20190623_174133.jpgWelcome to my stop on the Valencia and Valentine blog tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours! Thanks to TLC for the invitation! If you are interested in winning a copy, please visit my giveaway HERE.

About the Book:

For readers 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.

My Thoughts:

Valencia has obsessive-compulsive disorder. It controls her life. She is also a debt collector and frightened of her own shadow. She currently has two irrational fears consuming her every thought: turning thirty-five and flying. 

Her therapist has given her assignments to address the fears. First, she needs to fly somewhere before her next birthday. 

At the same time, Valencia is falling for a man from New York she has not yet met, so that may be her destination. She is worried he may be catfishing her, though. 

Mrs. Valentine is an elderly woman with some quirks of her own. She is lonely and will talk the ear off of anyone who will sit with her. Or stand with her. Her new housekeeper is a good listener, and Mrs. Valentine begins to tell her life story. That story includes the mysterious disappearance of her husband. 

There’s a way this story comes together with these two charming characters, piece-by-piece, and you have to just trust the author that it will meld. And when it does? There’s a beautiful quilt here filled with heart.

Overall, Valencia and Valentine is easy-to-read, funny, and an uplifting, quirky, original, feel-good story. 

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own. 

About the Author:

Suzy grew up in the village of Frontier, Saskatchewan, Canada, two hours from the nearest McDonald’s, one hour from the nearest movie theatre, half an hour from the nearest swimming pool. She now lives in Regina—the Queen City!—and it has all of those things and she doesn’t really use any of them. It’s small compared to New York, but compared to Frontier, it’s basically a megalopolis. There are traffic lights!

Suzy is a writer and a music lover. She’s been blogging for over a decade, chronicling her Very Important Feelings and posting pictures of vacations and concerts and friends—but she also writes, from time to time, on various arts, entertainment, and lifestyle websites. Valencia and Valentine is her first novel, inspired by her time working as a debt collector in Saskatoon (she received a lot of death threats that summer).

Writing a book has been on her to-do list since she was six-ish, so it’s good that she did it. V&V came out in June 2019, and a second is on its way for July 2020—please hold your horses; these things take time.

Have you read Valencia and Valentine, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR