Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

[BrandyandGinger]

Has anyone read it? I'm hating it very much and interested to see what other people think of it.

I hated it too. I've forgotten a lot of it now but the characters' actions made no sense to me in a lot of cases!

Oh, I was hoping you were going to say it's great, it's on my tbr list for this month.

Spoiler

I keep thinking of it as a Mumsnet AIBU

AIBU to marry my ex BIL, who suffered from bad depression in his 20s, and used it as excuse to go no contact with my baby niece for her whole life?
Yes, YABVVVVVVU.

Also it's quite misogynistic. Rose is written as a very unsympathetic character. She was very harsh to her pregnant teenage daughter, but she had been there herself and wanted better for her children. She's also written as being unreasonable for retiring to Florida, after raising four children with not much help from her feckless husband. The girls were adults and had each other as a support network.
William, however, is treated with great love and sympathy and support, despite the fact that he seems totally fine with having abandoned a child.

I loved it!
You could equally have an AIBU to say: AIBU to move to NYC with DD and go NC with my whole family. To me the oldest sister (I've forgotten her name) was the least sympathetic character and made the worst choices.

Julia was the oldest sister. If she posted in AIBU she would be asked probing questions by the wise mumsnetters and I think she'd get a resounding YANBU when it emerged that one sister was in a relationship with her exH and the other sisters fully supported it.

I enjoyed reading this but also thought everything that happened was ridiculous, which makes no sense I know. The mum leaving, never seeing the child. I wanted to shake the main character.

I enjoyed it. I felt sorry for William but felt Sylvie was the right person for him.
I couldn’t understand Julia or Rose who could just walk away without caring about what they had left behind.

I felt William was a product of his upbringing. To have two parents who cared so little about their son had an effect him which in turn meant he felt unable to be a good Father to his daughter.
He hadn’t really been shown love till he met Sylvie.
Julie just wanted to mould him into what she wanted.

I enjoyed it. The plot was at times, far fetched, I can agree with that. But I liked the setting, and saga element to it.

I listened to it on audible and maura Tierney (Abbey from ER) was the perfect narrator!

Ohhhh. I knew I downloaded this one.

Yeah, DNF this one. It was not only dull, it was unrealistic and yes, misogynistic.