Valencia and Valentine

By: Suzy Krause

Narrated by: Janet Metzger

For fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, debut author Suzy Krause delivers a quirky, colorful story about love, loss, second chances, and what it means to truly live.

Valencia, a timid debt collector with crippling OCD, is afraid of many things, but the two that scare her most are flying and turning thirty-five. To confront those fears, Valencia’s therapist suggests that she fly somewhere - anywhere - before her upcoming birthday. And as Valencia begins a telephone romance with a man from New York, she suddenly has a destination in mind. There’s only one problem - he might not actually exist.

Mrs. Valentine is an eccentric old woman desperate for company, be it from neighbors, telemarketers, or even the funeral director (when you’re her age, you go to a lot of funerals). So she’s thrilled when the new cleaning girl provides a listening ear for her life’s story - a tale of storybook love and incredible adventures around the world with her husband before his mysterious and sudden disappearance.

The stories of Valencia and Mrs. Valentine may at first appear to have nothing in common…but then again, nothing in life is as straightforward as it seems.

©2019 by Suzy Krause. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Janet Metzger adopts a Canadian accent while bringing these Saskatchewan-based characters to life. She skillfully helps to distinguish characters such as the hesitant, anxious Valencia; the elderly, talkative Mrs. Valentine; and assorted friends and co-workers. Her characterizations work well to convey the author's musings on worries, love, friendship, and progress versus stagnation." (AudioFile Magazine)

“Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Graeme Simsion, Valencia and Valentine is a charming novel with quirky characters the reader can’t help falling in love with. With a unique voice and a fun twist, it’s a story of love, human connection, and adversity that is handled with deftness and compassion by Krause. You’ll think about the characters and their stories long after you turn the final page; in fact, as soon as I finished, I was tempted to go back to the beginning and start it again!” (Susie Orman Schnall, award-winning author of The Subway Girls)

“Valencia and Valentine is a charming, beautifully told tale of love and loss, disappointments and dreams. You will root for this cast of eccentric characters, ache for them, and celebrate their victories. A terrific debut, sure to delight fans of Gail Honeyman and Fredrik Backman. Irresistible!” (Lori Nelson Spielman, internationally best-selling author of Sweet Forgiveness and The Life List)

“A quirky, touching story about two women who, on the surface, are not connected: but life is strange, and nothing is what it appears to be. Perfectly poignant, and for oddballs everywhere.” (Georgia Clark, critically acclaimed author of The Regulars)

Nice story

This was nice to listen to. Sweet story with several twists and turns. Performance was great.

What a Beautiful Sad story! It made me cry...

Absolutely loved it! Every minute of it! Just brilliant! The ending was a True Masterpiece!

Beautiful love story and relatable true characters

Some books speak to you in a personal way, like the author is a good friend who knows you personally. I adored the characters in this novel and the love story woven throughout was tender and priceless. As someone who has had social anxiety my whole life I GET Valencia! I identify with her in a way that I rarely do with characters. Her social ineptitudes are quirky and sometimes comical but are utterly relatable if you've ever experienced this kind of anxiety. I haven't experienced OCD myself but as a former mental health therapist her description seems fairly accurate. Also Valencia's therapist, Louise is, hilarious and cringe-worthy in her own way.

Delightful

I wrote a review on this book for the Kindle app, but I have to add that I found the narration on this book to be excellent. Narration can make or break a story for me. It brings characters to life, makes them lovable or irritating, or it makes me cringe and turn off the sound.

I usually prefer reading because it’s faster, more efficient, and I have a good imagination. I listen to books when I’m driving. I found that I actually preferred listening to this book over reading it. This book was a sort of series of vignettes or essays that built upon each other, then came together in the end. This made the book a listening experience, since the narration was true to the characters and spot on, giving them personality.

I mentioned in my kindle review that the book is touchingly humorous. The ending seemed to miss something for me, but it was true to life. To fill in the missing parts for me may have made the story too complete, too neatly wrapped to the point of being unbelievable.

At any rate, it was a wonderful listening experience.

Author's Later Works are Better

The problem with discovering an author through their latest novel is that trying their earlier work inevitably leads to some disappointment.

My introduction to Suzy Krause was through I Think We’ve Been Here Before, which I loved. I then tried Sorry I Missed You, which I also really enjoyed. Valencia and Valentine, by comparison, lacks the charm and humor of Krause’s later books.

Obviously, it’s a positive thing that an author improves with time, but I do wonder how much better V & V would be if Krause re-worked it with her current skills. The characters are well fleshed out and interesting, but the story telling itself is a disordered slog, and the “twists” are all pretty obvious early on.