The Playground by Jane Shemilt

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Jane Shemilt's latest, The Playground.

Eve, Melissa, and Grace will all do anything for their children. It's this drive that pushes Eve to start a special tutoring session to help children with dyslexia—children like Poppy. As the session advances, the parents socialize and become, some might say, close. Secrets are shared and more are kept hidden. And by the end of the summer what began as budding friendships turns into something much more dark and sinister.

I was excited to dive into The Playground considering how much I enjoyed Shemilt's The Daughter. And it's been quite a time since that previous release.

The Playground is the same sort of family drama/thriller as The Daughter. The story is set over the course of a few months, beginning with Eve kicking off her new tutoring sessions for Poppy and two other children with dyslexia—Blake, the son of a well-known author, and Isabelle (Izzy) the daughter of an acquaintance of Eve's husband. The kids are joined by Eve's other two children and Blake's sister, spending time in Eve's garden between lessons, scheming more than they are playing. But their parents don't know any better.

And the parents don't know because they're, frankly, not great parents!

Eve is absorbed in her own melodrama. Melissa is studiously focused on not irritating her ass of a husband, and Grace works so much that her husband is left in charge of the kids over the summer.

To say much more would probably give some of the story away. I will say that it's pretty dark. I'll also say that almost from the start, some of the pieces that are coming are easy to tease out before Shemilt really starts heavily hinting at them.

Shemilt's writing is the kind you can really sink into. She's wordy, but not in a bad way. Her prose is pitch perfect in description and each of the characters comes to life—not an easy task with such a cast of featured characters and with such a range of ages.

But again, it is a dark read.

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Jane Shemilt and her work you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Daughter by Jane Shemilt

Hi, readers! Today I'm part of the TLC book tour for Jane Shemilt's debut, The Daughter.

On the second to last night of her performance in West Side Story, Jenny's daughter, Naomi, is supposed to be out at an after party with her fellow cast members. But when Naomi doesn't return home , Jenny discovers there was no party. Or at least not that night anyway. Naomi has vanished, seemingly without any trace.

As time passes, Jenny refuses to give up hope but as more and more of Naomi's secrets begin to come to light she realizes she knew very little about her daughter.  

I was a little worried about reading this one pretty much back to back with Lacy Eye. Fortunately, even with some similarity in themes, the two books are very different. The most outright differences right off the bat were the voice and style of the narrative. The Daughter is told from Jenny's perspective, first person, and the reader gets a very clear sense of her personality and her emotions immediately.

Chapters alternate between 2009 and 2010/2011 with Jenny reexamining (as our lead in Lacy Eye did) the events leading up to her daughter's disappearance. As it turns out, Naomi wasn't the only one with secrets. Jenny's world essentially falls apart as she discovers that those around her - those she thought she knew better than anyone else - have all been hiding things.

The Daughter is as much a family drama as a thriller. More so, perhaps. It's really a wonderful blend of suspense and emotion. And full of really lovely imagery. Shemilt's style is lush with description! Honestly, this doesn't read at all like a debut. Shemilt has an assurance to her writing that seems to come naturally given this is her first release.

Rating: 5/5

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. For more on Jane and her work, you can follow her on Twitter.