Well, this was a little different from my usual reads. It can best be described as a book of short stories which integrate well into a main storyline connecting them to the present day narrative. At first, I found them a bit distracting and found it a bit hard getting back into the main story and I did nearly put the book down, but I persevered and eventually managed to get with the program, especially when life imitating art became more prevalent and I realised how clever the author had been with her integration.
So, we follow Andrew, a dollmaker, as he initially corresponds with Bramber, after he responds to the personal ad she placed in his doll collector magazine. They bond over the works of Ewa Chaplin who has written some rather strange fairy tales and spend time in correspondence. But this long-distance relationship isn't enough for Andrew so he plans a journey to go meet Bamber and it is this journey that the book is mostly about. A journey that sees him acting outside character, almost like Bamber has bewitched him and this spell, coupled with his reading of the Chaplin tales along the way, makes for a very strange journey indeed. But, what will happen when/if they finally meet? As he finally realises that Bramber has been institutionalised most of her life...
I've already mentioned that this book was initially rather disjointed for me initially but I am so glad I read through my discomfort and carried on. As soon as things started to lick into place, I realised the importance of the inclusion of the tales into the book and the parallels with the narrative. I don't think I've read a book which contains layered stories within stories but, once I got to grips with it, I found it to be quite an interesting way of doing things and would definitely welcome more in the future.
Short stories aside now and on to the main characters. I did warm to Andrew straight away. Short of stature but definitely not short of character, he has found his place in life by creating and resurrecting dolls. When he answers Bramber's ad and the two start corresponding, he starts to initially get a bit obsessed by her and I guess wants to save her. Bramber is more enigmatic with her tales of where she lives and the other people who surround her. I didn't quite enjoy her parts as much as Andrew's journey but they were an important inclusion, however distracting to me. I just wanted to race to the end to see what happened when/if they finally met up.
It was quite a slow book, which I am not particularly fond of, probably mostly due to the disjointed nature of the construction and it did take me a while to get through. Pacing was a bit hit and miss also for the same reason. Just when Andrew was getting somewhere, we segued off into another of Ewa's tales which broke the momentum a bit for me.
The writing was lyrical at times with a layer of Gothic undertones. It felt also, at times, a bit historical, by that I mean that although set in the present, it felt like the action was going on in the past. Probably due to the now dying art of letter writing being a big focus. There were other things that made it feel like that for me but, you know, spoilers!
All in all, a good solid read that although didn't set me on fire, did leave me satisfied at its eventual conclusion. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

After turning the last page of this novel I had no idea what to think. The first thought that popped into my mind was: ‘What did I just read?’ I wasn’t able to state if I liked or disliked this story. Even now days later it is quite hard to have coherent thoughts about The Dollmaker. While reading, my husband asked a couple of times what my book was about and I couldn’t even give a decent synopsis. I just kept saying: “I am not quite sure.”
And honestly I think that is the best judgement that I can give of this story. I am not quite sure what the point of this story is, but I actually enjoyed reading it. I am going to try to be a little more cohesive in this review.
The unusual structure of the book is without any doubt the strongest selling point of The Dollmaker. We follow Andrew on his journey across England to meet up with his pen pal Bramber. But we also follow Bramber, through her letters written to Andrew. And as an extra we have a series of stories within the story. These chapters are stories written by de fictional dollmaker Ewa Chaplin, a book that Andrew is reading on his journey.
The dark fairy tales of Ewa Chaplin are the true strength of the book. They are eerie, dark and interesting. Apart from that they serve a double purpose. When Andrew reads these fairy tales he sees them mirroring his own life and that of the people he meets and knows. The parallels between Andrews real life and the stories really took the story to the next level and gave the reader a deeper look into his private life.
What personally irritated me throughout the book was the fact that it was all fiction. Before you start rolling your eyes let me explain. Throughout the book there is constant talk about doll museums, doll exhibitions, doll artist and books about antique dolls. I am the kind of reader who starts to google while reading because I want to see what the author is referring to. Well… she was referring to fictional musea, fictional books and fictional artist. And honestly I am not quite sure why, because it only took me about 5 minutes to find real doll musea, real doll books and real doll artists.
Apart from that the story was just all in all not really engaging. I understand the author tried to write a magical realism story, but for me it failed. The story wasn’t engaging. It didn’t draw you in as a reader. It is dark and with a somber tone, which could have work brilliantly as an atmosphere creator. It was all too vague with no real plot and no real plot point.
The dollmaker could have been an enchanting, dark, magical story, but it just never really takes off. It is well written and the format is interesting. But the overall story is just really lacking. A shame because it could have been a wonderful reading experience.

Dolls and dwarfs and beautiful/crippled hands - repeat!
We follow the doll maker Andrew Garvie on his journey from London to Cornwall for a surprise visit to his institutionalised penpal Bramber Winters. Like him, Bramber loves and collects dolls and is fascinated by stories written by the doll maker Ewa Chaplin. Suddenly, the main story, often with painfully boring travel details, jolts to a halt and a verrry long story by Ewa Chaplin begins and - cue jolt - back to Andrew’s journey. Then letters between Bramber and Andrew. Then another story. I lost count of and interest in the long string of characters and whether they belonged to a story or were supposed to be real or both. I was expecting that the stories would eventually be either linked to each other or have some major bearing on the main story. Alas, no such luck.
The problem is that the book dips its toes into too many waters - love story, fairy tale, fantasy, crime, letters, biography, spy story - but never commits to a link between them, rather leaving the reader dangling uncomfortably. It probably would work as a collection of short stories with the main “thread” as an introduction but in the current format, it’s a no from me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this Advance Reader Copy of 'The Dollmaker', which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Andrew Garvie is a doll maker, a doll collector and a doll enthusiast. It is in a dedicated magazine where he reads a letter from Bramber Winters, a fellow collector in Cornwall, who is keen to get in touch with other enthusiasts. This is a love story of sorts, with a journey through the towns of England, providing the backdrop for Andrew's narrative as he travels closer to Bramber's residence.

'The Dollmaker' is unlike anything else I've ever read, being structured from three intertwining forms: the narrative of Andrew Garvie, the letters of Bramber Winters, and the translated Polish fairy tales of Ewa Chaplin. If I'm honest, it took me a while to get into this book - I started by reading it section by section, getting so engrossed in one strand of the plait that I completely forgot about the other two. However, when I started to read in longer sessions, I soon saw how all three were weaving together, mimicking the others in a series of strange parallel events. At this point, I began to really enjoy reading 'The Dollmaker'.

I absolutely loved this up until the last few pages. The resolution was unrewarding therefore I felt very disappointed. My first impulse is to give it 2*, but that doesn't do it justice. First of all the prose itself was gorgeous. Secondly I really loved the themes explored in the plot: "the outsider": not fitting in both as a person and as interests, yet the promise of a world that's there for you to explore and feel yourself in. The macabre and grotesque touches: the troll dolls(I would really, really love to own one), the "strangeness" of the stories, the myths, the story inside the story, the subtle connections between the stories and the main plot etc
You can say is a matter of personal preference, but I really feel like we've been enticed with morsels of strangeness, always on edge between real and magic for then to be left high and dry. I would have liked more surrealism. Or better said, I would have love for the resolution to actually tip the balance in favor of surrealism rather than realism.

I have given up on this book at 14%. It is a bizarre mix of a boy/man (not sure which) heading off to meet up with a penfriend who appears to be incarcerated in an asylum on Bodmin Moor. It all sounds very Gothic although mobile phones are mentioned so presumably it is set in current day. Then we get a mention of a book of short stories that he is reading in his hotel room. We then get the actual story, supposedly written by a person who made collectable and covetable dolls. That story starts at 7% and is still going, with no sign of ending, when I gave up on the book. It actually goes on to 19% on my kindle. And, having read others' reviews it seems that this format is repeated. It's an odd book, that's for sure, and certainly not for me. NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review. I am sorry it couldn't have been a positive one.

Also - the formatting needs work before this is published. Feint fonts, unfinished sentences etc.

I tried to finish this multiple times but skimmed through it in the end. I expected a standard novel.
I'm not a fan of short stories and this is sort of what it was. Stories in stories and I didn't see the point of it and I didn't care at all.
I can see that some people are going to like this whimsical book, but personally it's not for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus for providing me with a copy.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I was really looking forward to reviewing this book and was so not disappointed. This was a beautifully written story and is a worthy 5 stars

I found The Dollmaker to be a very disjointed and strange read. The core story is Dollmaker Andrew’s journey to see his pen friend Bramber who lives in an odd institution in Bodmin Moor. I must admit I didn’t find this story very interesting; it was mainly flashbacks on Andrew’s life mixed with letters from Bramber and dull details about his journey. I found Andrew to be very forgettable to say he is the main character – I had forgotten his name and even whether he was male or female after a couple of the short stories had gone by. He’s also a ‘dwarf’ (the book’s terminology) but this information is thrown at us as a bit of an afterthought to say it’s one of the main themes of the book.

On Andrew’s journey he brings a book of fairy tales by Ewa Chaplin and these are inserted into the text in what felt like a very random fashion. A few of the earlier stories such as the one starring Anders Tessmond were great but a few of the later ones I struggled with – it almost felt like the author ran out of ideas. All of the stories had the same unfortunate layout – they were very slow to start and then they’d be a decision or twist which would ramp up my interest and then they’d fizzle out completely or just stop with you never feeling like you got a good conclusion from them. You’d then be frustratingly hurled back into the dull core storyline caring even less about the characters in front of you.

The short stories were supposed to be closely mirroring Andrew and Brambers lives and backstories but they it was so close that it felt unrealistic within the narrative. Rather than the theme of dolls running through the text it felt like dwarves and romance were actually the key themes and the author had just been a bit nervous to name it as such. I also started to lose track as to what I’d read in the stories and what was pointless backstory from our main characters lives. As the relationships between the short stories and the main story was so close I was expecting a major twist or reveal at the end of the book that would tie it all together – something to make me want to re-read all of the stories again to really appreciate what had been happening. I even had a couple of really nice twist ideas in my head, all of which would be much better than what we got which was very disappointing – just like the short stories, it fizzled out to nothing. The whole book felt very much like a good first draft with some nice ideas that should have been taken further, rather than a published finished product.

I don’t normally mention formatting in ARC reviews – I totally understand that fonts may not be right or paragraph breaks might be in odd places as novels are imported to a different format. That said, I have never read an ARC where sentences are left unfinished before – I have several examples of this in The Dollmaker which definitely need sorting before publication!

Overall I found The Dollmaker to be a dull and frustrating read that has a lot of potential but goes nowhere with it. Thank you to NetGalley & Quercus Books – riverrun for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say that this book has no clear storyline. It messes around between a man's journey across devon - his stays in Wade and Exeter are detailed in excruciating detail - His letters from a fellow"doll" fan which originate in some sort of mental asylum and the totally incomprehensible fairy stories of the supposed Ewa Chaplin. I dont know what the author was trying to achieve but all she has managed is a soup of disparate parts.

I have reviewed on Goodreads but won't review anywhere else it is poor writing, even worse storyline and the characters made no impression on me at all

This is my first and last Nina Allan book. I find it incomprehensible that it has so many good reviews

I’m not entirely sure what I expected from this novel but it wasn’t quite what I got.

I thoroughly enjoy the idea of stories within a story and while Ewa’s stories were undoubtedly my favourite parts of the book, they also seemed to break the flow of the storyline involving Andrew and Bramber. I couldn’t connect to these two characters at all. Andrew’s chapters in particular spoke to me less and less. Bramber’s letters were more intriguing but those too started to lose their appeal after a while.

Nina Allan has a beautiful way with words and I’m sure this story will appeal to lots of readers. Sadly, I’m not one of them but I’m fairly certain it’s a case of “it’s me and not the book”.

This was such a strange read, I'm not really sure if I enjoyed it or not.
I'm left feeling rather short-changed as the ending was unsatisfactory, unless the journey was the story in of itself and not really meant to end?
I enjoyed following Andrew and learning about his life and understood why he was trying to get to Bramber. I found Bramber's letters a little frustrating but again understood why they were powerful enough to entice Andrew to make such a journey.
The short stories peppered between every entry however I felt - whilst interesting enough on their own - were too distracting and not as relevant as we were lead to believe and trying to be a bit too clever.
Either the stories should have been a device or the dolls should have been a device - not sure the story needed both, or I don't believe the story between Andrew and Bramber big enough to warrant both.
And I was very confused most of the time as I couldn't get a handle on the time period the main story or the short stories were meant to be set in.
All in all it felt too disjointed, unsatisfactory and a little pointless - whilst quite easy to read and with some good characterisation. this one wasn't for me.

Andrew is a dollmaker and collector, having spent his entire life being fascinated by dolls. He starts sending letters to Bramber, a fellow dollmaker, who places an advert in a collectors magazine. Bramber is looking for information on Ewa, a fellow dollmaker from the past. In these letters they weave elements of their sheltered lives to each other on paper. Will Andrew and Bramber break free of their personal entrapments?

I enjoyed the nostalgic letter writing elements of the book and thought this was an unusual technique. One which definitely paid off! The book is also very well written and Nina Allen has a great way with words.

Unfortunately, that is where the praise ends for me. I really struggled with this book. I simply couldn’t get in to it, as it simply didn’t seem to flow. Whenever I picked It up, it felt like a chore. I have a feeling this is a definite ‘marmite’ read, and it just simply wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The synopsis tells quite clearly what this story is about. This is a story with other stories woven into them. A story about Andrew and Bramber, and their correspondence with each other. They have a shared interest in dolls, not just any dolls either. These are sought after items, they have a history and at times a price tag. Andrew decides he wants to visit Bramber and so takes a journey, during which he reads a story book. It’s by Ewa Chaplin, she also made dolls.

This is a slower paced story that felt a little erratic at the beginning. It took me a good while before I got to grips with the characters, their stories, the alternating timelines and the style. Gradually I found myself drawn into the story and the stories. It was one of those books where I suddenly found myself engrossed and hadn’t realised it had happened. The short stories that Andrew reads during his journey are at times on the dark, or very dark side, they are like twisted fairy tales. There are things that mirror Andrew’s life.

I really enjoyed this book and I have a feeling that it is not going to be for everyone. At times it has the feel of literary fiction, with a mix of fairy tale and fantasy. There is subtle romance aspect to it though not one that follows the usual route or expectation.

It’s one of those books that I think may divide readers, for me, there are parts I really enjoyed and others not so much. It is well written, it has an unusual structure to it. It is a book I would recommend and it will be interesting to see what other readers think of this one.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Dollmaker Andrew has engaged in a pen relationship with a woman called Bramber, who he suspects is trapped in a facility she needs rescuing from. Their shared love of dolls inspired Andrew and Bramber to write to one another, and through the letters, they have developed a strong relationship. Andrew believes he loves Bramber, and is so sure Bramber is the one for him, he decides to set off on a hundreds of miles journey to surprise Bramber. Along the way, he passes the journey by reading a book that contains fairy tales, which are an awful lot like Andrew’s own life.

I didn't know what to expect with this story, and it kind of took me aback. It was a pleasant story, as it all revolved around human connection. The story is told through the perspectives of Andrew and Bramber (through her letters to Andrew). Whilst Andrew’s narrative was effective in establishing character background and reader connection, I felt Bramber’s narrative through her letters was a bit underwhelming and less effective. I genuinely suspect this will be a personal sentiment, as the notion of letter writing is typically endearing (which I feel too!)… I just wasn’t able to connect with Bramber.

My favourite parts of this book were the fairy tales by Ewa Chaplin. They provided the book with a variety of genres, and really ensnared my interest. These stories included: A woman who falls in love with a poor man, and seeks to escape her loveless marriage to be with him. A woman who falls foul to a dwarf whose idea of time is complex. A teacher who is convinced her new student is a bad omen. A girl who is betrayed by her aunt, and learns she isn't all that she seems.
What Andrew finds is these fairy tales by Ewa Chaplin seem to mirror his life, and people he knows, to an unabashed degree. I think the parallels were quite good, in helping Andrew’s development of understanding life on a deeper level.

All in all, I read this in 2 days and I’m rating it 3 stars. The story was well written as at some points there was really beautiful prose. But I found there to be quite a somber tone throughout this read, and at times that was fine, but it was really depressing too. I didn’t massively like the story, and the only reason I can give is I didn’t find the story as engaging as other reads. I somewhat enjoyed it, and appreciated the depth within the story, but I was left feeling rather underwhelmed due to the vague way the plot and the characters were written. I recommend this to people who like whimsical prose and short stories, because the book does impress in that regard. But other than that, I wouldn’t recommend this as a story that’s definitely one people should pick up and read.

Thank you kindly to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-copy, in exchange for this honest review.

This has a really eerie feel to it that I can’t put my finger on. I loved reading Brambers letters, loved the descriptions of the old towns in England as Andrew travelled to rescue Bramber. A fantastic novel with beautiful descriptions of doll making, weaves together perfectly.

The Dollmaker is unlike anything I've rever read before. I felt like I had to pay attention (which is a good thing) because it felt like I was reading extracts from another book, however, once I finished the novel, it became clear to me. It was a sweet love story, but it still had a refreshing take which made it stand out from the rest. I enjoyed it and strongly recommend it to anyone.

I really wanted to like this, but it was a real struggle to finish it. Andrew is the dollmaker of the title, making his way across the country to visit Bramber, who he has been writing to about a mutual interest in the work of Ewa Chaplin. As well as making dolls, Chaplin wrote short stories and some of her work is interspersed with Andrew's journey, him talking about his own life and letters to Andrew from Bramber - detailing her interest in dolls and her story.
It's all well-written and cleverly put together with links between the stories and Andrew and Bramber's lives. It just dragged quite a lot for me, and I had difficulty keeping up the momentum with it.

I really liked this once I got into it, slow to start and the letter forms took some getting used to, but once I got past this it was really good. I enjoyed it a lot but thought the end was a little anticlimactic, but still a good read.

This is a wonderful story that did grip me once I got into it.

I have mixed feelings about this book but overall it was an okay read. Some parts gripped me and others I felt were a little slow. The book mixes stories and letters which takes some getting use to but the writing is easy to read and follow once you get into it.

It follows Andrew who is fascinated by dolls and makes them himself. He gets in touch with a fellow doll collector Bramber and they begin to start a correspondence through letters. The letters mean we get to know more about the characters and the world they live in which I thought was a great way to write a book. Bramber is looking for information on Ewa, a dollmaker and writer of short stories. The short stories are woven in through the book and I liked a few of them. After a year of correspondence Andrew decides to visit Bramber but doesn't tell her and I found the desciptions of his travel great and the conclusion to the story is magical in its own way.

If this book sounds like it is good then I would recommend you read it. Although not my usual genre I really enjoyed reading it for a change.