"powerful family drama"

In West Palm, Florida Leslie Cavanaugh lives a great life. Her husband Luke, an award winning architect loves her and she loves him. Their daughter Kathryn is a delight whom both her parents cherish (and spoil). Leslie's career is booming. Nothing could go wrong for her or her family.

That is until her past in 1985 Clearwater surfaces. Back then she married Jeff Phillips who suddenly died when she was eight months pregnant. Grace was born in Memphis, but Leslie was unable to cope so she fled. Now her secret that she never told her second spouse or second offspring has come home to roost at a time when she believes Luke is cheating on her and Kathryn is chasing after bad men. However, she has her own troubles to deal with starting in a cemetery she has avoided for two decades, but never really moved on from there.

THE GREAT BETRAYAL is a powerful family drama that grips readers from the moment of full clarity as to why Leslie feels her world imploded and never slows down until the final twist. Leslie is one of the best protagonists of the year as she is fully developed to the point that readers know her and understand her motives, past and present. Fans of deep psychological character studies will want to read Millenia Black's strong tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 20, 2006

Summary

By all appearances, the Cavanaughs of West Palm have an ideal marriage and family life—the perfect home with few complications. Leslie, the beautiful mother, shines brightly in corporate America. Her adoring husband, Luke, is movie-star handsome and an award-winning architect. Their privileged daughter, Kathryn, enjoys the best that life has to offer.

But castles built on sand are eventually washed away by the sea.

Leslie Cavanaugh is not who she claims to be—she's a woman with a painful secret that's about to shake the entire family to its core. And she's not the only one playing a game of deception. Her daughter is risking more than the family's good name with her search for love and attention in all the wrong places, and Leslie finds the unmistakable clues that her husband is having an affair. As she struggles to hold her family together, nothing can prepare her for the most intimate betrayal of all.