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. There are some upsetting chapters that deal with underage sex, domestic abuse and suicide which may be triggers for some readers .

But secrets have a way of following you and Eve soon learns that even in a quaint little fisherman's town like Sidmouth, there are still monsters lurking around every corner. I certainly found myself questioning my morals with this book because I am very much one who believes in doing the right thing and without giving too much away Eve does something unforgivable that would usually have me turning against a character however because we have seen what poor Eve has had to endure through her life there was a part of me that excused her for her actions. Undercurrent of the story was domestic violence, which was tackled in a believable and realistic way. Betrayal is one of Lesley Pearse's more contemporary books, set in the late 1990s/early 2000s and I didn't expect to like it quite as much as her historical ones but I absolutely loved it. Indeed, there’s a sense of threat that permeates the whole story so that the book has an edginess to it that I really enjoyed.It starts off with small but still inexcusable harm which soon escalates to Eve needing medical attention for broken bones and other injuries. And everytime he hit her, she told herself that it would get better, he just had a bad day, it won't always be like this.

She came to later to find herself lying in blood; she wasn’t sure which part of her was cut, as everything hurt. 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. International bestselling author Lesley Pearse has lived a life as rich with incidents, setbacks and joys as any found in her novels.With Lesley Pearse ‘s reputation for grippy, gritting stories that never shy away from the seamier side of life, I was expecting distressing themes here.