Very Valentine
Subtitle: a novel
By: Adriana Trigiani
Edition: 1st HarperLuxe ed.
Series: Valentine trilogy -- bk. 1
Publisher: Harper Luxe
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 562
ISBN-13: 9780061668999
Subjects: Shoemakers; Family secrets; Italian American families; Family-owned business enterprises; Large type books; Italian American women; Fiction
Description: The Angelini Shoe Company, makers of exquisite wedding shoes since 1903, is one of the last family-owned businesses in Greenwich Village. The company is on the verge of financial collapse. It falls to thirty-three-year-old Valentine Roncalli, the talented and determined apprentice to her grandmother, the master artisan Teodora Angelini, to bring the family's old-world craftsmanship into the twenty-first century and save the company from ruin. While juggling a budding romance with dashing chef Roman Falconi, her duty to her family, and a design challenge presented by a prestigious department store, Valentine returns to Italy with her grandmother to learn new techniques and seek one-of-a-kind materials for building a pair of glorious shoes to beat their rivals. There, in Tuscany, Naples, and on the Isle of Capri, a family secret is revealed as Valentine discovers her artistic voice and much more, turning her life and the family business upside down in ways she never expected.