Behind the vibrant and whimsical front cover there is a serious and heartbreaking story to be told. Val knows what it's like to suffer loss having lost a child and widowed within a very short space of time. Even though decades have past to Val the pain is just as fresh as it was at the time. So why on earth would she steal a child from a seafront promenade? Well she sees the poor baby as being abandoned and a chance to redeem herself and perhaps mend the holes in her heart left from the bereavements she has suffered. Meanwhile her remaining son, Rafe is living an empty life all of his own in Brighton and could do with a loving mother. However he has never had that kind of relationship with his mother hence the estrangement. Both mother and son are crying out for a someone in their life but over the years the pain they suffered pushed them apart rather than brought them together. Both Val and Rafe's woes spilled from the pages and compelled me to read on.

Becoming Liz Taylor is a quirky read with depth!

Well that was a bit unexpected. Although I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting when I first pinged this across to my kindle.

I think I mostly imagined it to be a story of a woman who isn’t coping with life and who finds escape by being someone else.
Instead I found a book which not only delved into the heartbreak of loss but also explored how someone’s coping mechanism can be so deeply damaging in the way it ripples outward to those who orbit them.
Valentines view of reality is so distorted it’s hard to relate to her at times but the image her son paints of baby Jane made her actions go from innocent to quite disturbing.
This book has got so many layers that it’s hard not to get captivated I just wish felt that something was lacking in the writing style which I can’t quite put my finger on.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this very unusual novel.

The novel has a beautiful, eye-catching cover that attracts you. Its a very unusual novel full of heartbreak. Val is a lonely widow who escapers her grief by dressing up as Liz Taylor. This for me was a suspension of belief as Val is in her 70s and she dresses up as Liz in her forties, how could she really believe that she looks like Liz Taylor.

But this is the heart of the novel is Val is suspended in grief and her view of life is not one of reality.

She abducts a child and for me that was heard to forgive but somehow the author manages to garner sympathy for Val.


A heartwarming, sympathetic four star read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the ARC.

“In the quiet of her terraced house and hidden away from the world, the burden of being Val was lifted… The loss she still dragged around from day to day fell away, and for a few short hours she was able to forget. Dressed as Elizabeth, she could almost be happy.”

Becoming Liz Taylor is the tragic tale of Val, a 72 year old woman who has spent most of her adult life lost in grief. The book details how the loss continues to manifest in her life and the unusual means by which she’s learned to cope with it. We are also introduced to her estranged son, who’s never recovered from losing his father, or forgiven his mother for how she dealt with that loss.

The premise was intriguing, and it was hard not to sympathise with Val as she ignored the reality of her predicament, in favour of a fantasy of her own making. Kudos to the author for making a fugitive so lovable.

The story drew me in and whilst I found some of it slow, I needed to keep reading to see how the story resolved itself. I felt life wrapped up a bit too neatly and too quickly for Rafe, one walk seemed to cure all his woes. And the ending, the lack of resolution, was incredibly disappointing.

But it was a very original idea, a charming, emotional read and a fantastic debut effort.

Dnf at 40%. I rarely dnf a book but was really struggling with this one. I found it to be quite basic in its writing, repetitive and very slow.

Dual timeline between nowadays and the late 1960s/early 1970s
It tells the story of Val, who meets Len at the Lido, Weston Super Mare in 1968, they marry and have two children.
Following the tragedy of the death of her youngest child and losing her husband, she is now estranged from her only surviving son.
She spends her lonely evenings dressing up in a mink coat and nylon stockings as her icon, movie star Elizabeth Taylor, it’s her way of coping with the loss and sadness.
One day Val sees a pram left unattended on the seafront.
“Val looked around. The baby appeared to be all on it’s own. There was no sign of a mother, no sign of anyone. Val didn’t think about it. She didn’t even break her stride. She kicked the break off the pram and pushed it as if she did it every day”
Such an accomplished debut novel - moving and beautifully written.
Would make the perfect Reading Group set, as you feel so many emotions surrounding Val and her actions, her mental health and why she did what she did,
Thanks @elizabethdelowriter @atlanticbooks & @netgalley for the eARC

I’ve always been fascinated by Elizabeth Taylor so I was very intrigued to read this book, and I’m so glad that I did. This is a remarkable debut novel that pulled at my heart, dealing poignantly with love, loss and the lengths that some people need to go to to deal with their overwhelming grief, just to make it through the day. I really felt for Val, she really believed that the dressing up wasn’t hurting anyone, little realising it was this that pushes her son Rafe away. And she was so convinced that the baby was meant to be with her, even though I felt deep in her heart she knew it would never be a happy ending.
Everything in the book was handled in a beautiful and sensitive way, and I was so moved by it, wanting to keep reading. A really assured debut, I’ll look forward to reading more books by the author.

This was such a change from the books I've read recently, a tale of loss and grief, our main character is in her 70s which is a real change from a lot of the books I've read recently. I also love that it was partly set in Weston-super-Mare as my Nanny lived their briefly in the 80s and so I spent some time there as a child.

It was beautifully written and the author handles it so well in not making our lead a villain for her actions and shows how repressed and unresolved emotions has a long lasting impact on not only the person but their family .

I felt it's definitely a book that will stay with you after you finish it.

It has been over fifty years since Val experienced terrible loss but the pain is still just as raw. Her only relief is to dress up in beautiful gowns and style herself like Elizabeth Taylor. When Val finds an unattended baby in its pram the line between reality and fiction becomes very blurred.

My heart hurt for Val in her grief and loneliness, I really felt like I'd walked a mile in her shoes and totally empathised with her. A well written look at grief,trauma and family estrangements . The end of the book left me wanting more as I'd become very invested in the characters.

A beautiful book about a lifetime of grief and the silenced stories that people carry within them. Val's losses were never resolved, except in her own, curious way - dressing up as Elizabeth Taylor in her 1950s heyday. This has devastating consequences for her son, Rafe, Val herself and then for the mother of a baby who is left briefly unattended in its pram. I thought Rafe's distaste for the mother who failed him was particularly well handled, as his lifetime of frustrations and failures collided with his sympathy and a yearning for the mother who had never been there for him.

I just had to read more and more of this heart breaking story in old Hollywood based on grief and loss. It was easy to read and I really liked the characters. This book worked so well because of the writing style and I will be recommending it

I really wanted to love this book but it was not like what I was expecting. I found it hard to keep reading it lacked something for me. I found it quite sad and not dull. Am sure a lot of readers will love this but isn’t for me. Thank you for the arc anyway

An utterly captivating and heart breaking novel about grief and loss. Val's baby son and husband died tragically over 50 years ago. She is still grieving, and dressing up in her home as filmstar Elizabeth Taylor helps her feel close to husband Len. She is unaware it repelled their other son Rafe, who's been estranged from his mother for decades.

Seeing what looks like an abandoned pram with a baby boy inside catapults Val back to the 70s, and she calmly walks away with it.

The writing is sublime in this debut novel, taking us back to the courtship of Val and Len and happy times at the lido in Weston-super-Mare. It was so evocative I found myself back at the art deco lido on Plymouth Hoe as a 70s teen.

Val goes on the run with the baby she's named Christopher. It's hard for a 72 year old dressed as Elizabeth Taylor with bouffant black hair, who has never driven on a motorway. Not to mention caring for a baby just a few months old. But although she's all over the news we still feel compassion for Val as the story of her grief unfolds. We see right into her mind and understand she's not malicious but desperate.

A must read - I consumed it in one day and had to finish it. Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the eARC.

Big shout out to NetGalley for the access to this ARC in exchange for a honest review. Overall this book was easy to read, I liked the characters Val and Rafe this book is about discovering yourself and dealing with loss, grief and family relationships. This book is about dealing with trauma and living with it. What I find very interesting. The storyline was very clean and I enjoy the authors writing style is probably one of the best debut novels this year. The brutality in the honesty of the book is what make it relatable to the reader and I think it gonna be come a favourite for many people.

I found both the title and the front cover intriguing. After reading the opening page, my first surprise was that Val was actually a woman in her seventies.
It's a very convincing tale of loss and bereavement. Val broke my heart and I just wanted everything to turn out ok for her and her son.
There will be inevitable comparisons to Rachel Joyce but that can only be seen as a compliment.
I'm looking forward to rereading this and will eagerly waiting to see what Elizabeth Delo writes next.

Minor inaccuracy - Liz Taylor married NICKY Hilton, not Conrad Hilton.

The above also sums up some of what isn't working for me here as I'm a huge fan of Liz Taylor, and while the book captures her aesthetic, it doesn't approach who Liz really was, her tough-talking style and lack of pretention - she wasn't only a beauty and was quite bored by most of her films. Motherhood was very different in Liz's time, and while she seems to have been a loving and devoted mother, you wouldn't really say her kids came first (above acting, men and access to diamonds) in the way that they would these days. The book gives a very surface portrait of her (mink coats, violet eyes etc) which is disappointing to me.

As for this book, the baby-napping after child loss plot isn't too original, the only thing that's different is the age of the woman doing it and the time lapsing between the two events.

That being said, I really like the Rafe storyline so far, how he is struggling to make ends meet and use his artistic knowledge in a society where he doesn't fit either into the rigours of the Job Centre or into gay Bohemia, where his jealousy and fear of abandonment led to him being cast out. I have nearly finished the book and hope things work out for him.

A really fun work of fiction piggybacking of the infamous Liz Taylor in the best way. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an adavcned copy of this book.

I really wanted to like this. The premise was brilliant and the characters seemed as if they would intrigue - especially the protagonist. But unfortunately the writing style just wasn't for me.

This was a really cool premise about a woman I've always been quite intrigued by. I enjoyed the writing and thought it capture old Hollywood well.

Brutally honest and open. A great storyline that is very easy to relate to the characters. I really liked the starkness and bluntness of the book. Well written and enjoyable.