Book CW: Sexual assault and eating disorders
Some spoilers ahead

If you like realistic fiction and reality TV, this is the book for you!
I was not the intended audience for this book. I believe is geared toward people who enjoy reality TV shows akin to The Real Housewives.
While the writing style was good (could have been great with some more editing and fine tuning).
The narrator was excellent. I could easily tell different characters apart and everything was easy to follow and understand.
I loved the message of having core values and holding onto them regardless of the social situation with which you're involved.
I felt like the plot was all over the place with too many tangential elements.
While I believe the internal monologue that the Ginny had while dealing with her assailant and also while dealing with the others in the neighborhood was realistic, I will admit that it did grind my nerves at times.
This is a very realistic take on how someone would actually behave if they were in Ginny's situation. It's easy for someone on the outside to say, "why wouldn't you have done/said XYZ? It's obvious!" This is even mentioned with Ginny's best friend being able to clearly see that Harri is depressed when Ginny couldn't see it herself.
For the ending, I wish that Ginny would have truly confronted the group- especially about the way they are literally abusing their children (and through them, other children) with diet culture. That would have felt more fitting to Ginny's character than just "I'm actually just going to move slightly farther away because I y'all are toxic but I still have empathy for you."
Overall, I'm giving it 3 out of 5 stars.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved that this book started at “happily ever after”. It felt like starting a story on the last page of most other contemporary rom-coms which was a fun and unique approach.

Our protagonist Ginny is a quirky artist and formerly single mom of sweet 11-year-old Harri. Ginny is the new girl on the block in her new husband’s home and upscale neighborhood. While she is pretty much the personification of the “not like other girls” meme, it’s easy to root for her while she tries to navigate her unfamiliar new surroundings.

I definitely agree with another reviewer who compared this to an episode of Real Housewives – characters are over the top dramatic, and the neighborhood moms (and their minis) fall easily into the role of villains. I felt like their actions were implausible and far-fetched at best and maybe veering towards silly at worst, but entertaining nonetheless. I’d like to think no one actually behaves like these moms (policing gluten and banning tie dye? Come on – they are 11!), but sadly I’m sure they’re out there. Tensions build as Ginny and Harri’s free spirits stand out and clash more and more, and the true colors of the other neighborhood moms shine fully through, but you’ll have to read yourself to find out if they ever do find a happy equilibrium and a second "happily ever after"! 😉

All in all, this book was fun and easy, the writing and story both held by attention and the high energy and engaging narration by Emma Love was the cherry on top! Plus I just loved that cute cover. I would read/listen to more Lisa Roe books for sure!

When I listened to Lisa Roe’s Welcome to the Neighborhood, I found that it was a cute story, but it should have come with ALL of the trigger warnings. Haha Not to give spoilers, but there was an unrealistic scene with a would-be sexual predator, a death, bullying, and abandonment. (But really, who would put trigger warning on a back cover anyway?!)

Ginny was the mother and protagonist in this tale of coming of age of her daughter, Harri, and rags to riches trope when she marries Jeff. Every page is dripping with Girl Power, which is amazing. I’m glad that Lisa Roe decided to emphasize all of the powerful avenues that females can take in this world, regardless of their situation or station.

This tale had so many highs and so many lows, and characters who grow from their experiences on Elderberry Ln. I feel like Ginny and I could have been best friends. She’s such an amazing character.


Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this advanced listening copy of Welcome to the Neighborhood.

Give me all the suburban mom drama! I absolutely flew through this audiobook, I found myself thinking about this story and constantly wanting to listen to it throughout the day.

Welcome to the Neighborhood is about Ginny and her daughter, Harri, navigating this rich suburban neighborhood and the people in it after Ginny marries a man named Jeff and moves into his house. Ginny dreams of giving her daughter the life she never could, but soon discovers that it's not going to be as simple as she thought it would.

Both Ginny and Harri go through a lot trying to find where they fit in in this new world they aren't used to. This book is mostly about them, as Jeff really wasn't in the majority of the book for reasons I can't say because spoilers. So don't go into this book thinking its all romance.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to others who like closed door romances, found family/true friendship, mom drama, and heart warming mother-daughter relationships.

Welcome To The Neighborhood by Lisa Roe

Ginny an artist who does art and craft shows and her 11 year old daughter Harri live in Queens. Ginny meets Jeff and after about 5 months they get married. Jeff lives in an upscale neighborhood. This is similar to the show Housewives of New Jersey. Ginny wants her daughter Harri to get new friends in the new neighborhood. This is where everything gets off course for both Ginny and Harri. The moms in this neighborhood are mean and they are raising mean girls.

There where some serious issues and tropes that are cringe worthy and makes you wonder. Little girls worrying about what they eat for weight management. This right here is so terrible so these young girls grow up with issues with food. The behavior is outrageous by all and Ginny loses a little grip on her quirky daughter Harri who tries so hard to fit in and do as the other girls. Ginny thought the change after the marriage to Jeff would help her and her daughter.
I thought Lisa Roe nailed it on the tropes she used in the book. Reality tv of today shows how these suburban women act with there spoiled daughters who end up being mean girls sometimes from the competition like modeling or pageants. She begins to question every decision she made because nothing is going as she thought it was. Ginny is not recognizing her daughter anymore because of all the changes she is making to fit in.

I like the narrator of the book and I rated it 4.5 stars. I would recommend this book to people who like reality tv like the real housewives and the pageant type reality show with young girls. This book fits the bill for that.

I want to thank Netgalley and Dreamscape audio for a free copy of the book for an honest review.

Welcome to the Neighborhood is an entertaining mash up of Stepford Wives, Real Housewives of New Jersey and Gilmore Girls - not a combination anyone would make intuitively, but it works. A mom and daughter start a new life after moving from Woodside, Queens to suburban New Jersey, and end up walking into a lions den of mean girls. Things go exactly as well as you'd expect them to.

While I ultimately didn't love this book, I think Lisa Roe shows a lot of promise with this debut novel. The writing is good, the humor is natural, and the story works well. I think in her next novel, if she embraces and explores the complexity of her characters a bit more, it will be really good, and remedy what fell flat for me in this novel.

Mild spoilers ahead, but I think some of this is important to talk about. CW: sexual assault, eating disorders

The characters are ultimately what didn't work for me with this story. The main character, Ginny, was intended to be endearing and relatable as she is overwhelmed by her new surroundings, but ends up coming off as oblivious and myopic. While it's clear she loves her daughter Harri dearly, and we're meant to see her as a Lorelai Gilmore style super-mom who is always on her kids side, she spends 80% of the book prioritizing literally everything else. When Harri starts to develop an eating disorder, instead of helping her, confronting the kids who are bullying her/their parents, or finding her non-toxic friends she just gets mad at her own kid. Maybe that's the actual experience of the mom of a pre-teen girl, but it didn't sit right with me.

More generally, Ginny seems to make the exact wrong decisions and assumptions at every turn, especially with her relationship with her husband, who is away on business for the entire book and therefore comes across as a one-dimensional jerk and a projection of her own insecurities. She gives the benefit of the doubt only to those who don't deserve it, especially the other moms and their daughters, and even like queen bee mom's husband, who attempts to sexually assault her on at least 3 occasions.

I think a lot of my frustration with Ginny's character comes from what is intended as her growth and development / redemption arc, as she loses herself in this new environment and then returns into her own values. I suspect I'm intended to be frustrated with her abandoning her values, priorities, friends, daughter and even her business painting portraits of other people's pets, but its hard to imagine someone who holds these values as deeply as Ginny is supposed to will just drop every single one of them for a man she's know for 5 months. That is what made it difficult to suspend my disbelief here.

My instinct is to give this book 2.5 stars, but since it is not what I normally read, I will round up instead of down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook e-galley for this title, given in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute and easy beach read type book. A quirky mom and her daughter move into an upscale suburbs and have to navigate life there. It's a lighthearted book, but I really hope places and people like this don't exist in the real world! The way the other children treat an 11 year old girl is shocking to me. It's a sweet story, has some humor and some heart. I received a copy of the audiobook to listen to in exchange for a review from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, thanks!

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
A beautiful day for a neighbor
Could you be mine?
Would you be mine?" - Mr. Rogers

Single Mom Ginny has finally found love after being alone for so long. She and her daughter, Harri, move to suburban New Jersey when she marries Jeff. Ginny looks forward to meeting the neighbors, seeing her daughter make new friends, and making some new friends herself.

Welcome to the neighborhood were grown up mean girls are raising their very own mean girls.

She is thrust into the world of PTA moms, Botox, backstabbing and secret alliances. Perhaps it isn't such a beautiful day in the neighborhood after all. But Ginny has made a friend, her neighbor, and his dog.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fantastic! She really brought the story to life, and I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. This book deals with some tough subjects such as bullying, trying to fit in, unwanted sexual advances, body shaming and dieting in your girls, to name a few. But this is not a heavy book. It was a nice read/listen which also touched on mothers and daughters, being true to yourself, sticking up for yourself, finding your own community, and love.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

⭐⭐⭐/5

• women's fiction more so than contemporary romance
• relatable themes like wanting to belong
• engaging narration

There are sweet moments and relationships (mother/daughter, neighbor, friend), and some funny scenes. A couple of the characters kind of annoyed me. If you're a fan of Gilmore Girls, give this one a read!

🗣️ Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to read and review this ARC via audiobook. All opinions are honest and my own.

Ginny is a single mom who has been on her own from the very beginning. She falls in love and marries sweet Jeff, then moves into the house he shared with his ex-wife. Ginny finds out that the suburbs come with their own set of challenges; committee meetings, carpools and fundraisers - Oh My!

This is a bittersweet story of staying true to yourself when everything in your life is changing and not going the way you planned.

Ginny and her daughter Harry have the sweetest relationship that is really built out and feels genuine. They have fights, make up and grow both in their relationship with each other as well as learn about themselves in the process. Very reminiscent of the mother/daughter dynamic in Gilmore Girls.

This is definitely more women's fiction than romance. Ginny's husband Jeff leaves for Ireland shortly after Ginny moves in, leaving her to survive the neighborhood politics on her own. I would recommend this to anyone who loves the Real House Wives, slice of suburban life or parents behaving badly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was my first audiobook, and I'm pleased to report I enjoyed it. I wasn't exactly sure if I would end up loving, or even relating to, the main character, Ginny. However, as the story went along, I realized that this was not only a coming-of-age tale about Harry, Ginny's daughter, but also for Ginny as well. This book allowed us to witness a mother and daughter grow into themselves and the disasters and triumphs that come with our self-evolution as well as the twists and turns of motherhood. I enjoyed the author's take on the parts about Harry's eating disorder. As someone who has an eating disorder, it was great to see a mother character absolutely tear diets to shreds in order to protect her daughter.

I'm giving this title three stars because although it was a good book, that's all it was. It was nothing extraordinary and that's perfectly okay.

Why do I love books about ridiculous housewives? And while this book is about some ridiculous housewives it also touches on some very real stuff. Harri has a hard time fitting in at school and results in some concerning thoughts and behaviors. Ginny is a great mother and I loved all of their interactions. Jeff is sweet but gone for most of the book. I definitely thought this was more of a romance than it actually was, but loved that it turned out to be more of a mother-daughter book. Oh, and I listened to the audiobook of this and thought the narrator was wonderful!

In Welcome to the Neighborhood the reader meets Ginny, a single mom from Queens, NY, and her eleven-year-old daughter, Harri. At the start of their story, Ginny has just married Jeff and is moving into the home he previously shared with his ex-wife and their son. Shortly after moving, Jeff is called away to Ireland for work and isn’t a primary character in the storyline with the focus shifting more towards Ginny’s relationships with her new neighbors and with her daughter.

It's clear from the beginning that Ginny’s neighbors are upholding lifestyles that value wealth, status, and image. Ginny and her daughter each work through inner conflict between fitting in and compromising their own values to do so. Both have relatable moments of second guessing their intuition and eventually things come to a point where they have compromised too much and must decide what they want for their lives.

In the first half of the book, the dynamics between the characters resembled early stage bullying where it’s subtle enough to know it’s not good but not overt enough to see clearly. In the second half of the book things escalate quickly for both Ginny and Harri. While the events of the second half were more serious and this was not a light-hearted romance story, it was in this part of the book that Ginny’s character was easiest to root for. She found her footing and protected herself and her daughter, firmly and confidently.

My primary issue with the storyline was that a serious and physical crime was committed against Ginny by her neighbor, and many people in the neighborhood were not surprised. They also did nothing to prevent it from happening again to another person. They went as far as to ask Ginny if she wanted to press charges against a different neighbor for stealing her art, but they didn’t ask her if she wanted to press charges against this man.

Overall, the story was interesting, the main characters had substance, the pace was medium, and the narration was lovely. I enjoyed the book and the mother-daughter relationship at the center. Thank you to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley I was able to listen to the audiobook before it came out to the public!

Do you like watching the Real Housewives of NYC or LA? if you do maybe this is a book for you!

Do you love Gilmore Girls? then read this book!

Ginny formerly a single mother and artist from Queens, moves to New Jersey suburbia to live with her new husband. Ginny is introduced to small town catty cliques of the PTA moms and bitchy teenagers.

there's some sweet moments to balance out the ugliness of badly behaved moms.

🐓 Welcome to the Neighborhood was a fun, enjoyable “mom-com” audiobook to listen too. The narrator did a really good job making the characters come to life for me.

🐓 The book follows Ginny and her 11 year old daughter, Harri as they move from Queens, New York to the suburbs of New Jersey to start a new life.

🐓 The new neighbors are straight out of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Ginny and Harri both find themselves doing everything to fit in and trying not to loose themselves in the process.

🐓 This story has it all, family drama, noisy neighbors, love, romance, mean girls, and a chicken named Mrs. Clucklesworth.

🐓 I highly recommend this story to anyone who loves fun mom drama and mostly light hearted antics. There is one event in the book that some could find triggering.

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!

DNF at 47%

Thank you Net Galley for an audio book copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like this book is one that will feel like a warm hug to someone.

From the first page, it had a lovable little girl, Harri, who's full of energy trying to figure out where she belongs in a new town and school. It had a jolly neighbour who hot tubs and keeps our protagonist company and sane in the new neighbourhood. The new neighbourhood is filled with judgemental mean neighbours that made navigating a new life challenging for our main character Ginny. It was sweet but ultimately I was unable to finish it because of the blind-eye turned on Margos Husband.

Margo is the top mom in the neighbourhood and school. Her husband is very creepy and touches are main character inappropriately -- "he put his fingers on my breast", immediately no!! Ginny attributes/convinces herself it was an accident and doesn't tell anybody about it because she's doesn't want to create drama in the neighbour hood. This bothered me because the author goes out of her way to say if Ginny had been on the subway and this happened her would have kicked the guy because its not okay -- "if it happened anywhere else...I would have given him a good had shove, no questions asked."
This activity from Margos Husband does not stop and each time Ginny was very uncomfortable but never said anything. It was just very disappointing how this was handled. I expected more.

I simply could not continue with how uncomfortable this blind-eye to his activities occurred.

I loved this book so much! It had me hooked and experiencing every emotion. This is the story of second chances for Jenny and her daughter Harri. They were living in a cheap one bedroom apartment in Queens and then she marries Jeff who lives in an upscale suburban area. It was as if the mother daughter duo stepped onto the show of the Real House Wives. So many different changes comes with so many different challenges. Will the challenges and changes be too much for them to handle? I highly recommend reading this book to find out. The narrator did a wonderful job telling the story.

This book was such an interesting read. I really enjoyed the whole white suburbia PTA mom-styled cast. I really felt for Ginny as she and Harri adapted to their new life in the suburbs! The drama that ensues on both the side of the parents and of the young teenage girls was really well done. The handling of the topics such as eating disorders, bullying, marital issues, sexual assault (almost), it was all really well done and I was very impressed. The way that Jeff acted throughout the story made me so infuriated at certain points, I just wanted to straight-up smack him. I am glad he redeemed himself in the end. The way that Ginny has to go through everything that she does essentially alone was heartbreaking, and I couldn’t imagine doing all that on my own! This book was better than I expected and I would definitely listen to it again!

Thank you Net Galley // Dreamscape Media // Lisa Roe for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review! All of the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This is the story of a newly married mom and her highschool age daughter moving to a new town and having the most interesting welcome from the fellow townspeople.

While listening to the relationship between Ginny and Harri, I couldn't help but compare them to Lorelai and Rory from Gilmore Girls, so it was fun to imagine them while listening.

This was a mostly easy and light read, but there was a heavy topic (DM for content warning) thrown in and handled rather questionably at first but then resolved a little better at the end.

Overall, it was an easy listen and the characters were enjoyable.

Thanks so much to Dreamscape Media for the advanced listening copy of this audiobook.

3.5 stars