A review by youcancallmefi
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

5.0

I started this year with Mayflies and we all want impossible things winning my lit/contem fic heart and I have stayed true to it…until now. 

God, how I wish I would have been the one writing this book. I love a lot of books very quickly and wholeheartedly but there’s only few that fall into the almost jealousy shelf. And this is nothing more than a compliment, a love letter. 

This book is a stunning, realistic and vivid family drama in its essence. We follow the four Padavano sisters and a boy called William, with the story kicking off with William and Julian Padavano falling in love. From there, we follow all of our characters and respective life stories through time, living their wins and heartbreaks as much as our owns. 

This is an achingly beautiful ode to character development and I am in such awe about it. There’s a depressing tinge to the narration that feels heavy for the most time but the way the author makes you connect the characters brings an exquisite silver lining to it all. 

It is tender, moving and classic. You cry with these characters, you get frustrated with their (unfortunately) very realistic and stubborn choices, you smile on their good days. Each chapter, each POV was fantastically crafted, well-constructed and I can see these characters walking life as my neighbour did this morning. 

With tight plotlines, exquisitely crafted writing, complex characterization and an outpour of emotions poured into each of our characters, Hello Beautiful deserves more starts that I could ever find in the whole sky. 

I rarely listen to audiobooks as the first experience with a book but I risked with this one (I’m getting better at it) and I am so so so glad I did. 

This books is for the Little Women lovers, the My Brilliant Friend enthusiasts. 

The ones that have family in their core, whether whole or not.