The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal Review

The Doll Factory

by Elizabeth Macneal

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Set in London 1850, The Doll Factory introduces us to Iris. A young woman who dreams of being a painter. One day she meets a man named Silas. The encounter is brief and within seconds Iris has forgotten about it completely. Silas never forgets her however, and his obsession becomes more dark and consuming.

Iris is asked to model for a local artist Louis Frost, when she accepts her entire life starts to open up to new experiences and possibilities. Things are looking good for her until Silas' obsession becomes too powerful. Things take a scary turn that threatens to challenge Iris in ways she never imagined.

For me, this book was slow starting off. It was just okay. I didn't feel the urge to DNF it but I wasn't drawn into the story right away either. I was about 60% through this book before I found it got really interesting. Once it got my attention though, it never let me go. It took me about 4 days to get through the first half and then just over 24 hours to finish the second. Keeping in mind sleep, a toddler, being a slower reader and everything else  I juggle and that makes pretty good time.

The characters were well done. They all had individual personalities with likes, desires, annoyances and passions. Iris, our main character, is wonderfully done. She has this inner rebel that we get to see behind the curtains early on. Then later on she brings this inner rebel to the surface when she agrees to model for Louis Frost despite her family being quite angry about it. Albie, an orphan friend of Iris who introduces her and Silas initially. We get to watch little Albie grow as a person and he is by far my favorite character. At first I thought of Silas as an outcast and actually felt bad for him. It was wowing to see his true personality develop from a shy outcast from a psychopath. All the characters were great, but those are the ones who I thought were done the best.

Overall, I thought this book was well written. It was a wonderful story to be added into the Historical Fiction genre. If you are someone who can have patience with a slow beginning book to get to a great ending than I definitely recommend this book. If you are someone who needs to be grabbed and pulled in from the beginning than this book probably isn't for you. Good story, good characters, I enjoyed it.