High Heels and Low Blows

by Jill Valentine

Bee Bloom is a respected modern leader who wholeheartedly believes in kindness. So when a conniving new chairman arrives at the company where she is CEO, she has a fight on her hands. 



Lucy Love, once a vivacious TV presenter, now finds herself a depressed, binge-drinking suburban wife. To make matters worse, her husband is facing accusations of harassment.



Rosie Reid has earned a reputation as Sydney's "fixer," skilfully managing crises through her successful PR firm. However, she's growing increasingly tired of covering up for her misbehaving clients.



When their worlds intertwine, the trio forge a pact to support one another. But as their dilemmas intensify, there is one looming can they throw the knockout punch and bring down the scheming, controlling men in their lives?



High Heels and Low Blows is Jill Valentine's debut novel which also delves into themes of self-worth, identity, and friendship. With unforgettable characters, dramatic twists and sassy comedy, it is a story that is highly relatable to the modern woman and will leave you asking - which of these fabulous females do I admire the most?

322 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2024

Reviews

[Gloria (Ms. G's Bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️4 Stars⭐️
I’m very excited to be included in the High Heels and Low Blows by Jill Valentine Social Media Tour.

High Heels and Low Blows is a debut novel which certainly delivers, it’s witty, relatable, entertaining and features strong independent women having to deal with the chaos men behaving very badly create.

I loved the characters in the book, they’re well thought out and I found myself very invested in the obstacles they faced and the outcomes of their dilemmas. My favourites were Bee Bloom and her assistant Stuart.

We follow three women who are trapped by toxic, manipulative, despicable men with misogynistic tendencies!

Bee Bloom is a respected and kind CEO, Lucy Love is an ex TV presenter but now a binge drinking and depressed wife and Rosie is a PR pro known to ‘fix’ the bad behaviour and exploits of clients with her PR skills.

A timely read about struggles in the workplace for the modern woman, especially in leadership roles.

I adored the friendships, girl power, the fun fashion snippets and the assorted characters in this page turning story. Anyone who has worked in the Corporate world will have a little giggle at the Corporate culture! Love it!

Publication Day 9th March
Publisher Popcorn Press

Thank you to DMCPR Media and Fairplay Books for a copy to read and review.

[Naomi (aplace_inthesun) · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are a society that leans heavily into ‘What do you do for a living?’ to kick off conversations. It helps us situation ourselves, in others peoples universes as well as our own.

Bee Bloom is a woman who has worked her way to the top, only to find herself ousted by a detestable man with shitty ethics, and a board who thinks he knows better. With a found friendship group of powerful, amazing women High Heels and Low blows explores the corporate world from the dingy depths to the searing heights, from the women’s points of view.

They’re varied and complex. Have different wants and different needs. Have different experiences, life stories and trajectories. With them you ride a roller coaster of emotions.

I saw so many friends, colleagues and ugghh shitty humans in the pages of this book, that I could pinpoint from my own past and I’m reminded how powerful it can be to see some of yourself depicted on the page, though a writer doesn’t know you at all. Anyone who has had an abrupt career change will likely identify with the sentiments here, the turning your thoughts inwards and remembering that what’s important in life comes from other places.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Always Remember You are Braver than you believe - Stronger than you seem & Smarter thank you think.

Thanks to Fair Play Books and DMCPRMEDIA for including me on the social media tour for this book.

[Rebecca]

Another different to normal read for me but again I enjoyed it. It’s always fun to read about something you know and I rarely come across books featuring office life. It’s a light and not particularly serious read (all those alliterated names) but it does highlight a lot of the real issues behind the scenes - and anyone (women in particular) who has worked in an office will find themselves ruefully recognising many of the scenarios.. Younger generations may also be quite shocked at some of the throwbacks to the early 2000s - there’s still a long way to go but in the surface at least there has been some progress!

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The back of the book put me off a little - I was a bit judgy about all those alliterations- but don’t let that happen to you. It was a great read. The story and characters swept me along and I loved the insights into corporate Australia. Read it in 2 days and now hoping for a sequel.

[kaitlyns_library · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn’t for me.
Whilst I loved the message from this book and it was a good read for IWD, I wasn’t a fan of the writing style.

[Rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lives of three women with three differing backgrounds intertwined when a few situational crisis happened at the same time. Bee Bloom - a bank CEO, Rosie Reid - a PR guru aka the ‘fixer’, and Lucy Love - a suburban wife, decided to support one another in the scheming world of men in their world.

First of all, I loved the premise of this book. I also loved the characters and their professions. In general, I keep saying I want to see more books featuring main female protagonists in the corporate world making positive impacts. Now I can add this book to the list!

I had a lot of thoughts reading this. Bee, at one point in the book, said we needed more women in the leadership position to pave way for even more women in the future, which I agreed with wholeheartedly. I loved seeing each woman getting involved in training their interns and caring for their team members’ wellbeing, and I nodded at the repeated theme of ‘power imbalance’ in relationships and the negative sides of that.

I did wish to see more details in Bee’s day-to-day job as a CEO beyond just outfit choices, pretty lattes and wines. I had wanted to see how her three values were embedded in her strategy and decision making. Then I realised, this was a fiction book, not a Business nonfiction! I did get the operational details from Rosie’s job though, which were also interesting (and probably close to the truth, given the author’s own experience in PR industry!).

All in all, this book was fun! Yes, I had a different preference on certain details, such as the alliterative character names (unrealistic, but at the same time made them easy to remember) and happy coincidences, but overall they didn’t really get in the way of my enjoyment. I definitely got Darren Star vibes from this book - it would translate really well into 20-minute-per-episode TV series!

(Thanks to DMCPR Media and Fairplay Books for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review)

See my bookstagram review.

[Ike Levick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 10: High heels and low blows

I raced through this fast-paced fabulous debut which is all about men behaving badly towards women in the corporate world - both at alcohol-fuelled work events, while stone sober when passing in hallways or talking in lifts, but also in the boardroom. Vile, awkward but also hilarious if this was made into a TV series!

Importantly, it’s also about women and how they perceive themselves, each other and the men in their lives. Lots of people behaving badly - on both sides. Lots of bad swearing (some really bad words I didn’t like; and a bit too much screeching by wronged women at times, but still so readable!). Lots of fashion choices. But most of all women standing up for themselves, or helping others to become stronger so they can live their best lives. The recurring themes of friendships at work, outside work and in the dog park felt really heartwarming.

Jill used some clever devices to keep the story pacy, and I loved how the climax unfolds in media headlines, one after another. So satisfying to read, and so fun!

Another refreshing technique was the way she playfully named her characters (first and surnames starting with the same letter, so fun) and scenes happening at parallel parties, and what occurred at each. All the bad stuff seems to unfold at parties, doesn’t it?

Well done Jill on a great debut. I could really hear your voice in this story and enjoyed it a lot. I would have loved to read an epilogue of what happened to Bee Bloom … she was probably my favourite character.

At the end of the day, this story is about the power of friendship and its ability to overcome lying, scheming selfish men who use and discard women.

I’ll be interviewing Jill at @betterreadbookshop next month - check out their events page to book your ticket! I promise there will be joy and laughter ❤️

Thanks to @jillbennettvalentine @fairplaybooks and @dmcprmedia dmcprmedia for a really fun Instagram tour! I have loved watching everyone share their posts 🥳

8/10

#bookreview #highheelsandlowblows #popcornpress #debutauthor #instagram

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fare thee well glass ceiling cos ‘Sisters are doing it for themselves’ (Eurythmics Ft Aretha Franklin 🙌 )!
How timely to read this over International Women’s Day.
High Heels and Low Blows follows several power woman over a tumultuous few months in Sydney.
Bee Bloom is the kick ass CEO of Curban Capital investment banking firm who has built a workforce based on kindness, integrity and acceptance. Which is well and truly under threat upon the arrival of Chairman Max (not-so) Magnifico.
Lucy Loves’ marriage is on hthe rocks when her (chipolata-endowed) husband is accused of sexual assault.
PR guru Rosie Reid works her butt off, saving everyone else’s narrative but not yet sure how to define her own.
This was fun.
The characters are slightly larger than life. The daily minutiae gets solid text time so big points if you love to know outfit details.
Light, bright and bubbly with some solid take home messages.
I loved the Henry James quote Jill Valentine finished with: ‘Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind’ (and to do so in Gucci patent leather stiletto sandals 😉).

Thanks @dmcprmedia @jillbennettvalentine and @fairplaybooks for including me in the #highheelsandlowblows tour.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind”.

This was such a great debut!
In High Heels and Low Blows we meet Bee Bloom, Lucy Love and Rosie Reid and some patronising, toxic, disrespectful, sexist and manipulative businessmen they have to deal with. Except for Stuart, he was great!

Love the power women in this book. Both at work and at home these women didn’t put up with crap. Bee was my favourite! She cared. She was honest. She did things by the book. And most of all she was kind.

I loved how the women in this story boosted eachother and were there for eachother, love seeing women supporting women!

Those final few pages and Bee’s speech hit hard. The corporate world can be really brutal, and sadly, there are still men/leaders that behave like this. There was alot of kindness mentioned throughout the book which I really loved as I’ve always said, kindness costs you nothing.

A really entertaining read about power women, women supporting women and corporate culture.

Thank you so much @fairplaybooks and @dmcprmedia for including me on this book tour and sending me a copy.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

𝙷𝚒𝚐𝚑 𝙷𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙻𝚘𝚠 𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚜 ~ 𝙹𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚅𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚎

Talk about taking me back to my early days as a junior secretary where I was only allowed to wear skirts, the trolley dolly was a lovely older lady, cigarette clouds hung over typewriters and men said things like “we hired you because you had the best legs love”. I kid you not. This was the reality in the late ‘80’ and early ‘90’s. There were very few women in senior roles and those that made it up the ladder were often labelled as bitches, old maids or “that kind of woman that will never have children”

This book explores the lives of three women caught up in the minefield of male dominance that exists in workplaces, to this day. Bee, Lucy and Rosie have had enough and when their worlds collide they embark on a knockout punch to the patriarchy 👊🏻

This is a very chatty read and I lost count of the number of name brands mentioned throughout so a word of warning this book is heavy in the daily minutiae. The women are all larger than life characters and I think that helps deliver the solid messages of this story.

In the end of this book, just like in life, some men deserve exactly what they get 💥

[Kim Wingerei · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story rarely told from an insightful author

A glowing review in the Financial Review made me buy it, as there are not many books written about contemporary business life. It was a struggle at first, but I persevered because I wanted to know how the story would go. Realistically told in a style that suited the narrative, but also at times excruciatingly repetitive and boring descriptions of what the characters were wearing and where they were sitting, standing or eating. Some poor editing jarred at times, but overall an enjoyable read.

[Sue Keunen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about strong women and some of the men that try to bring them down to make themselves look good.
A pretty good story.
Was the author aware that nearly all her characters names had matching first and last name initials??? It drove me a little nuts.
Bee Bloom
Lucy Love
Rosie Reid.
Arthur Andrews
Max Magnifico
Hugo Hamilton
Suzy Scott
Stuart Sanderson
Savannah Silva
No way do this many characters have initials that match like that

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful story, with three delightfully different (but also similar) women and their various highs and lows. The clothing descriptions alone were fascinating reading. Hoping for more from this author.

[Katrine Pascoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun, pacey, engaging with a pulse. Loved being in the glamorous but cut-throat world of Bee, Rosie and Lucy.

[Jane Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would love to see this excellent book made into a TV series.