Member Reviews
Thank you so much to #Netgalley and Berkley Books for the ARC in exchange for my review.
Full review to come closer to pub date!
However, Kathleen West is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes so when I saw this on NetGalley, I requested and crossed my fingers. It worked!!
West has once again, create a character (Alice) who was realistic and relatable! Alice seems to be a perfect mom almost. She has two darling angel kids and she seems to actually be adjusting to middle age pretty good. Well sort of. Until all that falls apart with her son.
It gives an honest look at the struggles moms go through raising kids during this age of advanced technology. It gives a look on how hard parenting can be and how many things moms can miss. Its the story of how a perfect life can become a not so perfect life overnight and how it can happen to anyone!
I enjoyed this!
A very crowded book with so many characters I was confused at first. It never grabbed my interest. Mothers rivalry over who had the most troubled child isn’t something I enjoyed reading.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.
Women's fiction novels have always been a hit or miss for me because finding common ground with the main characters can be tricky. This one though, I felt an immediate pull to the characters and found myself so focused on this story that I didn't look up for hours. Are We There Yet? is an excellent novel, one that resonated with me, and one I won't soon forget. I recommend it to all readers of the genre.
I really enjoyed this look at family life where things are not perfect . . . and not catastrophic. Alice learns that both her children have some problems that she has failed to notice. Did she not notice because she has been too busy at work? Involved elsewhere? Just because she assumer HER children wouldn't have problems? Now she has to navigate the gauntlet of teachers, school administrators, other moms, her boss, and her husband to try to steer them back on track. In the process, she discovers who her true friends are. While not a life-changing read, I did enjoy the time I spent with these characters.
I didn't like this book. I found the characters unbelievable. I know some moms are way too invested in their kids social lives but this seemed like too much. I also did not like the relationship between the moms who are supposed to be friends. I particularly found the psychologist grandmother to be the most unbelievable. There is no way someone could be so unaware that she thinks her adopted daughter and the biological daughter she gave away for adoption will become besties overnight. How she could not be aware of how it would seem to the adopted daughter was beyond me.
Alice thinks she is navigating life successfully - parenthood, marriage, work - when things start to unravel; unexpected news at a parent teacher conference, a call from the middle school, her boss taking her clients, and a bombshell from her mother. How did she her perfect life fall apart? How can she fix it? And what really makes up a perfect life? A story of parenthood and family and expectations and finding your own version of a perfect life. .
Realistic portrayal of the horrors of teens and social media. I really felt for the characters in this one. A quick read!
There is a lot going on in Alice's life. I feel I've read similar stories about the evils of social media and kids. I'm glad there was no suicide in this one. The new 'sister' part of the story was a bit much. An OK quick read. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
A tidy domestic drama about the tribulations of a handful ofmiddle schoolers and the mothers (and occasionally fathers and therapists) who love them to distraction. It's the distractions that give this hermetically sealed novel its flavor, especially the color swatches and and other accessories that preoccupy Alice, whose 12 year old son, Teddy, seems to be the locus of discontent in this tightly wound community, school, and soccer team. It's not just Teddy that's Alice's problem- it's the previously unknown woman her mother has just introduced to their family, the child she gave up for adoption years before she adopted Alice . Since Julienne also happens to be Teddy's therapist, the ties that bind may also be the ones that strangle them all
This is one of those novels that makes me so glad I raised my kids before the dawn of social media. Not without challenges but bringing kids through the 80s, 90s and into the oughts seems a walk in the park compared to today. I fielded calls from the school principal on an almost weekly basis because of my "naughty one". Thank goodness I didn't have to read about said child on numerous social platforms. Anyway, when Alice's seemingly wonderful life flips on her she is forced to face her reality and rethink what is truly important. Fans of mommy lit, women's fiction will relate because we've all been there or know someone who has.
This book broke my heart in the best ways. I could not put it down. Relatable and poignant. A commentary on how society is raising our children and how we must fight to ensure their safety and survival.
I enjoyed West's debut, "Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes", and she definitely does not fall short in her sophomore effort here. "Are We There Yet?" was a joy to read because the characters are believable, relatable and struggling to parent children in middle-school. And don't we all struggle with that? West's characters are familiar but she avoids turning them into caricatures. I appreciated the tension in the adult daughter/mother relationship and keenly felt Alice's pain. The women's friendships are portrayed well including conflicts and some conflict resolutions. This is a quick read and highly recommended.
Kathleen West's second book was even better than her first one! This is a must read for any parent of a middle school student. Both hilarious and serious, I could not put it down. I was so invested in these families and the outcome, I was hooked from the first chapter. Cannot wait to see what West writes next. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. I will definitely be recommending this one!
This is not the type of book I normally read but I quite enjoyed it. It deals with raising kids with today's challenges of social media, single parents, helicopter parents and adoptive parents. Alice seems to have the perfect life, a good job, a successful lawyer husband and two kids who seem to be high achievers at school. But her world suddenly collapses when her son gets suspended from school and everything else that seemed so perfect suddenly isn't.
Alice's have-it-all life is perfect -- children, husband, lovely home, great friends, great career -- until trouble with her children makes it all fall apart. I really enjoyed this book, especially the way it explored the whole minefield of cyberbullying among teens.