Playdate
“Adams is that rare writer who sends out every laugh with a sting in its tail.”
–Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
A smart and witty debut, Playdate is a family drama set against looming Santa Ana winds, which threaten a utopian Southern California community. Inside a well-manicured home, Belle is a sharp-tongued tween, who is mortified by her dad, Lance, a former weatherman turned stay-at-home dad who practices yoga. Darlene is a classic workaholic, but with her hours neatly penciled in, she has little patience for the needs of her husband and daughter.
Managing their own suburban paradise are Alec, a womanizing businessman and financial backer—and sometimes more—behind Darlene’s burgeoning empire. His wife, Wren, an eager yogi, ready to lay down the mat for a quick session with Lance. When the fires reach the confines of this seemingly blissful neighborhood, passions and true desires are brought to the surface. What happens next door, beyond the hedges, in the romper room and executive office—it’s all as combustible as a quick brushfire on a windy day.
PRAISE & REVIEWS
“Like a chick-lit version of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children, Ms. Adams’s debut novel chronicles the action among stay-at-home types. In the end, she even saves them from their bored, lame selves.”
—New York Times Book Review
“This witty debut novel features bed-hopping parents who get into more trouble (and have more fun) than their kids.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“This gimlet-eyed take on modern marriage lets no one off the hook. As two suburban California couples trade partners and dance, the illusions they live by are firmly—and often hilariously—skewered.”
–Parade Magazine, Book Pick
“It’s a satirical romp through the complexity of relationships and families…add a sexually randy couple down the street and you’ve got enough complications for a hit novel.”
–Michael Musto, The Village Voice
“Thelma Adams ably tracks the psychological nuances and foibles of her characters in this engaging, up-to-the-minute, and quietly disturbing novel, which says a lot about the way we love (and screw up our lives) now.”
–Phillip Lopate, author of Two Marriages