I will be upfront and say I had a hard time getting into this book and hated the characters. I requested this book because I had heard how good the author’s book “Hello Beautiful” was. I learned later that this book was actually the author’s first published book that was being re-released. The book read like it was supposed to be a memoir of a 4 generation family; instead of a work of fiction. I didn’t feel like there was a plot to the book other than sharing the plights of this very spoiled and dysfunctional family. Throughout the book, I kept repeating to myself “these people need therapy.” While it was not my favorite read, I have to give the author kudos for eliciting the anger I felt toward these characters. I would be willing to give another one of her books a try to see if I could get into it more.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

This was a reminder of where I come from. It is everyone those family kept secrets and didn't talk about anything difficult or unpleasant. The book follows three generations of women and the ties that bind us. Well written ,captivating, emotional and unforgettable.

After Hello Beautiful, I knew I wanted to read more Napolitano. In her debut, we meet an extended Irish family in crisis as the family matriarch is settling into a new phase of life in an elder care home and her reckless granddaughter finds herself pregnant by a man she's just cut out of her life. We learn about this family from multiple perspectives and delve into the history and drama across the generations. If you love a family drama, which the author is known for, this is your read. Now, there are some marks that this is a debut work. The story at times can be a bit complicated by the ambition of the author, but the messiness of a large family is accurately reflected.

Ann Napolitano delivers another character driven novel, this time following an Irish Catholic family who is thrown for a loop by a surprise pregnancy. I wanted to love this book, but I found it to be a little dull with too many characters. The shining star was Gram, who tries to keep her family close while battling her own issues as she ages. She had the most interesting stories, and I loved that she was able to see ghosts.

In January this year Madison Dettlinger at Penguin Random House offered me an ARC of the reissued first novel of Ann Napolitano, Within Arm’s Reach. I was teaching and mentoring a new teacher at the time, and subsequently, my reading life was derailed. With apologies for the lateness of this review, thank you to Madison for sharing this book with me.

If you have followed my book reviews and essays on my website, you will know that Dear Edward was the last book I checked out the day before my local public library shut down at the start of the pandemic. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Dear Edward to someone who is about to board an airplane, I of course was stuck in my house with nowhere to go and not much to do but read. I loved Dear Edward so much, I loved the tenderness with which Edward’s aunt and uncle took him in, and I loved the young man he was growing up to be. I loved the television series as well.
Naturally I was all in for Napolitano’s next book, Hello Beautiful, which I also loved. While Edward had absolutely no one, the Padavano family was large and tightly knit. The ups and downs of the lives of these four sisters and their parents spread out over the pages of the novel was so well done; I knew I was a Napolitano fan for life.
Going back in time and reading Within Arm’s Reach after her later work, it is easy to see how Napolitano honed her talents for writing the strong and complicated web of a large family found in Hello Beautiful. While the Padavanos from Chicago were Italian American (I think?), the three generations of McLaughlins are 100% Irish American, complete with all of the Irish stereotypes: alcohol, Catholicism, and visions of the dead. Throw in a controlling matriarch, sibling rivalry, jealousy over money, and an unwed pregnant granddaughter, and you have the makings of a multi-generational family saga.
Having read three of Napolitano’s four books, I will agree with most reviewers that each of her novels is stronger than the one before. However, I still loved her debut novel, even if I didn’t love her characters. Really, there isn’t much to love in any of them. But, their stories are nonetheless compelling. Everyone, every single one of them, is unhappy with their station in life, and all of them are desperately searching for something or someone to fix for them whatever is wrong with them. Some have commented that this book is all over the place, and I get that, but I feel as though that is part of what makes this book hold together. These people ARE all over the place. A young woman who has worked her whole entire life to be #1 in the medical field hates it and everything about it. A middle-aged woman with what appears to be a perfect life, is miserable and searching for love in all the wrong places. And, the men are just as bad as the women in this saga. Seriously, everyone except the laid-back, easy-going firefighter should have a standing weekly appointment with a good therapist.
Years ago, I routinely rejected novels where each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective. I hated it and found it so confusing. But, I did not find this novel confusing at all. The chapter titles announce who the narrator is, and after just a few paragraphs it is crystal clear whose pain we are being invited to share.
This novel ends with a bang, and I didn’t feel resolution for some of the characters, but I think some of the main characters do at least catch a glimpse of being at peace with their personal demons. Perhaps some of the McLaughlins will even find their way back to better relationships with one another.
I really enjoyed Within Arm’s Reach. Thank you, Penguin Random House, for the ARC. Thank you, Ann Napolitano, for the pleasure your books bring to me. Please keep writing!

This book was surprisingly wonderful (not that I didn’t expect it to be good but it blew me away). The family dynamic held my attention and the book covered so many different themes. It did take a bit to keep track of the characters but once I did, it was superb.

I like this OK - you can tell she's grown a lot in her writing! I did find it engaging but struggled to relate to any of the characters and found most of them to be unlikeable and hard to root for.

3.5/5

Oh dear, I should I have gone into this one with no expectations ,after really having a connection to Hello Beautiful I was very excited for this book !

One thing I can say about this author is that family saga is her specialty!

Within Arm's Reach is a family saga , with multiple characters that touches on an unplanned pregnancy and seems to dive into the lives of the different characters . However I really struggled to keep engaged and felt the chapters to be long and repetitive . To me the story was very bland like dry toast and missing it's condiments. It's too bad because I really wanted to love this one too.

I thank Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Respectfully Another Read by Angie

Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano is a multi-generational story about a large Irish Catholic American family. It should be right up my alley because I come from a large Irish Catholic American Family. And, while I liked this read, the characters were simply not developed enough or sympathetic enough for me to really root for them. It is a good story that could be great. I think you can tell this book is from earlier writings. Dear Edward and Hello Beautiful are both excellent reads with well developed characters that you care about. So that was frustrating to me in reading this book as an Irish Catholic American, that I felt so disconnected from the characters. I think, given how much Ann's writing has progressed since writing this book a new edition with updates/improvements would have been a better idea than just a rerelease.
Thank you to Net Galley #netgalley and Random House #randomhouse for my advanced copy.

'Within Arm's Reach' is a story following the McLaughlin family as they are coming to terms with past and present and how to come to terms with both. This story is multi-POV, in fact there were 6 different POV's throughout this book, jumping to story around to the different perspectives. I think that the multi POV actually hurt this story rather than helped it. I think if she would have stuck with just the core 4 women in this story that it would have made it alot more powerful and impactful. I also think that this book would have benefited greatly from another 100 pages to develop and wrap up the character plot lines. This story wrapped up on such an odd note that it kindof lost me on the whole plot. There characters were undeveloped and were so incredibly selfish that it was hard to root for most of them. But all in all Ann Napolitano is a great writer and Hello Beautiful was one of my favorite reads so far of 2024, so this book made me feel alot of feelings which I suppose is the point.

Thanks to Netgalley and to Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much for the ARC! I always enjoy books by this author. This one is a family drama and was very sad but also had some moments of hope. Overall I enjoyed it- I really liked the growth of the characters. I wish there was more resolution to the individual storylines. The ending felt very abrupt.

Big fan of Ann Napolitano! A wonderful story and very deep writing. Definitely recommend her books!

Thank you NetGalley and Ann Napolitano!

This story follows the perspective of women in a family of three generations. Each person in the family is going through some sort of crisis and the reader gets an insight into what each person is thinking and feeling.


Oof. This was a rough one to get through. There was not much dialogue and a lot of inner thoughts which made the story drag on. I did not connect with any of the characters, they were pretty awful. I didn’t feel any closure at the end of the book, which I think was intentional, but it felt like a missed opportunity.

I definitely enjoyed Hello Beautiful more and would recommend that over this book!


Thank you NetGalley and The Dial Press for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!

My rating: 3/5 stars

hmm. I loved Ann's last two books and was excited to dive into this one. A re-release of her debut novel and you can certainly tell how much she has grown as a writer since this was originally published. I think I'll stick with the new Napolitano titles.

As a huge fan of Ann Napolitano's work, I will never NOT read anything she publishes and I was delighted to learn that her debut novel would be reintroduced to her newer followers. This is quite a debut and, thanks to the author, I have truly fallen in love with stories of Irish and Irish American families. She writes about family dynamics in a way that is so relatable - I always find myself highlighting so many passages that stop me in my tracks - and so beautiful. I find myself thinking about these characters in between reading sessions and then long after I've finished the book. If you're already a fan of the author's work, be mindful that this is her debut (she addresses this in the updated author's note) and try not to compare it to her latest novels. Either way, I truly enjoyed this one and recommend to anyone who appreciates literary fiction about the complexity of family dynamics and the ways in which we are all shaped by our heritage.

A character-driven multi-generational story | The variety of themes, subplots and personalities kept me engaged | At times, I got lost in the large cast of characters | I had difficulty connecting with the characters as well as I did with Ann Napolitano‘s subsequent novels | The ending left me with many questions | While not as gripping as Dear Edward, I enjoyed the book overall and look forward to future books by the author.

3.5 stars rounded up.

. Ann has such a beautiful writing style. She sure can write a dysfunctional family!

This book centers around a troubled family (we get Gram, Mom, Dad, two daughters) and the dysfunction in their own lives as well as with others. My problem with this book was I kind of didn’t (and still don’t) know what it was about. It’s about a family. Simple as that!

Within Arms Reach was an intense look at the complicated relationships within a family. While I enjoyed parts of it I felt like there were way too many characters to keep track of! The matriarch of the family is definitely the glue holding them somewhat together. It was interesting to see the differences in how she was raised, how she raised her children and and how her children raised their children. I really wished we could have seen how the new baby in the family was raised. Perhaps a new book from Ann? But the lease edit it down to less characters to keep track of this time.

Leaving this unrated as I am setting it aside. Was listening on audio and there are just so many characters, it was hard to keep track of them all. I did get to 25% and maybe it’s my reading mood but I just couldn’t relate to any of these, mostly, unlikeable characters. May pick it up in reading form at a later date, but maybe not. I have loved her other books and will read her next.

This family drama told from 5 points of view - 4 family members and the nurse caretaker of the matriarch- described the issues surrounding 29 year old Gracie's out of wedlock pregnancy and the reactions and interactions of this Irish Catholic family.
The matriarch of the family - Catharine- is the anchor that holds them all together. She is nearing the end of her life and can look at each member with love and understanding.
Gracie decides to keep the child herself, without marrying the father.
Lila her sister is a 3rd year medical student who finally gives it up after repeated instances of lack of empathy for her patients (or anyone else).
Kelly and Louis are in a marriage which is failing; he's depressed and she seeks time alone. Louis has a construction company and one of his men died in a fall from a roof; Louis feels responsible for it and tries to make it up to the man's widow who is a nurse.
Noreen Bellan is the man's widow who Louis hires to care for Catharine after her fall.
It took me forever to get through this book because there was no real plot - actually, it was a series of vignettes which describes the family members dysfunctional lives. Themes of sibling rivalry, sexuality, resentment, guilt ran throughout the story. The characters express very little emotion nor do they support one another. The book ends with the baby shower where all the characters come together...and Gracie is about to deliver the baby.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House and was excited to read Ann Napolitano's first novel, but I must say that she has certainly come a long way as I loved her previous 2 novels - Dear Edward and Hello Beautiful where she developed multifaceted characters and compelling stories. I have to rate this one 3.5/5*