This book was very different to Dear Edward, but was absolutely beautiful to read. The writing style from Napolitano was a real comfort all the way through and the way the family relationships are depicted reminded me a lot of Ann Tyler as well.

Initially I was really unsure about this book. It is SLOW, and even when I felt like I'd read loads, it seemed like I hadn't. It took me a while to get a grasp on what the story was actually about as well. Honestly, I almost gave up. HOWEVER. At some point it just clicked. I couldn't tell you when. I couldn't tell you why. All I know is that, going about my day to day life, I'd find myself missing something. And that then I'd realise what I was missing: the world inside this book.

When I saw the reviews saying it was meant to be a bit of a take on Little Women, I was a bit concerned. I love Little Women, but sometimes 'takes' can be a bit kitschy. However, this was less of a 'take', and more 'influenced by'. Little Women is referenced throughout, and the events are drastically different enough that it doesn't feel like one of those books where the characters keep talking about their favourite book without seeming to twig that they're living it. I really liked the way that the Little Women characters were used to explore the personalities and experiences of the sisters, and trying to decide who was who kept me thinking throughout. Another element that kept me thinking was the blurb. According to the blurb, this is William's story. Reading it? - it feels much more like the sisters' story. And yet the two become so intrinsically linked, that by the end I couldn't really decide who it 'belonged' to more, which I really liked.

In general, I really loved the tone, and the way that the main characters were explored. I liked that no one was predictable, and that above all it was a book about the choices we make, and the choices that make us - as well as being a stunning testament to the way that family grows, roots tangled together. I do feel that it was overly slow at some points, and there were characters - particularly the twins and Izzy - who I wish we'd gotten to know more. That being said, overall this was an excellent book.

Blurb
Best friends and sisters, the four Padavano girls are seen as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Italian-American neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the 'rocket' of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book, dreaming of the kind of love you only read about in literature. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other.

When Julia falls in love with William Waters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming to fruition: a husband, a house, a family of her own. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who becomes his closest confidante - and the ensuing betrayal tears the sisters apart.

#my thoughts
I totally adored this book it was rich with wonderful characters who took you to there hearts.
The love of four sisters who thought they were Little Women and talked of being ‘Beth’. The circumstances in life suddenly fracturing their family dynamics. Rose the mother just leaving after their gorgeous father Charlie dies and how the family cope with the turmoil of further troubles.
Oh how I loved Sylvie and William their unstated quiet love jumped from the pages.

‘It’s hard to explain but our love was so deep and wide that it made me love everyone and everything in sight ..’

Let’s be truthful I cried reading this book it is wonderfully written and I loved the Padavano girls .

You must preorder this book you will love being in America with this family .. 🥰

‘The only reason for Time is so everything doesn’t happen at once mark Twain ‘

Prior to starting Hello Beautiful I was intrigued but was not expecting to be so heavily invested in this heart wrenching tale of the Padavano family and whilst I didn’t know if I was in the mood to start a 400+ book at the time, I could easily have read another 400 pages of their story.

I feel as though it would be very hard not to be completely hooked with the character driven narrative by Napolitano and I particularly enjoyed the echoes and even direct references to one of my favourite classics, Little Women.

With some hard hitting themes and family secrets, Hello Beautiful was almost impossible to put down and is one of my favourite reads of the year to date!

I adored this book, the storyline and writing style was so beautiful. Had me hooked from page one, i devoured it in a sitting. The cover is so gorgeous.

Beautiful - adored this. Would love to see it on the Booker or Pulitzer lists this year - perfectly written, full of depth and understanding and the kind of novel I love to read.

Hello Beautiful is a stunning read, following the lives of four Italian American sisters. The book alternates between different perspectives as we follow the girls from childhood through adulthood and into parenthood themselves. The sisters and their parents, William and his friends, the children they have were all so distinctive and real that they will remain with me for a long time. I was left in pieces by this book, heartbroken but equally filled with a renewed love and respect for life. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Sylvie, the second eldest sister, was a favourite for me from the outset, sharing a similar love of books and stories. However, all characters and the things they lived and/or suffered through were so real - I know I said it before but Ann Napolitano has created such a vivid world and history for her characters that pages played like film scenes in my head and I refuse to accept that there aren't walls covered with the glorious paintings of Cecilia Padavano somewhere in a small American town. I loved this book.

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Oh wow! This book absolutely gripped me from the beginning - I consistently found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next.

I thought the character dynamics were super interesting; the way the sisters bonds continue to grow more nuanced and complex as the book progresses really impressed me. Particularly, I loved Emeline and Cecelia - there's something just so interesting about twin dynamics to me and I think this book explored it really well.

I could definitley see the homages paid to Little Women, which I think only made my enjoyment of the book grow further.

Will certainly be recommending this to all of my friends!

This was stunningly good and I am confident it will be featuring in my top reads of 2023. It takes place over thirty years and follows four sisters, the Padavano girls, who are incredibly tight. Over the years there will be tragedies, rifts and reconciliations. Joy is always tempered with loss, loss is always tempered with joy. It's loosely inspired by Little Women, but it is not a retelling of that story.

Chapters focus in turn on Julia and Sylvie, the oldest two sisters, and on William, a basketball player with a dysfunctional family whom Julia starts dating in college. William is a wonderful, mournful character who is right up there with my favourite literary men. But all four sisters are also rounded, fascinating, loveable characters. You feel like you're part of their family and you miss them when it's over. This book brought me to tears at one point which virtually NEVER happens.

If you liked books like As Again Yes and This Must Be The Place, this is a must read. Both the title and the stunning cover design reference key plot elements as well.

Thanks to Net Galley for an ARC.

Absolutely stunningly written family drama, but with a character so unlikable, it was hard to get past it. Julia irritated me so immensely.

Undoubtedly: 5 stars! A novel I will recommend widely!

I adored 'Little Women' as a child. In fact, it was probably the first classic I ever read. The story of the Padavano sisters is simply perfect. As with 'Little Women', I found it impossible to choose a favourite sister; it is no different with 'Hello Beautiful'.

'Hello Beautiful' is a glorious celebration of family. Some books you read affect you deeply and this is one of those special books.

I am so thankful to have been approved by NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a beautiful book about 4 sisters in Chicago and is set over several decades. The sisters are very close and it appears that nothing could ever separate them, until a love affair breaks them apart. It has echoes of Little Women and in fact the sisters sometimes compare themselves to the March sisters. The story is dark in places as it deals with sensitive issues such as grief and depression but it is so beautifully written that I found myself unable to put it down. I loved this book and highly recommend it.

An enjoyable family saga. Lots of drama and heartfelt moments- I was hooked from the get go. I’m always a fan of multi-perspectives and with each chapter I became more invested in the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

Though not typically my genre of choice, as someone who reads a lot of fantasy and still tends to stick to young adult and modern/contemporary romance and literary fiction, I was drawn to this purely for the beautiful cover, which is a work of art in itself.

Napolitano's writing crafts an image of every scene and scenario that you can really visualise as a reader, however I did find this one a bit difficult to get through. I couldn't read it all in one go, and often found myself taking breaks to read a chapter or two of other books before getting back into it; admittedly at points, I felt like it was more of a chore to read, with the 'other books' becoming a reward to get through the quite dense chapters in Hello Beautiful. But on saying that, it picked up around the halfway mark and I found myself consuming the rest of the book much more quickly!

I think my issue for the most part was that I didn't necessarily connect with any of the characters (perhaps with the exception of Sylvie); or that those characters that I found to be more interesting weren't exactly at the forefront of the story (the younger sisters, for example). I wasn't all that interested in the relationships between the majority of the characters, though the bond between the sisters themselves was definitely the best part of that exploratory journey.

Ultimately, I was glad that I persevered with this one, enjoying it more as it continued, but I wish it hadn't taken so much work for me to really get involved in the story. Not one I'd pick up again, as a lot of it just didn't work for me as a reader (personal preferences at the forefront), but I'd try Napolitano's writing again, at least.

A beautifully told family saga spanning almost five decades and giving plenty of loving nods to <i>Little Women</i>. This story revolves mostly around the four Padavano sisters in Chicago,and it's told from myriad perspectives including a sister's husband, William Waters (a real cornerstone of the story with his own heart-wrenching family background), their parents, Rose and Charlie, and eventually their offspring, too.
Many emotional moments, some poor decisions taken (especially by mother Rose) that had me shaking my head and rolling my eyes, friends and colleagues stay mostly in the background but are still interesting people, and first and foremost the familial relationships which are rich and complex and feel very authentic. I do love stories of dysfunctional families, and this particular family was unhappy in their own way, as you would expect, but with many wonderfully heart-warming moments along the way.

Napolitano's writing was very enjoyable; her characters' inner and outer dialogues seemed realistic, and I liked the timeline and descriptions of life in Chicago from the 1970s onwards. Parts of the storyline were told more than once from two (or more) points of view, and this seemed to draw out the story unnecessarily. As readers and human beings, I believe that we all understand that events are experienced and remembered differently by each individual concerned, and I found the retelling of events a bit superfluous at times, though it helped this character driving novel to explore each character in as much depth as possible.

If you enjoy an emotionally charged family saga, this is one for you!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC - I so enjoyed reading it, and the cover is absolutely perfect for the novel!

I've given this 4 stars because, despite enjoying the story (albeit quite schmaltzy at times) and getting so ridiculously involved with some of the characters that I kept telling them off (out loud) I found the actual time it is set just too unbelievable. It was supposedly set in the 80s to early naughties but felt much earlier 1930s - 50s perhaps. There was just something really old fashioned about the lives, the speech and the behaviour of four sisters growing up then. Perhaps it was because this was an homage to the March sisters that made it feel so early last century.

But apart from that I enjoyed the writing and the story was nicely rounded. I wanted to reach into the book and give Julia a jolly good shake for being so bossy but then I wanted to shake William out of his self-pity. Yes, safe to say, the characters were very clear to me and I like a book that rouses me to action/shouting/crying.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a story about family or those who simply enjoy a well told, complete tale. It is certainly easy to read. I got this as an ARC thanks to Netgallet but I also bought and listened to the audio version, which is beautifully narrated by Maura Tierney.

I thought this was a really well developed family book which almost gave me the family vibes and complications of little women. I really enjoyed the characterisation and the way the book developed. Really recommend

I read 33% of this book but unfortunately I had to DNF at that point.

It felt like an effort to read and I just wasn't enjoying it enough to carry on. The writing itself is clearly well done but I kept losing interest in the overall narrative.

I think this will be a hit with many people but for me the pacing was painfully slow and I was finding it a chore to pick it back up each time.

It was a real shame as I absolutely loved this authors previous book and so had high hopes for this one too.

I would still recommend people giving it a go for themselves but for me it wasn't to be.

Hello Beautiful is a beautiful and tragic story of four sisters growing up in Chicago, and their tumultuous relationships as adults. This book is stunningly well-written and has incredible character building. Whilst I found myself furious at a lot characters at various times, and I found myself questioning the slightly too rapid development of the relationship between Sylvie and William, overall I was drawn into the lives of these sisters and found myself on an emotional ride throughout.

Julia, the oldest of the sisters, is an incredibly strong and successful woman, despite suffering devastating heartache and betrayal. The way she seizes life after her world falls apart is very admirable and I loved this honest portrayal of how a brilliant woman can overcome even the darkest times and make something of herself.

This is a story about love, of all different types. The love between sisters, the love of a parent for a child, the love between best friends. It is equally a story about losing love, and how love can change and is not always forever, but in such a way that only makes it more precious. Though not my usual preferred type of novel, I am very grateful to have been granted the chance to read this book and I will definitely be recommending it to others!

An emotional, character-driven family drama, “Hello Beautiful” is a lovely nod to “Little Women”. It is the slow-moving story of the Padavano sisters and the young man from a broken and loveless background who marries into their family. Spanning several decades, this is a tender drama that explores the themes of love, loss and mental illness. I thought it was beautiful. It is now also an Oprah book club pick - even without that honour, I knew it was going to be a VERY popular read this year.