Big Stone Gap by Andriana Trigiani

Having enjoyed the first two books in this author’s most recent trilogy, I decided to go back to her first book thinking it would be engaging -- and distracting – airplane reading. It was. As in her later novels, the main character is an independent woman of Italian heritage reaching the age when the possibilities for finding happiness in marriage are beginning to become less likely. Ave Maria has recently lost her beloved mother, an Italian woman who married a man from the coal country of Virginia who brought her there. She runs her late father’s pharmacy in the valley town of Big Stone Gap. A cast of memorable characters, a secret from her mother’s past, and the possibility of not one but two romantic interests keep the plot chugging along. Great summer reading and I didn’t worry about the wings falling off even a little. 272 pp.