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Valentine Collection: Very Valentine, Brava, Valentine, and The Supreme Macaroni Company
From New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani comes her beloved Valentine trilogy, now available in one volume for the first time. This eBook collection includes Very Valentine, Brava, Valentine, and The Supreme Macaroni Company.
VERY VALENTINE
Hailed by People magazine as “Sex and the City meets Moonstruck”, Very Valentine is the heartwarming and hilarious story of Valentine Roncalli and the decades-old family shoe business she struggles to save, while trying finding love along the way. This poignant, funny, and red hot novel sweeps the reader from the streets of Manhattan to the picturesque hills of Italy and will surely steal your heart.
BRAVA, VALENTINE
In this “dazzling” (USA Today) follow-up to Very Valentine, a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Valentine Roncalli from Greenwich Village in New York City to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she unearths a long-buried family secret and finds herself torn between a past love that nurtured her and a new one that promises to sustain her.
THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY
For over a hundred years, the Angelini Shoe Company in Greenwich Village has relied on the leather produced by Vechiarelli & Son in Tuscany. In this “delicious” (People magazine) third installment of the Valentine trilogy, this ancient business partnership provides the twist of fate for Valentine Roncalli, schoolteacher turned shoemaker, as she falls in love with Gianluca Vechiarelli, a tanner with a complex past and a secret. But after the wedding is over, Valentine wakes up to the reality of juggling the demands of a business and the needs of her new family. Recalling the wise words that inspired her in the early days of her beloved shoe company, "A person who can build a pair of shoes can do just about anything," the proud, passionate Valentine will fight for everything she wants—the bitter and the sweet of life itself.
VERY VALENTINE
Hailed by People magazine as “Sex and the City meets Moonstruck”, Very Valentine is the heartwarming and hilarious story of Valentine Roncalli and the decades-old family shoe business she struggles to save, while trying finding love along the way. This poignant, funny, and red hot novel sweeps the reader from the streets of Manhattan to the picturesque hills of Italy and will surely steal your heart.
BRAVA, VALENTINE
In this “dazzling” (USA Today) follow-up to Very Valentine, a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Valentine Roncalli from Greenwich Village in New York City to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she unearths a long-buried family secret and finds herself torn between a past love that nurtured her and a new one that promises to sustain her.
THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY
For over a hundred years, the Angelini Shoe Company in Greenwich Village has relied on the leather produced by Vechiarelli & Son in Tuscany. In this “delicious” (People magazine) third installment of the Valentine trilogy, this ancient business partnership provides the twist of fate for Valentine Roncalli, schoolteacher turned shoemaker, as she falls in love with Gianluca Vechiarelli, a tanner with a complex past and a secret. But after the wedding is over, Valentine wakes up to the reality of juggling the demands of a business and the needs of her new family. Recalling the wise words that inspired her in the early days of her beloved shoe company, "A person who can build a pair of shoes can do just about anything," the proud, passionate Valentine will fight for everything she wants—the bitter and the sweet of life itself.
933 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 24, 2014
52 people are currently reading
257 people want to read
About the author
Adriana Trigiani
67 books6,896 followersJoin Adriana Trigiani and the great authors and luminaries of our time on the YOU ARE WHAT YOU READ PODCAST! Available wherever you listen to podcasts: https://linktr.ee/adrianatrigiani
Beloved by millions of readers around the world for her "dazzling" novels (USA Today), Adriana Trigiani is "a master of palpable and visual detail" (Washington Post) and "a comedy writer with a heart of gold" (New York Times). She is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including her latest, The Good Left Undone- an instant New York Times best seller, Book of the Month pick and People's Book of the Week. Her work is published in 38 languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer and filmmaker, Adriana's screen credits include writer/director of the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, the adaptation of her novel Very Valentine and director of Then Came You. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where she co-founded The Origin Project, an in-school writing program serving over 2,700 students in Appalachia. She is at work on her next novel for Dutton at Penguin Random House.
Follow Adriana on Facebook and Instagram @AdrianaTrigiani and on TikTok @AdrianaTrigianiAuthor or visit her website: AdrianaTrigiani.com.
Beloved by millions of readers around the world for her "dazzling" novels (USA Today), Adriana Trigiani is "a master of palpable and visual detail" (Washington Post) and "a comedy writer with a heart of gold" (New York Times). She is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including her latest, The Good Left Undone- an instant New York Times best seller, Book of the Month pick and People's Book of the Week. Her work is published in 38 languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer and filmmaker, Adriana's screen credits include writer/director of the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, the adaptation of her novel Very Valentine and director of Then Came You. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where she co-founded The Origin Project, an in-school writing program serving over 2,700 students in Appalachia. She is at work on her next novel for Dutton at Penguin Random House.
Follow Adriana on Facebook and Instagram @AdrianaTrigiani and on TikTok @AdrianaTrigianiAuthor or visit her website: AdrianaTrigiani.com.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 26, 2014
I am giving this overall series a 3 because because although I loved the first two books, I was super let down by the last book. I don't even normally do reviews but this one has bothered me since I finished the last book a few days ago and I need to get it off my chest.
I fell in love with Valentine's story from the very beginning. And while I feel the books are little heavy on general fashion and art details where it is not always justified, I really enjoyed learning about hand-making shoes. The author seamlessly wove the process into the everyday life and adventures of the Roncalli family. I enjoyed how we even got to see the process all the way back to the buying of supplies from Italy. I felt like I was experiencing Italy (just like in the Big Stone Gap series) with the characters. I just was never very sure what the focus of the series was. Was it about shoes with romance as a secondary storyline or was it a romance with shoe making as the secondary? In the end, it felt like shoe-making took over what should have been a romance story. Nonetheless, I found humor in the antics of and became invested in the well-developed Roncalli family and the foundation established by the family business.
As soon as I began the Supreme Macaroni Company, something was off. The narration seemed to be told from the future, which I don't remember in the other two books, and it felt ominous. The events seemed disjointed and conflicts arose and then were passed over without resolution. Some of them were super-detailed (Christmas Eve) where others were skipped and time would fast-forward in a way that didn't seem logical. The relationship b/t Valentine and Gianluca didn't make sense to me anymore. The me-me-me-ness of Valentine seemed to be something she had started to evolve beyond in the other books. Sometimes it seemed to come from out of the blue. It didn't make sense that Gianluca would baby Valentine and not share significant events like the sale of the Buenos Aires company and his Mediterranean house. Their relationship didn't seem to evolve in a logical manner, the way it had in the other books. And the ending just made me mad. I wish that we had been able to see these two truly evolve in their relationship. What a let down. I really felt cheated with this book. Not what I expected based on the other two books AT ALL.
I fell in love with Valentine's story from the very beginning. And while I feel the books are little heavy on general fashion and art details where it is not always justified, I really enjoyed learning about hand-making shoes. The author seamlessly wove the process into the everyday life and adventures of the Roncalli family. I enjoyed how we even got to see the process all the way back to the buying of supplies from Italy. I felt like I was experiencing Italy (just like in the Big Stone Gap series) with the characters. I just was never very sure what the focus of the series was. Was it about shoes with romance as a secondary storyline or was it a romance with shoe making as the secondary? In the end, it felt like shoe-making took over what should have been a romance story. Nonetheless, I found humor in the antics of and became invested in the well-developed Roncalli family and the foundation established by the family business.
As soon as I began the Supreme Macaroni Company, something was off. The narration seemed to be told from the future, which I don't remember in the other two books, and it felt ominous. The events seemed disjointed and conflicts arose and then were passed over without resolution. Some of them were super-detailed (Christmas Eve) where others were skipped and time would fast-forward in a way that didn't seem logical. The relationship b/t Valentine and Gianluca didn't make sense to me anymore. The me-me-me-ness of Valentine seemed to be something she had started to evolve beyond in the other books. Sometimes it seemed to come from out of the blue. It didn't make sense that Gianluca would baby Valentine and not share significant events like the sale of the Buenos Aires company and his Mediterranean house. Their relationship didn't seem to evolve in a logical manner, the way it had in the other books. And the ending just made me mad. I wish that we had been able to see these two truly evolve in their relationship. What a let down. I really felt cheated with this book. Not what I expected based on the other two books AT ALL.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2014
Second reading and I never read a book again! I love this series!
The first was wonderful, introducing the characters and giving us a hint of the obsession with building shoes and romantic possibility.
The second is very romantic and the difficulty of combining Valentine's passions is presented.
The third I raced through. The characters were established, family is the focus and this book made me sob!
Wonderful -- as good as when I read them originally!
The first was wonderful, introducing the characters and giving us a hint of the obsession with building shoes and romantic possibility.
The second is very romantic and the difficulty of combining Valentine's passions is presented.
The third I raced through. The characters were established, family is the focus and this book made me sob!
Wonderful -- as good as when I read them originally!
April 9, 2015
I read The Shoemaker's wife and fell in love with the way she writes. This was my favorite so far. I had to go back and read this series and I loved it as well. It's about a lady named Valentine and her love, family, and business lives. She has two sisters and a brother who are all married. She also discovered cousins she never knew she had. I am currently reading the "Big Stone Gap" series, her first books. You can see the progression in her writing skills from all her books.
September 4, 2015
Unfortunately, I decided to read Brava, Valentine first. Why? I don't know, but I regret it because Book 2 refers to Book 1 on several occasions throughout the story and it kept tugging at me saying "why didn't you read Book 1 first?" LOL
All-in-all, Brava, Valentine was a good book. It wasn't great, just good. With a predictable story, it had a few moments that seemed to be going somewhere and then it went flat. I loved the characters in the book. They were fun, quirky and inspiring.
All-in-all, Brava, Valentine was a good book. It wasn't great, just good. With a predictable story, it had a few moments that seemed to be going somewhere and then it went flat. I loved the characters in the book. They were fun, quirky and inspiring.
December 19, 2018
Valentine Trilogy
I am a woman whose 3 grandparents were born in San Piero Patti, a mountain top Village in the Province of Messina in Sicily, and emigrated to Buffalo, NY. I love all of the common threads in my life with my relatives and the characters in Adriana Trigiani’s books, minus an Aunt Feen! My 2 Summers in Italy as my Nani’s traveling companion as well as trips as an adult were reflected in Adriana’s poetic description of the countryside and sea. A description of further parallels that left me sobbing in tears would spoil the story for others. My Alsatian/French/German/American Jewish ancestors would recommend that you savor the 3 Valentine books in order. My advice? Add a glass of Asti or Prosecco and a cannoli!
I am a woman whose 3 grandparents were born in San Piero Patti, a mountain top Village in the Province of Messina in Sicily, and emigrated to Buffalo, NY. I love all of the common threads in my life with my relatives and the characters in Adriana Trigiani’s books, minus an Aunt Feen! My 2 Summers in Italy as my Nani’s traveling companion as well as trips as an adult were reflected in Adriana’s poetic description of the countryside and sea. A description of further parallels that left me sobbing in tears would spoil the story for others. My Alsatian/French/German/American Jewish ancestors would recommend that you savor the 3 Valentine books in order. My advice? Add a glass of Asti or Prosecco and a cannoli!
July 5, 2015
I absolutely live Adriana Trigiani, but I was disappointed in this collection. It was okay...but nowhere near as good as her other books.
August 9, 2015
Love her books - they remind me of my great-grandmother and growing up in an Italian American family!
December 17, 2020
I love Adriana Trigiani's books. There are only 2 I have not read and both have been ordered from Amazon as my local bookstore was unable to order them for me.
February 6, 2021
I loved the characters.
February 14, 2021
What a wonderful collection with richly written characters that you already know. they're our friends and crazy family. Worth picking up and binge reading.
November 28, 2022
Loved each book in the series. I fell in love with Valentines family and life and was heartbroken that there wasn't more to their stories. Such a wholesome beautiful modern shoemakers tale
March 24, 2017
Superior.
Engrossing, filled with love and laughter . I read the series one after the other, still wanting more when it ended.Brava Adriana, and thanks to Bobbie Leary for recommending these books.
Engrossing, filled with love and laughter . I read the series one after the other, still wanting more when it ended.Brava Adriana, and thanks to Bobbie Leary for recommending these books.
December 30, 2021
What a great trilogy...loved all 3, but the last was my favorite!! Adriana makes you laugh a
nd cry and all the feeling in between. If you love family stories with all the family quirks, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.
nd cry and all the feeling in between. If you love family stories with all the family quirks, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.
April 29, 2017
I love Adriana's style and humor. kept me wanting more.... I was totally invested in the character and her family.... wish it went on an on...
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews