Betrayal

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It was an extraordinary childhood and in all her books, Lesley has skilfully married the pain and unhappiness of her early experiences with a unique gift for storytelling. Her father was away at sea and it was only when a neighbour saw Lesley and her brother playing outside without coats on that suspicion was aroused - their mother had been dead for some time. The plot moves along at a cracking pace and events have a disturbing ring of truth for so many women’s lives in them. reaction which shuts down honest conversation and applies a passive aggressive guilt to the victim, regardless of sex.

Lesley has a reputation for writing gritty, confronting stories that don’t shy away from distressing issues. Betrayal’s themes make it a disturbing read at times, but Lesley Pearse handles them with clarity and sensitivity making it a compelling read. Betrayal looks at the worst kind of domestic violence and does so with a sharp eye for detail and a sympathetic way of recounting a story which is all too familiar namely that of women who are scared of the consequences of leaving a violent partner. Don is angry at his family’s departure and this anger compounds when Eve and the children are granted access to the family home.With her father in the Royal Marines, Lesley and her older brother spent three years in grim orphanages before her father remarried - a veritable dragon of an ex army nurse - and Lesley and her older brother were brought home again, to be joined by two other children who were later adopted by her father and stepmother, and a continuing stream of foster children. Whether it’s because Eve has an eye for interior design, but I found the writing painterly and vivid, creating strong images in my mind’s eye. It shows how insidiously the coercive control has co-opted Eve's sense of self and her world view, she would stay for the sake of shame and social propriety than leave.

Don starts to make Eve’s life a nightmare and refuses to let her go quietly, using intimidating behaviour to frighten her. The bleakness of her life with Don and her subsequent struggles are lightened not only by her own courage and determination, but by the strength of the other characters in the book, who are a testament to the fundamental good heartedness of most people. This also means that's she has surpressed trust issues and can't fully commit to another romance in the future. It’s 1999 and 28-year-old Eve is living a miserable existence with her extremely violent husband Don. The path is not easy but driven by the need to give her children a future, she starts to rebuild her life.She eventually finds the courage to leave him, taking their two children, Olly and Tabitha, with her. She does not begin in adversity and simply end up in success, but Lesley Pearse puts her through all manner of trials and achievements that make Eve feel vivid and real.

It is not an easy path, and being honest to herself forms a huge part of of her journey, but the end shows , in how she has raised her children, that she has made a family of survivors rather than victims. Betrayal by Lesley Pearse published with Michael Joseph July 6th and is described as a book that ‘will keep you gripped until the very end. Eve’s mother Sandra had died from breast cancer when she was ten, and her father Jack had become a dour, difficult man, so getting married and gaining a home of her own seemed a happy solution. There are lots of social and cultural issues which are tackled within the pages of Betrayal-from domestic violence, to financial control, grooming and suicide. Granted it was only a two-up two-down in a scruffy road in Lewisham, and in bad repair, but Eve felt she could make it lovely.

It starts off with small but still inexcusable harm which soon escalates to Eve needing medical attention for broken bones and other injuries. Undercurrent of the story was domestic violence, which was tackled in a believable and realistic way. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. I always find time to start reading as soon as a book is in my hands (something my husband realises each year when I show him her latest book)!