**ARC Review**

I almost DNFed this book within the first few paragraphs. I stuck with it, and while it did keep me entertained, the characters weren't likable. There are trigger warnings of sexual assault, which I was not expecting from this book. This book reminds of the Mean Girls once they are grown up. Elise thrives off of being the leader and humiliating others. Reading this book made me thankful to not have friends like this. Thank you to NetGalley, Barbara Altamirano, and Atmosphere Press for allowing me to review this book.

Elise is the queen bee of the Mommy clique. Kelly is her right hand, sycophantic and ingratiating. Ronnie has no place in this adult version of high school, though she has made herself quite comfortable by gleaning secrets about the others. Gail is the wannabe, never at ease with herself.

When Beth returns to her hometown in Connecticut to care for her sick mother, along with her husband and three children, she is lonely. Despite herself, she feels drawn to the Mommy clique, consisting of Elise, Kelly, Ronnie and Gail.

What follows is a series of pranks, all designed as part of a bizarre initiation. Because Elise has decided that Beth is to be the target.



I thought it would have been better if we had been introduced to Beth before the other characters. Beth is the protagonist in this grown-up drama; we should have had an opportunity to bond with her first. Instead we meet her after we get to know the other four women.

I couldn’t relate to any of the characters. They were selfish and cold. All in all, there’s too much drama at a school bus stop. It was for the most part meaningless and confusing. I couldn’t see why anyone would want to put up with it.

The writing was tepid and indistinguishable from one PoV to another. It’s hard to keep track of whose PoV it is. As if there wasn’t enough confusion for the reader from five PoVs in Chapter 1, the author decides to hand out titles and then refer to chapter names using the titles, from Chapter 2.

As the book picked up steam, it got better and the voices became distinct, but I still couldn’t imagine grown women behaving like this.

Elise calls Gail’s Halloween party costume “more sedated” than her usual style. More sedated?

The names could have been chosen better. Beth’s husband is Rick and her son is Ricky. This becomes confusing for us.

Going by the title, I had assumed that the book would be about the rivalry in the PTA. This was just too unreal.

The ending was particularly disturbing. In a world in which sexual assault and rape are justified because the woman “was asking for it,” or “deserved it,” the final resolution smacked of insensitivity and cruelty.

I wanted to like this book but could never get into it. The characters were not likable and down right mean. This is not one I would recommend to others.

#netgalley #themommyclique I had a hard time getting into this book as I found it a bit confusing keeping up with who was who and I found all the characters unlikeable. I did enjoy the humour in the story and laughed out loud a few times.

I really tend to enjoy books about toxic female friendships and unlikable women - that's just a dynamic that seems to always work for me. However, this one got too dark for me - I'm not sure any of the characters were likable at all, and I think we need that light in the darkness when dealing with so many jerks.

You know an author has done an excellent job at portraying her characters when you absolutely hate the main character because her true personality just shines through the facade. Its been a while since I've read a book where the main characters were so real and where I hated them so much.
Brilliant writing, although at times I got a bit confused as to who was narrating/talking and to whom, but a quick reread solved that problem. It was clever not to use the character's name in each chapter heading, just their description/evil identity.
Was a fun, quick (except when you had to put it down as someone annoyed you so much you needed time to chill) read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.

I was so lucky to receive an advanced readers copy of The Mommy Clique by Barbara Altamirano from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and feedback. I enjoyed this book and found the humor quite uplifting at times. Never knew which turn it was going to take so it kept me on my toes. You won't be sorry you read this book!

We all know about the infamous cliques from school, but think about how much worse they can be when they’re adult mothers. There’s the wannabe - the one who wants so desperately to be the queen bee herself, the informer - the one who collects the dirt on everyone, the sidekick - that’s the queen bees right hand man, a position the others are jealous of but don’t voice this, the target - the one that everyone is trying to take down, specifically to appease the queen bee, and the queen bee herself - the ringleader, the one everyone praises and follows no matter what their personal feelings are. Just how much can any of them actually take before they break?
Thank you Netgalley, Barbara Altamirano and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read and review this book. To be honest, I had a hard time stomaching this book. I know it was not real, but I couldn’t stand to see how ruthless and conniving these women were! It made me so nauseous because I know that unfortunately, there are people out there really like this. I think what bothered me the most is the fact that this book is listed as Humor. Really? How can bullying and harassment be constituted as humor? That should DEFINITELY not be a word that’s used in describing this book. Though I was a little relieved with the ending, I just don’t know if I could ever read this book again. Maybe it’s because as I said, it bothers me that this is listed as a humorous book. In any case, I don’t want anyone to take my opinion and shun the book just because I am so sensitive towards the brutality of this book. Be advised there are a few triggers, mainly bullying, harassing, and sexual assault. I don’t like to leave bad reviews, and I am basing my rating on both the main storyline and how it made me feel, as well as the way the writing was. I’m rating this ⭐️⭐️💫

The Mommy Clique by Barbara Altamirano is a debut novel. It reminds me of Mean Girls but with adults. The characters are those that you love to hate. The Queen Bee is a narcissistic racist typical mean girl who I had a hard time connecting with. The others were followers and evil in their own ways. The only character in the book that I liked and felt I could relate with was the new mom or "the target" of the group. Even though this book was at times hard to read, I enjoyed the multiple points of view from each of the characters. I would recommend this book with a trigger warning for bullying and sexual assault.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was really excited to read this book, but honestly it was terrible. There was absolutely nothing about this book to even slightly redeem it.

This book is about vapid, shallow and horrible women that single out a new mother in town. The book centers around an evil queen bee and her followers and they act like her word is golden. Queen bee's hubby cheats on her and sexually assaults the new mother of the group. The other mothers act so brainwashed and afraid to cross the queen bee mom. This story was horrible and I hated the characters. Also I need to mention that a middle school aged girl gives oral sex to a high school boy to spite her mother. Just no.

4 women, 1 clique, 1 newbie target. To be honest I didn't like this book at all and only finished it in the hope that the ending would save it, it didn't. It was a quick story of the women and why they were in the group, and what happens if you "disobey" the queen and in the end what happened to the queen. It was badly written with no plot twists or page turning quality. I like books to have a bit of substance but this was just general "air head" content. Not for me and not really what I expected after reading the synopsis.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Mommy Clique. As a mom myself, I so badly wanted to love this book. Every school has their own cliques and usually books about mom life are funny and entertaining because of how real they are. This book unfortunately fell flat for me. The characters were so awful to each other (bordering on abusive) that it was unpleasant and uncomfortable to read. I kept reading hoping for a happy ending but unfortunately it never really came.

I really could not get into this book.

As soon as the Queen Bee Elise discussed putting her young daughter on a diet, I checked out and couldn’t force myself any further.

The characters in the book bring the story alive and leaves you wanting to hear more about them.
I am blown away by this book and recommend it.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I honestly can't believe how bad this book was. These women are suppose to be grown adults in their 30's and they act so horrible and awful that it is just plain evil. This book made me extremely uncomfortable and let's just throw in some woke why we are at it. This book to me would have been perfect if it was a bunch of middle schoolers not grown women with children. I didn't like an characters in this book. So it was an absolute no for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this book.

The book itself reminded me of a mix of Mean Girls grow up and Desperate Housewives. At times the story was intriguing and I was interested to see how they would stand up to the “Queen Bee” mom but it also felt very toxic and forced. What adult female would actually stick around and be treated this way.

The writing was good but at times the references or jokes seemed out of place or forced.

It would be an interesting read for a group of friends as it would lead to good conversation surrounding “what would you do” mentality.

Life as mommy can be dark and stressful. The Mommy Clique starts dark and takes an even darker turn at the end. Moms in this story work through their own issues in their marriages and other personal relationships. With shifting perspectives from the top mom to the target, the new mom in the neighborhood, the reader is drawn into and through the nightmare of popularity-based mommy wars.

The mommy clique by Barbara Altamirano release July 2022. Those mean girl high school clique are bad. But nothing compares to mommy cliques. You find yourself in them wanting for your daughter and yourself to be in the popular group. But the price you have to pay to be in this group. The queen bee and her court will make you pay. I liked this book because we can all relate to those mothers groups who rule every activity your daughter has been in

This book was actually pretty anxiety inducing. It was like Mean Girls meets Desperate Housewives. I enjoyed it overall, even if parts felt silly or childish.

I had a hard time keeping all of the women straight, and then throwing in those nicknames instead of using their actual names made it all the more confusing. And then towards the end, it was very difficult to keep the husband's names straight too.

I am very glad to not be a part of this group of women or know anyone like them. And if I ever did come across them, I would run the other direction. Brad and Elise are horrible people, and I felt sorry for all of the other women.