Very Valentine

The first installment of a trilogy, the novel follows Valentine Roncalli, a thirty-three-year-old Italian-American woman who works as an apprentice shoemaker at her grandmother's custom wedding shoe shop in Greenwich Village, New York City.

Valentine introduces herself at her younger sister Jaclyn's wedding at Leonard's of Great Neck, a Long Island reception hall, where she endures patronizing questions about her single status and unconventional career. She describes herself as the "funny one" in the large Roncalli family, which includes her glamorous mother Mike, her quiet father Dutch, her older sister Tess, and her rigid, financially successful older brother Alfred. After the reception, Valentine leaves with her eighty-year-old grandmother, Teodora Angelini, and they return to 166 Perry Street, where the Angelini Shoe Company has operated since 1903, with their living quarters above the workshop.

That night, Gram reveals devastating news: The business is deeply in debt. When Valentine's grandfather died, he left loans of about three hundred thousand dollars. Gram borrowed further against the building, resulting in a balloon mortgage whose payments are about to double. Valentine, who never asked about the finances during her four years as an apprentice, resolves to save the company. She reflects on how she found her calling: While still teaching high school English, she traced a pattern on velvet one Saturday in the shop and felt an instinctive connection to the craft, prompting her to leave teaching and her former life behind.

A chance encounter introduces a new romantic interest. Roman Falconi, a chef scouting restaurant space in the building next door, appears at Gram's kitchen table. Despite an embarrassing first meeting, he invites Valentine to dinner at his restaurant, Ca' d'Oro, on Mott Street. Their connection deepens quickly, rooted in shared Italian-American backgrounds and devotion to their work, yet this shared intensity soon becomes a source of tension as Roman's restaurant demands keep him perpetually busy.

The business crisis escalates when Alfred reviews the books, confirms the debt is severe, and recommends selling the building, which Valentine fiercely opposes. Meanwhile, a production assistant from a movie filming nearby brings a broken wedding shoe to the shop, leading to a collaboration with costume designer Debra McGuire. This connection proves pivotal when Debra later recommends the Angelini Shoe Company to Rhedd Lewis, the creative director at Bergdorf Goodman. Rhedd announces a competition: Several designers will each create a shoe for a specific wedding gown, and the winner will provide shoes for Bergdorf's 2008 holiday windows.

Valentine also reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Bret Fitzpatrick, now a Wall Street financier. Bret delivers a frank assessment: Investors will not fund a small custom-shoe operation unless the company develops a mass-producible secondary product line. This becomes Valentine's new mandate alongside the Bergdorf competition. At a family brunch, Valentine's father reveals he has stage-two prostate cancer. In a private moment, Dutch tells Valentine she is the most like him and encourages her not to give up on love.

Alfred brings a broker to tour the building, and when Valentine declares she wants to buy the business, Alfred laughs cruelly. The broker makes a cash offer of six million dollars. Gram does not accept, consulting a friend who advises the offer is too low. Roman's chronic unavailability deepens Valentine's frustration; he misses Gram's eightieth birthday celebration, and at Christmas Eve dinner at Perry Street, Alfred announces the broker's offer. Valentine and Alfred have their worst fight yet, and Valentine accidentally reveals the family's mocking nickname for Alfred's wife Pamela, humiliating her sister-in-law. The evening ends with the family fractured, though Roman takes Valentine to his SoHo loft, where they spend their first night together.

With Gram away on a Lenten retreat, Valentine designs the competition shoe. She studies the assigned wedding gown and her grandmother's 1948 wedding photographs and has an epiphany: The shoe must drive the dress, not the other way around. She sketches a bold design combining wide straps, oversize bows, braided leather, and an architectural heel. Roman surprises her with news that he has arranged a week's vacation for them on the isle of Capri after her work trip to Italy. They declare their love for each other.

Valentine and Gram fly to Arezzo, the Tuscan hilltop town where the Angelini family originated. At the tannery of Vechiarelli & Son, Valentine meets Gram's longtime leather supplier, Dominic Vechiarelli, and recognizes him as the man in a hidden photograph she found in Gram's dresser. She also meets Dominic's son Gianluca, a fifty-two-year-old divorced tanner. Valentine selects a year's worth of inventory on her own for the first time while Gram and Dominic are clearly absorbed in each other. Gram confirms that Dominic has been her companion for years and opens up about her late husband's infidelity. Gianluca drives Valentine to choose fabrics at a silk factory in Prato, and they develop a warm but charged friendship. Valentine becomes aware of a growing attraction but reminds herself she is committed to Roman.

At the Rome airport, Roman cancels the Capri trip, first delaying for a New York Times review and then canceling altogether due to problems with his financial backers. Heartbroken, Valentine arrives on the island alone. At Gianluca's suggestion, she apprentices herself to Costanzo Ruocco, a seventy-year-old master sandal maker. Under Costanzo's guidance, she undergoes a creative transformation, learning to see artistically and finding inspiration everywhere. An old woman's angel-wing brooch inspires her to design a new everyday shoe line called Angel Shoes, the mass-producible product Bret said the company needs. Costanzo surprises her by building a sample pair of her competition shoe from her sketchbook; she names it the Bella Rosa after Costanzo's late wife. One evening, Gianluca kisses Valentine on her hotel balcony. She kisses him back before pulling away, torn between attraction and loyalty to Roman.

Valentine returns home changed. She delivers the Bella Rosa to Bergdorf's, creates the first Angel Shoes sample, and presents the business plan to Bret, who agrees to take it to investors. Her relationship with Roman grows more strained; Valentine confesses she kissed Gianluca, and Roman insists a flirtatious encounter Valentine witnessed at his restaurant was innocent. They try to reconcile, and Valentine gives Roman keys to her building.

Gram falls at home and is hospitalized, where tests reveal severe knee arthritis. Believing her health may be failing, she updates her will, placing Valentine and Alfred jointly in charge. Dominic flies from Italy and, at Gram's bedside, proposes marriage. Gram accepts, announcing a Valentine's Day 2010 wedding in Arezzo.

Rhedd Lewis calls to announce the Angelini Shoe Company has won the Bergdorf competition, praising the Bella Rosa for offering a "new view but with a respect for the past." At Thanksgiving, Roman visits, and he and Valentine acknowledge the relationship is not working. She admits she likes the idea of being with him more than the reality. They agree to take a break, and Valentine tells him to use the key if he ever changes his mind.

On a December morning, Valentine, Gram, and Mike stand on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-eighth Street, viewing the completed Bergdorf holiday windows: elaborate Russian-themed bridal tableaux featuring Angelini shoe designs, including the Bella Rosa. A credit reads, "All Shoes Created by the Angelini Shoe Company / Greenwich Village / Since 1903." As the winter sun turns the glass into a mirror, Valentine sees three generations reflected back, a chain she wishes she could hold on to forever. The story continues in Brava, Valentine.