#BlogTour ‘Betrayal’ by Lesley Pearse

About the book…

Eve should never have married Don Hathaway. Yes, he gave her two beautiful children – Olly and Tabitha – but he is a bully.

Worse than that, he hurts her.

But, after one drunken rage too many, she has the courage to leave him. Eve is warned that it’s a difficult path, yet she needs to give her children hope for the future.

Don, however, is bitter. And getting away entirely from him proves impossible.

Until the day, Eve tries to teach him a lesson – and it all goes horribly wrong.

Eve loves her children but now she carries a terrible burden that she dares not share. Has she betrayed her and her children’s futures?

‘Betrayal’ by Lesley Pearse is out today, 6th July, in hardcover from Michael J Books, my thanks to Courtney at Ed PR for my gifted review copy and invite to the blogtour!

Opening with a brutal act of violence upon his wife, Donny Hathaway establishes himself as a brute of the worst sort. This is clearly not the first time he has bestowed this casually bloody act on Eve, but the effect it has on her is to determine that it will be his last.

Her children and the thought of being labelled a subpar wife have kept her in marital chains for years, her weddong was a drunken event not worth recalling, Don’s behaviour towards her family marking as a day to forget and not remember. 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.

The betrayal of the title is how Don treats Eve, however, she is so immersed in her one and only long term relationship she believes leaving him would be an act of betrayal of their wedding vows. It is a clear and stark insight into the other side of the equation when those who have -thankfully-never been in a relationship like this, ask ‘Why didn’t you leave?’ People rarely ask  ‘What stopped you feeling that you could?’ It’s another subtle layer to the abusive relationship and as Eve sees the reactions of her children, as well as the threat of violence towards her son, that gives her the push she needs to seek help.

She could not do it for herself, even when they arrive at the women’s refuge that a specialist solicitor has gotten them into, Eve’s sense of denial is such that she finds it hard to relate her circumstances to the other women there.

As she begins to put her life back together, her fears that Don will not let her go are realised-but just how far is she prepared to go to protect her children and her newly found freedom?

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. It shows how even when trying to leave there is not only a general unwillingness to look at the ugly nature of domestic violence from a societal perspective, even the corridors of justice have little faith that it will prevail, in the way that the male police responders and judge act towards victims.

Eve is seen by, and supported by women-the act of biology in being born a woman leaves you open to abuse and betrayal in a way that men cannot understand the vulnerability that we live with on a daily basis. In the same way that you cannot equivocate male/female domestic violence with male/male or female/male, each case needs to be recognised and supported with absolute trust. One of the worst things that those who have been abused have to face is the , what I call, ‘was it really that bad?’ narrative, or the ‘I wouldn’t let that happen to me!’ reaction which shuts down honest conversation and applies a passive aggressive guilt to the victim, regardless of sex.

Her honest restructuring of a life and finding her self worth is reflected in how her two children grow into themselves away from Don, and I liked how her original training as a curtain maker reflected her circumstances. It is a neat device as what she made could be an allegory for hiding the things which happen behind closed doors, or could be used to frame a beautiful view. Eve chooses to come out from behind these drapes and show herself to the world. 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.

About the author…

Lesley Pearse is one of the UK’s best-loved novelists with fans across the globe and sales of over 2 million copies of her books to date. A true storyteller and a master of gripping storylines that keep the reader hooked from beginning to end, Pearse introduces you to characters that it is impossible not to care about or forget.

There is no formula to her books or easily defined genre. Whether crime as in ‘‘Till We Meet Again’’, historical adventure like ‘‘Never Look Back’’, or the passionately emotive ‘Trust Me’, based on the true-life scandal of British child migrants sent to Australia in the post war period, she engages the reader completely.

Truth is often stranger than fiction and Lesley’s life has been as packed with drama as her books. She was three when her mother died under tragic circumstances. 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.

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.

The impact of constant change and uncertainty in Lesley’s early years is reflected in one of the recurring themes in her books: what happens to those who are emotionally damaged as children. 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.

Links-http://www.lesleypearse.com/

Twitter  @MichaelJBooks @lesleypearse @ed_pr