It would be fair to say that American author Ann Napolitano is one of the most widely read and important authors of her time. Hello Beautiful, Napolitano's fourth novel inspired by Little Women and first published in 2023, cements her legacy as one of America's finest authors.
As with Napolitano's previous novels, Hello Beautiful was well-received by critics from across the world. Bruce Holsinger, who is one of the United States' most well-respected literary critics, loved Hello Beautiful. In his review of the novel in The New York Times, Holsinger called it "Little Women—but with basketball" and said that the novel is "radiant and brilliantly crafted."
Hello Beautiful follows a young man named William Waters who has grown up inside a house consumed with a past tragedy. Because of that tragedy, William has never felt heard or loved by his parents, who were consumed with their grief. For William, things change when he meets Julia Padavano in their first year of college. After the two meet, William's world awakens around him, and he begins to understand what love truly is. In Julia and her kind and loving family, William has something that his parents were never able to provide him with. Despite that happiness, William's past lingers in his background and comes out one fateful day, set to wreak havoc on his new, positive life. It's up to William to prevent that from happening, something which he is eventually able to do.
