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stephsbooktalk 's review for:

Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano
4.0

Mini Audiobook Review: Thank you to Dial Press for the complimentary book!

Last year I read Hello Beautiful and I absolutely loved the family story that Napolitano created so I knew I wanted to read this one as it centers around a big family. 

I will admit this one starts out a little slow but then the storyline of all the characters start to come together. There are quite a few different POVs and it was hard to follow in the beginning but as the book went on you learned more about each character and their role in the book. 

I love a book with family drama and this one was full of it!  You get connected and drawn into each storyline and you are rooting for them all. I felt connected with Kelly trying to be the rock of the family and was the main caretaker of their mother and it just reminded me of what my mom went through as a caretaker. During Catherine's point of view, her talking about her younger days up to her seeing relatives that passed away, reminded me of my grandmother who was starting to see those who have left this world and had such vivid stories. I am not sure if I missed things but I felt like some stuff were alluded more so with Kelly & Louis rather than the author coming out and explicitly saying what caused their separation. 

The audio was done SO well! Full cast with each point of view getting their own narrator. That was so helpful especially to help keep track of all the point of views. It also helped that there was a family tree in the front of the book which I did reference especially early on.