Disclosure: I received review samples. The post contains affiliate links; the opinions shared here are 100% mine.

There are some people who are so totally loyal that they’ll follow a favorite to the ends of the earth. Congregations split to follow a minister to a new post. Sports fans may jump off the wagon to chase a hero to a new team. Readers might follow authors into new series books. That’s how I felt with Adriana Trigiani’s new book, The Supreme Macaroni Company. I got this gorgeous deckle-edged paperback in the mail and prepared to savor it like a gourmet chocolate.

Trigiani was a favorite author of mine for quite a while. I loved her Big Stone Gap series which was based in the area along the TN/VA border where I live. If you haven’t read these, go grab them now — a real treasure! For several years this series was my go-to gift for friends. Now that I’ve stumbled upon the Valentine trilogy I wonder if I have a new favorite. Of course, this book came to me rather backwards so I’ll have to pick up at the beginning!

Starting a series at the end is completely bizarre unless it’s Star Wars.  There wasn’t a prior connection with the characters so I was grasping at straws to figure out the situations.  It’s hard to love a love story when you’re not along for the ride, and that’s probably the biggest downfall of reading this book first. There were lots of red flags throughout the book that made me feel unsettled; I just wasn’t sure where the story would end. After all, the story starts out with Valentine trying to convince her brand-new fiance that he probably doesn’t really want to marry her. The chaos ensues; one bad situation after another reared its ugly head throughout the entire plot. The book is true to Trigiani’s witty and realistic humor, though. She has this cool way of making characters seem like real people. I struggled with wanting to give this book 5 stars and actually giving it 3.5 stars. The problem likely lies in the fact that I didn’t read the first two books so I was out on a limb with the background.  Really, though, this book far surpasses many of the other marshmallow books I’ve read this summer.  So glad to have some Trigiani back in my system again!

Wrapping up my summer with this fun book was pretty easy with our new sunroom. Well, I say “new” like we just built it. It’s actually our old sunroom with old furniture moved into it! Since we put in the new magnetic screen door, it’s been fun to sit out in there and read my books in relative peace. The old screen door we used had several holes in the screen and wasn’t properly hung, so the smartest bugs could easily find their way in through the nooks and crannies. We’ve all seen the commercials showing the new magnetic screen door, right? I wondered how they would work. This one was super easy to install; the Velcro is included. Our only issue is that our little dog is a bit scared of going through the screen. She dashes out as if the screen will smack her little hiney! Other than that, I’m glad we put this in. It will make things much easier when we have guests over; no more barking at the kids to close the screen door! Meanwhile I can enjoy reading books like The Supreme Macaroni Company without worrying about getting mosquito bites.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.