Books: Very Valentine

Very Valentine
By Adriana Trigiani
Read by Cassandra Campbell
13 hours unabridged
Copyright 2009

I love Adriana Trigiani's books. Her female lead character is always strong-willed and very much a capable woman.

Valentine Roncalli, 33, lives with her grandmother above their shoe factory in Greenwich Village in New York. The Angelinis have been making custom wedding shoes since 1903, and Valentine, after a failed stint as a teacher, has apprenticed herself to her grandmother in order to learn the trade. She has a flair for design and is eager to take the shoe company into the 21st century.

Her brother, Alfred, the superior male, wants his grandmother to sell the business and the building in which is housed for a cool $6 million, but through some maneuvering which I missed because the CD skipped and wouldn't play a few tracks, Valentine manages to keep things going without sending Grandma to the old folk's home.

Valentine also finds a fellow, Roman, who runs a restaurant, and they have a stormy and on-off again romance. Will she stay with him in the end? Eh, maybe not (I won't give it away). Her grandmother, a widow, also finds a little amore and I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. Too often old folks are stereotyped.

This novel was filled with rich details and sparkling writing. The reader was spot-on in her portrayals of character, also, so I give Cassandra Campbell a lot of credit for the enjoyment I took from this book. Trigiani is one of the finest southern writers out there (even though she deals with New York and Italy in this book) and her work never disappoints.

It's available in the Fincastle Library. Check it out.