Valencia and Valentine - Suzy Krause

I saw this book at the library and the cover looked appealing. I finally got around to reading it after a few weeks and one renewal!

The story goes back and forth between Valencia, an almost 35 year old, and Mrs. Valentine, an 87 year old.

Valencia works as a debt collector and suffers from OCD. She has worked as a debt collector for 18 years and thinks she will die there because it is a penance she must pay for a crime she believes she has committed. Valencia has no friends, and speaks to her mother and her therapist. Her world starts to change as she begins to make friends at work and actually have some fun. It's tough not to feel for her when she says she hasn't really laughed since high school. You know she is just existing, not living at all.

Mrs. Valentine is living in an apartment building across the hall from her friend Mrs. Davies. She makes a daily time table to help her pass the time. She later hires a girl to help her clean her home and begins to tell her how she met her late husband, Mr. Valentine. Her story is romantic and sad and at times unbelievable, though you really want it to be true.

Both stories are interesting, however I found it slow and flipped forward in the book a few times to find out what would happen. There is a bit of a twist that I figured out partway through the book (before I flipped forward!) and I'm sure most people would too. I did like that both characters were from Saskatchewan since it's nice to actually know the places in books sometimes.