Blog Tour: The Playdate by Alex Dahl @alexdahlauthor @HoZ_Books

Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for The Playdate by Alex Dahl. We are excited to share our reviews with you today!

It was meant to be your daughter’s first sleepover. Now it’s an abduction.

About the book

Lucia Blix went home from school for a playdate with her new friend Josie. Later that evening, Lucia’s mother Elisa dropped her overnight things round and kissed her little girl goodnight.

That was the last time she saw her daughter.

The next morning, when Lucia’s dad arrived to pick her up, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia.

In Playdate, Alex Dahl puts a microscope on a seemingly average, seemingly happy family plunged into a life-altering situation. Who has taken their daughter, and why?

Brenda’s review

I was hooked right from the start when Elisa let her daughter go on a playdate that turned into a sleepover. Knowing that something terrible is going to happen and feeling that great sense of dread, I found myself yelling at her not to let her sleepover. I was tapping my kindle as fast as I could to find out what happens.

Alex Dahl creates some great suspense here with the different POVs from the characters that kept me guessing and asking myself so many questions. I enjoyed all the narratives; however, I struggled a bit with 7-year-old Lucia, who’s POV felt older to me, and I kept forgetting how old she was. She did add some emotional depth to the story and suspense, so it worked for me.

The story is well-paced with the suspense to it, and I had no idea what was going on in the first half. The tension increased with every page, and the pace picks up even more in the last half. All those questions I had entertained me, and I enjoyed trying to figure things out. The pieces started to come together for me in the last half, and I thought I had it all figured out, then I was disappointed when I didn’t. lol

Things wrapped up well for me, and I enjoyed this thrilling and entertaining yet unsettling page-turner that had me in suspense from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

Lindsay’s review

Edgy. Gripping. Intense.

This book shook me to the core. It revolves around the abduction of a seven-year-old girl. I have a daughter that age which intensified my connection to the storyline. This had me on edge from start to finish – my pulse pounding, my heart hurting, holding my breath as I flipped pages.

The narratives are brilliant! There are several highly intriguing character perspectives that change as the chapters unfold. The characters were real, emotional and authentic. I felt for them and was intensely invested in each of their stories.

The pace was quick, the flow was smooth — each chapter revealing slightly more to the backstory. It kept me hungry for more yet worried about what I would uncover.

I have read and loved every book by this author and this was no exception. This was a well-written, highly suspenseful, atmospheric, tension-filled psychological thriller. Loved every page of it!

About the author

Alex Dahl is a half-American, half-Norwegian author. Born in Oslo, she studied Russian and German linguistics with international studies, then went on to complete an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University and an MSc in business management at Bath University. A committed Francophile, Alex loves to travel, and has so far lived in Moscow, Paris, Stuttgart, Sandefjord, Switzerland, Bath and London. Her first thriller, The Boy at the Door, was a Sunday Times Crime Club star pick and was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger

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Twitter: @alexdahlauthor

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Facebook: @ alexdahlauthor