Playdate

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Published by: Thomas Dunne Books
Release Date: January 18, 2011
Pages: 304
ISBN13: 978-0312656669

 
Synopsis

“Adams is that rare writer who sends out every laugh with a sting in its tail. Most novels fade from the memory. This one sticks.”
—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Inside their picture-perfect homes, the residents of this quiet California suburb are not at all what they seem.
Lance is a former weatherman, now a buff yogi, stay-athome dad, and manager of his daughter’s Girl Scout troop’s cookie distribution. Belle is his precocious and quick-witted daughter. Darlene is a classic Type A work-a-holic, she has little time or patience for the needs of her husband and daughter.

And just down the street are Alec and Wren. Alec, a womanizing businessman, is also the financial backer—and sometimes more—behind Darlene’s burgeoning empire. Meanwhile, Wren is a doting mother and talented yogi, ready to lay down the mat for a quick session with Lance.

As looming Santa Ana winds threaten to turn brushfires into catastrophe; Playdate proves that relationships are complicated and the bonds between families, spouses and children are never quite what they seem. 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.

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Praise

"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