So pleased to have had the opportunity to read 'Beneath the Surface' by Fiona Neill. This is the second book that i have read by this author, having previously read 'The Betrayals'. If you ask me which i preferred, i would say this book.

An excellent read and one that had me gripped from the beginning to end. I loved the characters, who all had their own issues. My favourite being Mia, who managed to bring a smile to my face with her eccentricity. The ending was not what i was expecting, so that took me by surprise. It did make my heart skip a beat! I believe this is a book that is worth a read.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, which i have freely given.

I’ve read a few Fiona Neill books now and enjoyed them all, but I honestly think Beneath the Surface is my favourite. The Fenland setting is beautifully rendered and the story of the Vermuyden family kept me completely engaged.

Seventeen year old Lilly has always excelled in everything but first love has her completely unravelled.

Then there’s Mia, an eccentric ten year old who keeps an eel in a bucket beside her bed and apparently has no filter for the appropriateness of anything she says.

Meanwhile, tiger mother Grace, haunted by the ghosts of her own childhood, wants the very best for her children but doesn’t necessarily go about it wisely. And dad Patrick is financially drowning, the damp family home collapsing around them.

There’s some nice satire, too, regarding the social-media-fuelled hysteria around certain health scares.

A great, satisfying read.

Beneath the Surface is a family drama built on layers of simmering tension.

The Vermuydens are a family of four. Mother Grace, a perfectionist who wants the best for her family, even if they're not that bothered. Father Patrick, mesmerised by his family's ancient history in the Fens and seemingly unable to do anything about the house falling apart around him. Lily, a teenager with secrets inside her body and out, and Mia, the unconventional younger child who wants nothing more than her best friend by her side.

One day Mia finds a pregnancy test in the garage and shows it to her sister, who immediately claims it as her own. She says it's dealt with, but really it's the trigger for most of what else follows. Lily falling ill, Grace struggling to cope, Patrick's debts spiralling and Mia's cunning plans escalating. What happens if they all fall apart?

The characters are interesting in different ways. Grace is initially difficult to understand. She's a pushy mother and consumed with protecting her family and their reputation. But as the book goes on, flashbacks show us why she is who she is.

Lily is a popular, clever teen, but struggling to navigate the relationships in her life and find her place in the world. Does she want to be top of the class? Does it matter if she isn't? She doesn't want to disappoint her mother but is aware she might have to and to me, much of the bulk of this book was about getting to that point. I found their relationship convincing.

Mia up until now has been quite clearly the less favoured daughter. She's a little kooky, to say the least, and even her teachers don't really know how to handle her. But she's on her own course and eventually her parents have to take notice or risk losing her.

This isn't a book packed with twists and turns (although there are some) - it's more about the slow build-ups to well-earned reveals than cheap shocks. It's a family drama not a suspense thriller, although I think the cover/title treatment may lead some people to think they're picking up something different.

I'm glad I spent time with this fictional family - they gave me a lot to think about.

Another excellent book by Fiona Neill. Grace Vermuyden wants her daughters to have the very best start in life, with the close and supportive family bonds she never had in her own dysfunctional childhood. Her older daughter, Lilly, is the golden girl - good at school, lots of friends, while Mia is intelligent but more of a wild child with a very particular way of looking at the world. Then Lilly has a fit at school and Grace realises that her older daughter has complications in her life she, Grace, was entirely oblivious to. As Grace obsesses over Lilly, Mia is also following a thought pattern that her parents are unaware of. And there are other secrets in this family's cupboard ...

A compelling read about a family with lots of secrets and characters you feel real empathy with. Not all the loose ends are entirely tied up - but real life's like that. An excellent book.

I enjoyed this one overall, but found myself struggling to keep the names correct as it went on. It seemed to have a lot going at once. However, I thought the dialogue was well done and when finished, I was glad I read it. Thanks for letting me review this one. The family drama aspect of the story was top notch.

This story was so obscure. It felt like it was building to so much more but it just fell flat.

Mia was an incredibly likeable character. Grace and Patrick were infuriating. Lily I was indifferent about. There wasn’t enough character development and as a result I wasn’t invested in the story and it was a slog to get to the end. I also felt that there questions which were left unanswered / the answers weren’t satisfying enough.

2 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Fiona Neill and Penguin for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of the best modern family novels I've read in ages - it was very well written. The characters were clearly drawn, and rang true. Mia and Grace were my favourites, and I'd love to read more about Mia as she navigates puberty.
At first one wondered why Grace had chosen such a weak ineffectual husband, but learning more of her childhood made this clear.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. This was a good story, quite hard to get into. There is a lot going on with the characters, it was hard to keep up with them. A good storyline. Not quite for me though.

Beneath the Surface focuses on a family of an overbearing mother, Grace, a whimsical father Patrick, a bright and talented daughter Lily and the eccentric daughter Mia. Really, the only character I was particularly drawn to was Mia, her outrageous and gutsy attitude made her at least interesting. All of the other character (including the sub characters) just didn't feel fleshed out enough for me.

This book sadly just didn't go enough places for me. I didn't hate it, but I'm not sure I'll be singing it's praises. The story was fine, the characters ok, but I just didn't feel it and it didn't move me. I think the word I'm looking for is anti-climax. I had high expectations, and yet, I was left wanting more.

I thought that this book was brilliant. I have read The Betrayal and enjoyed that but liked this one just as much. The title Beneath the Surface is such a good title for this book. Grace is the mother who is so protective of her daughters especially her eldest, so overpowering at times but we find out why throughout the book. My favourite is Mia a little girl who is different and only has one friend and a pet eel. She for me makes this book so emotional and readable. I loved the way the story unfolded and thought that it was realistic the way things can escalate. An excellent read

Whilst the story is about Grace and Lily, their mother daughter relationship and Graces past – it felt like it was more about Mia. Even Patrick, Graces husband felt like a non character. Lily is a top student, her mums confident she’ll go to Cambridge next year, shes smart, and dedicated and is going to have the life Grace never had. By contrast Mia is almost a problem child, questioning and very open, blunt even, and has struggles at school. Shes also superstitious and a little scared that the myths of the fens are real.

The background is that the family moved to a new home in the fens because of money problems, into a new build thats full of damp. Grace thinks the builders are fixing it, and Patrick is finding the money from his brother. The girls are in the garage when Mia finds a pregnancy test, which Lily takes responsibility for but when Lily has a seizure at school, unexpectedly Mia wonders if she should tell everyone her sisters secret.

The book runs slowly building up information, the more we learn of Graces past the more you understand her behaviour as a parent. Its easy to understand Lily aswell, we’ve all been teenagers and needed to be our own person, found a first love.

I really enjoyed the book, It created questions that I needed answered. It had characters that were real, and understandable – and right down to the last page I was gripped. I would have liked a final chapter, I feel like we’re missing a wrap up, and it makes me feel a little cheated!

To begin, I’d like to thank Penguin UK for sending me an ARC of this book, and to NetGalley for facilitating. And thank you to Fiona Neill!

No spoilers as usual in this review.

For me personally, I could have gone without reading this book. It didn’t grip me or move me. Mia was an interesting character but there was no point where I felt I couldn’t put the book down. I predicted the big reveal as soon as the story began and as that was the entire basis of the ending it was a bit of a let down.

Each of the main characters have their own issues, secrets. And each of the characters is developed in just enough detail for you to empathise with them, but not enough for you to emotionally invest in them.

And this isn’t a book that wraps everything up at the end. There is much left unresolved, questions where the subject was focussed on quite heavily were forgotten about for the ending and after the “big reveal” there was nothing. No description of the consequences. Just “this is the truth. The end.” It would have been good to have explored some of the aftermath of these secrets once they were revealed, because I was waiting on the inevitable confrontations that never appeared. So in many respects it seems to have ended in a rush, a bit prematurely. Which incidentally is exactly what I felt after the previous book, The Betrayals.

So in all, I finished the book so it wasn’t terrible, but it’s not one I would personally recommend. It built up to go nowhere - It was too much of an anti-climax.

This story is based around a family of four: Grace, whose hugely unstable background has driven her to seek a better, more solid life for her children; her husband, Patrick, who tries hard, but often has his head in the sand until it's too late; Lilly, their older daughter, an academic high achiever who is keeping secrets, and Mia, the younger daughter, who is clearly intelligent and incredibly creative, but who struggles with many aspects of everyday life. When Lilly has a seizure at school, it forces everyone to reconsider their choices and priorities, to face up to past mistakes and current problems.

There is a good story-arc here and Fiona Neill creates everyday, complex characters. The writing is sympathetic and understanding to all the main characters while acknowledging their weaknesses. I found Mia the most interesting character, despite her being a child - although at times I felt her behaviour and thought-processes were unlikely for her age. I would have liked more character progression for Lilly, and while I could relate in some ways to Grace and Patrick, I found it more difficult to connect with them.

There are parts of the book which are not especially relevant to the story and don't seem to propel it forward, but overall I found it enjoyable and engaging.

I'm a real fan of Fiona Neil's books. I loved The Betrayals which was her last book and the first of hers that I read and I subsequently went on to read all her earlier books which I also enjoyed very much. She has a knack of describing family life in a very realistic way and in bringing to the fore the worries that parents have about their children in the modern world. In The Betrayals she gave a very good portrayal of a teenage girl with OCD and once again in Beneath the Surface she has managed to get into the mind of a child who is different.

Grace has two daughters, the younger Mia is constant source of worry. She has an undiagnosed developmental disorder which sets her apart in her class at school. She finds it hard to make friends - the other children find her weird and too blunt - and her only friend is the other outcast in the class, Tas, a boy from a travelling family. Lilli on the other hand is Grace's pride and joy, an able girl in many areas, she is set to go to Cambridge. When Lilli collapses in class with what looks like epilepsy, Grace's life starts to unravel. Not only does she discover that Lilli has been deceiving her but with two other children closely following Lilli to hospital the national media mills round speculating as to the cause of the mystery illness. Meanwhile, Mia obsesses that everything is going wrong because archeologists are digging up an Anglo Saxon burial site.

All in all, a really good read with a riveting finale. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the ARC.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed previous books by this author, so, was looking forward to reading this one. However, I’m afraid, for me, this was just an OK read.
I just didn’t care enough for the characters and found it too plodding a storyline. Sorry!

I do appreciate having the opportunity to preview and I wish it every success.