Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club) by Ann Napolitano
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Web ID: 16083329Ratings & Reviews
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What an excellent Novel!
HELLO BEAUTIFUL is an excellent novel. If you liked DEAR EDWARD, another Ann Napalitano novel, you'll be happy to know that HELLO BEAUTIFUL is even better. I know that HELLO BEAUTIFUL is compared to LITTLE WOMEN. But they aren't at all alike except, maybe, that both books are about close sisters, one who likes to write, another who is an artist, and another who dies early. Maybe I'm forgetting other similarities, but the stories are not alike. HELLO BEAUTIFUL is told from the perspective of, mostly, three main characters: Sylvie, Julia, and William. Sylvie and Julia are two of four extremely close sisters. Julia, the eldest sister, is a planner; she plans to hook up with William, a fellow college student, and she plans to marry him. When she does, she plans his career. He seems happy to comply. But "happy" is the operative word because William isn't, really. He's been unhappy his whole life. His parents were, always, miserable people and made him miserable, even as an adult. He was a severely depressed person, and Julia didn't notice. So how does Sylvie figure in here? She noticed. Telling you more than that would be a spoiler. HELLO BEAUTIFUL is a book I didn't want to put down. But it did have one defect. Even after William's depression is under control, why did he never. . . . No, that would be a spoiler.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Disapppointing
I read about 30 pages & found it hard to deeply engage with the characters. Disappointing.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Insipid plot with poor character development
I read this book for book club, and several ladies who already read it raved about it. For my life I cannot understand the raves this book is getting. The plot and all the characters were so bizarre nothing rang as true to or believable to me. The author writes like a 10th grader with no real life experience. The subjects addressed have potential but this book was so bizarre and so poorly executed. Where was the editor? Show don’t tell, write what you know. I don’t know enough about basketball but it seemed not super real. What is up with professor making business deals with clients in Manhattan? Way off on Catholicism. There is no such saint as Rose of Assisi, it is st Francis of Assisi and St Rose of Lima. Also I don’t know a single Catholic that would condemn a gay person! I think you’re thinking of an extremist nondenominational or something. Found the book boring. I didn’t care or engage with any of the flat characters and frankly could not tell the sisters apart. Finally, I do not believe the parenting of adult children was in the least realistic and family dynamics were so weird. What is up with sister sleeping in each others arms and parents abandoning their children left and right? It was just not believeable.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Interesting Family History
Loved the story but it was "too wordy" for my taste. The entire history could have been told in half the pages
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Family saga
4.0 Broken, loyalty, rift… The four Padavano sisters - Julia, Sylvie, and twins Cecelia and Emeline grew up in Chicago inseparable. Julia met William Waters in college. He didn’t have the same loving , loyal, contented upbringing as the sisters. His past will play an important part in more than one sister’s life. A tale of loss, rejection, flaws, rift, and depression, as well as love, acceptance, and forgiveness. *An emotional family story. A saga of a family circle. *Bittersweet ending. *A lot of boxes checked in this one - depression, gay character, single mother, walking away, and divorce. Of course , the girl’s mother was horrified by these events. *First time reader of this author.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Family Drama
A powerful family drama that spans over 30 years. This was an emotional read for me. I was angry, sad, frustrated, hopeful and sympathetic throughout the story. 4.5 ⭐️
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Very shallow book
I bought this book because it got so many good reviews. It is extremely shallow. I think the author knows how these people feel about each other and themselves, but she cannot convey it. There is no passion whatsoever between William and Julia, and I don't even like these characters. William seems to be almost mentally disabled to begin with, and Julia is just an obsessive-compulsive harpy. The other sisters fall into the same category: What are they passionate about or interested in? Don't ask me because I don't know. The idea that William's parents would completely ignore him because his older sibling died is nonsense, and the girls' parents are caricatures of bad parenting. The father is OK at times, but he dies very early in the novel, which is pure drivel. Do not waste your time.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
ouch..
I didn’t get it at first. But slowly my hatred of Julia intensified, my love of William soared, and my relating to Sylvia was unparalleled. Truly inspired by Little Women and such a lovely story that had be sobbing for hours.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com