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About the book:
Trying to find happiness they happen to commit a little crime - make that a little felony, and dash out of the country. Now they're happy - mostly.
Valerie, a 40-ish Head Teller at
a bank, has met Franco, 16 years younger and studying for a doctorate in
archaeology. He is stunned yet eager to begin a relationship with this
attractive "cougar", and they become lovers. Their lives begin to unravel
when Valerie's female bisexual boss makes advances (and threats) toward Valerie
and Franco is accused of the theft of an Incan artifact from a museum where he
has been working part-time. Frustrated, under surveillance by the FBI, and
seeing no way out of their dilemma, they decide to steal money from Valerie's
bank and flee the country. They go to Peru to start a new life, but they find
there the same type of corruption and threats. How can they escape their
nightmares and make their dreams come true?
Joseph Rinaldo
The protagonist in Valerie's
Retreat runs off with a man sixteen years her junior. My wife is sixteen years
my senior, so many of our triumphs and trials have made their way into this
book. Our relationship provided a good foundation for the two main characters’
lives together. The way his and her friends react to their age disparity also
derives, at least in part, from my own experience.
For approximately one year I labored as a Head Teller at a bank. This employment history enabled me to create a believable bank robbery. The theft described in Valerie's Retreat is easy to conceive and execute, but leaves a very clear path to the perpetrator. That is why the characters had to immediately run.
For approximately one year I labored as a Head Teller at a bank. This employment history enabled me to create a believable bank robbery. The theft described in Valerie's Retreat is easy to conceive and execute, but leaves a very clear path to the perpetrator. That is why the characters had to immediately run.
Valerie doesn't consider herself a "Cougar".
Franco, her boyfriend, happened to attend the same church singles dance on the
same night. They talked, talked some more, went on a date, and presto- they're
boyfriend/girlfriend. That's how it happened with my wife and me.
"Cougar" makes the women dating younger men seem somewhat predatory.
That isn't the case at all with Valerie or my wife. For the record, my wife
never considered robbing a bank either. Well, maybe considered, but never
planned it out.
