The Baby Swap by Daniel Hurst
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 17th February 2025
Published: 19th February 2025
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Someone stole my little boy. I’ll do whatever it takes to get him back…
ME: Staring down at the sweet baby in my arms, I feel panic instead of love. Because this isn’t the child I gave birth to. My husband whispers to the midwife. They all think I’m going crazy. But the tiny boy in my arms is crying again. I’m certain: he knows I’m not his mummy. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get my son back.
HER: I did it. I swapped my baby with another newborn in the hospital. As I hold the child in my arms, I hear my own little boy start to cry on the other side of the curtain. My heart is shattering into a million pieces.
I know I had no choice. I didn’t want to do this. But no one can ever find out the reason why I swapped my baby. Because if anyone knew the truth, my life and my child’s life would be in danger…
Number 1 bestselling author Daniel Hurst is the master of fast-paced thrillers with twist after twist. The Baby Swap is an utterly addictive, page-turning read with a jaw-dropping ending for fans of T.M. Logan, Freida McFadden and B.A. Paris.
MY THOUGHTS:
Someone stole my little boy and I'll do whatever it takes to get him back...
And...he's back!! I've taken time out from this author's thrilling 20 Minute series to read this latest release of his and Daniel Hurst is back with a bang! In his unique style of twists and whiplash, he delivers something of his trademark addictive plots that I have come to know and love. I devoured this book in around five or six hours reading time (I had to sleep in between) and it was thrilling and fast paced from beginning to end.
The story opens with a prologue that draws you in and grips you from the start. And leaves you guessing as to which mother is going to make the swap. Rewind back a few hours to the day before when both mothers go into labour and arrive at the hospital to find themselves sharing the same room, their beds beside each other.
We meet Avril, a forty-one year old woman who has undergone IVF for her miracle child, and Jade, a thirty-eight year old woman who found herself in a position she never thought possible. Both women give birth on the same day to the boys, within hours of each other, and back on the maternity ward have nothing but a privacy curtain separating them. One baby is placid and latches onto breastfeeding immediately while the other does nothing but scream the place down, his mother at a loss as to what to do to soothe him.
But in the hours that follow a plan is hatched, a swap is made and nothing is ever the same again. Each woman has the other's baby - one knowingly, the other completely unaware - as they each navigate the birth of motherhood.
Now while the concept was predictable enough - we guess pretty quickly who makes the swap - the why behind it slowly unfolds. But as with any Hurst thriller, nothing is as it seems and we just know there is far more to the tale that what we are being told.
The story unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Avril and Jade, both in the past and present, as we get to know each of the women and their secrets. And everything about them has lead to this moment. Both women were unreliable narrators and my opinion on whose side I was on kept changing. In the end, I found both of them deplorable in their actions but like any true Hurst thriller, he has finished with us readers yet...and he deals us with yet another and another and another twist. And true to form, there is never a dull moment, no lull in the plot and no way was I falling asleep, such was the action-packed thrill ride Hurst takes us on.
A tense, shocking (if a little OTT in parts, as is his style) and oh so hard to put down thrill ride. Pretty much, if Daniel Hurst writes it then I'm going to read it...whether I like it or not...because you are always guaranteed to be entertained from start to finish. I think I have read about 40 of his books so far and there are still so many more to devour...so I best get to it!
Another hugely entertaining read that was thrilling and captivating from beginning to end.
I would like to thank #DanielHurst, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheBabySwap in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
He has been employed in several glamorous roles in his lifetime, including bartending, shelf stacking and procurement administration, all while based in some of the most exotic places on the planet, like Bolton, Preston and South London.
Daniel writes psychological thrillers and loves to tell tales about unusual things happening to normal people. He has written all his life, making the progression from handing scribbled stories to his parents as a boy to writing full length novels in his thirties. He lives in the North West of England and when he isn’t writing, he is usually watching a game of football in a pub where his wife can’t find him.
Since following his lifelong passion for writing in 2020, he has amassed a loyal and devoted set of readers, and regularly has several books in the top 100 of the Psychological Thriller Charts on Amazon. His title The Passenger became the #1 selling psychological thriller in the UK in October 2021. The Doctor's Wife is his first publication with Bookouture.
A prolific writer, Daniel likes to keep readers on their toes by self publishing even more books in between those released through his publisher.
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