Have you watched Desperate Housewives? This book reminds me of that series.

Lisa has written the perfect Mom-Com. Ginny and Harri are in for a shock when they move into their new neighborhood, as well as trying to fit in with the crowd. This book touches on parenting from a mother's perspective and it was fun to read. It also touches lightly on sexual harassment and diet culture in young kids. If I'm being honest, it's given me an insight of how to approach my little one when they turn eleven and have issues fitting in school..

What I love most, this book gives us reasons to be content with ourselves and not try to be who or what we aren't.

The side characters are the ones who make up for the comical part — especially Wayne and his bathing suit.

If you love Women's Fiction with a dash of humor, I recommend this.

Welcome to the Neighborhood by Lisa Roe is, as the author calls it herself in the acknowledgements, a "mom com" of the highest order and I really hope it achieves the success I truly believe it's worthy of, which is a whole lot of it!

Ginny, a single mom from Queens, has just gotten married after a fairly brief courtship to a brilliant, loving man who happens to live in a New Jersey suburb so Ginny and Harri, her eleven year old, move out to what I've always chosen to think of as a Stepford wife community. I mean, love is all you need, right? Unfortunately, shortly after uprooting her life, her husband gets sent overseas for work and she is left alone to carve a spot for herself and her daughter in a community that is just full of toxic personalities. How does she keep her own sanity and, even more so, how does she continue to raise a daughter to be independent and self-confident?

I absolutely loved this book in so many ways. I loved seeing Ginny learn who she is and what she's about and what kind of mom she chooses to be, regardless of the cost. This kind of toxicity is a huge part of why I have chosen to personally not become a mother but my respect for those of you who have grows every time I even think about how you have to commandeer situations similar to this.

When I saw this book on NetGalley, I saw the blurb on the front by a favorite author of mine, Abbi Waxman. I knew that by them choosing Abbi, this book would feel similar to her works and I soundly agree with that. If you wind up loving this book, I would definitely recommend Other People's Houses and Garden of Small Beginnings.

An absolute 5 star read that I really can't wait to tell people about. Just absolutely wonderful!!

Welcome to the Neighborhood by Lisa Roe

New husband, new home, new neighbors that are friends of new husband’s ex-wife. Sounds great, right?

“Lisa Roe has written a fabulous book about fitting in when you don’t know if you want to—and finding your voice when it’s not easy! An easy read that has funny moments and some great lessons!”-Books and Pens on Green Gables

Ginny and her daughter, Harri, move in with Ginny’s new husband, Jeff. Jeff is great! Harri loves him-they even built a chicken coop together for Mrs. Clucklesworth.

Ginny is getting used to Jeff’s ex-wife Stacey’s décor style-and, unfortunately, the neighborhood is filled with her old friends.

Ginny has also just met Wayne-the man who uses Jeff’s hot tub-without wearing a bathing suit.

The queen bee of the neighborhood is not nice, her group is not nice, and her husband is handsy.

Then, Jeff gets the job he has dreamed of! In another country. Can Ginny help Harri make friends with the cool girls? Can she handle hanging with the cool moms? Will Wayne wear a bathing suit?

Great humor-great fun-this all really could happen! I loved the book! Five BIG stars!

(I was given this book to read and review.)

⭐⭐⭐⭐. This was a heartwarming quick read that follows a mother-daughter duo as they navigate big life changes. I loved their relationship and how it captured the realities of tween girls and mean moms. But the story wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly for me. That being said, this would make a fabulous Hallmark movie. So if you like Hallmark, mark your calendars for April 5!

Thanks so much to @netgalley @sourcebookscasa and the author for the ARC!

Read this if you like: Gilmore girls, mother daughter relationships, catty women (Desperate Housewives vibes minus murder)

After years of struggling to make ends meet, Queens single mom Ginny falls for sweet, divorced Jeff, and relishes the idea of moving with her quirky eleven-year-old daughter Harri to his home in an upscale New Jersey suburb. This book very much gives me Gilmore Girl and Desperate Housewives vibes, which I love. She loves the new house she's moved into then she meets the neighbors.

Ginny is quickly thrust into the complicated realities of a neighborhood defined by the ever-shifting alliances of PTA moms, Real Housewife contenders, and their mean-girl daughters. When the neighbor's secrets, back-stabbing, and bad behavior take a devastating toll on her daughter and new marriage, Ginny must decide what really matters.

I enjoyed this book. The writing was a little choppy at times. I also expected it to be more about love but we don't see her husband as much as I thought we would. This is more so a book about a woman and her kid starting a new life in a new area. The characters were developed well. The neighborhood catty women are awful in all the right ways. It was charming, funny, and at times serious. There are some pretty hard topics added in such as diet culture, etc.

I recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley, the author Lisa Roe, and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC! ❤

What happens when you mix a girl from Queens in with the Real Housewives of New Jersey? Ginny is about to find out!

As a single mom, I related to Ginny's story so much. Seeing the struggle of dating, falling in love all while trying to fit into a new area and take the best care possible of her daughter is something I have gone through, and it is extremely difficult. I think that this book was extremely well written, and doesn't shy away from the fact that everyone has secrets in their life that they don't want to come to the surface!

#WelcomeToTheNeighborhood:

Welcome to the neighborhood, or welcome to hell. Absolute hell. Carb control for an 11 year old? Literal rage while listening. Ex-Wife conwoman trying to steal half of the possessions because running off with another didn’t work out? Actual cussing out loud.

Ginny and Harri, the coolest mom and daughter duo around the block have just moved into Elderberry Lane. The families are rich, their hair is as big as their secrets, and kids cannot be kids. I really enjoyed that we got the “mean girls mom” trope but.. with bigger issues. There’s been a lot of suburban housewives books, but this just hit different. We didn’t just brush dieting at 11 under the rug, we didn’t ignore sexual assault as a “friendly neighbor” in passing. Roe tackled it head on. It didn’t feel unnecessary to the plot and was done well.

I got to do another listen/read combo thanks to @dreamscapemedia. Emma Love was so easy to listen to and really had me feeling all the feels. I saw she’s the reader for Dylan Newton’s new book, which has me even more excited. Love did a great job with WTTN, and definitely work a listen if you’re into audiobooks!

I do wish we could have gotten a bit more backstory from Jeff and Ginny’s relationship from him to not hate him for going to another country for 6+ weeks. While the story does focus mindful on Ginny and Harri, the whole reason they’re there is because Ginny married Jeff! What makes him such a catch!? I wanna know! He definitely made up for it at Canvas & Cocktails, so my annoyance of him and his Dublin pub crawls are all forgiven.

Overall, a different take on the suburban moms who seem to have it all. The audio is wonderful, the story itself is great. Thank you so much Sourcebooks and Dreamscape for the gifted copy. Welcome to the Neighborhood is out 4/5!

Thank you to Netgally and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC of Welcome to the Neighborhood.

Ginny and her daughter Harri move from Queens to the NJ suburbs in a well to-do neighborhood. Immediately after moving in Jeff, Ginny's new husband, has to travel for work. Ginny is alone again raising her daughter in this new neighborhood where she doesn't fit in.

Unfortunately, wanted to like this one so much more than I did.

Things I Did Like:
● The relationship between Ginny and Harri
● Mostly ok with the ending

Things That Didn't Work:
● The writing felt messy at times, with no warning or page break Ginny would be remembering something, then pop back into the present. This confused me more than once.
● Jeff's Character, there is no romantic relationship set up or told between Ginny and Jeff. Then he is absent for most of the book and comes back in for the HEA. I couldn't buy into their love.
● Everything that happens in this dang novel is negative. Even the chicken dies 😅

After years of barely getting by, Ginny marries Jeff and she and her Harri move in with him into his house in an upscale New Jersey suburb. When they arrive, Harri and Ginny are quickly thrown into the complexities of the neighborhood filled with perfect PTA moms and their mean girl daughters. Ginny finds herself having to figure out what is really important for her and Harri and how to balance who they are with this new group.

I love a good Real Housewives-esque story of mean girl moms, and this provided a lot of that. But more importantly at the heart of this is a beautiful story of a mother-daughter relationships. Harri and Ginny’s relationship was by far the highlight of this book. I adored how Ginny truly wanted her daughter to be happy and was willing to do anything she could to get there.

The audiobook was done very well. I loved the heart the narrator put into Ginny’s character.

This one is out April 5th, and is one that should be on your radar. Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the advanced copies.

I love me a good mommy drama!

When Ginny leaves Queens for a New Jersey suburb, she’s in for a rude awakening when it comes to PiTA PTA moms.

This is a popular trope–see The Truth and Other Hidden Things, the Class Mom series, Abbi Waxman’s books, etc. I find myself very drawn to it despite not being a mother. It’s almost like the “cool girl” stereotype all grown up: “I’m not an uptight helicopter mom, I’m a cool mom”. I don’t necessarily want to be the “not like other moms” mom, but I see myself in these women in that I don’t wear makeup, I hate spending money on clothes and status symbols, and I would never tell a kid they needed to lose weight.

What I especially liked about Welcome To The Neighborhood was that it tackled a lot of important subjects without being too heavy. It addresses body shaming, bullying, diet culture, and sexual harassment, but still manages to be rather lighthearted and funny.

I liked Ginny–she was the sort of character I could easily see myself being friends with. Her relationship with Harri was exactly what I would want for myself and my child someday.

If you’re a parent of a young teenager (especially a girl), you’ll definitely want to pick this one up.

This book gave me huge "Lorelai Gilmore goes to Chilton" vibes - very much reminded me of Gilmore Girls, with the strong mother + daughter connection between Ginny and Harri and their struggle to fit in when they're clearly meant to stand out. It was a bit of a slow burn for me at the start but I ultimately found the story very charming and loved the character development throughout!

I didn’t really have any expectations going in, and tbh it had been a bit since I requested it so I kinda forgot what it was even about. I think that worked to my favor in that I had no preconceived notions on what to expect. I ended up really liking it! I’ve never watched Desperate Housewives and not much of a Real Housewives fan, but I think if those two had a baby, it would represent the women of the new neighborhood that Ginny and her daughter Harri are moving into. Ginny has just gotten married to Jeff after being a single mom for a long time. She moves from the city to the suburbs to be with him and it takes a lot of adjustments for both her and her daughter. As they both struggle to fit in with the moms of the neighborhood, they stated to see that money truly doesn’t buy happiness as the cracks beneath the facades of the fancy houses and fancy lives start to show.
When they realize they don’t want to be part of the new “it” crowd, Ginny and Harri find themselves again and make some true friends along the way.
This was funny, emotional, messy and a great balance of family drama, relationships and catty women. Perfect beach read and I definitely enjoyed the audiobook. The narration was well done and he characters were clearly identifiable. Would/will be recommending this to other readers this spring.

Welcome to the Neighborhood is a story of a single mom who moves to a rich neighbourhood with her husband. The story was fresh but I didn't not enjoy it very much as I had expected. I had to skip a few chapters as I was losing interest to read the slow-moving plot.

Lisa Roe enlists a colorful cast of uniquely flawed characters in her heartfelt debut, but the spotlight is on Ginny, the down-to-earth artist from Queens whose second marriage becomes fraught by the implacable social mores of her new husband’s tony Jersey suburb. Readers will cheer for Ginny as she traverses the hazards of owning a pet chicken, faces grown-up mean girls, fends off lecherous neighbors, and is challenged to hold her ground against a reprehensible ex-wife. Welcome to the Neighborhood is the satisfying escape readers need right now.

Lisa Roe has written a winner in Welcome to the Neighborhood.

The debut author has a lovely, descriptive writing style that brings all the characters to life – both the loveable and the cringeworthy. She also rises above cliches to engage us in the plot, so that we smile and feel sad along with mom and daughter as they struggle in unfamiliar territory. Engaging side characters, including Mrs. Clucklesworth, the chicken, add empathy and delight to this fine debut.

Well this one was a pleasant surprise for me, I didn’t have any real expectations before I started I just knew it was about a single mom and her daughter who move from the city to the suburbs in NJ when the mom falls in love with Jeff who lives there and that’s really all I needed to know before adding it to my TBR. I truly didn’t expect to fall in love with Ginny and her daughter, Harri or to laugh so much either. This was funny and witty in the vein of Abbi Waxman who I LOVE and it was super heartfelt and full of some wisdom with a side or humor. I’m also a huge fan of The Real Housewives of New Jersey and the women in Ginny’s new neighborhood could give Melissa, Teresa, Dolores, Jennifer, Marge and Jackie a run for their money IYKYK There were also some wonderful side characters as well, truly a well rounded vibe with people behaving badly and normal, good people just trying to live their lives. A perfect balance between family dynamics, romance and gossipy neighborhood antics, this is a great spring read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I think every one can relate to,the themes in this novel: moving, starting over, acceptance, fitting in. But it’s also a testament to be true to yourself and not backing down. Ginny and Harri move into a tony neighborhood with yuppie moms and mean daughters. Even Ginny tires to fit in. Until the veneer is stripped from her eyes and she realizes what is going on.
I liked Ginny and I loved her interaction with the ex wife Stacy.
I even began to like Margot at the end.
The ending is the best.

Loved this rom com, finally one that doesn't fit the traditional roles. We get a single mom city girl who falls for a guy in the suburbs. And there was nothing hallmark channel about this and I loved that.

Listen up, parents of tweens! I have the perfect book recommendation for you. Welcome to the Neighborhood by Lisa Roe follows Ginny and her eleven-year-old daughter, Harri as they navigate their new life in an upscale New Jersey suburb. This heartwarming novel touches on so many potential issues experienced with parenting preteen girls. Roe tackles the cell phone woes, mean girls, roller coaster emotions, fitting in with the right clothes, shoes, etc., eating disorders, and body image. My daughter turns eleven next month, so this book really spoke to me. I absolutely loved the mother/daughter dynamics portrayed for this particular age group. I thought about my daughter and I countless times while I was reading. How would she react to a similar situation? How would I? It really got me thinking, and gave me so much perspective. Roe’s debut is perfect for fans of Laurie Gelman’s Class Mom series, and Rebecca Prenevost’s Mom Walks series. Welcome to the Neighborhood releases on April 5th, so be sure to grab a copy for yourself and your #momlife friends!

Welcome to the Neighborhood is a bittersweet story about Ginny, a newlywed with a young daughter who moves into her new husband’s house in a rather snooty neighborhood. Ginny wants to find a way to fit in, and she’s hoping that her daughter Harri will be able to make friends and thrive in their new home. Unfortunately, the neighbors are not as friendly as they seem, and both Ginny and Harri find out that it’s not so easy to belong. There were scenes that made me laugh out loud, but there were also many cringeworthy moments, and I was very sympathetic to what these two free spirits were having to contend with. I was cheering for both of them as they struggled to find their footing, truly hoping it would all work out.