This book was a joy to read. A refreshing and honest insight into the struggles of bringing up children/teenagers with problems and differences. The teenager in the story is experiencing pseudo seizures and the younger sister, appears to be ‘different’ to her classmates.
The angst experienced by the mother for her children was palpable and I felt for her in, every page that I turned.
She too has her own mental anguish from childhood and maybe this contributes to her anxiety to get it right as a mother.
Throughout the book there was humour in one liners and these made me smile.
I was particularly moved by the ending of the book. It was beautifully written and drew the story to its conclusion. It left me imagining what might come next and with a tear in my eyes. Beautiful story.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. Not the usual type of book for me but once started I found it compelling. The story is of a disjointed family whose characters are not really easy to take to. Husband/ father Patrick has recently lost several hours in his teaching job and is heavily in debt to his brother for builders bills and owes vast amounts on credit cards. Wife/mother Grace a part time reporter on the local newsheet appears to be somewhat neurotic and knows nothing of the huge debts the family have. They have two daughters Lilly and Mia. Lilly is a very educated 17 year old heading for a great future when an illness hits her. This causes her mother to become paranoid about her health which drives a huge wedge between them. Mia is 10 years old and is mildly autistic. She is my favourite character creating several amusing scenarios. For me she made the story. I was very disappointed when I got to the last page as the story seemed incomplete. I was left high and dry at the abrupt ending which left so many loose ends. My thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This book is a completely different genre to the other Fiona Neill book I’ve read, so it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

Grace had a very haphazard upbringing, so she wants more stability for her daughters, Lilly and Mia. Unfortunately, this also means that she’s a bit of a pushy, helicopter mother. The family – including dad, Patrick – had to move to a cheaper property and ended up in a new-build built on fenland, so they always have damp and dust in the property, and this adds to Grace’s stress.

Mia, the younger daughter, is quite eccentric and a bit precocious, but Lilly is top of the class for everything. One day, Lilly collapses in class and everything starts to twist and turn.

A great read if you like dark, but true-to-life, mysteries with some humour provided by Mia!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK/Michael Joseph for an advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

Patrick and Grace Vermuyden and their two daughters, Lilly (18) and Mia (10) are the central characters in this novel. Grace (whose own mother was a disaster) is determined to be a good mother and is fixated on Lilly the golden child, destined for Cambridge University. She is a helicopter parent. Unfortunately this means that Mia is somewhat over-shadowed (perhaps even neglected): an odd child with undiagnosed symptoms that manifests itself in challenging behaviour at home and at school – perhaps a ‘problem’ child. Weirdly she is fixated on Elvis an eel that she found and keeps in a bucket in her bedroom.

Elvis the eel and the many descriptions of the dyke, and the canals and the flat landscape feature heavily. To be fair, they are needed to develop the plot, but really! I found them boring and the eel revolting.

Besieged with debts and domestic and marital problems things start to unravel when Lilly has a seizure at school which leads to hospitalisation and Grace’s determination to uncover what had been happening in Lilly’s life. Mia is virtually ignored – even though she holds the key to Lilly’s secrets.

What hateful people the adults are. Lilly is somewhat one-dimensional but perhaps that is a fair assessment as she has been subject to so much stress by her mother. Mia, however, is a delight. Odd, but a delight and her observations were at times very funny.

The ending was a bit of a surprise, but not a shock upon reflection. I was startled by the suddenness of the last paragraph (and in fact turned the page to see if there was any more to come) but my last thought was ‘all a bit late now’.

Having said all that, the prose itself was nicely written and somewhat lyrical in relation to the landscape, but unfortunately I didn’t care about that. Worth a read, just, I think.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

This book is set in the fens just outside Cambridge and the flat watery landscape plays an important part in the story. Patrick's Dutch ancestors help drain the fens but when he is forced by financial problems to move his family to a new build house in the countryside they have to battle against damp and dust.

His wife Grace seems strangely obsessed that their daughters learn to swim. We gradually learn the reason for this and her tiger mother style of parenting.

This was the first book I have read by Fiona Neill. I received a free prepublication review copy from Penguin books. I found it difficult to predict where the story was going. During the first part of the book which I enjoyed I thought it was going to be a fantasy or a ghost story. I did think the ending was a little flat.

After her troubled childhood, Grace Vermuyden wants a better life for her two girls Lily and Mia. Lily is a top student, expecting to go to Cambridge next year and Mia is a troubled child and always getting up to mischief. Her husband Patrick is in debt but hasn’t told his wife how much. Grace pushes her daughter Lily to do her very, very best at school. So much, that Lily has a fit at school. Her teacher must perform CPR to save her life. She survives and spends time in hospital. While her mother searches for clues to what causes her fit. Even hacking her phone to see what she has posted on her social media page. Whilst this occurs another child falls ill and rumours spread that it has something to do with The Fens or the wind turbines that surround he local area.
The rest of the story surrounds Mia her relationship with her family and her only friend Tas, a traveller for the local Traveller site and the disappearance of a ring from the local Archaeological site.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for a copy of this book. This is the second book of Fiona Neill and I am afraid that this book is not for me. I found this slow, especially about the first 30% of the book I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The only character I liked was Mia and her eccentricity and the what can I say about the ending. It was very flat and the whole story left me with unanswered questions.

This novel grabbed me and didn’t let me go until I’d finished. A story of a family, told from varying viewpoints, which effectively helped the reader to understand the different dynamics. I especially enjoyed seeing things from the secondary and primary school girls, Lilly and Mia. Mia in particular was a quirky character whose thought processes were fascinating.

As I saw I was reaching the end of the novel I didn’t know how the author was going to wrap it all together. The denouement was fast and startling and mostly satisfying.

One I’d recommend.

I don't really want to post a negative review but I read half of the book and never really got into it. Thanks to Netgalley and PenguinUK/Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read and review Beneath the Surface,

Not really sure about this book personally, I found it hard to get into and I didn't particularly like the characters.

I ended up doing a fair bit of skim reading and was glad when I got to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin UK (Michael Joseph) for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The story felt unsure, the narration uncertain as a reader. It kept making me ask myself if this is just another dysfunctional family or a mystery or what exactly is it.

I found this a difficult book to engage with as none of the characters were particularly nice people. A complex story of family dynamics and flawed personalities.

As a child Grace battled constantly to keep herself and her younger brother safe in the chaotic household her narcissistic hippy mother called their home. By the time she met and married Patrick she knew she wanted the kind of safe family she’d seen her schoolmates growing up in and foolishly thought steady reliable Patrick was the man to provide it. Until he loses his regular teaching job and has to rely on casual teaching hours she seems to have succeeded. Eldest daughter Lily is pretty, hard-working and with the right amount of extra work, which Grace makes sure she dies, destined for Oxbridge. Youngest daughter Mia isn’t quite so straightforward, probably somewhere on the autistic spectrum, and prone to obsessions, but she will do anything for her beloved sister.

Grace is unaware that Lily has started to rebel against her regimented life until Lily collapses in school with a mysterious illness that’s soon causing panic in their community. Mia is convinced the way to help Lily lies with the body of a pregnant Anglo Saxon girl she’d send on a school trip. Grace is too busy searching Lily’s things for evidence that her secret boyfriend is to blame to realise what Mia is up to and Patrick just wants all their problems to go away and give him his easy life back.

Enjoyable mix of family mystery and ghost story, perfect for the beach.

Beneath the Surface is an interesting family drama which makes good use of the backdrop of The Fens to add to the air of suspense and drama.
Grace is an overprotective mother to Lily (17) and Mia (10). Her husband tries to balance her parenting strategies by being laid back with the girls, but he has his own failings, not least allowing the debts to mount, leading the family to make the move from the centre of Cambridge to a new build house, with damp problems, in a less salubrious part of the area.
Both Grace and Patrick carry problems from their respective familial relationships.
Lily has always been popular and top of the class. Mia is the opposite, she has some undiagnosed condition which has traits of being on the autism spectrum, she has only two friends, Tas, a young boy who lives on the nearby travellers site, and Elvis the eel. Mia is a shining star and my favourite character in the book.
The family’s troubles deepen when Lily has a seizure during an English lesson. This brings to the surface a whole heap of problems for all of the family.
Whilst I enjoyed this book on the whole, I found the pace of it just much too slow at times (hence the rating given).
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what a read, great charecters a great story that kept me gripped from the start, bit of a fast heartbeat reading that last chapter

A slow burner but a insightful read into a dysfunctional family

They move to Cambridge and the mother rules the roost, saying what they can and can't do etc. This is all sue to her traumatic upbringing and we see the results of her life on those around her now.

When a 'mysterious illness' affects one of the girls, Grace finds that her grip on her past, the control and of course reality starts down a slippery slope.


Not one for me ultimately. There's a lot about illness and trauma in a family but those fans of family dramas and character insights will like it.

Well written book that is quick and easy to read. I was intrigued as to what would be revealed but felt a bit let down by the ending. It felt a little rushed and I wasn't blown away by the revelations. However, it would make a great beach read as it's not too taxing and is relatable if you have children as I could empathise with the playground politics and the pressures placed on teenagers.

' Human beings are nothing more than layers and layers of secrets...'
This novel is about a family who, due to financial difficulties, move to a new development on the outskirts of Cambridge. Due to a traumatic upbringing, which she has hidden from her family, Grace is controlling with her children and wants to ensure the very best for them. When a 'mysterious illness' affects one of the girls, Grace finds everything spiralling out of control and secrets are ultimately revealed.

The characters are well developed, and though I didn't like all of them, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. My favourite character was Mia, I liked her eccentric nature and the humour she brought to the story. Despite her and her sister being very different personalities, they still had a close relationship.

This book is an engaging, enjoyable read. I would recommend it and will certainly look for more by this author.

I really enjoyed this book, I do love a good family drama where nothing is as it seems!
Grace, and Patrick are on the surface a happy couple, with their teenage daughter Lily excelling at school and 10 year old Mia, while quirky and eccentric, appears to be happy enough. However, we soon find out that they all have their secrets.
I felt so bad for Grace, when her past is revealed it goes some way to explain her anxieties as a parent. Some of Mia's antics are really funny, and I loved her show and tell scenario! A lot of the family's problems are caused by none of them being honest about anything and some major misunderstandings, I felt like sitting them all down and making them talk to each other.
Very enjoyable, I would certainly recommend this book.

Beneath the Surface by Fiona Neill a four-star read filled with drama. This is all about lies beneath the surface, but its also filled with family politics and family drama. We all know family drama is the type of drama that scratches the surface and unravels so much, its complex and thrilling, much like this story. The writing is great, and will keep you hooked for the most part, there are a few dips but overall very well done.

I’d like to thank Penguin UK-Michael Joseph and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Beneath The Surface’ by Fiona Neill in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Patrick Vermuyden is debt-ridden and has been forced to move with wife Grace and daughters Lilly and Mia to a house in the Black Fens which is permanently damp and covered in red dust. Grace wants Lilly and Mia to have a better childhood than the one she experienced and pushes them to achieve the best grades at school. When Lilly has a seizure and is kept in hospital, secrets are discovered that could change the family's lives forever.

Fiona Neill has produced a beautifully written and thought-provoking novel of a family and their secrets. The further I got into the story the more I was captivated by each individual character, their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams, all of them coming across as unique individuals. ‘Beneath The Surface’ has been written with compassion and empathy and I can thoroughly recommend it.