Very Valentine Book

I've got two real big bad bones to pick with this book. Bone 1: In Rococo, Ms. Trigiana seems to have made an extremely unfortunate change in writing style, moving away from great heart-and-soul character portrayals and relationships into very detailed descriptions of stuff. In Very Valentine this disease of Descriptomania gets way worse and not only fails to advance the story, but bogs it down utterly. Now a description here and there of a view or outfit might add something to the atmosphere of a novel, but the author seemed unable to say "Valentine sat down," without wasting a paragraph (or two) of verbiage describing the chair. I would love to do the Reader's Digest condensed version of this book, since I am sure I could cut the length of the novel to less than half just by trimming away whatever exess fat detracts from the meat of the story. This book is for skimming, not reading--if I actually read all those detailed description of every piece of stuff in the book, I'd still be reading it and would have totally lost the essence of the story in the superfluous details. The bookcover description lies--Ms. Trigiani's trademark heart and humor are exactly what Very Valentine is lacking. This is by far Trigiani's worst book. Ms. Trigiani needs to get back to doing what she does best--writing about people, not stuff--and clean out all the useless clutter.
Bone 2: The character portrayal of the protagonist, Valentine is extremely lacking--which is surprising since it is the very thing Ms. Trigiani usually does best. She states Valentine is the "Funnyone" but then writes a novel without giving her any dialogue that demonstrates how she earned that moniker. The sister Tess, mother, father, and employee June are all much wittier. In general the main character is very lacking in both humor and warmth. Although the writer makes a big deal about her being too submissive to her boyfriend, he is the only one. With everyone else she is as self-centered, rude, bossy and as uncharming as her spoiled-rotten nieces. Ms. Trigiani writes excellent novels about flawed characters, but in the other books they have some insight into their flaws and are trying to work through them in order to have satisfying relationships--not so Valentine who just plows ahead like she is Miss Perfect. Valentine names her brother Alfred "the pill" but in truth is a way worse pill than he is. The tension that spoils several family get-togethers is more Valentine-driven than Alfred-driven. It doesn't ring true that so many people come to Valentine's aid in this book, even though she is so all about "me" and often treats them like less than dirt. She is so rude and inconsiderate to people in Italy, especially Gianluca Vechiarelli, when the Vechiarelli's were nothing but good to her, it is downright cringeworthy. In reality people would have just walked away from her in hopes that life would teach her some important lessons.
Will I read Brava Valentine? Yes, in hopes that Ms. Trigiana will give Valentine the wit, warmth, insight, and growth that both she and the story desperately need and which made Ms. Trigiani's previous books so great. Ms. Trigiani needs to remember what she once knew instinctively--people are way more interesting than their stuff.