Brava, Valentine

It sounded like a great book. Woman takes over the family business, finds true love and grows up emotionally, all at age 35. But I found the book riddled with stereotypes and disappointing characters. --The loud, brash Italian family --The gay best friend who has fabulous fashion and decorating taste......more

None of Trigiani’s newer books has quite lived up to her original ‘Big Stone Gap’ trilogy for me. This latest offering, however, disappointed me the most. As this was the second book in a series, I’m familiar with and like the Roncalli / Angelini family, and their various friends and associates, but......more

I was lucky enough to win this book in a Goodreads First Reads contest. I had heard great things about the first book in this series, and jumped at the chance to read the sequel. The book is a funny but heartfelt story of a young Italian American woman trying to find herself against the backdrop of......more

Rating chick-lit is like rating the taste of water: it could technically be really bad, but it's never going to be totally life-changing and interesting. Yet, like water, you need it sometimes. But still, bland. This book is the second in a trilogy about an Italian family who owns the last mom-n-pop......more