A Good Neighborhood was a compelling and heartbreaking read. A new family moves into an older neighborhood and the scene is set for what occurs. A young girl and boy have feelings for each other. A woman wants to save an ancient oak tree. A man has a plan. A woman has to wake up from her daze. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything. I anticipated the end results and it was hard to read. Although its fiction, segments of the scenarios could and have easily played out.

Beautifully written book that will give you all the feels. I felt the beginning was just a little slow, but it picks up and picks up fast. This book, while ending very tragically, is such an important read in our current times and will hopefully help people to see all different sides when a crime occurs.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Family drama, racial tension, young love all make for an outstanding story that is heartbreaking and devastating .

Whoa what a ride. Great book. Pulls on every emotion out there. Seriously one of the best books I’ve read and it will stay with me for a while.

I think “A Good Neighborhood” will be a popular book. It’s very fast-paced, and pushes many hot buttons. However, I’m not quite so sure it’s a good book. It tries to do too much, and pushes its points too hard. I didn’t find parts of it believable, especially the rushed ending. (Interesting: the use of the first person plural POV in parts of the book.)

This book was interesting and kept me reading quickly until the end. The ending was somewhat of a surprise, which did take away from my rating of the novel. As well, the telling of the story by a third person made it harder to connect with the characters. It would have been nicer to hear their thoughts directly.

Intense- at this point, I can tell you I was really loving this book until I began to despise the character Brad Whitman. The last section of the book made me upset, angry, and the ending was tragic. It addresses issues of social injustice, but the message could have been conveyed just as effectively without the resolution of events. I was granted a complimentary e copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Intense- at this point, I can tell you I was really loving this book until I began to despise the character Brad Whitman. The last section of the book made me upset, angry, and the ending was tragic. It addresses issues of social injustice, but the message could have been conveyed just as effectively without the resolution of events. I was granted a complimentary e copy of the book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler is a powerful and provocative book. The characters come to life as they deal with the effects of class, race, and relationships in a diverse neighborhood called Oak Knoll in North Carolina. But when Brad Whitman and his family move into the neighborhood, it upsets the balance in both the residents and in the area’s ecology. As the story unfolds, you will be unable to stop reading. It is a book that deals with the consequences of our actions and the human issues and forces that shape how we behave.. You will be thinking about this book long after you finish reading it.

Sparks fly between high school neighbors Xavier and Juniper. Between Juniper's stepfather's new mansion, Zay's mothers beloved oak tree, a purity pledge, his race, her past, and dozens of further complicating factors, these families clash, then implode.

OMG - this domestic drama was so, SO beautiful. The writing, the characters, the building story and growing tension are just a few of the reasons this novel COMPLETELY stands out. This seemed to be narrated by the fates, but maybe it was just the collective neighborhood. Either way, I loved that touch and thought it added an element of foreboding.

This book reminded me of If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson, which I read 15+ years ago and will never forget. This beauty comes out February 4th, and I honestly cant recommend it highly enough.

So what makes A Good Neighborhood? Oak Knoll was originally made up of post WWII ranch houses. But lately, those older houses were being torn down and McMansions built in their place. It’s a phenomenon being seen more and more often in closer in, older neighborhoods. Valerie Alston-Holt lives in one of the older houses. She’s a widow, raising her teenage son. A professor of forestry and ecology, she is more than disturbed by the new house going in next to her, especially as the construction impacts the health of the huge oak tree in her backyard.

This book covers preconceived notions, prejudices of all types - sexism, educational and class divides, and racism. The new family is nouveau riche; all about impressions, with some very conservative values. At the core, this is a Romeo and Juliet love story.

I’m always into how a narrative style affects my thoughts about a book. Here, we have an invisible narrator speaking directly to the reader. Saying things like “before we depict our first encounter between our story’s other central players…”. It’s an odd mechanism. It annoyed me at first, but then, as the story goes on, I felt it really worked. It was like the narrator and I were sharing a book club discussion about this particular book. It evoked the removal of the fourth wall in a play.

I love that Fowler made the initial issue that divided the neighbors a tree and let it snowball from there. As the unknown narrator says “The stories we as a culture love best, almost always have a villain.” The question is, who is the villain in this story? Who is the bad neighbor?

Fowler’s also does a great job in showing how people misinterpret actions based on their perceptions. Fair warning, there’s a creep factor to one of the plot lines that had me squirming.

This isn’t a fast paced book. Fowler draws out the plot. We know there’s a crisis. Again, our unknown narrator says “every meaningful story has to have a crisis”. We know it’s coming. Fowler teases us with how this story will play out. And when it does play out, it brought out all sorts of emotions for me.

Five big stars here. This book is perfect for anyone looking for an emotionally charged book. It’ll make a great book club selection.

My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

In this time of environmental consciousness, this book brings home the importance of our surroundings and how.
A beautiful majestic oak tree is at the center of this conflict between two neighbouring families made up of completely different type of people.
The tree is representative of so many things to Valerie, most of all, her husband but it is in danger due to the unthinking selfish actions of the new neighbour Brad. The conflicts between the two families are brought to the fore while drawing vivid pictures of the characters involved. The relationship that the children of the warring parties develop is another angle worth pondering over.
This book was a pure pleasure to read and made me wish I had read the author sooner. I will recommend this one to my friends in a heartbeat. Its a great book for the book club having so many different aspects for discussion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️A Good Neighborhood - Therese Anne Fowler (Out March 10, 2020)

Thank you to St. Martins Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

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Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself

I love important stories. Ones that make you pause and truly consider the world we live in. A Good Neighborhood tugged at my heartstrings and is SO beautifully written. The characters seem to come alive and their passions were instantly my passions. This book is like an Ogre (this is a compliment - I love Shrek) in the sense that it’s an onion, and has lots and lots of layers. I couldn’t write a synopsis for A Good Neighborhood because it has so many different storylines and elements written so eloquently that I couldn’t sum it up effectively. Environmental issues, class issues, feminist issues, race issues are all prevalent in this story and wonderfully intertwined and the story felt current and most importantly realistic.

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Despite it absolutely breaking my heart, I love love loved this book so much I can’t accurately put it into words. This was one of the easiest five stars I’ve ever given, I think everyone should read this book.

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A Good Neighborhood is like a modern day Romeo and Juliet mixed with undertones of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hate U Give, with a similar feel to Big Little Lies. I have no doubt that it is going to be a book that resonates with people and is talked about for a long, long time.

I really wanted to love this book and fully expected it to be one of my top reads of the year, but I found myself extremely disappointed. This book spent a very very long time building up to the main issues. Sure, there were smaller issues that came up throughout the book, but the whole time you know that something big is coming. And boy does it ever come. I would say that this is an explosive look into class and race issues that are very real, and it was heartbreaking. However, I was really hoping for some form of resolution though that I never really found. I despised every character except for Xavier. Juniper is really as much of a villain as Brad, even though she is made to seem sweet and innocent. Not every book needs to wrap up in a neat little bow, but I would have liked some sort of satisfying ending.

While I was reading Therese Anne Fowler’s contemporary novel A Good Neighborhood, it felt like a very simple story, but there is so much going on, it’s going to make a great book club selection! Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley, I stayed up late into the night to find out WTH was going to happen after receiving a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The story focuses on two families, next door neighbors in a “good neighborhood” in North Carolina. Valerie Alston-Holt, an African-American professor at the university, lives with her biracial son Xavier on property that includes a huge, old, amazing oak tree, which Valerie has loved since she and her tall, blond husband Tom moved in when Xavier was a toddler. Tom died when “Zay” was very young, and Valerie has raised her son to be a great student, a kind soul, and a sensitive kid who is also popular, a good student, and a talented musician. The land next door to the Alston-Holt house has been cleared (to Valerie’s dismay) to make way for a McMansion, built by the nouveau riche Brad Whitman for his “girls,” including his wife Julia, their young daughter Lily, and teenage Juniper, from Julia’s life pre-Brad.

The narrator of the story is an unidentified neighbor, who provides a perspective that is outside either of the families, and gives both facts and opinions about the twin troubles that develop with increasing intensity as the story unfolds: the tree and the romance. The tree is that amazing oak, which Valerie is devastated to see is dying as a result of the construction next door, and the romance is between Xavier and lily-white Juniper, who is not only secretly troubled but also has taken a “Purity Pledge” with her stepfather, vowing to remain a virgin until he gives her away in marriage.

At first, there is just an inkling of looming bad feelings as Valerie decides to sue Brad and the builder – and an inkling of creepy stepdad as Juniper becomes a beautiful young woman. I HAD to keep reading until I was done, because the outside narrator had made it clear that SOMETHING big was going to happen, with the tree, the romance, or both.

As the story unfolds, issues of race, class, and political divisions provide lots of thought-provoking topics that book clubs will love. I hadn’t read any of Ms. Fowler’s prior books, but she is clearly a skilled storyteller who will likely have a bestseller with A Good Neighborhood. Five stars.

So good. I could see it hurtling towards its tragic end and I really didn’t want it to, but I couldn’t stop reading.

Slow start, but definitely beyond powerful at about the 75% mark. The idea of a narrator was a tad off but seemed to work ok. I wish the ending hadn’t seen so rushed. I think the ending is fitting and definitely leaves it open to a great conversation but would have liked it less rushed and tidied in a few short pages. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the story and the character of the two teens.

3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published March 10, 2020.

I’m conflicted about my review. I found the writing to be a bit long-winded and the author frequently took detours to give us background information. That being said, the story about race is very timely and excruciating to read. I found myself reacting pretty strongly to the plot and I was disappointed in the ending as I thought it was an easy out. An important read that sadly lacked an important lesson.

Review posted on GoodReads.

If you like Jodi Picoult you’ll like this! A gold family drama, easy to read and hard to put down! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this one i enjoyed it!

Wow. This is the must read in 2020. Everyone SHOULD read this book--from people who are ignorant to the state of systemic racism and prejudice in the criminal justice system, to those who think they know it all. Although not a true store, the feelings that arise from reading are very, very real. This is an important book, one I could imagine being a pivotal and necessary read for a high school English class. At this time in the world, there is no excuse for being unaware or uncaring about race relations and the institutionalized racism that our society is based on. I would highly encourage this book to anyone who would like to learn or needs the reminder. And besides the incredibly important story that is told, the writing is beautiful, the structure and narrative style are unique, and (despite the terrible events) there are many characters to root for and appreciate.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

What a book!

I am really enjoying my reads of 2020. So many good books I've read and this one most definitely counts as one.

This is such an incredible story. I loved everything about it. I wasn't sure what I was expecting but this book was a surprisingly provocative and unique book.

This story unfolds slowly through the voice of the narrator. I love how It covers multiple current and other deep rooted topics some of them being racism, love, the division of people by class, also talks about sex, and privilege. All these themes was covered so well in this beautiful and intense story. It's not easy to talk about tough issues like the above but this one did a seamless and wonderful job.
Therese Anne Fowler has brought to life powerful characters through this story which is significant of the times we live in.

I don't want to say too much except that this is a must read book. Highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.