Book #23 Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface by Fiona Neill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for my ARC of Beneath the Surface. Three stars for some laugh out loud moments (were they intentional I wonder) but otherwise I was not enthused with the Vermuydens - a dysfunctional family without many if any redeeming qualities. Apart perhaps from 10-year-old daughter Mia. (She puts me so much in mind of Karen from the TV series Outnumbered). Parents Patrick and Grace, whose marriage was boringly monotone, and elder daughter Lilly, a high achiever at school until the day she has a seizure in Mr. Galveston's class:

'"They say to try chest compressions" Freya shouts back. Mr Galveston breaks into the chorus of 'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees...!' Visions of Vinnie Jones... There are several more very humorous moments in the book - just as well because there was little else to entertain me. Small things concerned me, like - Mia keeping an eel in a bucket, an eel that has no doubt made the journey from the Sargasso Sea only to be marooned in a muddy backwater in Cambridgeshire - where Mia finds it. This was not a rescue - it was unnecessary and cruel and bothered me the more I read about it.

I could drone on about un-achieving Patrick and paranoid Grace - but I won't. I am beginning to feel over-generous with three stars.....

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Book #63 The Betrayals

The Betrayals by Fiona Neill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A family friendship betrayed with a deception to reverberate through the years. Rosie and Nick appear to be happily married with two children, Daisy and Max. Rosie’s best friend Lisa is married to Barney with children Ava and Rex. The two families share a week’s holiday on the Norfolk coast in the cottage where Rosie grew up. But tensions mount between Lisa and Barney, a failing journalist in the music industry, who dwells on past successes as he hits the bottle. And, that summer, Lisa had an affair with Nick.

The repercussions have a terrible affect on Daisy, whose fragile hold on reality begins to unravel. Her level of OCD is chronic with repetitive actions she believes are necessary to protect her mother. Max blames himself for all that happened that summer with his cruel deception…. There is a flavour of Ian McEwan’s ‘Atonement’ here.

Recounted by four principal characters - Rosie, Nick, Daisy and Max this is an accomplished novel depicting a family in crisis. Four sides to a story, who to believe.

And then the letter from Lisa to Rosie, years later, that exposes dark secrets…

A family drama with much to recommend it although I did find the ending a little disappointing.

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