"The Betrayals" by Fiona Neill

An audio book, each chapter from a particular PoV.

Daisy's 21. Her boyfriend Kip is meeting her mother Rosy (a doctor specialising in Breast cancer) for the first time. Her father Nick (a memory specialist - he knews about false memories) walked out 7 years ago. She has a younger brother Max. Nick lives with Lisa (lawyer, now Yoga trainer), who used to be Daisy's best friend. Lisa has a daughter Eva, who was Daisy's friend, and Rex, who lives with his father Barry. Daisy intercepts a letter from Lisa to Rosy saying she has terminal breast cancer, and that she has something to tell Rosy. There's a key to Lisa's house in the envelope which gets lost before the envelope reaches Rosy. Rosie had an anxiety syndrome (or OCD) that made her do rituals to keep the ones she loved safe. She thinks she's having a relapse. She gets Kip to move in.

Max is a med student with a girlfriend Connie who's rather older than him.

Nick and Lisa are going to marry. They're going to tell their kids about the cancer after. Lisa's refusing chemo, preferring coffee enemas. She denies that she's contacted Lisa when Nick asks.

Rosy used sex to feel alive again after the break-up. She's active on Tinder. Someone she's having regular sex with, Ed, a few years younger than her, suddenly becomes part of her team at work. She hadn't known he was a doctor. She tries to dump him. He finds out her address, meets Kip and Daisy.

When Daisy was 12 the 2 families went on holiday. When she was on the beach nervously waiting for Rex to arrive and take her virginity she sees her father and Lisa have sex (though during Nick PoV section, he says they didn't get that far). Barry has serious drinking problems. Max fancies Eva. Daisy's obsession issues seem to worsen after that holiday. Max does all he can to help.

Back in the present, we learn that the note Daisy received that holiday saying to meet Rex on the beach was written by Max. Daisy had got into trouble at school because Eva had overdosed on a party drug that Daisy had brought to a gathering (she'd wanted to make peers like her). Max tells his father that Daisy's OCD started after Daisy saw him and Lisa having sex on the beach. Nick says it's a false memory - they were just friends at the time.

Instead of a hen-party, Lisa goes to a karmic, detox health weekend with Nick, who loses patience with the tutors. Rosy's using sex to get Ed out of her head. She swipes right before realising that the man is Barry. They meet all the same, for a chat. He'd considered a revenge shag with her. Now that he's stopped drinking he has a busy time with women. Lisa meets Rosy, apologising for the effect she's had on Daisy's health. She says that Nick has found a younger woman. Rosy invites Lisa onto her special chemo trial. She sleeps with Barry after all. Daisy meets Rex who tells her that he didn't send the note.

Nick discovers he's been sleeping with his son Max's girlfriend. From a distance Max watches Lisa strip and walk into the sea. A celebration swim?

Nick doesn't act/think like someone whose partner is rapidly dying. The Rosy+Barry and Max/Nick+Connie relationships at the end are unconvincing.

Other reviews

• jenmedsbookreviews
• damppebbles
• noveldelights (Max is infatuated by women who treat him badly. From Daisy, we see how her OCD controls her; from Max we find out about the guilt he has been carrying around since childhood; from Nick we discover how he uses life to justify his weaknesses; and from Rosie we see that she is unable to make new romantic attachments following being betrayed by the two people she trusted most. ... in parts I found it a tad disjointed with things left unclear. For me it was ambiguous in parts, especially the ending which really frustrated me. )
• handwrittengirl (‘The Betrayals’ was a difficult book to get into, filled with a complex and unlikable characters. Towards the end, I was almost looking forward to finishing it. ... The characters are complicated and self absorbed, all caught up in their own dramas and constantly seeking reassurance or forgiveness. At times, I found their neediness and drama irritating)
• Rebecca McCormick ( There are questions that are left unanswered when they shouldn't have been, and I felt like the last twenty percent of the book was a bit rushed and not entirely satisfying)