Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano is a re-release of her first novel.
I enjoyed reading this story about an Irish American Family as they find their individual and collective ways. The story is told from 5 or 6 different viewpoints but that technique largely works with the occasional check back to make sure I knew who was telling this chapter. This book is a leisurely read and I appreciated the flawed, multi-faceted, and very human characters.

In this book, you can see the early bonds and tensions of sisterhood that show up later in Hello Beautiful. I enjoyed the author's postscript about this being the book she was ready to write 20 years ago and in that spirit I"m glad I got to read it and to see how her writing has progressed in the intervening years.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of Within Arm's Reach in exchange for an honest review. Today is publication day.

3.5 stars. Her writing is beautiful and she has command on the family saga novel. As in Hello, Beautiful, she draws from her own Irish Catholic heritage and passed down stories to create such an assembled lot of characters flawed and interesting and connected to each other even when they sometimes try not to be. This is her first novel that is being re-released after the wide success of Dear Edward (which I absolutely loved) and Hello, Beautiful. I think the story itself lacks a little, but it never feels too slow-paced or boring. I am still thinking about how much has changed in the last three generations and how difficult it is now for families to stay close were they to lose someone like Catharine, the grandmother matriarch who serves as the glue holding the younger generations together. Great title as well. If you like her writing, it’s definitely worth a read.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. Within Arms Reach (rerelease) is available now.

WITHIN ARM'S REACH is brilliant Ann Napolitano at her best: highlighting the impact of an unexpected pregnancy on a tight knit and diverse Irish Catholic family. The keen insight and gentle compassion Napolitano offered in her earlier stories is in full bloom here in a story told by six different, compelling, and engaging characters. Throughout, the voice of the characters is pitch perfect through disagreements, silences, resolutions, and the drama of intense relationships. The story is also poetic, feeling lyrical and mythic in the scope of the tragedies endured and the triumphs celebrated. I deeply enjoyed this book and will recommend it for my book club. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

Happy rerelease day to Within Arms Reach by Ann Napolitano!! Huge thank you to @netgalley and @thedialpress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Within Arms Reach is Ann Napolitano’s first novel she wrote and after Hello Beautiful became one of my all time favorite books last year I was jumping for joy to get a chance to read this one!

While this novel is not as polished as Hello Beautiful, Napolitano’s beautiful way of writing families shines bright in this book. Within Arms Reach follows one family through perspectives of multiple generations as they struggle to understand and grow alongside one another. Once you nail down the characters (guided by the helpful family tree in the front) the changing perspectives make the book quirky and fun to read. The characters are imperfect and at times maddening but are extremely raw and realistic which makes the story so valuable. If you allow yourself to sit with these characters you will undoubtedly find a piece of yourself in them. I only wish we could have had more of the family towards the end of the book and seen some of their growth come to fruition.

If you are a fan of Ann Napolitano’s writing or enjoy slower books with a messy family dynamic I recommend picking this one up this spring. While it might not be for everyone, the ones who enjoy it will certainly treasure it!

3.5* a slice of life family saga that was enjoyable to experience. The authors note at the end made the story much more impactful.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this novel. This is a republishing and it’s out now!

Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano is a very well written story.
I just love her writing and I could get so lost in her words.
I absolutely loved this book - it gripped me from page one and never let me go.
Everything….. the story, the characters, the setting, the author's descriptions and her way with words.... all of it is phenomenal!

Thank You NetGalley and Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I’ve always been a fan of novels that follow multigenerational family systems. Within Arms Reach follows grandmother and matriarch Catharine and her children and grandchildren. The story mainly follows granddaughter Grace’s pregnancy and the ripples it causes within the family system. I found it enjoyable to be woven into the complex issues in the family, but found the ending to be abrupt and I never really understood where the story was going. I still enjoyed reading about the family history!

Ann Napolitano is the author of one of my all time favorite books, Dear Edward. When I saw her debut novel was being re-released I jumped at the opportunity to read it.
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Her writing is simply stunning. She knows how to write a story and she can write a family saga like no other. This book was worth revisiting.
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Thank you #dialpress and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

“People don’t like to hear the truth, Mother says. It’s unkind. But they need to be strong, I say. Stronger than this, anyway. How will they ever find happiness, ever move forward in their lives, if they aren’t strong enough to hear that their mother is old?”

I really enjoyed this re-issue of @annnapolitanos debut book, originally published in 2004. Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward were both 5 stars for me so I was very excited to read the book that started it all.

And it was good! Within Arms Reach follows three generations of an Irish American family rocked by an unplanned pregnancy. I love books that deep dive into a family and lay it bare. Their quirks. Their secrets. And their demons. If you enjoyed We Are The Brennan’s then you will love this one too. The characters are well developed and their struggles are very relatable and very believable.

Thank you @PRHAudio for the complimentary audiobook and to Netgalley, Random House Publishing, and the author for the ebook.

In the early stages of this book I initially thought that I would enjoy this book more than Hello Beautiful and I was shocked to realize this was Ann's debut novel that had since gone out of print. After her success with HB, her publisher had decided to re-release the book with an updated cover.

Within Arms Reach follows three generations of an Irish American family with themes ranging from rebellion, sexuality, tradition & religion and, largely, loss of connectivity, especially within the familial structure, webbed between it all. This book was messy as real life is but I just wasn't engaged enough nor connected with the characters story developments.

The synopsis and description of the book states this family is "..jarred into crisis by an unexpected pregnancy" however; the majority of the family does not find out about the pregnancy until like 85% of the way through. AND because each character had such a dense sublot that wasn't touched on as much, I felt the reaction I was anticipating wasn't as strong either. The book just kind of ends with them accepting the pregnancy but never moves beyond that so we don't get to see any of the other characters grow or development beyond this "crisis".

Overall, I was left with too many questions left unanswered and found myself wanting more than the book gave me.

Ann Napolitano is a beautiful writer, it was the story that lost me. Overly verbose in some areas as well. I wish the connections between the generations were stronger, and that more thought was given to the ending. It felt incomplete. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for a review.

Napolitano's debut novel reprinted following her recent success, Within Arm's Reach is an early example of her incredible talent and potential as an author, even twenty years ago. Perhaps not quite as skilled or refined a story as Hello Beautiful or riveting as Dear Edward, still a worthwhile family drama that you may find relatable — 3.5 stars.

A large Irish American family full of secrets and grudges harbored over multiple generations, dispelled by an unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock. Six members narrate their own story in first person pov. While each chapter with subplot is interesting and well written, individually funny or sad or emotional, it can be hard to follow and required just enough mental energy to prevent it from being binge-able. There is a diagram included to help organize the characters and timeline.

DNF after two chapters - Napolitano's writing style is thoughtful and nuanced, which lends itself well to a family drama. I really loved the concept of this story and was intrigued by the format (6 different perspectives). Unfortunately the first two chapters included scenes of and references to both pregnancy trauma, infant loss and child loss which was incredibly upsetting and personally triggering for me. As a result, I could not finish this book to protect my own mental health. Thank you to @netgalley and Dial Press for an ARC of this re-release (this is Napolitano's debut novel, originally released in 2005).

Among the April 2024 book releases is a re-release of Ann Napolitano's debut novel. Within Arm's Reach follows three generations of the McLaughlins, an Irish-American family in New Jersey. Told from the points of view of six different narrators, the story hinges on how an out-of-wedlock pregnancy changes the dynamics of the Catholic family, forcing them to learn to communicate to keep the family together.

Having loved Ann Napolitano's last two releases (Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward), it was interesting to take a look back at her debut novel. You can clearly see that Within Arm's Reach had the bones of a good story. Yet, Napolitano as yet lacked the skill to develop it well. Within Arm's Reach is a sprawling read with too many narrators, making it really hard to engage with any of the storylines. The plot dragged so much that I only made it halfway before admitting defeat and adding it to the DNF pile.

Ann Napolitano has found her writing niche within the family. Though she writes about what she knows, which is her family for sources, but uses them to create a whole new family within her novels. Large families with all of the drama and intrigue that comes along with them in real life. The good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak. Such is true in her latest, release entitled Within Arm's Reach. Not really her latest novel though as she revisits and releases into the wild her first novel for all of us to read. Some will cry, laugh and be annoyed with various characters as we would in real life as we sometimes have to contend with. In some ways this novel is rather realistic. In others, a bit too perfectly balanced for the sake of what it takes to weave a good story together. Most importantly, the balance that is played out between Gracie and her grandmother, the matriarch of the family, Catherine.

The premise of this story focuses on the protagonist Gracie and her unexpected out of wedlock pregnancy. Gracie is in no way the sort of young woman whom one would expect to be bringing a new offspring into this family. Be as it may, she decides to go through with this twist of fate within the family. This promise of new life takes hold and impacts the entire family in multiple ways. The dynamics of the extended family are such that each of the main characters has their own story to tell while Gracie does her best to adjust to this new change of events.

This is a multi-generational story that has its twists and turns in ways that reveal the different outlooks and effects on each and every member of the family, both old and new. Nothing really all that surprising here, but will appeal to those who enjoy a good family intrigue.

Will appeal to those who enjoyed her previous release, Hello Beautiful. Some will find it an interesting build up to what Hello Beautiful evolved from, though each are somewhat a reworking of the same family with completely different plots. Ann Napolitano has found her niche.

After the success of Napolitano's two most recent novels, her publisher decided to re-release this, her first book, twenty years after its original publication date. While the novel is very well-written and pretty impressive for a first novel, after reading Hello Beautiful, I would say that Napolitano has improved in her writing immensely since writing Within Arm's Reach. I liked this book a lot while reading it, but having finished it, I have forgotten a lot about the characters and the plot. In contrast, I think about Hello Beautiful all the time and still remember the characters fondly, even though it's been quite some time since I read it. Having said that, I do think that I'll read the two books by this author that I haven't read yet, and look forward to whatever she writes next.

Napolitano's debut novel, Within Arm's Reach, is getting a reissuing after the incredible success of Napolitano's 2023 hit, Hello Beautiful. First published in 2004, Within Arm's Reach allows the reader to spend some time with three generations of an Irish American family. From grappling with an unplanned pregnancy to wading through the complexities of the various relationships, this debut explores the unspoken emotions and interconnectedness within the family, emphasizing an enduring, but sometimes testy, bond.

One thing I love to take into account when going back and reading an author’s debut is to see the beginnings of what would be more developed later on — her skill with plot and character that she exhibits in Hello Beautiful is evident here, and she covers many of the same themes. Napolitano drew inspiration and much of the characterization of the matriarch on her own similarly sketched grandmother. And while I appreciated the aspects that were clearly based on someone she loved and knew well, I don't know that the grandmother of the novel was as complete of a person as the real-life counterpart. Perhaps this was an instance of being too close to the subject — where so much exists and is known in the author's head but doesn’t see how the complete picture fails to make it to the page.

Many of the individual storylines had interesting elements, with most of the characters demonstrating lives lived outside of the family, which brought in some much-needed depth. However, the small carousel of narrators in first person present tense only underscored the author's novice status. I would have preferred to see more breathing room in the narrative (as present tense can be demanding), perhaps with only three narrators representing each generation. Such changes would have allowed for more expansive characterization and deeper connections with the reader. Nonetheless, this quaint novel about a family grappling with secrets and intertwined lives offers a glimpse into the early stages of Napolitano's literary journey.

3.75⭐️ Dear Edward is one of my favorite all time books and Hello Beautiful was almost as good, but if you read my review of that book, you’ll know that I so disliked one of the main characters that it impacted my overall read. That was the same issue I had with this book, which is a re-issue of the author’s first book. Extremely unlikable characters, so much so that it overpowered the empathy you’d want to have for them which made them so unlikable. There was also very little joy in this book. But you can see that the author had the talent that she does know for writing families and their struggles. I’m just glad her current books leave me feeling a bit more optimistic and invested in the characters.

I had a hard time with this book as I found the characters entirely unlikeable and dysfunctional. This is no fault of the author as this was clearly just part of the dynamic she was crafting for this malfunctional family. The multiple POV’s just left me confused trying to keep up with who was who. It also didn’t allow me to get invested in any character that deeply. I am still looking forward to reading the author’s book, “Hello Beautiful”. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Ann Napolitano has done it again! I was totally invested in each of the characters stories and happiness, as happy as they could be. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.