Callie, but the character who was most interestingly distressing and who rubbed me wrong the whole time, of course, was Debs. Strange, alienated, weird and obviously a little mental, Debs was the new neighbor with very little to bolster her up....and very little reputation to stand on. Millar uses this character in such a delightfully malicious way. It's criminal!!! Was she the kindly new after school helper and earnest next door neighbor, or a woman with violent and shady past?Louise Millar takes a subject close to our hearts; our children, and writes around the anxiety of who they really belong to, and who really cares for them.This is a book not to be missed. I simply couldn't stop reading it. It was my constant companion for 2 days!! Highly recommended read.5 stars for a great read! Deborah/TheBookishDame

I loved reading this book. I loved it as a mystery and I loved it as a novel. I found the relationships believable, well developed and interesting. I could relate to the characters despite being very unlike them. I was entertained and interested from the first page to the last. I found the sections about being a sound designer fascinating and I couldn't wait to get back to the book when I put it down. I would read another book by this author in a minute. Immediately after finishing this book I ordered and read her second boo,"Accidens Happen' and pre-ordered her third.

I finished this novel today, and I really enjoyed it. The characters are complex and consistent and you get to know them inside and out.I expected a murder or death (since it was almost Lifetime Movie-like) but there wasn't one, and I really liked that! It was a nice change.The plot twists were believable and not hard to follow.While all the action is described very well, the only problem I had was a strange change to present tense when Callie was telling her story. It made no sense, anddidn't add to the story. There were a couple times when the tense would change back to past, and I'm just not sure why Ms Millar did that.I am looking forward to her next book coming out in June.I enjoyed this book on my Kindle4.

I found this book very entertaining and I liked it. So why the 3 stars? Firstly, because although as I have already stated is entertaining it gets to a point where the plot becomes a little farfetched for my taste. For me, it was difficult to imagine a complete psychopath, who at a certain point was famous for her outbursts and for being aggressive, being able to control herself after she discovered the "secret" involving her husband and her "best" friend and still act as if nothing had happened and wait to make her move. Also, I disliked the lack of loyalty and respect from the main character towards her friend. In spite, of it, I felt it was well written and enjoyable because it fulfills its aim to entertain.

What I expected was a light read with some drama. The Playdate actually had much more of a story going on than the description lets on. I don't want to spoil the book, so I will just say that there were some unexpected twists to this story that gave it a rich feel. i thought it was becoming a bit predictable, but then Ms. Millar threw in a couple of things that I did not suspect, and I enjoyed the change up. I would recommend this book.

This books was like a first rough draft of a story full of characters, ideas, and the potential of telling an interesting story. I love well-written/edited novels with alternating voices in chapters or sections. The initial style of this volume did just that, but at times I could not recall which character I was hearing as the two main females characters are almost clones. Then all sorts of ideas, scenes and narrative make one wonder exactly what genre one is reading. Romance, thriller, life-changing epiphanies? I did not care for any of the characters and was so bored by the time the author changed the whole POV by bluntly jumping into first person. I think this book needed editing big-time, and the characters fleshed out more so we might have something to invest in. There is plenty of reason to try writing in new and original styles but I want it to be understandable and not confusing unless the author intends to meld it together. Gave it 1.5 stars and would not encourage friends to waste the time.

As another reader wrote, this was bought as a 99p daily deal - but in 2012 and it has been in my Kindle since. I, too, am making a conscious effort to reduce the 50+ titles ( not including collections). This was one story that made the grade as far as I’m concerned. I read it in 2 days and was sorry to finish it. I enjoyed the story being told from 3 viewpoints and wondering who was telling the truth. On a side issue, I’m surprised that there are 3 books that I’ve seen that have the same/similar title. A little confusing to say the least.

This novel is set within a brief but very intense episode in a woman's life, when she has just become a mother for the first time. The difficulties of child care and broken careers have not yet become everyday realities. A woman who has no family support is totally dependent on the kindness of new friends and neighbours, so she is desperate for their approval, even though she knows nothing about their histories. Judgements are made about people's trustworthiness on the basis of their lifestyle and physical appearance. I like the way Louise Millar develops the story by telling it from three different points of view. It's up to the reader to decide which narrator to trust. And a character who comes across as engaging and sympathetic may have evil motives. At the end of the book, Millar opens a discussion about what happens to women who leave their home communities in the pursuit of opportunity, and then have children. From what I've seen, unless there is a grandparent who is willing to put their own life on hold to take care of tiny children, women who have their children first, then train for a career, have an easier time. But you can only do your best, and whatever you do, when they grow up your children will probably give you a hard time about the choices you made!

I have a collection of books on my Kindle which are books I would not usually read but have been recommended to me or that I have bought as the Kindle "deal of the day" and never got around to reading. In my efforts to clear some of this list I have been ploughing through them, giving them about 25% before I ditch them or continue to read! this is one such book.The synopsis has been related by many reviewers so I won't bore you by repeating it but this is a very easy book to read. It is written in short chapters, each chapter relating to one of the 3 main protagonists and told in the first person, the style of writing makes you want to read on and latterly each chapter seems to end in a mini cliff hanger.To describe reading this book as enjoyable would be wrong, I didn't so much enjoy it as was gripped by it, the conclusion wasn't difficult to work out but the how and why were what made it so gripping.These days I am not a usual reader of psychological thrillers, although I have been in the past, but having read this I would not be averse to reading something else by Louise Millar just for a change. I would like to give it 3.5 stars but I can't so the 4 star rating is on the generous side.

This novel was recommended to me a long while back but it sat on my wishlist for a long time before I bought it when it was on offer in the kindle store. Even then it was on my kindle for a good few months before I got around to reading it.At first I wasn't sure that I would like it but it quickly drew me in.Unlike many other reviewers I really liked the short chapters with their changing perspectives . For me this device moved the story on at a good fast pace which gathered momentum as the book moved to its climax.I liked the way that the menace shifted from person to person so that you were never quite certain where the danger lie and even though I worked out who the villain was fairly early on still these seeds of doubt were being sown.I agree with some others that the ending was improbable and the storyline around Debs stretched credulity to its limit. But I still enjoyed it.It's not the best written novel I have tead but it's certainy not the worst although there was one thing that really irritated me. When people screamed or expressed frustration it was all 'Aaargh' and 'Urgh' and these expressions I feel are best left in the Beano. Better to just say 'they screamed ' or 'she groaned' and let the reader imagine the noises for themselves.This aside I liked the way this novel used the dislocation of families and the consequent loss of support networks as its baseline.Far fetched but enjoyable .

An interesting premise for this book - who do you trust with your child? The story is told through the viewpoints of three women. Callie is a single parent with a daughter who has a heart condition, Suzy is her best friend, an American based in London with three young children and an uncaring, emotionally retarded husband and Debs, a middle aged woman who comes to live in their street, harbouring a secret from her past. Which of these three women is trustworthy? they all have their secrets which are gradually revealed in the course of the novel.This novel wasn't quite what I was expecting. It's billed as a psychological thriller which it isn't, not really. The title is a little misleading, yes, Rae, Callie's daughter is obsessed with being asked for a playdate but it isn't really the theme or the subject of the novel. All three women have secrets but are they really that big a deal? I thought this was ok, good for a quick read and I would read another by the same author but I felt there should have been more tension in it if it was really to be seen as a thriller, psychological or otherwise.