Book Review: What's Not Said by Valerie Taylor

Rating: 📚📚📚📚 What's Not Said is the debut novel of Valerie Taylor. It's a very realistic take on love, marriage, and everything in between. First, meet Kassie, a marketing executive, who has a lot going on in her life, a lot of stress. Then we meet Mike, the husband. Finally, there's Chris, the lover. Kassie and Mike met in college, the whole student-teacher affair happening, that eventually turned into something more. They get married and have been for a few decades. Like most marriages, the honeymoon phase don't last forever. Mike is controlling and emotionally abusive, and Kassie has spent most of their marriage being Mike's puppet. She takes a vacation alone and meets Chris. Chris is everything Mike isn't; kind, thoughtful, and attentive. Kassie eats up all that Chris has to offer and begins this distant love affair while still married to Mike. She's been contemplating divorce, but something gets in the way, and divorce gets put on the back burner. Chris relocates to Boston, and that motivates her to go on and go through with the divorce. Mikes falls ill, and his health condition comes to light putting yet another hold on Kassie and her journey to divorce. Kassie doesn't want to bring it to him, while he's not in a good state mentally or physically. She expresses to Chris that she feels betrayed and is angry that he would keep that from her and wonder what else he may be hiding, what else has been left unsaid. Which is funny considering she's been committing adultery and keeping it a secret from her husband, the irony. The novel is told from all three of the main characters' perspectives, which I enjoy. You get a small insight into how they see things, where their minds are, and get a feel of the characters themselves. It's a slow burn, but the slow pace is for the reader to understand the back story and why things got to the point in which it's at. What's not said is about the things we don't share, the lies we've told, and learning that communication is always best.