TLC Book Tours Review: The Supreme Macaroni Company

The Supreme Macaroni Company synopsis from Goodreads:

For over a hundred years, the Angelini Shoe Company in Greenwich Village has relied on the leather produced by Vechiarelli & Son in Tuscany. This historic business partnership provides the twist of fate for Valentine Roncalli, the school teacher turned shoemaker, to fall in love with Gianluca Vechiarelli, a tanner with a complex past . . . and a secret.

A piece of surprising news is revealed at The Feast of the Seven Fishes when Valentine and Gianluca join her extended family on a fateful Christmas Eve. Now faced with life altering choices, Valentine remembers the wise words that inspired her in the early days of her beloved Angelini Shoe Company: "A person who can build a pair of shoes can do just about anything." The proud, passionate Valentine is going to fight for everything she wants and savor all she deserves-the bitter and the sweetness of life itself.

Romantic and poignant, told with humor and warmth, and bursting with a cast of endearing characters, The Supreme Macaroni Company is a sumptuous feast of delights: a portrait of a woman and the man she loves, her passion for craftsmanship, and the sacrifices it takes to build and sustain a family business while keeping love and laughter at the center of everything.

My Review:

The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani is the 3rd book in Trigiani's "Valentine" series which you maybe wouldn't realize if you picked this book up because it's the first book that doesn't use Valentine's name in the title.  Nora introduced me to Trigiani years ago and it has been fun to read her books over the years.  They tend to be fairly light reads, but have enough depth to keep them from really falling into the "chick lit" category, although some of them dip their toe into that category. 

In The Supreme Macaroni Company, the main character has just gotten engaged on Christmas Eve to her Italian boyfriend.  This final book in the series follows the ups and downs of her relationship to an older man with a bit of a past.  Valentine is in her mid-30s and is a bit stubborn and unwilling to compromise at times, so there is plenty of conflict in the book and at times you wonder how this couple will make it.  While Trigiani's books tend to be light reads, there are some sad elements to this book.  

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  I feel like Valentine could have maybe grown more as a character over the course of the series, but I will say that she grew quite a bit in this group.  I am glad I read this final story as it completed a story that I had read over the course of several years.  Lastly, I will say that Trigiani did a good job of weaving in details from past books so it made it easy to follow if it had been awhile since you had read the other books.

Have you read anything by Trigiani?

I received a complimentary copy of this book from TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review, and the opinions are my own.