After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously. What does he hope to gain by talking to her now, thirty years on? How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father? And why did her mother betray her so badly? This story has a dual timeline, Alice, trying to piece together the secrets her mother kept from her and, from Sally, from when she was younger. Some of the things that are hidden away in Sally's past are quite heartbreaking. The more that Alice digs into her mother's past she finds out some interesting things, This is a story of hard times and abuse, but it's also one of survival too. Lesley Pearse has a canny knack for telling a good tale, keeping your attention throughout and never disappoints. I would like to thank #NetGalley #MichaelJoseph #PenguinRandomHouse and the author #LesleyPearse for my ARC of #Deception in exchange for an honest review.

This book is called ' Deception,' but really it ends in a beautiful ' love story.' It commences with the death of Sally Kent, Mother to Alice and Emily, wife of Ralph. Alice is 35 years old, and sister Emily, has 3 children, Ruby, Jasmine, and Toby to husband Mike. There is a 3 year age gap between them. The story obviously commences with the Mothers funeral. A man called Angus Tweedy sits at the back of the church when Alice begins to befriend him, wandering what he has to do with her late Mother. He claims to be her natural Father. Shocked by this, Alice begins the process of tracing her natural Mothers life, from childhood to current date. It is very eventful. Freda, her natural Mother is abused by her husband and hits Janet ( real name of Sally Kent) , who then gets taken to a children's home called Summer Fields. The Duncan's manage the home and take good care of her, yet Janet is forced to leave and find employment. She desperately wants to become an actress, yet has top grades at school. Her life is hectic, and ends up becoming involved with the Police. She has 4 name changes during life, including Janet, Fleur Faraday ( her stage name), Helen, and Sally. She has 2 marriages. The story focuses on relationships, love, loss and bigamy. Recommend, has a beautiful ending.

Deception is Lesley Pearse's 30th book. What an achievement! She's been a favourite of mine since the beginning and I think that Deception is the best of her most recent books. It has what I love about Pearse's books: the tough upbringing, the family dramas, and a thumping good storyline. This is a dual-timeline story which opens with Alice on her way to her mother's funeral. When a man approaches her and says he's her real father, Alice is horrified but as she starts to uncover Sally's secrets she realises that there was so much that she didn't know. Interspersed with Alice's story in 2015 is that of her mother from childhood onwards. Both threads are absolutely engrossing. I particularly enjoyed how Alice discovered details from her mother's life that she would never have known had she not met that stranger at the funeral. Pearse weaves the two stories together seamlessly and to brilliant effect. Deception is a book that I didn't want to put down. I raced through it, finding it so easy to read but also gritty and gripping. I liked the social aspects of down-at-heel London, to Bristol and Devon, over the course of 40 or so years. Sally had quite a life and it made for fascinating reading. Once again, Lesley Pearse has produced a page-turner of a book with strong female protagonists who have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get on with it, and a whole range of other enthralling characters which combined to make this a thoroughly absorbing read. I really loved it.

Alice and Sally Kent are at their mother’s funeral. When Alice notices a man that she has never met before at the back. When she talks to him, she finds out that his name is Angus Tweedy, and he wants to talk to them both about their mother. He claims to be their biological father. Alice talks to Angus and discovers that her mother is not the woman that she thought she was and that her life was all a lie. Because of this she decides to find out the truth about her mother, visiting places of her mother’s past and her old friends to discover the truth. Thank you, Penguin Michael Joseph, for a copy of Deception by Lesley Pearse. This is the fifth book from the author that I have read and enjoyed. But I have mixed feelings about this one. Although I found this to have an interesting storyline, I didn’t think it was one of her best books to date. The main characters were not very likeable which put me off a bit. 3.5 stars from me.

I enjoyed this book. The plot and characters were well thought out and described. The plot is intriguing and unravels as you read on. You find yourself rooting for the characters. It's sad in places but it has a happy ending.