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Ave Maria (Please don’t call her Ava) Mulligan has lived all her life in Big Stone Gap in the mountains of Virginia. Yet she’s still seen as a “furriner” by everyone else because her mother was from Italy. Ave is sort of a “pillar of the community”; she’s the town pharmacist, she makes house calls, she directs the town’s outdoor summer drama, she’s one of two volunteers for the rescue squad–you name, she’s in it. But after her mother’s recent death, Ave learns some surprising news about herself that leads her to question the direction her life is taking and make some big changes.
Probably the most important thing to me about this book is that I was either smiling or laughing most of the way through it, and at the end I was definitely left with a satisfied smile on my face. It was a sweet, yet funny story full of lovable, quirky characters. And two very viable male leads to think about! 🙂
I just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society recently, and I think fans of that book will enjoy this one. Not that there’s anything really similar between the two. But they both left me smiling, and those books are always fun to find. I’ll continue reading the rest of this series.
Reviewed February 2009
Read an excerpt.
Find author Adriana Trigiani on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.
Buy Big Stone Gap at
Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement!
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.
