Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano – Book Review
We had been on the lookout for the book Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano and finally got our hands on it! This post is our review and thoughts on Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano’s fourth book.
This post is a discussion and review of the book Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
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Slowprose Review Format
Generally speaking, we don’t think of ourselves as “serious” reviewers, so our format may be a little different. Here is what to expect when you are reading Slowprose book reviews:
- Cover Review – doing the cliche of judging a book by its cover.
- Book Blurb – we share the book jacket or Goodreads blurb about the plot.
- Intrusive Thoughts – these are the general thoughts and feelings we have about the book while reading it.
- Book review – our overall review and star ranking of the book
- Book aesthetics – this is how gorgeous we thought the pages of the book were, or how easy/hard it was to read, or how good the narrator was if it is an audio book.
- Book recommendations – we talk about the author’s other books or other books that remind us of this book in some form or fashion. Basically, this is our catch-all to talk about anything else that we want to.
To see our full review system, including our method of assigning and weighting stars, go here.
COVER REVIEW – Of The Book Hello Beautiful
We love this cover so much! Enthusiastic 5 Stars for this cover. We love the painting aesthetic combined with a close up portrait of her face. Striking and beautiful, both for your bookshelf and as a coffee table book. It is easy to spot and it immediately attracted us because of how beautiful it is, plus it does evoke some intrigue.
QUESTION! If you have read this book, which sister do you think this is supposed to portray?
BOOK BLURB – Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Given our extreme irrational fear of ever being a spoiler for any reader, we will just share the book insert or book blurb found on Goodreads to provide the information in terms of the plot:
Hello Beautiful
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home.
He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?
INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS – Of the Book Hello Beautiful
Ooofff. Really rough start to William’s entrance to the world.
Well done in contrasting the two different worlds that William and Julia were raised.
This mother. I can see where she is coming from and also cannot understand her, all at the same time.
This father. Good at heart but so frustrating.
Ok now this mother is off the rails. Get it together.
What do you mean he was bobbing???
Completely thrown off by this lake storyline.
OK, sigh. It’s your sister. Just no.
Team Julia
Ugh Ugh Ugh. Started off decent but fizzled out big time.
BOOK REVIEW – Hello Beautiful
Slowprose Star Rating – 2.0 Stars
Color us suprised at this book and rating.
We had previously read Dear Edward by this same author, and it was a 5 star, one of the best books we read that year. So we had high hopes for her next book Hello Beautiful. It just didn’t deliver for us.
We enjoyed the history of the families and thought the contrast between the two was really well done. We also enjoyed the dynamic of the sisters, and how they were carved out to illustrate their personalities but showed their closeness.
The discussion of the girls parents was also well done, comparing and contrasting their personalities and how that impacted their relationship to each other.
Where this book lost us began at the lake. We had a hard time understanding William, but we suppose that was the point. He was a shell of a person so there wasn’t much there.
But beyond that, we just didn’t understand the whole lake description or scene. Not sure how one bobs around and is in a lake for hours? IDK. This whole part of the book kind of just soured it for us.
The turn of events after that really made us not like so many of the characters. Team Julia for sure. It was hard to care or push through to the end.
Overall it was just really disappointing.
We do believe we are in the minority, as we have seen many rave Hello Beautiful reviews, so we would recommend that if you typically love family drama stories, to check it out and see what you think.
Slowprose Star Rating – 2.0 Stars
BOOK AESTHETICS – HELLO BEAUTIFUL
We saw this large print version of the book Hello Beautiful in our library so we scooped it up because we were excited to read it!
Generally speaking, however, we actually don’t care of large print editions. Strangely enough, we find them less enjoyable and harder to read? Which makes no sense, but there it is.
As you can see from above, our favorite thing about this book was the cover.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Although the book Hello Beautiful wasn’t our favorite, we do wholeheartly recommend Ann Napolitano’s third book, Dear Edward. It was a 5 star read for us.
When thinking of books involving families, three of them pop to mind for us.
These three books are family driven stories that had us riveted and invested to find out what happens next. They are all set in very different locations, so it is interesting to learn about different people and cultures. Yet, even though they are so very different, in many ways, they are also the same.
We highly recommend any of these, and you can find all these and more in our storefront, Slowestuff Books From The Blog storefront.
We hope you enjoyed this review of the book Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano!
If you want more book posts, check out the Slowprose section of the blog where we have more book reviews, book lists, favorite authors and more.
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Happy reading!
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