Why a Booktrail?
1979: A woman must return to where she escaped from, to find her child
The Fortune Teller’s Promise
What you need to know before your trail
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.
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 allows the local church to 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. Until Dell’s mother tracks her down to deliver crushing news—her baby girl is missing.
Now she must do the one thing she promised she never would. She must return to Blyth.
Locations
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Booktrail a journey through Virginia, USA
Blyth is a fictional town in this very real state. Virginia comes across loud and clear; its remoteness, vast size and the Appalachian Mountains are major features in the novel.
“The Virginia that features on postcards, with its green-eyed, lazy summers and patchwork autumns, keeps a secret, and that secret is the mean Appalachian winters. High in the hills, along the land’s curving backbone, the wind changes its mind every minute, finds its way to any exposed softness in a person that may have gone unnoticed.”
This is a book about small town America, about women and the choices they make, about families, outsiders and wanting to belong.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Fortune Teller’s Promise
Destination: Virginia Author/Guide: Kelly Heard Departure Time: 1979
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