Wednesday, September 5, 2012

TLC Book Review: The Shoemaker's Wife


Author: Adriana Trigiani
Title: The Shoemaker's Wife
Publisher: Harper
Publish Date: April 3, 2012
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours and the publisher
Book Blurb: he fateful first meeting of Enza and Ciro takes place amid the haunting majesty of the Italian Alps at the turn of the last century. Still teenagers, they are separated when Ciro is banished from his village and sent to hide in New York's Little Italy, apprenticed to a shoemaker, leaving a bereft Enza behind. But when her own family faces disaster, she, too, is forced to emigrate to America. Though destiny will reunite the star-crossed lovers, it will, just as abruptly, separate them once again—sending Ciro off to serve in World War I, while Enza is drawn into the glamorous world of the opera . . . and into the life of the international singing sensation Enrico Caruso. Still, Enza and Ciro have been touched by fate—and, ultimately, the power of their love will change their lives forever. A riveting historical epic of love and family, war and loss, risk and destiny, inspired by the author's own family history, The Shoemaker's Wife is the novel Adriana Trigiani was born to write.

Review: I've had Adriana's books on my TBR pile for ages. This is the first book I've gotten around to reading and boy am I glad I did.

There is absolutely nothing not to love about The Shoemaker's Wife. You start with the cover that is so hard to pull your eyes from and then you sink into the story itself.

You fall in love with the characters. I loved that Ciro took center stage over Enza for the greater part of the book. He was a character with faults, but he was so genuine that you loved him for them. He wasn't perfect but he was believable. Enza was almost too good to be true, but you wanted good things for her.

It seemed like forever before these two finally found each other at the right time. Fate really found ways of keeping them apart throughout the whole novel.

Adriana paints a vivid picture of NYC in the 1900s, when the US was welcoming immigrants from all over. The story of Ciro and Enza is not a happy one in many ways. Like many of the families that came to the US then, it was life that conspired to send them from their homeland. Adriana shows us their struggles as well as their triumphs. Both characters build lives in NYC and then in Minnesota.

There's only been one other book that brought me to tears this year and that was Sarah McCoy's The Baker's Daughter.

Everyone should read at least one of Adriana's books. I highly recommend this one and I'm soon going to go through all the others sitting on my shelves, because I think I'm addicted to her writing. This book is definitely a must read! If I could give it more than 5 flowers I would.

Rating:  5 flowers




About Adriana Trigiani: Adriana Trigiani is an award-winning playwright, television writer, and documentary filmmaker. The author of the Big Stone Gap series; Very Valentine; Brava, Valentine; Lucia, Lucia; The Queen of the Big Time; and Rococo, she has also written the bestselling memoir Don’t Sing at the Table as well as the young adult novels Viola in Reel Life and Viola in the Spotlight. Her books have been published in thirty-six countries, and she has written and will direct the big-screen version of her first novel, Big Stone Gap. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. Visit Adriana at her website: www.adrianatrigiani.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

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