First thing first:

The only reasons why "Very Valentine" is getting two stars include: Trigiani's good, not great writing skills; an interesting premise, its completely failed execution aside; and some cool details about Italian shoemaking.

All of that aside, "Very Valentine" suffers from, among other things:

-- Typical, "Have I mentioned I'm Italian today?" cliches.

-- A whole lot of needless description.

-- Which led to a lot of telling rather than showing. Why tell me that Gram has critiqued Valentine's work when you could devote a cool scene to it? This really made the entire work seem like Trigiani had been suffering through writer's block throughout its making.

-- What the hell was up with the romance in this thing? SO. BORING. Zero chemistry between Valentine and either of her love interests. And frankly, I have no idea why either of them were interested in her (it was a half-assed love triangle anyway) because...

-- ONE OF THE MOST INSUFFERABLE PROTAGONISTS I HAVE EVER READ ABOUT. When Valentine wasn't bitching about her life, she was bitching about her brother, who, by the way, was one of the only sensible characters in the book. And then she would bitch about his poor wife, who had the misfortune of being petite and stressed. Oh, oh, oh, and God forbid Valentine's boring boyfriend works hard at his job as a chef--kind of a time-consuming job, by the way. She can't possibly be part of their problems; problems which seem nonexistent and incredibly flippant in comparison to the actual issues they could have faced.

Annoying, annoying, and annoying. More of a 1.5/5, really.