I never received this title to review and would like it removed from my dashboard as it is counting against my overall percentages here on NetGalley. Thank you.

I really liked the comparison of the relationship with the friends and the neighborhood. When it comes to gentrification, it can really become a character unto itself.

Lampan’s book is a comforting read, perfect for cozying up under a blanket or reading on a beach! I can’t wait for her next one!

The cover of the book is really mouth-watering and it is what attracted me to read this. But be cautious while reading it because you might be left hungry :P All the food descriptions are drool-worthy. The story is about two cousins Addie and Sam, co-owners of the Welcome Home Diner, who are committed to restoring Detroit back to the once thriving community it used to be. So they decide to open a diner in order to bring people together and rejuvenate a depressed part of town.

I loved the basic plot of the story. The author has created a family of unexpected characters and each of them has unique role in the success of the diner. The author has tried to show that it is not just the effort of the individual that matters but as a community, everyone has to play their role to make something a success. Also, I really want to appreciate the author for all the effort she took to do the research about the history of Detroit. I don't know if it was accurate or not, since I don't know much, but the effort is appreciable.

The beginning of the book was little slow for me as there was a lot of details to process and also there were so many characters. The supporting characters felt more real to me and I enjoyed watching them progress through the story. I wish I was able to relate to the main characters more.

A book about family, food and the tests of friendship. This unexpected story tackles the revitalization of Detroit through the eyes of two cousins, both quirky and complex women. This book has hidden depths and they're well worth exploring.

I absolutely adored this book! The author wrote so beautifully that the pages flew by. I was completely wrapped up in the world of Addie and Samantha and their journey to open their diner. The challenges they faced were real, and all of the characters were beautifully fleshed out. One word of warning though..... don't read this book on an empty stomach! The delicacies that they serve at the diner are described in glorious detail and you're stomach will wish it were a real place. I know I sure did!

At its heart, this book is a love story...

...A love story to a city - broken and hurting, and the two women who see in it not hopelessness, but hope.

...A love story to the healing power of food and the sacred act of sharing a meal with those you love.

...A love story to family, and the bonds that - stretch though they may - are never truly broken.

Cousins Addie and Sam open the Welcome Home Diner in a down and out neighborhood of their beloved Detroit. They get their love of cooking from their beloved Polish grandmother “Babcia”, and it’s her portrait that watches over them as they strive and struggle to make their dream a reality - to have a place that truly is a welcome home to all its neighbors. Their food (the descriptions are mouth-watering!) is a blend of Polish, Southern and local home cooking. Against this backdrop, both women experience love, loss, heartache, and hope, and you’ll quickly find yourself immersed in the lives of each complex and rich character in the story.

Thank you Peggy Lampman and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this title.

This book had makings for a really good story. Before I began I looked forward to it making me hungry and there being a little bit of drama.

I liked the idea of this book. I found the relationship between Addie and Sam interesting and I liked the idea of them building up a diner in an area that didn’t want them there to be interesting. There were a couple of little mysteries thrown in to try to keep my attention as well.

Unfortunately, this book fell short of hitting a home run for me. I’m not really sure what it was. For some reason it just fell flat. At times I really enjoyed the story, but when I wasn’t reading it I had this struggle to pick it up. It didn’t GRIP me. It was still okay. I finished it. But did it move me? Not really.

It’s an okay read. It wasn’t the best.

I was highly disappointed in this book. I expected it to be so much better. I have never had a book that I didn’t finish but this one came very close. Just wasn’t good to me.

I reviewed this here: http://www.bethfishreads.com/2017/10/weekend-cooking-welcome-home-diner-by.html

Unfortunately I could not get into this novel. I tried starting it at least five times and never made it past the 10% mark. I usually enjoy stories about female friendship and food but I just couldn’t connect with anyone nor figure out where the plot was going. I will say that the little I read showed good writing and some vivid characters; it’s posdible that other readers will connect with this and love it.

I received an eARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking. If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

The Welcome Home Diner by Peggy Lampman
Published by Lake Union Publishing ISBN 978-1542047821
Trade paperback, $14.95, 352 pages


Peggy Lampman previously owned a specialty food store, The Back Alley Gourmet, in her college town of Ann Arbor before writing a weekly food column for the Ann Arbor News. Now she writes a food blog, dinnerfeed.com and all this led her to write two novels- The Promise Kitchen (2016) and this year's The Welcome Home Diner.

Addie and Samantha open a diner in Detroit. Detroit has been through some rough times, and the cousins hope to help resusitate an area of Detroit with their neighborhood diner.

They got their love of cooking from their Babcia, their Polish grandmother. She inspired them, and her photo hangs up in a corner of the diner to remind them of how they got here. Addie and Sam share a two-story house- Addie lives upstairs with her boyfriend David and they seem very happy and well-suited to each other.

Addie is the organizer and planner, she handles the ordering, and the paperwork, along with the front of the house issues. She sees a future for her and David, marriage and children, but David is happy with things the way they are.

Sam runs the kitchen, she is beautiful and a great cook and after getting out of a bad relationship in New York, she is trying to find her footing again with men. Meanwhile, she has Hero, her dog who watches over her.

The Welcome Home Diner has money issues, as most new businesses do. They don't have much money leftover after payroll and food costs, but Addie and Sam are committed to making the diner work, sacrificing much to make it successful.

They draw a decent crowd from the young professionals in the area, but they are perplexed as to why the neighborhood residents do not eat at the diner. Their prices are reasonable, the food is delicious, and there isn't another comparable restaurant in the neighborhood.

In addition, there is a person giving them bad and inaccurate Yelp reviews, a next door neighbor who is openly hostile to them, and a business vendor who is menacing them.

I loved the characters in The Welcome Home Diner. Along with Addie and Sam, they have an interesting staff- Braydon, who started with them on day one and has worked his way up to floor manager, Quiche, a cook who brings her smart young daughter Sun Beam to work with her, and Sylvia, a young woman rescued from sex traffickers whom Addie and Sam take under their wing.

Having owned a restaurant with my husband, I found The Welcome Home Diner fascinating. Lampman gets so much right, such as the stress, the hard, physical work and the comraderie of the team effort. You get a great look at the day-to-day grind of running a restaurant.

The setting of Detroit is a character as well. We get a real feel for what a once-vibrant city is now going through, the struggles of the residents to get back on their feet. Some people appreciate the efforts of newcomers investing in their city, others fear the gentrification and the strangers moving into their neighborhoods.

I recommend The Welcome Home Diner for those who like foodie fiction, and family stories mixed with serious issues and there are even some recipes at the end, like Lamb Burger Sliders with Tzatziki and Beetroot Relish, and Sylvia's Heartbreakers, which are similiar to the amazing Levain's Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, famous in NYC (and my guilty pleasure).

Peggy Lampman's website is here.



Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Peggy Lampman's tour. The rest of her tour stops are here:
Peggy Lampman’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, October 16th: Books and Bindings
Tuesday, October 17th: A Thousand Books to Read
Wednesday, October 18th: Books a la Mode – author guest post
Thursday, October 19th: Patricia’s Wisdom
Friday, October 20th: Katy’s Library blog and Instagram
Saturday, October 21st: Beth Fish Reads
Monday, October 23rd: The Sketchy Reader
Tuesday, October 24th: Savvy Verse & Wit
Wednesday, October 25th: Kahakai Kitchen
Thursday, October 26th: A Chick Who Reads
Friday, October 27th: The Book Diva’s Reads
Monday, October 30th: All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
Wednesday, November 1st: Why Girls are Weird
Thursday, November 2nd: Bookchickdi
Friday, November 3rd: BookNAround
Monday, November 6th: Read Write Repeat
Tuesday, November 7th: Booksie’s Blog
Wednesday, November 8th: Bibliotica
Friday, November 10th: What is That Book About

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book. I'm sure it's a lovely read, but I have to be in the right mood for this genre and I just couldn't make it work for me. Thank you to the author for my copy and I'll be sure to give it another chance when the right mood strikes.

Since I'm required to give a rating I'm giving it three stars, because what I did read was very well written, but I didn't love it enough to finish it.

This was a great story about two cousins of Polish decent who opened up a diner in one of Detroit's run down neighborhoods, with the hope that they can experience change in a city that they love.
Hiring help that become like family and who also want to see the success of this diner, Addie and Samantha name it the Welcome Home Diner, and hope that their new neighbors will come in for bite to eat. That is no necessarily the case, their closest neighbor Angus is strongly opposed to his neighborhood's gentrification and they fear others might feel the same way.
The story delves into some issues you might find coming along with a city that has had so many problems, and as we follow the issues they encounter, one becomes aware of what they are up against.
This book has wonderful character development and one becomes invested in each and every persons story.
It is also a story about food and the joys of using fresh ingredients in their recipes, and also meant to honor their grandmother by cooking some of what were her favorite recipes. (some recipes included).
I really enjoyed following and finding out what these characters were all about.
I will definitely read more by this author.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book.

Addie and Samantha decide to open up a diner in an unfriendly neighborhood in Detroit, and there is opposition from the neighborhood itself along with a hidden threat.
I liked the way the author, Peggy Lampman, has written all the characters with such a different feel, that each one touches the heart in one way or the other. Both Addie and Sam are strong, brave, and they have courage in their conviction and in their Polish roots. There is a feeling of pride which is generated when the two girls incorporate their roots along with the present times.
Running a diner has its own pressures and hardships, and with a love interest and personal life, it requires an extra energy to manage both, and these girls seem to do that well.
The only thing I didn't like was initially the book was extremely slow and it didn't grip me so I had to fast-read those parts. The book becomes interesting when the girls start showing their emotions and this was when, I started enjoying this book
It is a refreshing change when food and love and career can be found in a single book especially a book which is written so well. Kudos Peggy Lampman

I didn’t grow up working in the New Jersey diner my family owned, but that’s mostly because my mother moved us away from New Jersey… and also because I was too young… but I have fond memories of spinning on the blue vinyl stools until I was sick, or arriving with my grandparents and being given a dish of my cousin Anthony’s amazing rice pudding.

Peggy Lampman’s novel The Welcome Home Diner reminded me of all the best parts of the diner experience – the regulars, being an integral part of the neighborhood – but it also reminded me of the drama that comes with any family-owned business: the resentment, the stress, the struggle to have a life separate from work.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Addie and Samantha, these cousins who act much like sisters. I have cousins like that as well, but I’m not sure I’d want to go into business with them.

While the diner Addie and Samantha are trying to restore and reopen is almost its own character in this story, I found the heart of the novel to be family. What won’t we do for those we love, and what will we jump into, sometimes without due preparation?

Full of vivid characters, emotionally truthful situations, and great descriptions, The Welcome Home Diner is better than any blue plate special.

Goes well with a cup of coffee and a dish of rice pudding.

The Welcome Home Diner is a diner started by Addie and Samantha. They have chosen a run down area of Detroit, in the hopes of bringing more life into the area.

The story is told in alternating viewpoints from Addie and Samantha. They basically retell each thing that happened though from a different point of view. Each person’s retelling of the event doesn’t really add anything to the story, just gives you a glimpse of what that character was thinking.

Other than some differences in their lives like one is happy in love and one is not, they seem to share the same voice. And, it’s an annoying voice. They are always thinking some sort of mean, snippy thoughts.

I love the idea of this novel, just didn’t care that much for the execution. This book spends too much time explaining everything that is going on in Detroit. It’s one big cheering section for Detroit. Perhaps if I had lived in Detroit, I would have liked it more. Then there are the other issues thrown in with everything from human sex trafficking to reduce dogs.

I did enjoy the foodie parts of the story and the recipes at the end. I just wish I had liked the characters more.

I received an ARC of this book.

When we lived in suburban Detroit, I organized an annual service day for my alma mater. One year we joined an organization that planted trees in the inner city. As we dug holes and planted new trees to replace those dead from disease, several people came out of their homes and questioned us about what we were doing. Most were suspicious of our motives and some wanted us to stop, at least until we mentioned that the minister of a local church had volunteered to water all the trees in hopes of helping them root and survive. It was a reaction I'd never expected to encounter. After all, we were just trying to help make their neighborhood more beautiful and replace what they had lost long ago. Trees couldn't possibly be political, could they? We moved away from Detroit in 2008 as the housing bubble was bursting in a spectacular way all across the US and so I don't know whether our trees survived or even whether the inhabitants of the neighborhood itself are still there or if they were among those so hard hit that their homes were torn down and they were displaced. What wasn't lost on me though was the idea that what one person sees as a gift of good can be seen otherwise by the people on the receiving end. This is just one of the issues addressed in Peggy Lampman's newest novel, The Welcome Home Diner but one that resonated with me for sure.

Addie and Sam Jaworski are cousins who have bought both a home and a diner in a depressed area of Detroit. They've realized their dream of refurbishing the diner and opening a restaurant focused on the cuisine that means the most to them, the foods they learned to make in childhood with their Polish Babcia and the comforting soul food of their diverse, local staff. They have a kitchen garden behind the diner to supply many of their vegetables and they use local artisans and purveyors for the rest of their supplies. Despite their outreach to the neighborhood and even as they become more successful professionally, they are avoided by the neighbors and patronized mainly by suburban hipsters, a point which continually nags at them, and which runs counter to their vision. Initially things seem to be mostly going well personally and improving professionally for the two women but there start to be cracks in their lives. Addie's boyfriend can't commit to marriage and family, two things she wants more than anything, and Sam's boyfriend has plans that could change everything for the two cousins. A troll has started posting negative and untrue comments about the diner and they are faced with threats by a shady linen company. And the cousins, who not only work together but have bought a fixer upper home together, have a relationship damaging fight. Only the community they have created around them can buoy them up and get them through all of these difficulties and more.

The narrative flips from Addie to Sam so that each woman has a voice for the reader and so that her internal thoughts and pressures can help explain all of the decisions, good and bad that she makes. Occasionally it is difficult to determine who the focus is on, especially when the character in question is ruminating over a problem both women share. Sam and Addie, although growing up under very different circumstances, both need to discover their own self-worth over the course of the novel. They are so focused on the stresses of running the diner and of their respective love lives that they either don't know or they lose sight of their own identity and truth. Their fumbling makes them feel terribly real and familiar. The secondary characters are generally a delightful bunch (although there are one or two who are more irritating and problematic than delightful). Like the city itself resurfacing from the economic disasters of the past, the secondary characters, and in many ways, Sam and Addie too, are looking for a second chance, a personal revitalization if you will. The stresses of owning a small restaurant and the difficulty of having it truly be a welcome home in the midst of a neighborhood that views them with suspicion is very well depicted here. Addie and Sam do want to be good community partners but it's not as easy and immediately appreciated as they had assumed. The novel is full of weighty plot lines, many of which are quite secondary. Lampman takes on a veritable cornucopia of issues in this novel: gentrification, sex trafficking, family, both created and chosen, race, the farm to table movement, rehabilitating convicts, second chances, and forgiveness. There is a clear love of food here with delectable passages about cooking and ingredients that will make any reader's mouth water and there are recipes at the end for any cooks looking to make their own Polish soul food fusions. There's a lot to think about in the pages of the novel and readers of women's fiction as well as foodies and those interested in the rebirth of Detroit will certainly enjoy the book.

I didn't connect with this book and gave up early on.

Addie and her cousin Sam have opened the Welcome Home Diner in a rougher area of Detroit. They were drawn to this area for its history and need for love and rejuvenation. Cooking homemade, fresh foods, their diner becomes popular. That is until their neighbor voices his unhappiness and an Internet poster continuously posts horrible things about the diner. All the stress causes issues in many parts of the cousins’ lives.
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I liked this book. I didn’t love it. I felt some of the dialogue was awkward and there was so much happening. It was not hard to keep track of, but I just felt it made the book longer than it needed to be. I feel others would probably love this book. It was just was not for me.