I really liked Dear Edward (the tv series didn’t do the book justice) by Ann Napolitano. I wanted to read another of her books so when Netgalley gave me her latest novel I was excited. I finished Within Arm’s Reach almost a week ago but I haven’t been able to decide if I liked it or not.

The story follows a large multi-generational family and centres on what keeps them close and what tears them apart. The matriarch of this clan finds out that she is dying and her granddaughter is pregnant. While all the other characters have their own dramas unfolding, the focus is on the ushering out of one generation and the arrival of a new one. There were a lot of characters so it got a little confusing. I also struggled to connect significantly to them.

Allow me to break this down to a pros and cons list.

Pros
• It’s beautifully written
• I cycled through a bunch of emotions

Cons
• The lack of a definitive conclusion bothers me
• It felt a little too long to me, maybe because of the pacing

Give this a read and make up your own mind.

Thank you NetGalley and Dial Press for the eARC!
Ann Napolitano’s debut novel, Within Arm’s Reach, originally published in 2004, has recently been re-released. While it lacks the polish of her later books, it does showcase her talent for exploring complex family dynamics. The story unfolds from six different perspectives, spanning three generations of an Irish Catholic family, each with their own struggles and secrets. However, it all felt too heavy…guilt, misunderstandings, and betrayal! I suggest reading Dear Edward or Hello Beautiful instead!

The story is based on three generations of women in an Irish American family. While there are moments of the brilliance to come, this is a much more mundane story, despite everyone having problems. No one is happy with their current lives and all seemed to be trying to find a way to make a change. Her writing in her more recent books it much better.

I was also disappointed with the ending and it being left so open-ended is why I rated it so low. Feels like it just stopped abrupty without actually ending. Could have used one more chapter or an epilogue.

I thoroughly enjoyed Within Arms Reach, what I thought was a new novel by Ann Neapolitano, only to discover in the ending authors note that this was one of her first works! Originally published in 2004 and now being re-released. I was a fan of Hello Beautiful and this novel shares the same vibe…a family’s life and stories entangled and connected. I also appreciate that the stories of these characters are very normal…not overly dramatic or in crisis, but just common struggles, and that there is no big bow wrapping up the end. I feel like this will sit with me and be in my mind for quite a while.

Amazingly well written and deeply heartfelt, Within Arm’s Reach is a family story that feels like an intimate time capsule of the beginning of a new generation in an Irish American family. I found parts of the story disturbingly honest, raw and almost difficult to read- like eavesdropping on a personal conversation- but the writing itself was exceptional. Ann Napolitano describes her characters as truthfully as possible, without filters to make them more charming, but with extraordinary clarity that still makes them endearing in spite of all their flaws.

I really really wanted to love this book. As a craftsman of characters, world and words, Ann as always is remarkable in this book, however, the story felt dragged out and not half as inspiring as her other books.

I kept wondering if I had a physical copy of the book I could hold the pages in my hand I would connect with the book more like I did with her book. Hello beautiful perhaps my expectations were unreasonably high

This book at its core is about women from different generations, dealing with similar issues of life, but reacting to them very differently. Their reactions to love and loss and relationships are all based on the decade they were born in. These women are strong as hell, and yet deeply flawed, but their flaws are exactly what kept me reading.

I feel that well, so much care is taken into developing the female characters of the story. The men are mere shadows. and while I enjoyed this aspect in her other book,in this one, I found it frustrating

For once I don’t know how to rate this book because I love the skill of this writer, but I did not enjoy this particular book, so make it what you will and decide for yourself whether you want to read it or not.

To know me is to know how much I appreciate a sweeping family saga, and Within Arm's Reach didn't disappoint. This is a rerelease of Napolitano's debut novel, and I'm so glad it popped up on NetGalley! She paints such a clear picture of the McLaughlin family, it felt like I was sitting alongside them at the dining room table.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Within Arm's Reach is Ann Napolitano debut novel brought back at the request of her readers.

I am so glad they did.

This is the compelling story of the McLaughlin family told from the pov of 5 family members.

Catherine is the matriarch of this huge Irish family and like all families there are secrets, there is infighting and there is the glue that will hold them together.

Ann Napolitano does a wonderful job of making all the characters feel real and very relatable and when Catherine/Gram is failing in health the family pulls together.

I quite enjoyed Within Arm's Reach and I will think about the McLaughlin family for days to come.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for re-releasing this wonderful family drama.

⭐️3
Debut novel before her well-liked book, Hello Beautiful.

This one is a family drama centered around a large, Irish Catholic family. The three main characters that stood out to me were the granddaughters Gracie and Lila and the matriarch Catherine.

This one had too many POV and the plot of the story was lacking. There were extra subplots, but I felt like nothing ever came of them. The ending felt abrupt and left me hanging.

This book didn’t work for me. I think it would interest readers who love to read about family dysfunction and the chaos of unhealthy relationships.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my truthful review.

Publication date: April 30, 2024

This is a rerelease of Ann Napolitano's first book. It focuses on 3 generations of an Irish Catholic family. There is an awful light of angst and everyone seems terribly unhappy with there lives. It was difficult to engage with the characters and I ultimately was frustrated with their decisions.

The only reason I’m not giving this book 5 stars is because the ending felt too abrupt and left me feeling like there should have been more to the story. However, this was a really great book.

Ann Napoolitano is a genius and I will read anything she writes. She has a really beautiful and unique way of writing about the human condition.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was such a disappointing read!! The ending was too abrupt and left so much story just hanging there. The characters and story were great but the ending ruined the whole book for me.

Spanning three generations, this narrative delves into the lives of the Irish McLaughlins, a family marked by their struggle to communicate on matters that truly count, weighed down by their shared history of loss and silent grief. Not only a story about family; it is a mirror reflecting the universal human condition: our innate desire for connection, the complexities of love and loyalty, and the courage it takes to confront our deepest fears. The McLaughlin family, with all their flaws and complexities, become a vessel for exploring these timeless themes - the unsaid, the unresolved and the unhealed.

This book wasn’t my favorite of Ann’s books. She did a great job bringing the characters to life. I just didn’t really like any of them. The book felt really slow. Maybe family dramas aren’t for me. If they are your thing, I’m sure you will love this book.

Is there anyone in the world who can articulate the beauty, drama, and torture of a family like Ann Napolitano? I think not.

I despised these people for the first half of the book… until I realized I just RELATED TO THEM. this could be my family (or more likely, my husband’s). At one point, I burst into tears with how elegantly Ann described feeling safe in your father’s presence.

This is a rerelease after 20 years, so the story itself felt weak compared to her other masterpieces Dear Edward and Hello, Beautiful. But if you like her writing style and family sagas, you’ll likely enjoy this slow burn. The ending was a bit wishy-washy, but I like that I can imagine what comes next.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy!

This book did not hold my interest and I am so disappointed as I loved Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward by this author. Just too many characters to keep track of and I dnf at 23%. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy but it was not for me.

I am a big fan of Ann Napolitano books. She always writes interesting stories about complex characters with messy family dynamics. This story revolves around Grace …a young woman with an unplanned pregnancy and how the different members of her family react. The underlying story is unmanaged grief of the loss of a child many years before and how it reverberates through out the years.
My one quibble is the use of the Immaculate conception as a way Grace thinks (as a joke) to explain her pregnancy. There are so many books that rely on this plot point . The problem is … the Immaculate Conception is when Mary is conceived without original sin in preparation to be the mother of Jesus. It is not when Jesus was conceived . Not sure why editors continue to let this go.
Thanks NetGalley for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Hello Beautiful was one of my favorite books of 2023 so I was extremely excited to learn about this book and get an arc. I also read Dear Edward, making this the third book by Ann Napolitano. I wish I enjoyed this book half as much as the other 2. I felt there were too many main characters and truthfully I did not particularly like or care about any of them. I come from a very talkative Jewish family and I just couldn't relate to the Irish stuff upper lips. I also could have done without the praying. I would try any future books by Ann and while I didn't enjoy it, I'm probably in the minority and most readers will enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an eARC for this book.

Within Arm's Reach is a family saga following three generations of Irish-American women living in New Jersey in 2001. This was apparently Ann's debut and is being republished which made sense to me once I started reading it. After reading the stunning Hello Beautiful I was expecting the same level of writing and story telling in this book and it wasn't quite there. You can tell she has become a fantastic writer throughout her career.

Within Arm's Reach is full of emotionally stunted family members that have generational trauma just passed down constantly and never dealt with. No one is happy and everyone really loses it when the oldest grand-daughter (she's 29) announces she's pregnant and will keep it as a single parent. The entire extended family takes it personally and it was ODD, like get a grip. If this was my family I would go no contact and happily live my life far away from them but it's still fascinating to read about since my family would never.

Overall, if you love Ann's writing and story telling give this one a chance, just know it's an older book of hers being re-published!