false <![CDATA[Very Valentine]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255954774m/3673357.jpg 3673357 10 COMING IN FEBRUARY, 2009 This first-in-a-trilogy is a frilly valentine to Manhattan's picturesque West Village, starring a boisterous and charmingly contentious Italian-American family. Valentine Roncalli, adrift after a failed relationship and an aborted teaching career, becomes an apprentice to her 80-year-old grandmother, Teodora Angelini, at the tiny family shoe business. While Valentine struggles to come up with a financial plan—and shoe design—to bring the Old World operation into the 21st century, her brother, Alfred, is pushing Gram to retire and sell her building for $6 million. It's not all business for Valentine, of course: handsome and sophisticated Roman Falconi, owner and chef at a posh restaurant, is vying for her heart. Bestselling Trigiani channels ambition and girl-power, but is surprisingly reserved—and retro—when it comes to romance: “[O]ur relationship has to build slowly and beautifully in order to hold all the joy and misery that lies ahead,” thinks Valentine. Still, this genteel and lush tale of soles and souls has loads of charm and will leave readers eager for the sequel. —Publisher's Weekly 3716647 2008 Very Valentine total:1182|5:195|4:473|3:384|2:114|1:16| 1182 4263 1842 392 2 3 false false Sun Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 07:19:05 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 06:19:19 -0800 2009 Very Valentine to drag. It was so bogged down in details that I found to be totally superfluous. (Not the shoemaking details--those were interesting, but in all the other little things Trigiana takes ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 06:38:58 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 06:39:52 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 18:13:29 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 18:19:49 -0800 2009 Lucia, Lucia when it came out. I think that Ms. Trigiani writes the best stories about Italian American families in the U.S. They are quite charming, honest, and often a one-sit read.

Very Valentine, is about a thirty-something year old woman who has bee...more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Mar 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 18:06:05 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 09:15:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Feb 21 07:54:29 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 07:57:55 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 16:38:30 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 16:40:37 -0800 2009 1 4 1 false false Fri Mar 27 09:48:48 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 09:48:48 -0700 2009
Publisher's Weekly said it much better than I can: "genteel and lush tale of soles and souls has loads of charm."]]> 2 0 false false Tue Mar 24 08:12:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 08:17:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Mar 12 09:40:14 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 09:43:49 -0700 2009 By Angela Bussone

New York Times best-selling author Adriana Trigiani draws from a deep writing well, with award-winning plays, novels, TV shows and screenplays to her credit. But it wasn't until Trigiani's agent suggest...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 22:44:28 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 23:05:26 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 09:06:15 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 09:13:40 -0700 2009
I have read another Trigiani book before--Queen of the Big Time--and liked it better. In this book, the author tries too hard to be witty and it distracts from the s...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Mar 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 13:24:49 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 13:26:23 -0700 2009
Trigiani's first novel in her next planned trilogy,Very Valentine, has as some of its most important...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu May 07 16:44:36 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 16:46:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Apr 23 15:46:26 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 15:46:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 16:19:55 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 20 12:24:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 08:29:06 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 08:29:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 12:00:08 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 08:57:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 16:31:47 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 05:10:14 -0700 2009
The Roncalli and Angelini families are an Italian/American clan with the feistiness, bravado and audacity that comes with hard-working families of long lineage yet embrace the love and commitment of their heritage and love for ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 06:04:43 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 06:29:10 -0700 2009
I too found that the details were too much, but only in about the first 1/3 of the book. It w...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 16:23:52 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 16:33:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3673357