Rosie and Lisa have been friends for years, their families are close and they spend a lot of time together. Rosie and her husband Nick, with their children Daisy and Max are on holiday in Norfolk at Rosie’s childhood home, Lisa and her family join them, and things spiral out of control when Lisa’s husband Barney becomes drunk and abusive and the friendship is torn apart forever.

Daisy who is thirteen has the beginnings of OCD, which becomes more severe after she sees something traumatic on the holiday. She enlists her younger brother Max to help her with her rituals and both their childhoods suffer. Years later Daisy intercepts a letter meant for her mum from Lisa and her OCD begins its downward spiral again.

This story is told from the points of view of Daisy’s family, how the OCD affected each member, and how Daisy dealt with her OCD, and what she thought triggered it, although she later finds out what she thought she had seen was something completely different. I was expecting a big reveal at the end and when there was none, it felt a bit anticlimactic. A good book dealing with a difficult subject.

WIsh I could have rated this more than just five stars! Kept me gripped throughout, if there is just one book you absolutely have to read this year, make it this one.

As always Fiona Neill's books have a way of gripping you from the get go. She writes about the simplest things, but also the most complicated. She writes about life, family life with all its everyday complications and The Betrayals is no different.

Two families, brought together by friendship. Lisa and Rosie have been friends for years and when Lisa's boyfriend Barney auditions for the same play as Nick, he gets introduced to Rosie and everything falls into place. Lisa and Rosie even give birth to their baby girls Ava and Daisy around the same time. It's perfect.



But things get complicated, after a disastrous holiday in Norfolk the two families are torn apart forever.


Daisy is battling OCD, all of them have stressful jobs and are struggling to cope but there's more going on in the background than meets the eye.


Some may view this book as anti climatic but I think what it is, is realistic. Passion, fear, hate, fear of disaproval can all seem like huge things in our own minds. It's easy to blame ourselves and fear it's something we did that made everything go wrong, especially when you're a child. That's why this book has such an impact because it's life inside our minds which is the truest and most scary place of all.

Excellent book. Great main characters and plot. I would recommend this book.

I loved the way the story was told from 4 points of view and how different perspectives were shown. Eye opening truth to how much a betrayal can affect the lives of so many.

My review as posted on Goodreads:

I found this novel intriguing in parts, but it didn't thrill me. After the first third, I nearly gave up.

It has family angst.
It has an interesting exploration of traditional and alternative medicine.
It explores OCD.

I think that the characters are revealed in a clever way.
I didn't give up and I'm glad, because it has some twists towards the end.

I give thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK (Michael Joseph) for a copy in exchange for this review.