This is a gorgeous family saga based around the Padaveno sisters and the impact of William Waters on their family life.
While I found the book overly descriptive at times it was beautifully written. The book was written from multiple points of view set over several decades as we learn of William's solitary childhood and resultant trauma that impacts his adult life. With the Padaveno sisters there are purposeful echoes of Little Women throughout.
A beautiful read

Ann Napolitano has written a stunning character-driven family saga set in Chicago spanning over 30 years.

There are a number of things I loved about Hello Beautiful - the depth of the characters and their realistic portrayal, the fact that the book is mostly centred around women and the parallel with Little Women. If you are looking for strong, fascinating and inspiring female characters, the four Padavano sisters are exactly that.

Hello Beautiful is told in third person from multiple points of view. The story follows four sisters and William Waters. In some ways this book is compared to Little Women and I agree with that comparison. The Padavano girls are extremely close. Julia is the eldest and is expected to go far in life. Sylvie is a dreamer and there are the the twins Cecelia and Emmeline. Julia falls in love with William in college and thinks he is perfect for her. With William all of Julie’s life plans can fall in place. However, William harbours a darkness from his past and it is Sylvie who is there for William breaking the sisters apart. This story was deeply human and definitely emotional at times. It is a story about life, how beautiful it can be but also how painful. The writing was really good and it flowed well. This was also about choices we make and how we don’t get to decide what happens in life. Humans are imperfect and that is seen in this story with these sisters. I did connect to this novel and I think this will be a bestseller. I don’t have any siblings but I imagine if you do this will be even more impactful and emotional. This is a high four star book for me because it did impact me but the time jumps were not my favourite thing even though I think they were necessary for the story. I would recommend this and I do think everyone can take something from this story. It was very impactful and ultimately beautiful.

I adored Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward, a melancholy tale of a boy who loses his family in a plane crash, so when her new novel appeared on Netgalley, I requested it and was delighted to receive a copy to review. Hello Beautiful is not published until next summer (sorry folks), so I broke all my own self-imposed rules on reading galleys in chronological order and read it, sensing that it would be a comforting read for the time of year. It was.

While it's not marketed as such, Hello Beautiful is akin to a modern retelling of Little Women. It's set in an Italian-American neighbourhood in Chicago over a time period from the early 1970s to the early 21st century and is centred on the four Padavano sisters, Nadia, Sylvie, Emmeline and Cecelia.

The book is melancholy and sentimental, quiet and tender, and it's slow-paced. It's written in the third person omniscient which I like, but there's very little dialogue in it, which I missed. It meant I struggled to get to the heart of the characters at times.

In parts, it was too maudlin, too syrupy for me - can people really be this forgiving and this black and white? While I struggled to forgive one of the characters myself (!), I admired the optimism and quiet humility of the sisters. Ultimately, I was won over. It's a life-affirming novel about family, betrayal, the immense power of forgiveness and the one shot that we get at life. It does the soul good to read a book like it every now and then. 3.5-4/5 stars

*Many thanks to the author, the publisher @vikingbooks and 'netgalley for an advance digital copy. Hello Beautiful will be published on 13 July 2023 and is bound to be picked up by book clubs and holidaymakers everywhere. As always, this is an honest review."

4 to 5 stars.

The author of the outstanding Dear Edward now presents us with an epic and profoundly moving family drama spanning a 30 year period. William Waters grows up in silence and the lack of any attention from his parents who are broken by a tragedy. Unsurprisingly he’s a loner but finds solace in basketball and he becomes a skilful player, earning himself a scholarship to college in Chicago. There he meets Julia Padavano, a personality about as far removed from quiet, self-contained William as it’s possible to get. He meets the Padavano siblings, there’s Sylvie, a year or so younger than Julia and twins, Emeline and Cecelia. William has finally found a girlfriend, a new family and a loyal friend in fellow student Kent. Julia is determined that she and William will build a future together. Can William finally find love, comfort, and the stability he has thus far been denied ?

This novel does take me a little while to get into but the characters are so wonderfully conveyed that they burrow their way under your skin! The Padavano household is a colourful affair in the Chicago suburb of Pilsen whose art and culture the siblings become immersed in and is central to much of the drama.

This is a beautifully written incisive character driven study of fascinating and diverse people and is a slow-moving “Mississippi“ read but the pace perfectly matches the in-depth study. The standout character for me is Sylvie who I love but obviously also William who you want to wrap in a warm embrace. The dialogue is smart too and makes you feel what the characters do. There are some lovely expressions and beautiful and original ways of describing things.

The novel charms you, makes you angry in some places on characters behalf also unbearably sad at times as it’s such an emotional puller on the heart strings and you want to remove heavyweights being carried. I love the ending and you feel as if you have been on one heck of a journey.

I love how the title comes about and in most cases it is a case of hello beautiful inside and out. I also really enjoy the Little Women references and the inclusion of Walt Whitman.

If you like character driven novels then this is for you. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin General U.K. for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This book was only above 400 pages but it felt much, much longer.

Focused around the Padavano Sisters, and their endless dramas, there were several points where I thought the book could have finished (and did think it was finishing until I saw the percentage read and sighed) and been good but it dragged on and on and on like a dreary tv series. Not sure that the aim was but it killed me. This was not a ‘slow burn’ either.

The language used by the sisters confused me to what era they were living in, I kept thinking this was around the 50s whereas it was actually much later.

It will be enjoyed by people who like a sedate, long rambling, never ending, read but for me who likes to keep the brain ticking over with occasional excitement and revelation, it was a dud.

#netgalley #arc

this novel is honestly unbelievably beautiful. i loved the connections and references to Little Women (one of my favourite classics) and the different time periods/ point of views really allowed me to connect with the characters. this novel is such a masterpiece - i can guarantee you that i will be thinking about it for a very long time.

now, this is my first novel by Ann Napolitano and it definitely made a lasting impression - i need to read more novels made by her! her writing style is a pleasure to read! the themes of loss, secrecy, family and redemption through this drama and the POVs of the multiple characters generate a sense of pathos. this is such a beautiful story about life and, inevitably, death.

my only fault with the novel was that it took a little while for me to get into the story! but i do think that may have been intentional in a way - i felt like it mirrors life and all its layers and complexity.

thank you to the publishers and netgalley for allowing me to read this book.

*Received an ARC for a review*

Napolitano pays a lovely homage to Little Women in Hello Beautiful, which follows four sisters over a nearly 40-year period.

The writing is beautiful, tinged with deep emotions: I felt sorrow, longing, regret, denial, and acceptance as I journeyed with these characters.

If I had a gripe, it’s that the plot felt rather predictable and side characters occasionally felt like caricatures rather than woman with deep inner lives. For instance, there is the coming out of a character as a queer woman, and later interactions and conversation points between her and others feel simplistic and romanticised.

Overall, an easy and enjoyable read.

Thanks Penguin General UK for the ARC via NetGalley!

A beautiful nod to Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women', this novel centres around four sisters and how the complications of life can get in the way of what really matters- relationships with the people we love.

I honestly couldn't put this book down; no matter if I was on a bus/hairdressers/ waiting for coffee.. I was captivated! I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Also, shout out to the absolutely stunning artwork on this cover!

Phenomenal. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Hello Beautiful is such a gorgeous novel! It’s the kind of novel where the writing is exquisite, but the real draw is how brilliantly all the characters shine out from the pages. I fell in love with each and every one, their desires, their complexities, their relationships and their flaws. It’s the kind of book that was incredibly hard to put down and even harder to finish and realize you don’t get to spend time in the presence of William and the Padavano Sisters anymore.

It’s a heart-warming (and heart-breaking) multi-perspective family-saga set over the course of about 40 years in late twentieth century/early 2000s Chicago. It follows the lanky, socially awkward William Waters whose childhood is overshadowed by the death of his infant sister and his parents’ intense grief which caused them to emotionally withdraw from their second child. William becomes obsessed with playing basketball which provides a refuge from his loneliness and unhappy home-life. Basketball takes him away to college where he meets Julia Padavano and her three sisters Sylvie, and twins Emeline and Cecelia. Julia is bright, motivated and forthright. She and her sisters are incredibly close and they immediately draw the quiet and shy William into their noisy, bustling, loving family circle. The novel follows William and the sisters over the next couple of decades as they face intense highs and lows, romances, births, deaths, fallings out and re-connections.

Tonally, this novel feels like a literary classic and definitely pays homage to Little Women. Part of the conceit is that the four sisters loved the book growing up and each identify with a different sister. Julia and Sylvie split Jo’s characteristics. Julia is determined, smart and hardworking and wants a traditional family like Meg. Sylvie is more sensitive, a dreamer who works in the local library and fills her time kissing boys between the shelves and writing stories about the girls’ childhood. Emeline is sweet-tempered and a homebody (Beth) and Cecelia is Amy – artistic, independent and becomes a muralist.

Although Little Women is a clear inspiration and provides a rough framework, this book is entirely its own. It’s a tender and emotional portrayal of family love and grief. I think it will appeal to fans Lessons in Chemistry, Small Pleasures, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow or Elizabeth Strout’s canon.

Initially I was hesitant about the title, and I’m still a little on the fence, but when it becomes clear why it’s chosen, the revelation is a real gut-punch. I hadn’t read the author’s first book, but I immediately went and bought it. If this book is any indication, I can’t wait to get lost in another world created by Ann Napolitano.

Thank you to Netgalley and PRH for providing me with a copy.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

The Padavano sisters are so close they are almost slightly different versions of the same person. But when Sylvie falls in love with William, her older sister Julia's husband, things will never be the same again for them and their twin sisters, Cecilia and Emmeline.

WOW!!! I absolutely loved this book - it gripped me from page one and never let me go, breaking my heart and mending it along the way. Absolutely wonderful - the story, the characters, the setting, the author's descriptions and way with words.... all of it. And so very wise on families, relationships, friendships, trauma, healing. One of my favourite books of the year and very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.