I thought this was going to be a romcom, and I was wrong! It's really more like a character study of three sisters and their somewhat dysfunctional family coming together for the youngest's wedding. Shenanigans ensue. Liked it but didn't love it.

Carolina Hoyos, Frankie Corzo, and Ana Osorio did a great job of narrating this novel. Having the three narrators made it easy to differentiate which character was speaking.

I was so annoyed with Maritza and her constant "because I'm the bride" comments, can you say bridezilla? Then as the story continued and we learned more about each of the sisters I started to like her a little bit more with each story. I liked that story had alternating POVs and that each chapter focused on a different sister. I loved the ending with Dulcina and the nursing home, that was awesome and I love that she was doing it for her sister.

The Bernal sisters grew up with an alcoholic father and a passive aggressive mother, and they are all quite different from each other. Dulcina is an artist who turned to drugs and alcohol; Claudia used her studies to secure a high-paying job, and Maritza dreams of the romances she reads about. Reunited in their childhood home for Maritza’s dream wedding, the sisters must face the demons from their past.

Unfortunately, none of the family members were particularly likeable, which made it hard for me to get into the story. Personally, I was expecting something that would force the characters to grow, but it never really happened. The secrets uncovered toward the end of the book weren’t really dealt with. This book was just not for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for access to the audiobook of The Neapolitan Sisters by Margo Candela in exchange for an honest review.

CW: fat phobia and disordered eating, emotional abuse, racism

The three Bernal sisters navigate family relationships in the lead up to a wedding.

That's a really short summary, but that's really all this book is about. Maritza (the sister who is planning her extravagant dream wedding) is absolutely detestable, but also the most interesting character. I can't tell you a single thing about the other two sisters' character arcs. Frankly, I was just bored, and the saturation of fatphobia throughout the book was really a turn off. This would have been more interesting if all three sisters were written equally outlandish. I think this book is suffering from a case of didn't-go-satirical-enough, so it just ends up falling flat.

This one really wasn't for me. All of the characters (except maybe one) were extremely unlikable and I didn't feel like the story really went anywhere.

I loved this book and the audio. This was a wonderful debut about sisterhood, family and connection. We find all sisters on their own paths and worried about getting through this impending reunion so they can proceed with their lives and through their struggles realize they still have each other and don't need to be so guarded. I will listen to anything narrated by Frankie Corzo. I wish this was a few chapters longer, I wanted to see more. Overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend.

4.5

Three sisters, one getting married (Maritza), one who’s mean (Claudia), and another who is just ruthless (Dulcina). They all re-unite for Maritza’s wedding, and as the date approaches, you learn more and more about the sisters and their pasts.

I’m still not sure what to think of this book. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Some parts of this book were just hard to read. These sisters seemed so inconvenienced by each other and they were all messed up in their own ways. I liked the book a lot less in the beginning. The ending was crazy and everything tied together so well. In the end, I learned that even though Maritza is annoying as heck, she’s really one smart cookie, and she ended up being my favorite character, when I couldn’t stand her at first. I listened to the audio version and thought each narrator did a great job.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

The Neapolitan Sisters tells the story of three sisters and their lives as the wedding for the youngest, Maritza, approaches.

There was something oddly relatable between each sister and I loved hearing about each of their own-voices. The story tied together nicely by the end as well as it showed how not all familial bonds are perfect. I really appreciated the examination between each family member, mostly between the sisters, but also how their parents are like. The name of the book was also a nice touch in the story though I wish the over-aching story about the characters related to this story was elaborated a bit more.

Overall, this was a good read! I think all the sister' voices and lifestyles were so distinct that I really loved how it tried to come together by the end.

This book follows three sisters as they come back together for the youngest sister's wedding. It all seems pretty straight forward at the beginning. But as the book progresses, you learn more and more about each sister and their individual lives. You also get a look into the past of their dynamics as a family and why they have the dynamic they do.

I had no expectations when I started this book. I didn't read any of the other ARC reviews. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't grow up with sisters, I had a younger brother. I loved the dynamics of the sisters. It was interesting to see each sister develop as the book goes on. You start off thinking each sister is one way. Maritza (the youngest), seems to be a self-centered air head. But in reality, she's so much more. Claudia isn't just the uptight 'fixer' middle sister, there are reasons and layers. Then there's, Dulcinea “Dooley” the eldest sister who I really connected with. She's the 'lost' sister who is coming off addiction and separating herself from the family.

I'm so in love with the connections between the family. I love the bonds that are built in this family. I loved the sisterhood bods and how they always just 'knew' they would be there for each other. They might have had to jump through hoops, but they knew they would be there.

This book is really a journey of growth, and it's beautiful. I loved every bit of this journey!

Thank you, Netgalley & Dreamscape Media
Thank you, Margo Candela, for letting me go on this journey with you! It was so special!
And an extra special thank you to Carolina Hoyos, Frankie Corzo, & Ana Daniela Osorio for lending your voices to this book. You all did spectacular! This audiobook would not have been the same without your unique and individual voices.

A story of family who is mostly horrible, incredibly dysfunctional, obnoxious and not willing to deal with their reality so they enable each others awful behavior or bury their heads in the sand. A father who a semi functional alcoholic and contributes nothing to the families well being, a mother who abdicated the role of parent to one of her daughters, enabled the youngest daughters truly despicable behavior and attitude and doesn’t want to deal with the third daughters addictions, who she is and acknowledge her sobriety. I kept listening as the writing and narration was so engaging I expected, or maybe it was just that I was hoping that any or all of them might experience just a little personal growth. That never happened. The only one with any redeeming qualities is Dulcina, who is in recovery. She’s the only one with any self awareness. Maritza is a horrible bridezilla, except that is how she is always in every part of her life and Claudia is emotionally closed off, keeps everyone at bay even when it she internally recognizes how she is hurting herself and those around her. Thankfully the man who loved her didn’t run off as most would have due to her emotional cruelty. What I also found a little bit disconcerting the quickness of the ending. It felt like I got pushed out of a plane with no parachute. Well narrated.

The Bernal sisters, Dulcina, Claudia and Maritza are preparing to reunited for Maritza’s big wedding day. Raised by a passive aggressive mother and a alcoholic father, each sister now leads a completely different life. Dulcina is a recovering drug addict, Claudia is a movie producer, and Maritza is the romantic. They all are hiding secrets.

The Neapolitan Sisters is an emotional portrayal of the bonds of sisterhood and family. The characters are extremely well developed and brought to vibrant life on the page. I liked getting to know their flawed, realistic personalities and would like to know more about what happens later in their lives, after the ending of the book.

This was a really interesting story, I loved the different perspectives and I really appreciate that it had multiple narrators. I guessed a few things about the story, I do wish that it took a while to address some things. A few thoughts I had:
1) Maritza triggered me because my younger sister is JUST LIKE HER! I just wanted to shake her most of the time. Not everything is about youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! I do wonder if they made her voice a higher register on purpose because her voice kinda grated on my nerves at times.
2) Claudia was holding up everything but no one was holding space for her and it really upset me. She deserved better. It shows how those who serves as the rock should be taken care of better because they will ignore themselves to put others first. I also really liked the person that narrated for her.
3) Dulcey was really interesting as well, though the narrator didn't give "smoker" like one of the other characters said her voice was. I liked how straight to the point she was and that resonated with me.
Overall, this was a great narration and an interesting story that I finished in a few days because I was constantly listening..

This book made the truly wild choice of having not a single likeable character besides the movie star boyfriend??? Three narrators, all painfully terrible, and a giant cast of supporting characters bc the sisters had no overlap in the people in their lives besides their parents, and none of them were people i would want to spend even fifteen minutes with. I would have DNF'd this if i weren't going to need to review it (i wasn't sure if you could review books you DNF and i don't want to mess up my NetGalley rating!), but i powered through and i guess people get a tiny bit better by the end, but i wasn't even cheering for any of them bc they had all been so awful over and over by then.

If you love antiheros with no foils of actual decent people, and you like being forced to cheer for the only straight white man in the whole book, then i guess this is a solid option for you? I appreciated moments of it--the ways that it showed how siblings can sort of be living in totally different families, can know and see different things about their parents and interpret the same thing in vastly disparate ways, and can work through family stressors so uniquely--but overall i had a very difficult time getting through this book.

As mentioned above, this was a NetGalley ARC and this review was not bought off!

🔊Song Pairing: Dear Future Husband - Meghan Trainor (this song is 💯 for the character of Maritza)

💭What I thought would happen:

I loved the colourful cover, I figured it would be flooded with drama (not wrong!)

📖What actually happens:

Maritza - getting married to Auggie, a momma’s boy who still lives at home…if she keeps feeding him he’s not going to fit into his rental tux. Maritza is self centred and is fixated on her wedding day to the point of recklessness. Definitely the baby of the Bernal sisters and in desperate need of a reality check.

Claudia - the successful and low key famous Bernal sister. Working as a producer in Hollywood and is currently conflicted about her feelings towards a very A list movie star. She wants to keep it a secret and he wants to worship her. Claudia is a mess of a human and is still desperately trying to fix herself before loving another.

Dulcina - the problem Bernal. Fresh out of rehab and trying to make some changes, in her attempt to kickstart her life, she makes her way back home for her sister’s wedding with some definitely bumps on the road to redemption.

🗯Thoughts:

While I thought Dulcina was going to be the obvious dark horse of the Bernal sisters the winner winner was actually Maritza. She is a wild character that I have 10,000 feelings about. Honestly in the end I quite enjoyed that spoiled betch 😂

This book took me a quality 20% to get into, I was kind of meh for awhile. Then the last 10% was absolute chaos. So much build up to explode at the end. It felt like being in a batting cage with machine-do-dad on full blast but instead of balls it’s drama. I kept looking at the time dwindle down and was like noooooo how is this possible? There is so much left. NOPE! Abrupt ending with loose ends. I docked half a star for that.

Read if you enjoy:
💃🏻Character driven stories
👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Family drama
🎥 Hollywood romance
💍 Wedding planning (read: drama)

⚠️ All the triggers: abuse, assault, abortion, drugs, alcoholism

3.5 stars!
The Bernal sisters are three very different siblings. Maritza is set for her second wedding to happen in a few weeks after her first marriage failed at the age of 18. Dulcina is a recovering addict. Claudia is emotionally unavailable and the family depends on her as their backbone. As they are about to reunite for the upcoming nuptials, they can’t ignore that they are family.

I listened to this novel on audiobook thanks to @librofm and @dreamscapemedia. I liked the length, it was short and sweet. I also liked how we got the perspective of all three of the sisters and how each sister had a different narrator. However, I did find there were some plot holes. 90% of the book is spent setting up who the sisters are and then the last 10% is dropping these crazy secrets. The secrets at the end don’t get enough time, making them feel like they aren’t as big of a deal when they should have been. This book deals with a lot: sexual abuse, drug abuse, abortion, sexuality, etc. I just felt like it was too scattered and more time was needed to adequately depict what each sister was going through. The title is also the same as a very famous series which I found kind of bugged me!

I'm always glad when I ignore other readers' DNFs because there were some bookstagrammers posting about DNFing it, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I love how crafty the little sister is! It feels like she catches her family off guard often. My heart broke for the middle sister toward the end, but I also had hope because of what she was planning. Finally, I think the big sister is my favorite.

I wasn't totally gripped by this book, but I do have to say the audiobook made a huge difference in the storytelling. I enjoyed that each sister had a different voice actor. I liked Claudia's character the best. She seemed the most believable and it was nice to see these sisters reconnect while prepping for Maritza's wedding.

Final Rating: 2.5 Stars

The Neapolitan Sisters follows the sisters, Dulcina, Claudia, and Maritza as they reunite for Martiza's upcoming wedding. All three Bernal sisters grew up with an alcoholic father and a passive-aggressive mother and had different ways of coping with their upbringing. Dulcina struggled with drugs and alcohol, Claudia dove into her studies and left to go to Princeton, and Maritza created a fairytale reality for herself. As they reunite in East L.A., they have to learn how to navigate life as they've grown up and try not to ruin Maritza's (second) fairytale wedding before it happens.

I enjoyed the alternating points of view and the different narrators chosen for each sister. It added a positive dimension to the story. Some aspects of the sibling relationships were very relatable, but I couldn't say that I was invested in the sisters, especially Maritza. Maritza made several fatphobic remarks about people throughout the story, and it's very awkward and difficult to listen to, especially if we, as readers, are supposed to be sympathetic towards Maritza and her desire to have live in a fairytale. Although I enjoyed the exploration of the sisters as individuals and their dynamic with each other, the repetitive fatphobia was too much of a dealbreaker for me.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this! The parallel pieces of each of the sister's stories worked really well together, making a very engaging and interesting story. I especially liked the sister dynamics with each other.

It did feel a little like something was missing. I also wanted a few more chapters or at least a few more of the loose ends tied up.

Overall though, this was an enjoyable audiobook and would recommend, especially if you like stories about sisters.

3.5