In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, 1976, 14 year old Gloria Ramirez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive after a vicious attack in a nearby oil field. Valentine , Elizabeth Wetmore’s debut novel, 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.