Review – Valley Verified by Zyla Zhao
Synopsis
On paper, Zoe Zeng has made it in New York’s fashion world as a fashion columnist at Chic. But life in New York City isn’t as chic as Zoe imagined. Then one day, Zoe receives a job offer at FitPick, an app startup based in Silicon Valley. With her current career at a dead end, Zoe accepts the offer and swaps high fashion for high tech, haute couture for HTML. She soon realizes that in an industry claiming to change the world for the better, not everyone’s intentions are pure. With an eight-figure investment on the line, Zoe must find a way to revamp FitPick’s image despite Silicon Valley’s elitism and her icy colleagues. Or the company’s future will go up in smoke—and hers with it.
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Review
I stayed up way too late trying to finish this book! I didn’t make it and had to finish up the next day. Yes, it was that good!
This book reminded me that while women have come a long way in this world, there are plenty of men out there who still try to hold us back. This book may hit some trigger points for people, but everything that happened is what you see in this world today. It is a shame that we haven’t moved past the point where people do not treat each other respectfully and only look out for their own interests.
Zoe is young and has a lot to learn, but that doesn’t stop her from jumping into a new career across the country. I appreciated her zeal for the job and also for championing the underdog in the influencer world. She may have been naive at various times, but I think her inexperience was actually a plus in this situation. She could think outside the box. Plus, fashion is her world and she knew what would or wouldn’t work.
There are friendships that are formed along the way for Zoe, and even some interoffice romance. Zoe is true to herself, or at least does her best, and seeks out the same in those around her. She has to navigate a few sticky situations but does it gracefully and without too many blunders. She is a character that I really admire, even when she is having a pity party.
While I have had a bit of a reading slump so far this year, this book engaged my soul and reenergized my love for reading.
We give this book 5 paws up.
About the Author
Born and raised in Singapore, Kyla Zhao graduated in 2021 from Stanford University with an MA in Communications (Media Studies) and a BA in Psychology. Right now, she works in marketing at a tech company in Silicon Valley, California.
Besides novel writing, Kyla has an extensive magazine editorial portfolio. Previously, she was a fashion and lifestyle writer at Vogue Singapore. She has also written for the Singapore editions of Harper’s Bazaar and Tatler, covered the Asian Television Awards, and interviewed personalities such as singer Nathan Sykes.
Above all else, Kyla hopes to champion Asian representation in her works and write the characters of color that she rarely got to read about when she was young.
