I like the characters and plot of this light read but found it weighted down in brand names and too many details. It would make a great movie with scenes of the west village, Italy and Queens. ( )

First in a new trilogy by the author of the Big Stone Gap series. Fun and heartfelt story of a shoemaker and her complex Italian family in Greenwich Village. Fun, quick read. Looking forward to the next one...

I loved this book! The first chapter was hard to get thru..it just didn't hold my interest. But I get thru it and the rest of the book was great! It's about Valentine, her family, her love for her business and her love life. It really is a wonderful story and Iwill definetly readit again! ( )

Cobblers, Greenwich Village, and a big, Italian family -- oh my! Adriana Trigiani's Very Valentine is one of those engrossing, fulfilling novels that made me wish I could step right through the pages and settle onto the characters' rooftop garden, joining in all the family antics and trying to sort out the messy, loving world that is the Roncallis' lives.

Valentine Roncalli is 33, unmarried and living with her grandmother in an old building in Greenwich Village -- but it's not anywhere near as sad as it may sound. Teodora and Valentine run Angelini Shoe Company, a business that's created custom-made wedding shoes since Valentine's great-grandfather came to America from Italy last century. Though the business has fallen into tough financial times, Valentine and Teodora work tirelessly to create beautiful, sturdy pieces of art that still bring in the brides.

Valentine is content that her life with Gram is moving in a steady direction, even if she secretly hopes to burst beyond the title of an "apprentice" and create new, innovative designs that take a step beyond her great-grandfather's original sketches. Her love life is at a stalemate -- a point made quite obvious as she sits at her baby sister's lavish wedding -- and she doesn't see that improving any time soon . . . until she meets Roman Falconi, a chef and restaurant owner, in a pretty unconventional way.

Soon, Valentine is thinking more and more about her life and the steps she's taken to get where she is -- and wondering more about the destiny of Angelini Shoes. A trip to Italy, with its general restorative powers, transforms the way she sees . . . everything. And coming home to Greenwich Village can never be the same.

Quite honestly, I'm in love with Very Valentine. Nothing I crave in an awesome novel was missing here, including a big, loving family with their own set of issues; fresh, dynamic and fleshed-out characters; beautiful, lush descriptions that transform New York City and Tuscany into mystical places you'd see in dreams; romance and a love affair that, while sweeping, are realistic and endearing. The dialogue was fantastic, and I loved the interplay between Valentine and her sisters Tess and Jaclyn. While oldest brother and financier Alfred definitely got on my nerves, I even felt a little for him, too. And to see Valentine and her grandmother's close relationship was incredibly heartwarming.

Basically, this book was something new -- as I flipped page after page, I didn't have that icky feeling of "Haven't I read this all somewhere before?" I mean, Valentine makes shoes. I can tell you quite seriously I have yet to find a cobbler as a main character in any of the fiction I've read. Valentine is a strong, intelligent woman who isn't waiting for love to come and "save" her from her life . . . she makes things happen for herself. Romance is the cherry on top of the dessert, not the cake and ice cream itself. I loved that about it -- and her.

This book was like the beautiful, well-crafted shoes Valentine herself makes -- gorgeous, custom and flawless. I can't wait to see what happens in Encore, Valentine, the next book in the series, slated to be released in February 2010! ( )

Author Adriana Trigiani captured America's heart with her Big Stone Gap series of books. The town of Big Stone Gap was as important a character in the novels as its protagonist, Ave Maria.

Trigiani's first novel in her next planned trilogy, Very Valentine, has as some of its most important characters not one, but two, settings- Greenwich Village in New York City and Italy.

Valentine Roncalli is a single thirty-something woman from an Italian family. She lives and works in Greenwich Village with her beloved grandmother Teodora Angelini at Angelini Shoes, which has been in the family since 1903. They design and create lovely custom shoes, many of which are worn by brides on their wedding day.

The humorous opening to the novel, at Valentine's baby sister's wedding, sets the tone for the joyous, loving, heartbreaking story to follow. Anyone who has ever attended an Italian wedding will recognize the characters, the food and the decor described. And if you have been a single woman at an Italian wedding, you will commiserate with Valentine's plight.

Trigiani lives in Greenwich Village, and brings to life this vibrant section of New York; from the breezy Hudson River Park to the Buonitalia bakery in Chelsea Market to cobblestone sidewalks to the newly established tiny restaurants run by the hottest new chefs, this is a place one must visit after reading this novel.

Valentine reluctantly opens her heart to Roman Falconi, a chef with a new restaurant in the Village. They both have demanding careers, working long hours to make their dreams come true, and they struggle to balance those demands with the loving relationship they want to create.

Teodora is a vibrant older woman, but she is not free from the restraints of aging. She discovers that her late husband mortgaged the business to keep it alive, but now the time has come to make a decision- sell the building to a broker who will give her enough money to retire comfortably, or try to keep a business going in an increasingly tough economy.

She takes Valentine to Italy on her annual trip to purchase stock for the shop. It is there, in that beautiful country, that Valentine learns something about her grandmother which helps her to see the situation in a new light.

Trigiani is a marvelous writer. She does her homework, and the reader learns, along with Valentine, how to design and build beautiful shoes. I'm not a shoe person, but this made me wonder what I am missing.

She paints a picture of Italy so gorgeous, it makes you want to hop a plane and move there, or at least visit for a month or so. The scenery, the people, the food, the romance, the Isle of Capri- it all sounds so delicious.

Her characters feel like people you know; I especially liked Valentine's mother and father. The family relationships are so real, you have to wonder if Trigiani's family members are reluctant to be in her presence for fear their words will end up in one of her books.

It feels like you are spying on real people when you read Very Valentine. People struggling with finding and holding onto love, with balancing their career dreams and family, these are things with which we all struggle. If only we could all do it in the scenery that Adriana Trigiani lovingly paints in this funny, sweet, touching novel. I'm definitely looking forward to the next two books in Valentine's saga. ( )