The introduction of Adriana Trigiani's work for me has been with the two audiobooks for Very Valentine and Brava, Valentine. Let's put it this way - I am so enamored with the audio versions, that I just can't imagine the character of Valentine not voiced by the incomparable Cassandra Campbell. You better believe that when the final book comes out, I will be downloading the audio straightaway. Does anyone know when that third book is coming out?

In Very Valentine, The Angelini Shoe Company is part of the shrinking world of family-owned small businesses in Greenwich Village, and with their primary product being original designs of handcrafted wedding shoes, combined with mismanaged financials, it is soon uncovered that this business might not be around for too long. But Valentine is the last single woman in the Angelini family (as Trigiani calls her), and come hell or high water, she will do what she can to find a way to save the family business. With a new relationship forming with sexy chef Roman Falconi, Valentine travels back to Italy with her smart and sassy grandmother, Teodora, to learn new techniques and designs that she might be able to bring back to America to rejuvenate the business.

A fun and endearing story, Adriana Trigiani knocked it out of the park with this one for me. I was in the mood for a story about family and friendships, and combined with the Italian countryside, culture, and people, for a good part of the story, it just couldn't go wrong. It was hilarious, it was heart-warming, it just was all the things I needed to read right now. And the characters! Who can read this book (or listen to it), and not love Teodora, Valentine's grandmother? You have no soul if you can experience this book and just not fall madly in love with her.

These were characters so magically developed that to experience this in an audio format made it all so true to life and each one virtually bounded out of the story and into my heart. The angst between the in-laws and *the* family itself were superbly genuine, and when the story moves to Italy, it felt right.  (Although I might be a teensy bit biased with that since, well, I love all things Italia).

What we all know about Adriana Trigiani, is that what makes her stories so memorable and tug at our heartstrings, is her ability to describe the family dynamic perfectly. Trigiani is a master artisan herself, of character development and the intertwined relationships of the large Italian family. With that expert comedic flair, she just rounds out the story perfectly.

And what can I say about the über-talented Cassandra Campbell? Once again at the helm of another best-seller, Campbell voices the character of Valentine and the family with an authenticity that is unquestionable. Like Trigiani, there is nothing pretentious with Campbell's work - both are delivered phenomenally, and it is a solid performance all around. This is a good pairing, and I can't wait for more. I'm almost done with Brava, Valentine, and again I ask, when does the third one come out?

*Bonus*

You have to check out Adriana Trigiani on the Today Show - click here to see this clip of her promoting Brava, Valentine. It is this personality that comes out so resoundingly successful in her stories. She is hilarious!

About the Author

Adriana Trigiani is an accomplished author with thirteen books under her belt. Her bio on her website is filled with oodles of insight, so to really get to know this quirky and down-to-earth author, click here.

Millions of fans know her best for the Valentine series, and especially Big Stone Gap. I'm excited to read everything by her.

Click here to visit the author on her website.

Click here to visit the author on Facebook.

Click here to follow the author on Twitter.

FTC Disclosure - I downloaded this audiobook from iTunes. Go. Experience this fun for yourself, too.

If you're going, or already there, and you happen to see this post, shoot me an email or tweet me at @CoffeeBookChick.

I'm thrilled. I'm über-excited to the almost-point of frothing at the mouth (perhaps not that excessive, but you get the idea). I'm finalizing my packing to head on up to New York City from Florida to attend BEA tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday! I'm dragging my husband who will be meeting up with our New York and New Jersey friends while I'm roaming around through BEA.

I will try to put a quick post up each day, but...who am I kidding? At least a picture or two? I'll try.

I am still trying to figure out which events to attend - is anyone else as confused by the schedule on the website as I am? It's just me, I'm sure, and I know there's a ton of information. I am attending Book Blogger Con on Friday, woot!

Overwhelmed! Ecstatic! Swooning with eagerness!

So here's my picture (mmhmm, this is a good picture from my honeymoon in Italy about a year and a half ago, I don't really look the same now...) If you see me, please come up and say hi, and rest assured, I will probably have a frazzled look on my face!

Happy BEAing and Armchair BEAing!
Natalie at Coffee and a Book Chick

In the ever-changing world of always wanting to stay one step ahead, who wouldn't love the idea of a hotel that was geared to those of us who call ourselves book lovers?  Wouldn't we want to be in an exciting city like Paris or New York, experiencing all that those cities had to offer, but then at the end of the day, still be able to satisfy the bibliophile in all of us?

I know I would.

Recently, the incomparable Shelf Awareness highlighted two such hotels, and I had to know more.  Within minutes of looking at each hotel, I was pouncing onto online travel sites - how much would that last minute flight to Paris or New York be?  Alas, it may not be meant to be for this weekend...

Paris provides us book nerds with Le Pavillion Des Lettres.  There are twenty-six rooms which is fitting as there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet, so why not devote a hotel to all things reading and writing?

Authors represented are a varied mix, and they include the likes of Diderot, Kafka, Shakespeare, Proust, and Baudelaire...

One picture shows the view from one of the rooms.  And the view is onto the Eiffel Tower.

Sigh.

These beautiful pictures just exude the whimsy I know I need.

Le Pavillion Des Lettres...

Le Pavillion Des Lettres

Superior Room and Junior Suite

___________________________________________________________________

And don't we all have to attend BEA in New York in May? If we all pooled our money together, maybe we could all stay in one of these rooms. Okay, that might be nuts - a gazillion bloggers staying in one room?

It's a concept luxury boutique hotel in Midtown Manhattan. According to their home page, "Each of their ten guest room floors...are dedicated to one of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System: Social Sciences, Literature, Languages, History, Math and Science, General Knowledge, Technology, Philosophy, The Arts and Religion."


I want to stay here for BEA, don't you? Might need to win the lottery, but I love to dream...


The Library Hotel...

Library Hotel Exterior

Fairy Tales Bedroom

Happy Reading and Sleeping,

Coffee and a Book Chick

I was excited to receive J'adore New York last week, as I'd had my eye on it for a while. After all, fashion (especially Christian Dior!), and a bright female lawyer making her way in New York after six years with the firm in Paris was something I figured would satisfy my chick lit needs!

Catherine has just been granted an opportunity to move from her Paris office and relocate to New York to be with her firm. It's an opportunity that she knows could get her moving on the track of making partner, and she's not going to pass it up. Along the way, she encounters sleazy company men and a few women that would gladly cut her throat on their way to making it to the top. But amongst it all, she's got some great friends in the big city (my favorite being her lively and loyal assistant, Rikash) that she partners with to meet ultimate success, both in work and in love.

The story was such a pleasant surprise -- I was already prepared for love affairs and beautiful fashion, but I certainly didn't expect to get such insight into corporate law.  Catherine is a talented lawyer and one of my favorite moments was her ability to take documents that are just plain boring and chock full of the "legalese" that so often confuses the rest of us, and write it into something that actually makes sense.  I giggled at another moment in which she's been ordered by one of the female partners of the firm to write a memo on something completely superfluous and silly -- and Catherine manages yet again to comply without losing her soul and with full integrity.  And amidst it all, Catherine has to do the ultimate -- continue to bill and bill and bill more hours.  It's one of the surest ways to making partner, so working from 7 in the morning until midnight is commonplace among the ambitious.

Isabelle Lafleche has crafted a fashionably fun and incredibly smart story that makes it easy to read and feel as if you are a part of New York's legal world. You'll root for Catherine as she deals with those who stir the corporate politics pot, as she successfully proves herself to her company time and again, and most enjoyably, you'll exhale in relief and happiness when a love is found!

You may also see Lafleche's book with this cover overseas, which I just loved and wanted to make sure you saw!

It's a fun book, and one that I could easily see being made into a film.  Which French actress do you think could play a part like this?


Happy Reading!
Coffee and a Book Chick