
Valentine
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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Jenna Lamia
About this listen
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick!
Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s.
Mercy is hard in a place like this....
It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.
In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, 14-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field - an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.
Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class, and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the listener’s heart, this fierce, unflinching, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women’s strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.
©2020 Elizabeth Wetmore (P)2020 HarperAudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In the mid-18th century, as new ideas—and a new unrest—begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following.
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Dense & Difficult But Rewarding
- By Nick O. on 02-28-22
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
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A Long Petal of the Sea
- A Novel
- By: Isabel Allende, Nick Caistor, Amanda Hopkinson
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.
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Impressive
- By Jean on 05-24-20
By: Isabel Allende, and others
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We Must Be Brave
- By: Frances Liardet
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle, Juliet Mills
- Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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December 1940. As German bombs fall on Southampton, England, the city's residents flee to the surrounding villages. In Upton village, amid the chaos, newly married Ellen Parr finds a girl asleep, unclaimed at the back of an empty bus. Little Pamela, it seems, is entirely alone. Ellen has always believed she does not want children, but when she takes Pamela into her home, the child cracks open the past Ellen thought she had escaped and the future she and her husband, Selwyn, had dreamed for themselves. As the war rages on, love grows where it was least expected, surprising them all.
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Nasty reviews, why? Beautiful book.
- By Kelly on 11-27-19
By: Frances Liardet
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Summer Sisters
- By: Judy Blume
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Mark Deakins, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters”. Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long complicated friendship has faded.
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Not one of her best
- By L on 05-04-22
By: Judy Blume
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I'll Show Myself Out
- Essays on Midlife and Motherhood
- By: Jessi Klein
- Narrated by: Jessi Klein
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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An instant New York Times bestseller, I'll Show Myself Out is the eagerly anticipated second essay collection from Jessi Klein, author of the acclaimed debut You’ll Grow Out of It.
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Complete sanctimommy navel gaze
- By NJVJ on 05-05-22
By: Jessi Klein
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All the Flowers in Paris
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Jio
- Narrated by: Kim Bubbs, Saskia Maarleveld, Mark Deakins, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Caroline wakes up in a Paris hospital with no memory of her past, she’s confused to learn that for years she’s lived a sad, reclusive life in a sprawling apartment on the rue Cler. Slowly regaining vague memories of a man and a young child, she vows to piece her life back together - though she can’t help but feel she may be in danger. A budding friendship with the chef of a charming nearby restaurant takes her mind off her foggy past, as does a startling mystery from decades prior.
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Hallmark Movie Story
- By Imamomof4 on 11-24-19
By: Sarah Jio
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The School of Mirrors
- A Novel
- By: Eva Stachniak
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France are sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. When the time is right, each girl is smuggled into the palace of Versailles, with its legendary Hall of Mirrors.
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Fascinating but pedophilia nonetheless.
- By Barbara W. on 05-10-22
By: Eva Stachniak
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Daughter of the Mists
- By: Elena Collins
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Present Day. When Hanna returns to Norfolk from years working abroad, the strange dreams of her adolescence return: indistinct figures in tunics, mighty soldiers in armour, gladiators, temples, an Iceni warrior woman leading her people. Gradually Hanna’s dreams begin to slip into the present as visions in the famous mists rolling across the fens, and as shocks of recognition when a new face moves to her childhood home. As Hanna realises that she has a connection with a tragedy that occurred many years before, so Brea has to understand that her fate is bound up with her Roman master.
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The storyline was truly captivating
- By Chirley Gunthorpe on 02-07-24
By: Elena Collins
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Wunderland
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Cody Epstein
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Once inseparable, Berlin teenagers Ilse Fischer and Renate Bauer find their friendship ripped apart by their nation’s abrupt swing into fascism. Ilse, a so-called Aryan, throws her lot in with the Nazi Party, while Renate sees her once-secure world dismantled by Adolf Hitler's race laws and then shattered by a shocking betrayal. Decades later, that same betrayal will upend the life of Ilse's daughter, Ava, as she discovers long-buried truths about her mother's past.
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Amazing book
- By Paula Boudreault on 05-20-19
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All the Children Are Home
- A Novel
- By: Patry Francis
- Narrated by: Kimberly Woods, Nora Hunter, Mia Barron, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Dahlia decided to become a foster mother, she had a few caveats: no howling newborns, no delinquents, and above all, no girls. A harrowing incident years before left her a virtual prisoner in her own home, forever wary of the heartbreak and limitation of a girl’s life. Eleven years after they began fostering, Dahlia and Louie consider their family complete, but when the social worker begs them to take a young girl who has been horrifically abused and neglected, they can’t say no.
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Great Potential, but the Ending Fell Flat
- By Brande Fraley on 05-03-22
By: Patry Francis
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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones
- Narrated by: Beata Pozniak
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then, a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon, other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind....
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Narrator - Authentic as it can get!
- By Chris on 09-03-19
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
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The Perfect Wife
- A Novel
- By: JP Delaney
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss. But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins to question her husband’s motives - and his version of events.
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Really fun read!
- By Sandra Crews on 08-13-19
By: JP Delaney
What listeners say about Valentine
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- Katie
- 06-19-20
Barren bigotry
Gripping story of a rape of a young Latina and how it affects her, the woman whose house she goes to and all of the women who come in contact with that woman. Pretty descriptions of the land and not so pretty descriptions of the bigoted men and women who inhabit the oil fields of Texas. The harsh life drives women to some desperate ends.
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2 people found this helpful
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- MJM
- 10-15-21
Hour after hour of sadness
This book begins with a horrifying episode. I kept reading thinking it would become more hopeful. But like life in the oil fields of Texas in the early days, it just piles on sadness after sadness. It’s very well written and no doubt a true representation of the life and times.
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- barbara strahan
- 06-17-23
Stereotypical
Over the top with assumptions about people and the Mindset of west Texas oil town. Also the author does not know or has worked with cattle or she would not refer to them as stupid animals. I finished the book basically to observe how many more things about Texas would the author mis represent. You can find the prejudice she is describing in any neighborhood in America, possibly in her own house.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bernie Hobson
- 05-07-20
Gripping!
I felt like I was transformed to west Texas each time I listened! Amazing voice performances!!
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- TheQueen
- 09-25-20
Texas
I’m from Georgia and don’t know much about but have a good idea now about the landscape and culture of the oil field community.
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- amykinstx
- 06-05-20
Great story but...
Great story absolutely love it! I love the history of West Texas is entwined in the book.
But I wish the women reading it knew how to pronounce the names of all the West Texas towns. Hearing Pecos said that way can really drive you nuts.
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 06-02-20
Valentine
An enjoyable read that makes you feel as though are in the miserable Texas weather. The book shows the readers what life is like for the poor Mexicans.
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- Karen M. Hunter
- 02-06-23
Mispronunciations
While I enjoyed the narrator most of the time, the blatant mispronunciations were so distracting to the story. No one in Texas pronounces pecan or Pecos with a long ‘e’. Occasionally, she also mispronounced ‘mesquite’. If the story is supposed to be set in Texas, then pronounce the words as they do in Texas!
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- William Crosby
- 04-12-24
Extremely well done
Reminiscent of Olive Kitteridge but brilliantly its own. Almost an historical novel is West Texas .
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- Amy
- 05-14-20
Narration not authentic
If you aren’t going to have a book set in West Texas narrated by a southerner, you should make sure local words and phrases are pronounced correctly. Lack of authenticity of the narrator really affected the experience of the novel.
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2 people found this helpful