erica_o 's review for:

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

4.0

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If I had to guess, I'd say Ave Maria is Adriana Trigiani's unique heroine. She's Italian, like the rest, but lives in the Appalachians. She owned, then sold and worked at, a drugstore. She was the town spinster and enjoyed small-town life. She had issues with her mother, recently deceased, who had never been happy; she had issues with her father who had never loved her. She had issues with her father's sister who was all bitter than Ave Maria got the family house and the drugstore after her parents had both passed. Her best friends are the town librarian/slut (not my words), the school coach, a surly co-worker, and a teenage employee. She has a love interest.
She doesn't sound like anything special, true. But she is. She's a neat character, a person you might actually know. The story is the kind you like to hear - a normal woman living a normal life learns secrets about her past which widen her world view and she becomes a better person for it.
It's another sweet and charming Trigiana story but is modern with more humor and real-life tribulations.