I am actually conflicted as to how I felt about this book. I never warmed to any of the characters which is very rare for me and I felt like the book just plodded along without any real momentum. However that said I did enjoy the storyline and how everything came together, I just feel it was 'eeked' out a fair bit.

A brief synopsis: Rosie was happily married to Nick and they had two children Daisy and Max until he had an affair with her best friend Lisa. Now, years later, we hear 4 people's account of what happened that Summer and the consequences that have led things to be as they are now.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Betrayals is a beautifully written slow-burner crackling with intrigue. Four flawed points of view reliving childhood trauma after an affair will have you wondering whose memory to believe. Resolution is so near yet so far and you won't stop thinking about 'what next?' at the finale. Gripping, painful and brilliant.

I really enjoyed this book and the themes of mental health, OCD and false memories were very cleverly woven into the story. I didn't particularly like the characters but found the roles that they played and how it affected the whole of the two families very interesting. Recommended!

Read in two days. An excellent tale of interwoven betrayals and the complexity of family

I'm struggling to be generous in giving this book three stars as two stars seems very harsh but means 'it was okay' which is truly all I can say about this book as a whole. It started off as 4 stars with a good writing style and lots to hook me in. But it got very tedious, repetitive and quite a number of the characters grated on me. One of the main themes was about mental illness and in particular OCD, so I tried to ignore the repetitiveness and constant mentions of doing things in threes as maybe it’s to emphasize the theme. Although it did feel it was to fill out the prose at times. It made for dull reading.

The plot starts with two families – Nick and Rosie with children Daisy and Max being friends with Barney and Lisa and their children Rex and Ava. All is good until Max and Lisa start an affair. Nick’s an academic who studies memory and how memories can be false or change over time. Much is made of this as well as the OCD theme so one is never entirely sure if what you are reading happened or is a muddled memory. The premise is good but one of the big hooks of the books is a letter written by Lisa to Rosie eight years after her affair with Nick and subsequent marriage. In this letter she wants to meet Rosie to tell her something important. This has an effect on several members of the family who are worried about what is about to be disclosed. Much of the last two thirds of the book is leading up to this disclosure and the potential consequences if it is what each person fears.

The ending was such an anti-climax that I actually wondered if the download to my Kindle had been cut off. It just stopped with loads of questions still in my mind along the lines of ‘what happened to...’, ‘how did x react when they found...’ and similar. The actual disclosure was so dull that I actually just had to go back to remind myself what it was even though I only finished the book yesterday. If there was a star rating for endings this is zero.

I enjoyed this book by Fiona Neill. The story is told from the perspective of four family members each with his/her own recollection of past experiences. This book tackles issues like divorce, OCD, cancer and love for your family members. This book also has some twists in that I did not expect. I would recommend this book if you love reading about the dynamics within relationships and how different people experience/remembers what happened in the past. It also deals how totally different people deal with tough obstacles.

Thank you Penguin UK via Netgalley for the copy.

Not really my type of book. Only read about 25%. Well written but unfortunately not my normal genre.

When two families whose lives are so closely entwined together suffer the betrayal of infidelity, the ripple effect is immense and life changing for all. The four children have to deal with mental health issues, alcoholism and the fall out of the their parents betrayal as well as coming to terms with their own actions and flawed memories of that summer when their world imploded.

A very well written and detailed account of the lives of these two families with incredible insight in memory recollection, cancer research, mental health and the love of families. There's no holding back and the emotions are raw and heartfelt. A brilliant read all round.

When Rosie Rankin's best friend has an affair with her husband, the consequences reverberate down through the lives of two families...

I was so pleased to get a copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley! It was near the top of my 'To Read' list after reading 'The Good Girl.' This book deals with contemporary modern families with ease, climbing the peaks and descending the slopes of the ups and downs of marriage, siblings, friendships, affairs and identity. Whilst also being hilarious - at the right moments! Nick's narrative particularly when talking about or to Gregorio for instance was just amusing and gave the right dose of hilarity right when it was needed. I feel there's scope for more as well - please...can we have more!?

Sometimes there are four sides to a story. Daisy has just got her life back together after battling through years of OCD. But then a letter arrives addressed to her mother, which threatens to open old wounds and reveal the secrets Daisy has tried so hard to keep hidden. The Betrayals was awarded the Richard & Judy Book Club 2017 Thriller award, and it’s easy to see why. An emotive novel about the complexities of family life, mental illness, betrayals and the fallibility of memories.

A Darker and Desolute have a final and betrayal .Best friends Rose and Lisa seems to Lisa that had it going on with Rose,s husband . After so long Rose gets a letter from Lisa . Does this letter prove it .i would like you to tell yourself that it is.

Always a sucker for novels set in Norfolk (it’s a childhood thing), I was delighted to receive my NetGalley copy of ‘The Betrayals’ by Fiona Neill. The author does a good job of evoking the very particular landscape as well as her rural and London interiors. In the portraying of the fallout from family betrayals, abandonment and divorce, however, I found the narrative less than convincing. Too many ‘big issues’ are crammed into this novel – alcoholism; promiscuity; cancer; nervous breakdown; OCD; alternative versus traditional medicine, to name a few– and so it becomes quite difficult to sympathise with anyone. There comes a point when the reader thinks, ‘Right, yet another catastrophe.’ It is almost as if, after having done a tremendous amount of research, the author has felt obliged to include everything she has learnt about all of the conditions at the expense of emotional truth.
I liked the idea of hearing the same story from different viewpoints and, of course, we would expect the adult/child perspectives to be different. Nevertheless, it would have been good to have had a fuller exploration of why Lisa decided that, on balance, it would be fine to run off with her best friend’s husband and how Rosie actually dealt with this over the course of the intervening years – other than going on Tinder (yawn!). The ‘dark secret’ that Lisa finally contacts Rosie about is rather a cliché in plot terms and the end of the novel is also rather contrived. Nevertheless, Neill writes well and there’s plenty to mull over. Perhaps this is a novel to read whilst lying on a Norfolk beach, if blessed with a day or two of sunshine!

In today's world the story of affairs, divorce and betrayal is common. This book tackles it brilliantly - with how the kids take sides, the pressure it puts on family members and the inadequacies people can feel as a parent. the added complication of mental illness and the blame children put on themselves makes for brilliant reading.

Your memory can play tricks on you and when everything changed that one summer the actions of everyone are skewed, A week of puppy love, rejection, adultery and alcoholism.shaped the future of everyone. The story picks up years later when Lisa contacts her ex best friend Rosie causing a downward spiral for Daisys mental health, questions around Maxs choice of roommate and girlfriend and asking questions that people didnt know existed.

There were parts of this book that felt familiar, and made me question if Id read the story before, I ve put this down to how the story flows and the way you are drawn in with the lives of the characters, and the Norfolk setting - maybe its just my memory making the association!

A great read about friendship and betrayal. The characters aren't particularly likeable but that doesn't mean it's not a cracking read.

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.

Do not expect the expected, very few characters are morally reliable. Dysfunctional comes close to describing the family dynamics but not quite close enough. This is an involving read and the north Norfolk coast is evoked as though you are there.

I really tried to like this book but after 4 sittings and still only getting to chapter 8, I gave up. I found it hard to invest in the characters. I think that was mainly due to the fact that there was so much detail ( or exposition) to wade through in every single chapter that I lost the story thread and didn't really care about the characters. I get there's a secret somewhere but due to the amount of minute detail I was only reminded of it when it was mentioned. The tackling of OCD was brave and clearly well researched ( maybe too much) but I didn't buy it. Also medical themes are so rife in this book ( I work in the pharmaceutical industry so it should have been interesting) that it read like a medical text book or a doctor's training manual and it was so boring. Rosie I didn't like, Max, not sure, Nick, not bothered and the main character with OCD ( can't remember her name I'm so disengaged) I found boring and irritating.
I am so sorry I can't be more positive but I really hated this book. Such a shame as I was really looking forward to it.
Thanks again for sending me a copy.

Best friends Rosie and Lisa have always holidayed together with their families, one summer Rosies' Husband Neil has an affair with Lisa which ends in divorce - the story is told from 4 different view points of Rosies' family - Rosie, Husband Neil and children Max and Daisy.
Daisy has the beginnings of OCD and what she sees on the last fatal holiday turns her OCD severe. For me this was an interesting and gripping story about trust , guilt and blame. It explained a lot about OCD and what a difficult disease it is to control.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book

At first I wasn't sure this book was for me as it told the story from the main characters Rosie, Nick, Daisy and Max perspective. As I read I found that I couldn't stop reading because I needed to find out what happens next. Even the end was not what I expected. An exceptional read thoroughly enjoyable.

The Betrayals by Fiona Neill
This is a story about family relationships and deception. It tackles some very sensitive topics including adultery, divorce, cancer and OCD. The characters were not particularly likeable but I thought that the writing was very good. I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.