Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani (2010)

In general, I liked this book about Valentine, a woman of Italian descent, who inherits the family shop making custom shoes for weddings. She goes to Italy to attend her grandmother's wedding, sad about losing her mentor and friend, slightly embarrassed by the family, in love with one of the Italians. Her grandmother leaves the company to her and her brother, with whom she does not get along, but who is good with finances. I liked the author's delving into relationships. Valentine is still friends with her former boyfriend Bret, and has a great friendship with an old roommate Gabe, who is a bit stereotypically gay - redecorating her apartment, etc., but I think the depiction of the friendship is solid. She also has complex relations with the different family members. Interesting to have a branch of the family in Argentina. What I liked most were some of her reflections on committing to someone completely. I totally could relate - she got so engrossed with what she was doing, so that she forget to call or inform the other person. I also loved June, a free-spirited friend of grandma's that works in the shop. I definitely related to her life style and explanation of relationships.

My quibbles with the book are minor. I would have liked a more in depth explanation of how a shoe is constructed. We got to see some of that in the shoe factory in Buenos Aires, but I would have liked to know more. As I was listening to this in April 2010, I did not like the fact that the story was set in 2010 and went through the end of the year. What if something major like 9-11 happens this year that would affect the whole story line? Why set a book in a specific year anyway? People get that it is a current novel from references like texting on cell phones, etc. And the last gripe I have with the story is that (spoiler alert), when Valentine finally decides she wants to commit to her Italian boyfriend, they never talk about the logistics - both own and run family businesses, so how are they going to manage companies in New York and Italy? Again this reflects on my personal life where a few men have been very important to me, but because of living in different parts of the world, I never considered a serious relationship with them.