Beneath the Surface by Fiona Neill
Description…..
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 . . .
My Review……
Everyone in the Vermuyden family has secrets, Patrick, Grace’s husband has one, and its one that could ruin the family……
Grace had a terrible childhood, so she was determined that her daughters Lilly and Mia would have a better one……
But wanting a better childhood puts more pressure on Grace, so in turn she’s more intense with her daughters.
Lilly is a Grade A student and is top of the class, she doesn’t want to be a grade A student, she wants a little fun and less of her mother breathing down her neck. She loves her mother, but just wants a little freedom…..
Mia on the other hand Is left waiting on the sidelines, waiting for her mother or father to notice her, her imagination keeps her entertained and so does her best friend a traveller called Tas.
It starts getting interesting when Lilly collapses in school with a fit.
Consumed at first with guilt, Grace needs to know why, and was it her fault. And when she finds evidence of a secret, then she had to dig further, what she finds could break her heart and her family.
I have to admit I did like Mia, she seemed the less screwed up member in the family.
I could see why Lilly wanted a secret life, but Is that secret the reason why she has the fit?
We have this misconception of what’s perfect, what’s seems like perfection to you, could be a foreign concept to me.
We need to let our children enjoy their childhoods, yes it’s important that they get a good education, but not at the expense of their mental and physical wellbeing.
Beautifully written. Well thought out. The description of the Fens, was both bleak and beautiful, I could imagine myself walking through it.
I would definitely recommend this.
🦋
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