From the moment I picked up Adriana Trigiani's newest book, "Very Valentine," I couldn't put it down. My family wondered why I wouldn't stop reading and what could make me laugh and cry, almost simultaneously. So my advice is to read this book alone, without witnesses.

This modern-day fairy tale begins with Valentine Roncalli. She is 33 years old, living in Manhattan and wondering if she'll be the last in her large Italian family to find a husband. Valentine's clock only ticks louder as she attends her sister's wedding. It's then that she realizes her roommate, who happens to be her grandmother, and an apprenticeship with the family's small shoe business, are all she has.

Valentine takes a turn as she meets a tall and handsome stranger, a successful chef and restaurateur named Roman. And true to her Italian beliefs, this good turn comes with a bad one. While falling in love, Valentine learns that Angelini Shoes has been in serious debt for a very long time.

Valentine asks her ex-boyfriend and brother to help her save Angelini Shoes but wonders if she really needs a man to save the day? And if not, will Valentine know how to save the business herself? And what about Roman? Is he Mr. Right or Mr. Right-Now?

I must admit, I also entered this book with slight trepidation. This new series seemed a drastic change from Trigiani's previous "Big Stone Gap" series. I wasn't sure if these new characters living in large Manhattan would draw me in, as did the lovable small town folk in Big Stone Gap, Va. But they did. And as you turn each page, you will fall more and more in love with the charm and essence of old New York City.

Trigiani has certainly not lost her ability to breathe life into everything she writes. And as I finished the last page in this book, I was sure that I would be reported to the local bookstore manager for impatiently stalking the shelves, in search of Trigiani's next installment of this trilogy.