The second novel in Trigiani's Valentine trilogy (after Very Valentine) brings back Valentine Roncalli and her argumentative but loving Italian American family. With her grandmother remarried and living in Italy, Valentine and her brother are now in charge of the Angelina Shoe Company. She's a strong businesswoman, but family and romantic relationships knock her off stride. The marriage problems she sees in her own family don't allow her to trust in a man or her own happiness. Her discovery of a family scandal that leads to Buenos Aires only stirs up more family troubles and romantic difficulties. And the loss of a beloved friend forces Valentine to question her future and look past tearful farewells for love and happiness. Verdict Trigiani spoke to women's hearts with Big Stone Gap, and her Valentine series continues to do so. Brimming over with life, her latest will be essential reading for fans of humorous, touching family fiction. Trigiani's readers will be hard-pressed to wait a year for the final installment, Ciao, Valentine. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/09.]-Lesa Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Valentine Roncalli, shoe designer for the family-owned, New York-based Angelini Shoe Company, is entering a rough patch. Her grandmother has found true love, uprooted herself, and moved to Italy, leaving the specialty shoe business to Valentine and her contentious financial whiz of a brother, Alfred. Along with the care and handling of their large, loud Italian family. When a business venture brings Valentine to Buenos Aires to meet a distant cousin who also owns a shoe factory, she's in for a surprise: her cousin is black. Valentine's great-grandfather had split with his brother, and nobody knew why until now. The discovery of this long-buried secret stuns the entire family, who must now try to heal the breach. Family is family, after all. Trigiani's exciting sequel to Very Valentine (2009), and the second book in a trilogy about Valentine and her family, is a vibrant, warm story about family ties, duty, and love.--Hatton, Hilary Copyright 2010 Booklist

Lukewarm follow-up to Very Valentine (2009). In that novel, Valentine's 80-year-old grandmother Teodora surprised everyone by getting engaged to her secret boyfriend, a tanner she met on trips to Italy while buying supplies for her custom shoe business. Here, the whole family assembles in Italy for Teodora's wedding. It's a bittersweet event for Valentine. Not only is she losing her mentor and roommate (she and Gram shared an apartment above the Greenwich Village shop), now she has to run her decisions by supercilious brother Alfred, her most severe critic and new business partner (Gram named him CFO). A talented designer, Valentine has big plans to expand the business from couture wedding shoes to mass-produced daywear. Ex-fianc Bret is working with Alfred on the money end, while Valentine flies to Buenos Aires to reconnect with a long-lost cousin in the shoe-manufacturing business. Meanwhile, her gay friend Gabriel moves in to redecorate her apartment in fabulous Hollywood Regency style, and pious Alfred begins an extramarital affair with a representative from the Small Business Bureau. None of this compares in excitement to Valentine's long-distance romance with Teodora's new stepson. Hunky, 50ish Gianluca began wooing Valentine before the wedding; now he's turned up the heat and writes long romantic letters declaring his love. But Valentine is a modern woman, filled with the usual angst and uncertainty about how to manage love and career, so of course she pushes perfect Gianluca away. Trigiani's Italian-American family is appealing, but this middle installment of a planned trilogy delivers a very thin plot via an endless interior monologue by Valentine. A likable heroine doesn't compensate for a lackluster narrative. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Trigiani's sequel to Very Valentine is a sweet second act for shoemaker and designer Valentine Roncalli. Val takes over the New York family-run shoe business with feet-of-clay older brother, Alfred; falls for the dashing, older Gianluca in Italy; and takes a business risk in South America, where she unearths a dusty chapter of family history. There are plenty of picturesque globe-trotting adventures in Tuscany, Manhattan, and Buenos Aires, and, for artistic and independent Val, a grown-up commitment evolves. "There is no art without love. Only love can open someone up to the possibilities of living and creating art," Val writes to the wary Gianluca. And the startling twist of family history finally challenges an old-fashioned, insular clan to join the modern world. But it's always the endearing, unnerving and rowdy Roncallis who steal the show. Look for a heartbreaking exit of one beloved character, and a cliffhanger breakup in this charming valentine to love, forgiveness, and family. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved