Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

This is the first in the series.

Ave Maria Mulligan is the self proclaimed spinster in Big Stone Gap. It's a small mining town and the year is 1978. Ave Maria is 35 and has never been married or had kids. Most of the people her age have been married for years and several have grandkids. But She is ok with things, she likes living on her own and doing what she likes. She is the town pharmacist and owns her own company. However, one day, everything turns upside down. Her mother recently died from cancer, her father died several years ago. When she goes to see the lawyer who settled her mother's estate, she finds a letter form her mother that tells her that the man she knew as her father, wasn't. Her mother was from Italy and she fled when she was a teenager because she was pregnant. She ended up meeting a guy and he agreed to marry her even though the child wasn't his.

Now, Ave Maria isn't sure about life anymore. Not only does she realize she has a whole family living in Italy that she never knew about, she's also received 2 marriage proposals in a matter of months!

This is the story about how Ave Maria comes to terms with herself at the age of 35 and finds love and a family.

I really enjoyed this book. I've been wanting to read it for awhile but for some reason never did. I put it on my TBR contest alternative list in hopes that would give me the push I needed to read it. I'm glad I did! This is the second book I have read by the author, the other was Lucia Lucia!. I admit I liked that book more than I did this one, but Big Stone Gap is still a very good book. There are more in the series and I plan to read them.

fiction/320pgs/TBR contest