Grace and Patrick seem to have a happy family life bringing up 2 Daughters Lily and Mia. Lilly is the intelligent one whilst Mia lives in her own dream world. Grace did not have the perfect childhood growing up so she is adamant her children will have the perfect childhood.

When Lily collapses at school, Grace realises that she knew nothing about lily having a boyfriend who she had been spending a lot of time with secretly behind their backs. What else has she been keeping secret? The gossips are our in full force speculating on what Lily has done or taken to cause a fit, worried that it might be contagious!!

Loved the way the characters were depicted making them feel very real. The whole family had their own secrets which they were careful not to reveal. It was like watching a house of cards collapse, 1 wrong move and the whole family structure collapses.

A must read family drama that had a surprising ending.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

This is the first Fiona Neill book I have read and, while it was an interesting look at a dysfunctional family, I didn't really feel I knew the characters by the end or really cared much about them.
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin UK for an advance copy of this book

This is a story of a very dysfunctional family. I thought the ending was too abrupt leaving many loose ends. Quite disappointing

This could have been so much more. The ending was way too abrupt - too many loose ends. I would have liked more introspection. None of the adults were likeable. I think we're set up to believe that Grace had done something terrible, which didn't turn out that way. I liked the daughters, although I thought a bit too much time was given to Mia. I got bored of all the Anglo Saxon stuff, and I didn't like her keeping an eel captive. There was too much also about the water / dykes / fens. An okay read, but it could have been so much better. With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A story about a dysfunctional family with a paranoid hyper mom Grace, a meek debt ridden father Patrick, daughters Lily and Mia. A routine life till Lily was struck down by an episode of fits in class. She survived, and stress was found to be the cause of the brain short-circuiting. Mia on the other hand had her own theories. The whole story was to see how this family functioned and to find out the reason of the fits

My first book by Fiona Neill, I liked the book in most parts. The reasons and secrets in that family made me doubly curious to get to the end. The mystery was present at every corner, Mia and her theories enhanced it. An archeological dig and discovery of graves caused her to link the events in the most interesting manner. At some points, I believed it too.

The rest of the characters peeked in all the chapters, but it felt they needed to be given more substance. They felt ghostly, I wanted more of an interesting backstory. Past always has an effect on the present and the future, this book brought it to light in a subtle way.

The whole book got a special oomph due to Mia. She was one of the most interesting characters I have read in recent times. Her analysis and arguments were so logical that they bordered on illogical. She was different from any child I have known. All my love for this book was for Mia.

Overall, the book captured me, and I had a fun evening with it.

Descriptive Fenland setting. A family of four with secrets. Those secrets will be exposed. Will their exposure lead t happiness or sadness for the family? Very involving and unexpected developments in the story.

I loved the story but not the ending. The book ended very abruptly and I felt that it needed one or two extra chapters to pull everything together.
My favourite character was Mia, I loved how she viewed the world and everyone around her. My least favourite character was Patrick, he was a bit spineless and kept a lot of stuff away from Grace. This book was full of secrets with Grace concentrating so hard on Lilly that she totally forgot about Mia. I loved the writing style but would have loved to find out what happened to everyone at the end.

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.

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