Beneath the Surface - The closer the family, the darker the secrets (Hardcover)

THE STUNNING NEW SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BETRAYALS AND THE GOOD GIRL 'No one writes about modern family with more truth or authenticity than Fiona Neill' Lisa Jewell Everyone is talking about Grace's family. Once it was for all the right reasons - now it's for all the wrong ones. Grace is determined to give her daughters the idyllic childhood she never had. Teenage Lilly is everyone's golden girl, the one Grace never has to worry about - unlike ten-year-old Mia, whose wild imagination often gets her into trouble. But when Lilly suddenly collapses at school, Grace's carefully ordered world is turned upside down. Because it soon turns out that Lilly wasn't the perfect daughter after all. Grace is fixated on discovering the truth about Lilly. Which is when she takes her eyes off Mia . . . Beneath the Surface, the stunning new novel from Sunday Times bestseller Fiona Neill, explores the consequences of family expectations and the burden of keeping secrets. __________ 'Well-paced and intriguing' Daily Mail 'A rich, dark and satisfying read about the complexities of modern family life. I adored it' Jane Fallon 'Neill describes human dysfunction with such compelling empathy . . . richly tense and deeply satisfying. I didn't want to finish!' Hilary Boyd 'Beautifully told with great suspense' Rachel Hore 'The perfect read to lose yourself in on holiday this summer' Isabelle Broom, Woman & Home Reading Room 'With her trademark dark humour and incisive observations of family life, Neill takes the reader on a fascinating, moving and intelligent journey to the truth' Gillian McAllister Praise for Fiona Neill: 'A novel made for heated book club debates' Stylist 'Vivid and insightful' Guardian

General

Imprint:	Michael Joseph
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	July 2019
Authors:	Fiona Neill
Dimensions:	234 x 153 x 39mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	400
ISBN-13:	978-0-7181-8978-5
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Adventure / thriller > General
LSN:	0-7181-8978-7
Barcode:	9780718189785

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My review

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 | Review by: Breakaway R.

Well written but found the ending disappointing. Patrick and Grace Vermuyden have two daughters, Lilly who is 17 and a top student hoping to get into Oxbridge and Mia who is 10 and a mercurial little girl in the shadow of her clever older sister. The family have had to move from the middle of Cambridge to a house in the fens that is badly constructed and needs a lot of work and money spent to keep it habitable. Unfortunately, Patrick has had his hours of work cut and is juggling debts by borrowing from his brother and not telling Grace about their monetary problems. The whole plot revolves around secrets between all the members of the family. Grace has had a terrible upbringing with an uncaring, irresponsible mother. She is determined that she will be the total opposite for her own children but in trying to becomes so obsessed only alienating both her daughters. Lilly is crushed when her first relationship ends badly and shortly afterwards suffers a fit in school and is rushed off to hospital. Grace has no idea why this has happened because Lilly does not confide in her, but Mia has found out what has happened or so she thinks. Yet again Lilly becomes the centre of attention and Mia, left to her own devices, tries to link her sister's illness with an Anglo-Saxon burial ground recently discovered nearby. Mia's theory is that by disturbing the remains on the site, a disease has been released, which has affected Lilly. I enjoyed reading this book, there were so many twists and turns with the characters who all seemed to have their own secrets, but at the end of the book, nothing seemed to have been resolved. The ending was sudden, and I was expecting a further chapter to tie up loose ends and let me know the outcome of all the many bombshells that we were told about. I found myself not really feeling any empathy with the characters in the book, and this is why I have only given it 3 stars. Dexter Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

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