Today I am featuring a wonderful debut novel by Kelly Heard: The Fortune Teller's Promise.
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?
An unforgettable and heart-wrenching debut about the
endurance of love, the power of forgiveness, and finding beauty in the world
around us. Your must-read book of 2019. Perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads
Sing, Kristin Hannah and Kerry Lonsdale.
My Thoughts
Dell is an outsider from the beginning and struggles to connect with her dysfunctional family. Motherhood in this novel is not shown to be a soft, touchy feely, comforting state to be in. It feels hard and painful no matter who is fulfilling that role. The narrative moves back and forth in time from before Dell becomes pregnant, to a year later when she comes to search for the child she gave up for adoption. She seems a lost and lonely figure who had built a wall around her feelings in retaliation against life.
This is an evocative and emotional read. The relationship between Dell and the father of her child is central to showing how she made certain decisions. Life is hard for Dell and you are always made aware of the difference between the comfortably off and the poorer families. Some people, it seems, have choices. Others do not. Written with a distinctive narrative voice, this is an impressive debut novel.
In short: Contemporary fiction, full of atmosphere and emotion.
About the Author
Originally from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, Kelly
Heard now lives in Richmond with her husband, spoiled house cat, and two-year-old
daughter. She writes poetry, adult fiction, and creative nonfiction. When she
is not writing or reading, Kelly enjoys spending her time gardening, cooking,
and playing the ukulele for her toddler.
Thanks to Kelly Heard, and Bookouture for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
Check out the rest of the tour!
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