Rating: 
Summary: Great title, but not up to my expectations
Review: This book takes off 9 years after the end of Big Stone gap. I found it a chore to finish, however. The entire book is written in the present tense, with lots of interminable dialog that makes it sound like a failed screenplay. It takes the entire book to find out how Ave Maria's 4-year old son Joe died, and when it was finally revealed it added nothing to the story or the motivation of the characters. And things just worked out too perfectly for the characters. Pearl's luncheon counter is a huge success. Jack's new business is a huge success.Pearl marries a wonderful successful doctor. Mr. Perfect/Ms. Perfect appear and relentlessly chase Ave and Jack, who are of course perfect and resist the temptation. And on and on. This is nothing like real life. And the other characters in the book all fall within narrow stereotypes.With all this perfection, the characters do nothing but gripe and complain about vague unhappiness with each other, then with nothing about their situations changing, they are suddenly perfectly happy in the end. How unsatisfying. Life is messier than that.
Rating:
Summary: could have been better
Review: The 1st book was better than this one. I did not care for the way the book gave this family "problems." They were deeply in love, and yet both considered having an affair. Even after Ava discovers her husband really did have an affair because she was upset about her sons death and not attentive to him, they just fall madly back in love and all is well? What?? It is missing the elements of "stuff" happening. If you want to read about descriptions and color, blah, blah, then buy it. If you actually like a plot with a little going on and would like for people to delve into deep conversations and have real anger and pain, this isnt the book for you. I felt it was written by someone who really never experienced a real realationship.
Rating: 
Summary: There's Nothing Like A Great Family Saga!
Review: I read Big Stone Gap, the first book of this trilogy, and loved it all the way through!P>This is a great read! Those of you that read Big Stone Gap, will enjoy this sequel just as much.
Rating:
Summary: Big Cherry Holler
Review: Excellent read. A great look at marriage, family and the struggles that go along with it all.
Rating: 
Summary: Sappy and VERY disapointing
Review: I have to admit I have not read BIG STONE GAP, which sounds like the superior of the two books. I saw Ms. Trigiani on the Today show, and she seemed charming and articulate, so when I was on a long drive through W. Va and Virginia recently, I took along the audio version of BIG CHERRY HOLLER. I hardly know where to begin with my disillusionment...FIRST, very sloppy. Just read the reviews...was Ave married 8 years? 10 years? or what? Sometimes Etta is 8 and sometimes she is ten and wearing lip gloss. (The action of the book takes place over about 6 months.) How can Ave have been a spinster (in this day and age), when at the time of Big Cherry Holler, she says she is 42, and ten years earlier when she married Jack Mac she would have been all of 32? Huh? Since when does being only 32 make you a spinster? (Don't any of these hicks get HBO and watch Sex in the City?) Although losing a child IS an awful tragedy, in this book it feels like it was just stuck in to give some motivation for the estrangement of Jack Mac and Ave. It doesn't feel authentic. It seems like a cheat, also, because all the action involved with the loss of their son has happened years before the book opens, yet Ave doesn't refer to it until quite late in the novel. (I might add, it's awful convenient that their son got sick and died in only six days, instead of what usually happens with a sick child, i.e., years of doctors and hospitals.) I can hardly bear to detail the other awful cliches and corniness -- Ave gets a hair cut and it turns her from a plain Jane ex-spinster into an Italian sexpot who instantly finds a handsome admirer. (Get me that hairdresser!) Instead of boring and unimpressive parents, Ave has a fantasy birth-father who is a rich Italian living near the Alps, who lavishes her with love and attention after not being in her life for 35 years -- fortunately he has never married or had another family in that time! Her long vacation in Italy comes after chapter& chapters of how Jack Mac was laid off and she has to go back to work, money troubles etc. and yet she can whiz off to Italy for months! But the absolute WORST is that (with her super hair cut and some INCREDIBLE lipstick), Ave finds a flirtacious relationship in Italy with a handsome American. But she is overwhelmed with guilt, even though nothing is ever consumated. Her husband clearly has an affair during this time with a colleague...but it's AVE who is guilty and must make amends. Anyone who finds the sullen, incommunicative Jack Mac appealing and romantic needs some serious therapy. If this was a real world relationship, the stone-faced Jack Mac and live-wire Ave would have never hooked up, or they would be long since divorced! Corny, boring, overly "cute", and with attitudes towards women (spinsters! I mean, really!) that belong in the Middle Ages, the worst horror was when I finished the audio tapes, put them back into the box (after about 9 hours of listening) and read: "This is an ABRIDGED version of the book!" ARRRGGHH. Read at your own risk.
Rating:
Summary: a sequel that matches the original
Review: As I picked up Big Cherry Holler...I had my doubts. With the original Big Stone Gap being so fresh and original with realistic characters Trigiani keeps these characters alive with real life events that the reader can relate to and feel the pain along with the excitement of the unknown. Trigiani is a truly gifted story teller who can intertwine the reader into the country mountain life without batting an eyelash. I could not put this book down, much like the first book and I look forward to the next in the Big Stone Gap series. Also recommend: Big Stone Gap
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I enjoyed Big Stone Gap and anticipated the sequel, hoping it would further explore the relationship between Ave and Jack. I always found their relationship and Ave's decision to marry him in the last part of BSG a bit shallow minded, with Ave putting her dreams and aspirations aside to become the doting housewife. An easy ending. I was curious to see how the relationship would develop, obviously Ave is a more complex person that that, only to find Ave and Jack smack in the middle of a crisis and serious lull in their relationship. Never having experienced the "good parts" which were not fully realized in the first book, I continue to wonder why Ave chose this life. Of course, Ave goes off and attempts to explore herself with a glimpse of her old independent spirit, only to return to BSG and accept all of the fault for the breakdown of their relationship. Pleazzz.
Rating: 
Summary: SO DISSAPOINTING! AWFUL SEQUEL.
Review: I loved Big Stone Gap and was super excited to find that there was a sequel to Ave and Jack's cute story. Unfortunately, I was sooooo disappointed in this sequel that I almost couldn't even finish reading it. I did finish it in the hopes that maybe it would get better at the end. No. The ending was horrible and lame. I was appalled by the way the characters developed. Mostly by Ave herself. I got more and more frustrated and annoyed by the way she was acting. Just read the first book while you still have respect for the characters. YUCK!
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite four stars
Review: Ave Maria Mulligan returns, this time as the wife of coal miner Jack McChesney and mother of Etta. The supporting cast of personalities in Big Stone Gap are still there, but there are big changes on the horizion. Theodore has left the small town to dazzle the college crowd with his half time spectaculars, leaving Ave marie without her sounding board. When the mine closes and Jack Mack has to look to find something to fill up that big hole in his life, Ave Marie isn't sure that she is still enough. Soon, it seems like every move she makes, no matter how good her intentions, is taken wrong and there is no hope for a happy ending. It is not until she returns to visit her father in Italy, and also is forced to look at some hard truths about herself, that Ave Marie discovers the answers she is looking for. The answers that lie in Big Stone Gap.
Rating:
Summary: Jack Mac and Ave Maria are Back!
Review: Jack Mac and Ave Maria are back in this terriffic sequel to Big Stone Gap. Unfortunately all is not going well, eight years after their surprise wedding. Life has taken their marriage and thrown it for a loop. Four years after the death of their son, they are at a croosroads, and neither one is sure of the road to take. They needn't worry though, because there is plenty of advise to be shared by all their quirky friends. Sexy Ida Lou, Practical Pearl Grimes, chain smoking Fleeta and platonic friend Theodore Tipton are all willing to give their two cents worth and more. Temptation, love, forgiveness and coping with death are all dealt with here, but a smile is never far away. I loved Big Stone Gap, and I really liked Big Cherry Holler, so my hopes are high for Milk Galss Moon.
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