Genre Fiction
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The Neapolitan Sisters: A Novel of Heritage and Home
A TODAY.COM MOST ANTICIPATED LATINX BOOK OF 2022!
Three sisters. Three vastly different lives. A maelstrom of family secrets. For fans of María Amparo Escandón and Laurie Frankel, Margo Candela pens a riotous, provocative tale of family and sisterhood.
Growing up with a kind but alcoholic father and a suspicious, passive aggressive mother, the Bernal sisters each developed their own way of coping: Dulcina had her art and drugs and alcohol, Claudia plunged into her studies and fled to Princeton, and Maritza watched one Disney movie after another in between devouring romance novels.
Now all grown up, the sisters are reunited at last for Maritza's dream wedding. But they are no less different than they were growing up: Maritza is a princess bridezilla, Claudia is the family "fixer," and Dulcina "Dooley" is finally sober. With all three Bernal sisters back in their East L.A. home, each begins to take steps to come to terms with each other, their parents, and the secrets from their shared past. While their lives may have taken different paths, they are still sisters at heart.
Told in alternating points of view, The Neapolitan Sisters is a humorous yet moving look at what it means to be a sister, daughter, and ultimately, your own self, despite the pressures that come with being part of a family.
Three sisters. Three vastly different lives. A maelstrom of family secrets. For fans of María Amparo Escandón and Laurie Frankel, Margo Candela pens a riotous, provocative tale of family and sisterhood.
Growing up with a kind but alcoholic father and a suspicious, passive aggressive mother, the Bernal sisters each developed their own way of coping: Dulcina had her art and drugs and alcohol, Claudia plunged into her studies and fled to Princeton, and Maritza watched one Disney movie after another in between devouring romance novels.
Now all grown up, the sisters are reunited at last for Maritza's dream wedding. But they are no less different than they were growing up: Maritza is a princess bridezilla, Claudia is the family "fixer," and Dulcina "Dooley" is finally sober. With all three Bernal sisters back in their East L.A. home, each begins to take steps to come to terms with each other, their parents, and the secrets from their shared past. While their lives may have taken different paths, they are still sisters at heart.
Told in alternating points of view, The Neapolitan Sisters is a humorous yet moving look at what it means to be a sister, daughter, and ultimately, your own self, despite the pressures that come with being part of a family.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for The Neapolitan Sisters:
A TODAY.COM MOST ANTICIPATED LATINX BOOK OF 2022
"Drives us straight into the heart of a conflict-ridden family and their community . . . There's love behind this book-and painful honesty, too."
-The San Francisco Chronicle
"Margo Candela returns with a bang. In The Neapolitan Sisters, she explores with wit, wisdom, and humor, the strong bonds of sisterhood and delivers a powerful story of family drama."
-María Amparo Escandón, New York Times bestselling author of L.A. Weather
"Candela delivers a complex and engaging look at the bonds of family in The Neapolitan Sisters. Much like Neapolitan ice cream, you'll be drawn in to explore the different psyches of three very different women dealing with life issues and finding the love and support that family can offer. A great read!"
-Caridad Piñeiro, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Family She Never Met and South Beach Love
"Margo Candela deftly delivers an engaging dynamic page-turner of a book about the interior lives of three strong women. The Neapolitan Sisters are each a delight, as vibrant, selfish, beautiful, ever-shifting, and redeemable as the city of Los Angeles herself. I would follow them anywhere-even in rush hour traffic."
-Staci Greason, actor, award-winning screenwriter, and author of All The Girls in Town
"In The Neapolitan Sisters, Margo Candela writes a provocative and humorous novel that delves into the complicated bonds of family, finding one's own identity, and the painful joys that come with loving difficult people."
-Reyna Grande, national bestselling and award-winning author of The Distance Between Us and A Ballad of Love and Glory
"Margo Candela made me ugly-cry for these sisters and laugh hysterically when I recognized my life in theirs. The Neapolitan Sisters was for me, a belonging pill in a book, and about all the things that make life worth living, despite it all."
-Anjanette D...
A TODAY.COM MOST ANTICIPATED LATINX BOOK OF 2022
"Drives us straight into the heart of a conflict-ridden family and their community . . . There's love behind this book-and painful honesty, too."
-The San Francisco Chronicle
"Margo Candela returns with a bang. In The Neapolitan Sisters, she explores with wit, wisdom, and humor, the strong bonds of sisterhood and delivers a powerful story of family drama."
-María Amparo Escandón, New York Times bestselling author of L.A. Weather
"Candela delivers a complex and engaging look at the bonds of family in The Neapolitan Sisters. Much like Neapolitan ice cream, you'll be drawn in to explore the different psyches of three very different women dealing with life issues and finding the love and support that family can offer. A great read!"
-Caridad Piñeiro, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Family She Never Met and South Beach Love
"Margo Candela deftly delivers an engaging dynamic page-turner of a book about the interior lives of three strong women. The Neapolitan Sisters are each a delight, as vibrant, selfish, beautiful, ever-shifting, and redeemable as the city of Los Angeles herself. I would follow them anywhere-even in rush hour traffic."
-Staci Greason, actor, award-winning screenwriter, and author of All The Girls in Town
"In The Neapolitan Sisters, Margo Candela writes a provocative and humorous novel that delves into the complicated bonds of family, finding one's own identity, and the painful joys that come with loving difficult people."
-Reyna Grande, national bestselling and award-winning author of The Distance Between Us and A Ballad of Love and Glory
"Margo Candela made me ugly-cry for these sisters and laugh hysterically when I recognized my life in theirs. The Neapolitan Sisters was for me, a belonging pill in a book, and about all the things that make life worth living, despite it all."
-Anjanette D...
Readers Top Reviews
Griselda Gutgluec
Author Margo Candela took me deeply back into what it was like to be first generation Mexican-American and having grown up in Los Angeles during the 1970s. Fast forward to 2001: Dooley, Maritza, and Claudia are sisters who have reached adulthood, and are dealing with their past, how they have evolved, and the challenges of managing their separate ways in the world on a daily basis. Each of the sisters has different difficulties and successes, and they manage to stick together despite their paranoid mother and laid-back-retired father. All three are unique in their life path but are held together by their love for one another. I think the book can be misunderstood and misinterpreted, yet much appreciated by those who have experienced what it’s like to live with strict, paranoid, and somewhat disconnected loving parents who had the tendency to teach their children to be uptight, stoic and strong rather than show emotion during vulnerable moments. Overall, it is a captivating, adventurous and funny story to read. I especially enjoyed how every chapter is directly narrated by each character. Maritza, Claudia, and Dooley each speak directly to you, the reader, while telling her own story. Gracefully written and in my opinion heartrending, this story could, I believe, be readily turned into a movie.
Mycatslittlelibra
Margo Candela tells the story of 3 sisters—Dooley (Dulcina), Claudia, and Maritza, and their family. Maritza is getting married to a dude she doesn’t seem to love and although the sisters haven’t spoken in awhile, they still plan to come home for the wedding. I absolutely loved the differing points of view between the chapters by each sister—the author has a fantastic way of building real, raw characters who you feel like you know (even if you don’t like them! Ha!) There are a lot of funny moments and some twists at the end that help you make sense of how this family treats one another and the reasons their relationships and personality traits are the way they are. There was a lot of fat shaming which at first felt like a character attribute, but continued to come up with other characters as well. I understand showing a character’s personality, but it seeped out too many times to not feel a little cringey for me (this is where my .5 star came off). Overall, this was a great read—4.5 stars for me! I’d recommend to anyone who wants a story that feels real, characters with depth (and some not so much—but we’ve all met some of those people in our lives), and something that keeps you interested until the end! I will definitely be reading more by Margo Candela after this one! Make sure you look up any trigger warnings for this book which may affect you.
Sadie-Jane Huffka
🌟🌟💫 So the author seems to be 'fat' obsessed / anorexic.. the number of times she goes on and on. It was driving me loco. I also felt that sadly the characters were like carbon copies of the Kardashians but Latina version. I did not care for any of them most of the time, then when I did, they started becoming all self-entitled and quite bratty/spoilt really. Tad disappointed as I really wanted to give this culture drama type book a chance.
Sadie-Jane Huf
The Neapolitan Sisters gives insight to a dysfunctional family portrayed through the Bernal sisters' points of views. Each sister, while different from one another, all manage to come together and show up for each other on Maritza's wedding day. It is a story of sisterhood, but with the alternating points of views I didn't quite understand the direction the author was leading towards. I received an advanced ARC book, thank you for the opportunity!
Sadie-Jane Hu
I loved that this book is about 3 sisters, I am one of 3. This was a very relatable and realistic read for me. No family is perfect and ultimately what sustains us is the love we have for one another. Each sister in this story is so different, but they all manage to understand the bond of sisterhood, albeit not without many challenges. I enjoyed the way the book was written, narrated by each sister. It gave a good lens into their perspectives and unique ways of storytelling. Ultimately, this was a fun and light read for me. A bit of a telenovela "not my drama" type read that made it great for me to get through while on a short plane ride.
