Always A Bridesmaid, Never A Bride

That old idiom: ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’ could have been coined specifically for the main character in Adriana Trigiani’s newest creation, Very Valentine.

Valentine Roncalli, a 33-year-old teacher turned custom shoemaker, acts as the first person narrator in book number nine by this New York Times, best-selling author.

Trigiani immediately drops the reader into the middle of a rambunctious Italian wedding reception where Valentine frantically dodges questions regarding her job switch and lack of male escort for her baby sister’s nuptials.

As early as chapter one, the author outlines the novel’s main conflict: The Angelini Shoe Company has been steadily losing money for years forcing the family to mortgage the Greenwich Village building time and again. Teodora, Valentine’s grandmother and boss, is approaching her 80th birthday and needs to retire.

Amidst the wedding festivities, Valentine’s banker brother, Alfred (aka the Pill), launches an aggressive campaign to sell the building (valued at $6 million) clearing up the company’s outstanding debts with a tidy sum left over. “The Angelini Shoe Company is in hock up to the roof-top garden,” he argues stridently.

But the roof top garden serves a two-fold purpose: it provides a solace “from the pressures of business and family problems”, while supporting a container garden, “yielding enough tomatoes to can sauce for the entire family”.

Here Valentine sheds the stiff pink taffeta bridesmaid’s dress and full body girdle to the amusement of Roman Falconi, a handsome Italian chef, who just happens to be apartment hunting in the next building. Their turbulent courtship raises the question: is love strong enough to withstand annoying relatives and busy work schedules.

To make matters even more interesting Trigiani counters Alfred’s dire business predictions with a Bergdorf Goodman competition to create a “one of a kind fantasy shoe” and Valentine’s business plan to purchase the company for herself.

Later in the novel, the annual business trip to Italy introduces Dominic Vechiarelli, Gram’s long-distance lover of 10 years and his good-looking son, Gianluca who just might give Roman some serious competition.

Trigiani leaves some puzzles behind at the novel’s conclusion to lure the reader into the second part of this proposed trilogy. Namely: What will happen to the shoe company and has Roman cooked his own goose with that cute blond sous chef. So stay tuned.

Once again this author has created an interesting storyline coupled with some unforgettable characters. However, some reviewers got lost in the pages of description: “I found myself skimming through pages and pages, describing shoes, sunsets, food, you name it!”

While some of the information defining the process of making shoes by hand lent to the authenticity of the story, the extra details really slowed down the pace of the novel.

One reader classified Very Valentine as a great poolside or beach read while others (myself included) ranked the three books making up the Big Stone Gap trilogy as Trigiani’s best.

Discussion Questions can be found at: www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=32378&isbn13=9780061257056&displayType=readingGuide

The titles making up the Big Stone Gap trilogy are:   Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler, and Milk Glass Moon.