I’m pleased to share my review for the Eliza Doll by a new author to me, Tracey Scott-Townsend being republished by Wild Pressed Books this summer. Thank you to the publisher for a paperback copy and to Love Books Group for inviting me to join the book tour.
Synopsis:
Ellie can’t work out whether she’s running away from the past or towards a future she always felt she should have had. She left university and had baby after baby without even meaning to. But it was her third child she blamed for ruining her life.
Now her children have grown and Ellie is on her own. She shocks everybody by selling her home and moving into a converted van to travel the country selling handmade dolls at craft fairs.
It can be lonely on the road. Ellie has two companions: her dog, Jack, and the mysterious
Eliza who turns up in the most unexpected places. At every encounter with Eliza, Ellie feels as if she’s standing again in the aching cold of a waterfall in Iceland, the sound of crashing water filling her with dread.
Ellie can’t change the past. But is it really too late to rectify the bad thing she did when Eliza was a baby?
My thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read by Tracey Scott-Townsend and it is being republished four years on from the original publication date.
We meet Ellie as she turns 50, hiding away from her family and friends, living in a converted van with Jack, her dog. The story travels back and forwards in time as we discover what happened to Ellie to cause her to travel the country in her van, selling handmade dolls at craft fairs and why she doesn’t want to sell the Eliza doll. We also travel to Iceland and Ireland, as Ellie looks for peace and forgiveness.
This was an interesting and thought provoking read, covering some difficult topics including child abuse. My favourite part of the book is when Ellie first joins Running Hare House and starts to work with the local community. A 4 star read for me.
Author bio:
Tracey-Scott-Townsend is the author of six novels — the most recent The Vagabond Mother (January 2020) and Sea Babies (May 2019) — all published by Wild Pressed Books and Inspired Quill Publishing. Reviews often describe her novels as poetic or painterly.
She is also a poet and a visual artist. She has a Fine Art MA and a BA (Hons) Visual Studies. She has exhibited paintings throughout the UK (as Tracey Scott). She has a long career as a workshop facilitator with community groups and in schools.
Tracey is co-director of an up-and-coming small independent publisher, Wild Pressed Books, which has a growing roster of authors and poets.
Mother of four grown-up children, Tracey spends as much time as possible travelling the UK and Europe in a camper van with her husband and two dogs, writing and editing while on the road.
Buy Link
http://www.wildpressedbooks.com/the-eliza-doll.html
Karen K is reading 