The Fortune Teller’s Promise by Kelly Heard – book review
AD | review
Based both in the ‘then’ of 1979 and the ‘now’ of 1991, The Fortune Teller’s promise is a wonderful exploration of someone who is trying to reconcile the woman she wants to be, with the woman her childhood and family has made her.
Read on for my full review.
THE BLURB
Counting things in threes usually calms Dell’s crippling anxiety—the passionflower vine along the shop wall, the jimsonweed by the roadside, the sleeping valley in the distance—until the day her baby daughter goes missing.
1979, Virginia. Growing up amongst the sprawling valleys and forests of Blyth, beautiful young Dell has always had a natural intuition for how to fix other people’s hurts, if not her own. She hopes for a better future, although thanks to her alcoholic father and narcissistic mother, happiness seems far out of her reach. She certainly could never have predicted holding her baby girl for the first time, and the life-changing, powerful love she would feel when she did.
Even as a heartbroken single mother in a small town riddled with gossips, she suddenly feels that she can do this. She can raise her daughter. But when she turns to her own mother for help, her mother convinces her that the child would be better off with another family. With nobody to fight her corner, Dell must watch the local church take the baby away, leaving her alone and completely devastated.
Dell feels there’s nothing left for her in her tiny hometown but heartache and shattered dreams, and so she flees, vowing never to go back. It finally seems like luck is on her side when she finds a small shop for rent, overlooking the peaceful Shenandoah Valley. This quiet corner of paradise feels like the perfect place to heal and use her gift to help others heal, too. Until Dell’s mother tracks her down to tell her that her baby girl is missing.
Dell knows she won’t find out where her child is in the stars or on her palms. Instead, she must do the one thing she promised she never would. She must return to Blyth. Will what Dell finds there finally heal her fragile heart, or break it into a thousand irreparable pieces?
THE FORTUNE TELLER’S PROMISE – MY THOUGHTS
I don’t know what I was expecting when I first read the blurb, but it was nothing like what I got! In fact, although the blurb is kind of accurate, it doesn’t adequately represent The Fortune Teller’s Promise at all.
I won’t lie, I found the first few chapters really difficult to work through. For some reason the writing style took a little getting used to and I found sections of it over complicated. So much so, that I had to re-read some parts to fully understand them. That was short lived though, and by the time the story was switching between Dell’s past and present, I was hooked.
I loved how flawed Dell was as a character. It would be very easy to simply allow her to be victim of her childhood, but the fact that she inherited some fault from her parents and then added in a few of her own, gives a more realistic quality to Dell.
Don’t get me wrong, this book isn’t perfect. There are some odd character choices in there, and I would have loved a little more depth to Dell’s parents to understand the why a little more. However, this is an emotional read that is utterly captivating throughout. Once you get into the rhythm of it, I found it impossible to put down. A love story at its core, it’s about a woman who needs to stop running if she is ever going to find happiness.
All in all, The Fortune Teller’s Promise was nothing like I expected. Instead, it was so much more. Currently available on Amazon (affiliate link) for an amazing price of 99p, I would recommend that you download it now!
If you enjoyed this book review, then why not check out some of my other book reviews?
DISCLAIMER: I was provided with an eARC of this book in return for this review as part of a Bookouture book tour. As always though, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Finally, for a closer look at some of the other stops on this tour, check out the blogs below.
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