What's Not Lost by Valerie Taylor
Author Valerie Taylor writes bright and lively dialogue exchanged among smart, highly motivated people. The women in her world can be calculating and manipulating — the men, not so much.
Yet in What’s Not Lost (Aspetuck Publishing), the third in her addictive series with a plucky 40-something heroine again at center stage, a white-and-orange-colored cat named Topher may have the best handle of all in terms of what’s going on amid a tangle of romance, schemes, professional upheaval and family drama.
Endless Drama
From the very outset, Kassie O’Callaghan has her hands full. Waking up in the morning after her husband’s funeral, she takes stock of her life.
She has fallen in love with Chris, a much younger man, and expects to marry him. But she’s offered the professional opportunity of a lifetime which requires temporarily leaving him and moving to Paris where she doesn’t even speak the language.
Kassie has to return to Boston, however, to take over management of the family business, Ricci and Son, where her late husband’s mistress Karen still works — a mistress the new intern referred to as the “surly, ill-bred strumpet.”
It only gets worse: An old girlfriend of Kassie’s fiancé shows up and announces she’s pregnant with Chris’s baby, spends the night, tumbles down the stairs in the morning, breaks a leg, and becomes one more unavoidable, weighty responsibility.
Poor Chris is in emotional shambles, balancing two women, a completely unexpected and demanding future, and, suddenly, more responsibilities at Ricci and Son — even though the name of the family business has been revealed as a misnomer.
Unlikely Families
Topher, the sweet breezy cat, is a grounding presence throughout the book, swishing his tail against Kassie’s leg, nursing a grudge against Kassie’s ex- (dead) husband, searching for toys, carrying off a cherished piece of jewelry and chewing the edges of the bag it came in. All the human players have their exits and their entrances, but Topher remains solid and wise. Taylor sneaks Topher in when Kassie needs him.
In Kassie, Taylor has created a delightful and likable heroine with guts and smarts and just enough vulnerability to make her lovable. The story that bounces off Venice, Greece, Paris, Boston — and the hearts of a gallery of characters who tried their best, or their worst — ends up in the most unlikely of “families.”
At the end, when “all that Kassie had clung to fell to the cobblestone,” readers will be clamoring for book four.
About Valerie Taylor:
Valerie Taylor was born in Stamford, CT. She climbed the proverbial ladder in her early years at Xerox and then helped launch Executive Development Associates, a start-up executive education and coaching firm. Her writing career took off when she joined Optima Group, and then later Clarion Brand Communications, where she focused on branding and crafting dozens of retirement planning programs for banks, mutual fund companies, and insurance companies.
Valerie retired and returned home to CT in 2016 where her children have grown up and settled. When she’s not writing, reading, practicing tai chi or cheering for the Boston Red Sox or the New England Patriots, she’s sharing her wisdom and values with her granddaughter, who’s growing up way too fast. Her debut novel, What’s Not Said, launched in September 2020.
