Valentine Trilogy Books In Order

Publication Order of Valentine Books

The Valentine Trilogy is a series of romance novels written by Adriana Trigiani. The books tell the story of Valentine Roncalli, an Italian-American woman in her thirties who keeps struggling to find her place and purpose in the world.

+The Story
Valentine Roncalli is 33-years old when readers first meet her in ‘Very Valentine’, the first novel in the series. Valentine comes from a large Italian-American family. They are loud, boisterous and melodramatic but they also look out for one another.

For as long as she can remember, Valentine’s grandmother has managed their family’s shoemaking business. Angelini’s Shoes was established in 1903 by Valentine’s deceased grandfather.

Teodora Angelini thrived because she had the strength to pick up where her husband left off, overseeing the production of the company’s custom-made wedding shoes. Valentine was always the most American of her family. She lived a life that, while not particularly offensive, raised a few eyebrows from her Italian clan.

And yet, when life grew difficult, she came back home and found a place at Angelini’s Shoes. For years, Valentine worked as her grandmother’s apprentice. She learned the shoemaking business and that gave her a semblance of stability.

She never thought to question the future of Angelini’s Shoes, not until Teodora revealed one random day that the company’s finances were in dire straits. The 80-year-old woman did not have the strength to contend with the rigors of business management, at least not anymore.

This was as ambitious voices came into the picture, pushing Teodora to sell the business premises and retire.

When readers first meet Valentine, she is primarily grappling with the future of the family business. Valentine doesn’t know what the closure of Angelini’s Shoes will mean for her. But she knows that the business is too important to be allowed to perish.

Over time, Valentine’s personal life comes to light and it becomes clear that the family business’ fortunes are hardly the only complication haunting her steps. Valentine doesn’t know what to do with her future.

The heroine concluded a long time ago that she would never be the pretty sister or even the smart sibling. So she had settled for being the funny one. But at 33, the conclusion had done little to improve Valentine’s love life, and neither had it adequately prepared her for the difficulties of adult life.

The Valentine Trilogy is spent following the protagonist around as she fights to make sense of her future. The first novel in the trilogy specifically deals with Valentine’s place in the family business.

As she finds her footing under her grandmother, Valentine discovers that she has an artistic gift which she works hard to nurture. By the time the sequel comes around, there is no question in anyone’s mind that Teodora, Valentine’s grandmother, has no real future in Angelini’s Shoes.

It isn’t just a matter of her failing strength. Teodora is also looking to pursue love and romance, a development she knows will draw her away from the day to day operations of the family business.

So Valentine has to step up to the plate. The heroine must overcome her doubts and her anxieties about her own capabilities if she is to take Angelini’s shoes into the future.

Valentine works to bring the various elements of the business under her control just as her love life takes off.

There are people who would describe the Valentine Trilogy as chick-lit. But others believe that the family drama at play is prominent enough to take this series out of the chick-lit genre.

At the end of the day, while so much time is spent delving into the shoemaking business, romance is the primary driving factor of these books. It shapes the heroine’s decisions and the twists and turns that her life takes.

Adriana Trigiani has a very loyal fan base that loves her work. As such, it might come as a surprise to find so many of them criticizing the Valentine Trilogy so vehemently.

Most of the complaints revolve around the author’s excessive descriptions. It has been suggested that the Valentine Trilogy novels would be no longer than 70 pages each if the author took out all the minute descriptions of shoes, clothing, flowers, smells, belts and everything in between.

The only aspect of these novels whose detailed descriptions readers have admitted to enjoying is the shoemaking process. Everything else has been described as being superfluous, so much so that even enthusiastic Adriana Trigiani followers will encourage you to simply skim this series. Very little of what Adriana puts on paper in the Valentine Trilogy drives the story.

+The Author
Adriana Trigiani is an Italian-American bestselling author with a global fanbase. Besides literary fiction, Adriana has dabbled in television and movies. She is also a playwright. Her documentary film ‘Queens of the Big Time’ earned her a directing accolade.

+Very Valentine
Valentine is an apprentice at her grandmother’s company, Angelini’s Shoes. Angelini’s shoes has been in business for decades. They have a loyal following that appreciates their custom-made wedding shoes.

When Valentine’s grandmother tells her that the business is doing poorly financially, she doesn’t know what to do with the news. Alfred, the brother keeps pushing the old woman to sell the business property and retire but Valentine isn’t convinced.

She doesn’t have much in life but she always feels at home when she’s applying her artistic skills to the shoes the business makes. When Valentine and her grandmother travel to Italy to buy leather, all sorts of secrets bubble to the surface.

+Brava, Valentine
Valentine’s grandmother has become a strong pillar of support for her. They work together, running the Angelini Shoe Company. They also live together in the apartment upstairs.

So Valentine is less than amused to learn that Teodora is finally leaving her. The old woman fell in love and now she is going to remarry and move to Italy with her new husband.

Valentine has spent so many years hiding behind the façade she created with her grandmother. But now that Teodora is finally moving on, Valentine has no choice but to face up to her choices and the future she has been so afraid to contemplate.