I usually love Adriana Trigiani's books. From Big Stone Gap to her young adult books, she creates memorable characters with real emotions that experience real life with all its faults and foibles. Although the plots always end on a satisfying note, they are not all "happily ever after", which adds to the realism of her stories.

This one is no different. Valentine is a 33 year old single woman, Italian-American, and working in her family's custom shoemaking shop, living with her grandmother. When she meets a man who seems perfect, she seems to be on the way to that fairy-tale ending she's always dreamed of. No, there are no shocking revelations or strange plot twists, just real life and the reality that love doesn't always proceed smoothly.

It's a good story with those memorable characters, but I don't think this is Trigiani's best. Mayb it was my mood, maybe it was the fact that the last 6 books I've read were page-turning, action-packed stories, but whatever the reason, I found the story a bit slow and too heavy into long descriptive passages. It was a pleasant read, worth my time, just not as fantastic as the rest of this author's books.