Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an intensive family saga, written by the author of Dear Edward. It takes place primarily in Chicago from 1960 through 2008. It focuses on the four Padavano sisters - Julia, Sylvie and the twins Emeline and Cecelia - who are very close in age and who do everything together. Julia meets William at Northwestern, they date and end up marrying soon after. William had grown up in an emotionally vacant household, but he is immediately welcomed into Julia's large and boisterous family.
As the years progress, we learn about the sisters' strengths and weaknesses, their hopes, dreams and realities, their good and bad decisions, and overall their sisterly love. The title refers to how the Padavano father greets each of the girls as they come into a room -- "Hello Beautiful!"
It was a little difficult to get enveloped into the story and to be honest, I thought it was a little long. It also felt like a book set in an earlier time, perhaps the 1940s and 1950s. Content warnings apply.
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