A trio of middle schoolers get caught in a chain of events related to bullying, and the adults in their lives scramble to try to diffuse the situation. As the adults try to balance the behavior of their children with their own obligations, they learn things about themselves and one another that surprise everyone. Author Kathleen West writes a story with few likable characters who don’t change nearly enough in her latest book Are We There Yet?.

In a trendy suburb of Minneapolis, Alice Sullivan knows she has her entire life pulled together. An interior designer with her career on the rise, Alice controls everything she and her kids do as easily as she manages the stunning tablescapes she creates for clients. Her husband supports her, although he’s usually doing it from afar. A busy lawyer, his eye is always on trying to impress the boss of the firm where works.

It doesn’t matter how busy he is, though. Alice knows all the work will be worth it when he brings home the big bonus that will allow them to redo their house. And, really, she has what every woman in her position could want: great kids, a perfect home, and, most recently, the biggest design contract in town.

Then she attends a parent-teacher conference and learns that her daughter, Adrian, is struggling, despite a stellar track record in years past. During the conference, Alice gets a call from her son’s middle school with a terse request to come over right away. Alice powers her way from one school to another, only to learn that Teddy has been accused of bullying another student.

Alice is blindsided. Suspicious at first that the assistant principal has some sort of agenda, even she can’t argue against the evidence the school has collected. Sure enough, Teddy has been using his social media accounts to attack a classmate.

Despite every effort to find out why Teddy would behave this way, Alice can’t seem to make any headway with him. Plus there’s Adrian to worry about, and she also has to juggle the design deadlines for work. Then her mother calls to share some news; it turns out Alice’s mother has a secret that she’s held close for decades but is now ready to reveal.

In a matter of days, Alice’s world goes from easy to excruciating. Nothing is going right anymore, and the friends who used to admire her have started side-eying her instead. As Alice tries to keep all the balls in the air, she’s mortified to discover that she might feel better if she lets them fall instead.

Author Kathleen West starts with an interesting premise but doesn’t give her characters room to grow. All of them, from Alice to her kids, her friends to their kids, and even the tertiary characters, start the story and end it in the same place. With minimal to no arcs initiating any major change, the result is a story that feels shallow at best.

Teddy’s reasons for bullying feel cursory, and the responses from the other students involved are contradictory. Despite the abundance of information on hand to the tweens and the adults of the dangers of social media, no one seems invested in changing their behavior. In fact, consequences for certain actions only drive the students to repeat the same actions with higher stakes involved.

Readers may get frustrated with the sense of entitlement on display from every single character in the story. When challenges come up, everyone is ready and eager to blame someone else or circumstances for their mistakes. No one learns a lesson by the end, leaving all of the conflict on the outside of the characters.

The end feels forced and rushed, as if it was necessary to tie everything up for the sake of resolution. Readers might feel compelled to roll their eyes by the time it’s all over. Those wanting an easy beach read this summer requiring little emotional investment might want to pick this up. Otherwise I recommend readers Bypass Are We There Yet?.

I loved the previous book by this author and thought I would request. I was expecting a lot from Are We There Yet. The story was complex but in the end I was disappointed with the character development and where characters ended up. The plot felt predictable and I couldn't connect with other characters.

This book nicely covers the struggles parents and tweens face today with social media platforms. Parents need to discuss with their child how to use social media and avoid certain behaviors and this book provides a way for parents to address those things. The story was rather slow and the ending felt rushed but I like the multiple chapters on each character, both parent and child.

3.5 stars
Have you ever secretly had that feeling that you had life altogether. You looked at others around you, grateful but probably a little smug that you seemed to have gotten it right. Looked at your children with a sense of pride thinking "not my kid!!!" But, then life laughed at you and showed you just how foolish you were? Well, this is that story. It resonates as a depiction of what families go through in these times of social media, quick judgment, and lack of kindness, empathy and tolerance. I think I would have liked this more except I didn't really like so many of the characters. There was growth, and it was witty with a great commentary on adolescence and growing into adulthood - even for the adults!!

Middle school drama? Sign me up!

As a middle school teacher, this one really intrigued me. The cattiness that comes out of parents of some middle schoolers is just as bad as that middle schoolers (if not worse) and this book was the epitome of that!

I really enjoyed that it was told from multiple perspectives, including the perspective of some of the teenager's as well.

The chapters were short which is always a plus! This was a fun and quick read that really opens up the conversation for the lives of middle schoolers.

Are We There Yet? was a fun and enjoyable read about suburban moms and their complete judgments of others. The irony here is that they don’t even know what their own families are up to!

I love a good mothers behaving badly story and this hit all the checkmarks of a good book. Three friends and mothers are dealing with their kids and social media and bad behavior that their kids couldn’t have possibly done! All while juggling jobs and therapy and kids sports.

Social media plays a large part here and especially Snapchat and Instagram. I’m so thankful I didn’t have these when I was younger! All of the kids in this book learn the hard way that the internet is forever.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I couldn’t even Imagine being a teenager at this point. It was so hard when I was one, and it’s only getting worse. This book had so many kids behaving badly in it. There was so much drama and it was so frustrating! The story was a little slow, but I did enjoy the multiple POVs in this book. If you’re into family dramas, I think you’ll enjoy this one!

Kathleen West has put out a 2nd great book! For every mother of a middle school child, who things their child are the perfect students and friends, look out! Finding our your child has a secret "Finister" account,, where they post selfies of perfectly made up faces and less clothing then they left for school in.

A fun and quirky book about motherhood of tweens and the pranks they can play on others. This book is told from multiple points of view and I appreciate that it's some of the points of view include the children not just the parents. A quick and entertaining read.

I won this book in a giveaway and had no idea what it was about. It wouldn’t be my first pick for a book. I did enjoy that it was told in multiple POV but it fell flat for me. Navigating embarrassing things in middle school is tough. For me this book was just eh.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Middle school is hard...for both kids and the parents. Are We There Yet by Kathleen West is a book about kids navigating through some tough and embarrassing parts of middle school as well as some moms navigating having middle schoolers and what comes with that.

Told from several different points of view, this book drew a me in as the drama unfolded. However, as strong as it was in the beginning and middle, it fell a little flat for me at the end. I finished the book landing on a pretty solid 3.5 star rating. Entertaining and relevant and definitely worth the read.

This book is about suburban moms dealing with their 7th grade children, specifically decisions made involving social media. I had a love-hate relationship with the book. The story about what happens with their children was interesting and it was a quick, easy read. However the main character - Alice - had no personality and the husbands were non-existent and I didn't like the plot line involving Alice's mom. Also, for a book told in alternate voices, it was mostly about Alice so the chapters told in voices besides Alice, her mom, and her son seemed like a lazy solution for getting into the heads of the other moms. That said, this is a very discussable book and quick book to read so book clubs that like reading about suburban moms will want to consider this.

Ah, tweens these days. The usual pranks are amplified by social media, and in suburbia, the moms are freaking out over everything, no matter how big or small.

"Are We There Yet?" was a really fun read for me. I see it as the book version of a trashy celeb magazine (which I also enjoy reading, amidst my classics and meatier fare. Hey, we all need a break).

<p>I spent years raising three girls in upper-middle-class suburbia, many of those years on the board of the -- *gasp* GIFTED program, which is a hotbed of entertainment in observing all the parental concern. This book fed right into that, with all the pretentious language (one mom encourages her daughter to "audit her decisions"), and just the pretentiousness all around (several of the moms read "Thinking Mother" and leave back issues lying out to look good for guests to the house).


I was rolling my eyes and cracking up throughout this book. It read as great satire on the current state of our society: one mom, analyzing a bad situation her seventh grader had gotten into, mused "This was classic #MeToo. Sadie, while careless and shortsighted, was a victim." But of course ...

One of the moms starts a group at the school on "ethical parenting," while helicoptering her own kids to death. "Have a good day -- make good choices!" Of course none of the moms see any irony in their actions.

When one of the boys ends up in a charter school due to his behavior at his original school, the family chooses an "environmental charter" which leads to more PC culture: "Today's it's meatless lasagna and California medley. We do try to limit animal protein."

Then there is one of the mom's mothers, a psychologist from hell who attempts to control her daughter's life while masking all her actions in psychobabble: "I just want this for you -- I want you to feel whole, too."

The book wasn't perfect -- I felt a little offended by the offhand mention of my state in a disparaging way: "'Competitive grandparenting' ... wasn't even a competition with Patrick's parents. They lived in Indiana and sent twenty-dollar bills for holidays and birthdays." Ummm, like Minnesota (setting of this book) is so much snazzier? There's also the (perhaps obligatory?) insertion of a woman client showing up with her "wife," for no apparent reason other than the virtue signaling.

I also didn't care for the ending. The whole book was smart and on-target with everyone's angst, and then, the final 15 pages seemed to give everyone happy endings and peace that seemed in no way realistic for this crew.

Very similar vibe to "The Gifted School," which I also loved. This wouldn't be for everyone , but overall I loved it.

Entertaining novel on the challenges of modern parenting

If you are a parent, you know the struggle of balancing work, home, and community demands. Are We There Yet? captures the nature of parenting today with insight and humor. The story is told from alternating perspectives of three mothers and their 13 year old children. The kids are new to social media and making plenty of mistakes, and the moms are just trying to keep up with it all. Fans of the TV shows like "Working Moms" and "Little Fires Everywhere" will enjoy this one.

My biggest fear when I have children is becoming "one of those moms", which is just what Alice became. I think we all do / will at some point and it's inevitable.

A pet peeve of mine is when writers get K-12 education all wrong. Kathleen West nails it, and she should as an experienced public school teacher. I have also read her first novel, Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes. West has definitely found her niche in women’s fiction — affluent suburban #momlife with tweens and teens. For fans of Katherine Center, Jennifer Weiner, and Liane Moriarity.

Are you the parent of a middle schooler? If so, this is the book for you.

On second thought, maybe not. 🤔

Are We There Yet? is the story of a suburban set of women and their children, but the main focus is on one of the moms, Alice Sullivan. Alice thinks she’s got a pretty good handle on the mom thing until she discovers her daughter is struggling with reading and her son might be a bully, all in the same day.

When Alice digs deeper she realizes there’s a whole level to the teen social status she had no idea existed. Suddenly, Alice’s status plummets amongst the other moms, now relegated as one of “those parents” who can’t control her child. It’s a jarring conclusion, but one that Alice herself has jumped to about others before.

As if dealing with this fallout wasn’t enough, her mother reveals a secret that she’s kept for thirty years that changes everything. With her life in total upheaval, Alice has to start over in so many ways. The problem is, where does she even begin?

Are We There Yet? is a timely tale about what it’s like to be a parent in present day suburbia. I’m not a parent myself, but I have many friends with middle school aged children currently navigating the landmine of social media pitfalls. It’s a whole new world- one where in some ways children are savvier than their parents, another where parents underestimate the pressure of social influence.

But it happens with adults too. This is evidenced with Alice in this story. In a world where you can curate the perfect life online, no one, of any age, is immune.

Thanks to @berkleypub and @netgalley for an advanced copy of this book that’s out NOW!

Alice Sullivan is a busy mom. A husband who travels for work. She has a busy job as an interior decorator. Two good kids - at least she thinks they're good. She's also got a great support system, two best friends whose kids are the same age and a very helpful mother who is a doting grandmother to her only grandchildren. It's busy, but it works.

Until it doesn't. Her son makes a few bad choices at school. Her daughter is only reading at level E and where is her reading journal? Her mom has a family secret. She's made her two best friends mad. She can't focus at work and of course, her husband is out of town. There's a folder sitting on the table that she can't even begin to open. Soon Alice is dealing with problem after problem and she's bound to crack soon but which problem will do her in.

When reading Are We There Yet? it referenced Liston Heights and I thought that's funny I read a book that took place there recently. While updating my Goodreads I explored the author and realized not long ago I had read her first book Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes which took place in Liston Heights. I really enjoyed both her novels and will definitely put Kathleen West on my to watch list.

This cover is so eye catching. I wasn’t even sure what it was about, but I had to read it. I thought it was a thriller, that was my mistake, please note it’s not!

I’ve noticed I read a book similar to this one almost monthly. Mom drama, family drama, kids making bad choices. The books always make for an enjoyable read for me, and this was no exception.

If you like engaging family dramas check this one out!

Thanks @berkleypub for my copy.

Are We There Yet? is Kathleen West’s second novel, and it reminded me of my days teaching middle school. That transition from elementary school is a real one.

This is the story of three friends and their tweens - all of whom are going through some big life changes. And, social media does nothing but complicate things. It hits on timely but complex topics like bullying and sexting.

It also made me so thankful that social media was not yet a thing until after I graduated from high school.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this with me. All thoughts are my own.