This was a great read. I loved the cast of characters! Would love to have dinner with the whole extended family.

If you were following us in 2018, you might remember just how much I loved Limelight. Well, Amy Poeppel's recent release, The Sweet Spot, is on par with Limelight's greatness. I had such a fun time reading it and felt like I was breezing through the story as it was so entertaining. I enjoyed all the different perspectives throughout, especially those of the three main characters: Lauren, Olivia, and Melinda.

Lauren was the most relatable for me, as we're probably close in age, have two sons and a daughter, and our houses are always in some stage of chaos. (Although I don't have any pets.) I felt like Amy was listening in on conversations I've had with my mother, as the dialogue was that spot-on between Lauren and Evelyn. Melinda grated on me at first, even though I felt bad for her. Taking her situation out on Lauren bothered me though. I did find her revenge tactics amusing and somewhat creative and I wish I could sic her on a certain friend's ex-husband. I liked Olivia a lot and felt like she was easy to connect with, even with the twenty years age difference between us. I hated what happened to her as part of Melinda's revenge plot and I love how she found her place with Lauren's family.

I didn't know that I'd want to read Russell's perspective, but it did clear some things up in the story and I enjoyed seeing how things were going for him given what he did to Melinda. I also didn't think I would like Evelyn all that much but she changed throughout the story and became so wonderful. I love how New York City is the backdrop, and how Amy really captures the feel of the city without having to overly describe it.

My only concern is that I felt the baby situation was introduced so late into the story. It was around the halfway point. I wish there had been more time to work with that situation and really explore it more. I also would have liked another chapter with Felicity's perspective aside from the prologue and epilogue. Having said that, none of these concerns took away from my overall enjoyment.

I've been recommending The Sweet Spot even while just in the early chapters, it's that well-written and engaging. Do yourself a favor and pick up this feel-good read!

Movie casting suggestions:
Lauren: Sarah Wayne Callies
Melinda: Lauren Graham
Olivia: Grace Caroline Currey
Russell: Pierce Brosnan
Felicity: Felicity Jones
Dan: Mark Ruffalo
Leo: Rob Delaney
Phillip: Richard Chamberlain
Evelyn: Susan Sullivan

This book reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Three Men and a Baby. What a joy this book was! The characters (I particularly related to Olivia) were charming, chaotic and memorable. This is a book I will not soon forget and recommend to my friends!

I absolutely adored this book. Amy Poeppel has always had a knack for writing feel good books that aren't too saccharine, and JUST edgy enough that you never get sick of the characters or any happy endings that occur. The Sweet Spot is no exception. If anything (insert sweet spot pun here) :)

The ultimate example of "it takes a village," the village that Poeppel assembles here is eclectic, diverse and most importantly, a ton of fun. Characters you are certain you hate on page 1 become your absolute favorites by page 100. All in the name of raising a baby that doesn't belong to any of them.

Melinda, Lauren and Olivia bring their support teams together to create a bizarre, loving, incredibly caring family, and by the end of this book, you'll be rooting for every single one of them.

The theme of the book is in its epigraph, a quote supposedly from Thomas Mann.

" The sweet spot is where duty and delight converge."

I read the book twice and laughed out loud both times. I consider Amy Poeppel a comic genius for her humor in writing as well as for her intricate plotting, colorful characters, and their coincidental and often hilarious interactions with each other.

Take the young couple, Lauren the ceramist and Leo the teacher, who were just given a huge brownstone in Greenwich Village, NYC to live in, thanks to a peripatetic father, Phillip. With their three young children, the couple live happily in the rundown building over a loud basement bar named The Sweet Spot, owned by Dan.

Phillip, Leo's father, and Evelyn, Lauren's mother visit the house, Phillip to stay and Evelyn to decide on a daily basis whether to go or stay. They all cohabit rather messily but lovingly, while dealing with the problem of other characters - Melissa and Felicity and Russell and their new baby. Plus, there is Bumper, a large messy stray dog that they took in.

Melissa is out for revenge on everyone, targeting Lauren and her boss Felicity. Her antics are mind bogglingly nasty but nevertheless very funny, even when they cause a lot of grief for the others.

A whirlwind of characters, interacting in very comedic ways. I loved laughing while reading. I recommend this book for anyone looking for a read and a good laugh.

I wish I could go back in time and read this book again for the first time. I LOVED it and took my time reading so I could fully enjoy the ride. I was quickly drawn in to this quirky story and wish I could go hang out at the Sweet Spot with the characters. This book has great messages that I would love to discuss with friends or students. It was a fun, heartwarming read that I will think of fondly. I plan to purchase a hardback copy so that I can lend to friends and keep on my shelf when we one day have a beach house. This book is an easy 5 star for me!

It's not you, it's me. And this time I now it's definitely me because a lot of folks truly enjoyed this book from start to finish. I wish I was one of them. Don't get me wrong - this book is well written, the opening chapter is so fun and captivating, and the ensemble cast have such big personalities that I wish I could see this on the big screen too.

It's just that 40% into this book and I started to get lost on what was happening. The cast of characters in this book all have huge personalities which is awesome and something I typically love in books. In this book I started getting confused because it started to feel like there was too many characters and too many things were happening at once. What started off funny and quirky slowly became confusing and a big question mark. I love the found family vibes of it all, but I was starting to get annoyed at the feeling that there was no clear direction the story was headed towards. It started to feel all over the place and that just didn't work for me in the long run.

I want to give this another shot when I feel less overwhelmed at the sheer chaos of everything going on in the second half of the book.

However, I do think this is a great story about friendships and finding those people that just fit right with you. Reading stories that delve into platonic love more than romantic love are important and must be treasured more.

A huge thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this eARC!

This book was a delight. It had the most wonderful cast of characters who developed well as the story went on. It made me want to be part of their rag-tag bunch.

I’m not going to lie, I thought about DNFing this book when I got to Melinda’s first chapter. I could not STAND this woman. And don’t get me wrong, she was kind of insufferable the entire way through the book, but eventually she got a redemption arc so don’t give up after her first section! I promise it gets better!

However, I LOVED Lauren and Olivia’s sections of this book. They were both fantastic characters who were so wholly unique and I really enjoyed reading about their lives. I though the author did a fantastic job of linking each one of these women to one another through Felicity in some kind of way. Its not something I was expecting and it made the story all the more “sweet” (if you will 😉). I also have to say that the secondary characters absolutely CARRIED this book! Without Waverly, Evelyn and Dan I think this book would not have been nearly as lovely as it was!

Needless to say - Felicity is a trash human and I was infuriated by what she did in this book, iykyk…!

Overall, this book was fun and unique and led to several different levels of personal growth and redemption arcs that were lovely! It wraps up with a beautiful little bow and if that’s your jam, then this is the book for you!

⚠️TW: infidelity, child abandonment

Thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review! All of the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I enjoy Poeppel's writing and THE SWEET SPOT was well-written. I had a hard time with Melinda. It was so hateful at the very beginning and over the top that I didn't find the reading experience enjoyable and had to put it down. However, I had a few really good reader friends that loved this book and encouraged me to continue. I'm glad that I gave it another try. While I still thought some of the characters were a bit much, I did appreciate Lauren, Leo, and their whole family of great characters. Evelyn and Phillip are really well defined and the journey to understanding them was fantastic. Evelyn's storyline was actually my favorite. I came to understand Melinda and what her triggers were which made me go back and re-read the section that triggered me! I liked how the novel ended and I laughed quite a bit throughout. I'm not going to go out and buy a cockroach teapot any time soon but I will continue to read anything that Poeppel puts out into the world.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a cute, endearing book. I liked that it wasn't a romance book but had the cute components. The different connecting storylines were fun to follow along with, as well.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel.

I remember very clearly reading Poeppel's Musical Chairs and just gushing over it, I loved it so much. So I snagged this as quick as I could the minute I saw it. Disappointed! And I'm so bummed, because I had such high hopes.

My biggest beef, it was just way too overdone. I could not get behind how over the top everyone acted. An older woman going out of her way to sabotage people logically did nothing to her, too much. The same woman helping to raise the child of her ex-husband's mistress, nope, not buying it. I think she took what could have been a really interesting story and just completely cartoonized it. It was not for me.

I'm still here for Poeppel! This one just wasn't for me.

Omg y’all!! This was such the pleasant surprise!! I had an eARC of this one, but went with the audiobook and I LOVED it! There’s a full cast which I always love in an audiobook and there were different aspects of the storyline that was all woven together. And I loved ALL the characters! I mean there where times when I wasn’t sure of some of them but they won me over in the end. Definitely add this one to your tbr!!

This story includes a large quirky cast of characters that all overlap in amusing ways. The wackiness was just the right touch of fun but there was still a lot of heart to the story. The cover gives you the impression of pure light heartedness but this is actually a really smartly written book that I enjoyed and highly recommend.

Amy Poeppel has such a wonderful way of writing about a ragtag group of people/family that just wraps you up in a warm hug. The gang in The Sweet Spot is quite the diverse group who draw closer around a baby that is not even theirs.

Leo and Lauren are living in the brownstone that belongs to Leo's father and late mother. It is stuck in the past and is the same as when his mother lived there. It is in shambles but they love it. When Lauren gets a big commission for a specialty store, things change for everyone. Her mother comes to town, they have a sticky relationship. She needs a babysitter and while all this is happening, a woman , Melinda blames her for the demise of her marriage because of something she said to Felicity, the woman hiring Lauren for her store and also the woman who has a baby with Melinda's husband. (The aforementioned baby) Melinda makes it her job to ruin Lauren and anyone else involved with Felicity. I don't want to give anything away but the babysitter also comes into play.

In all of this, there is a bar on the bottom floor of the brownstone, The Sweet Spot, run by Dan who also gets entangled with Melinda. I disliked Melinda for quite a while but you will end up liking her as much as all the others as they all open up and adapt to this new way of life.

I loved everything about the story and everything about the characters, even if it took a while for some of them. That is the brilliance of Ms. Poeppel. You will never be disappointed in her books.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy for review.

What a delight! THE SWEET SPOT is the latest novel by the wonderful Amy Poeppel, whose other work I have adored. I was beyond thrilled to receive an ARC of this novel from NetGalley and Atria Books, Atria/Emily Bestler Books in exchange for my honest review.

THE SWEET SPOT features many complicated, lovable characters whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. Lauren and Leo, struggling to make time for all the exciting things in their careers while raising three precocious kids and a sweet pup. Olivia, figuring out her career and love life after losing a job and breaking up with her immature boyfriend. Melinda and Russell and Felicity, long-married couple and the woman who gets in the middle. And, my favorite character, widowed Evelyn who arrives in Greenwich Village to help her daughter, Lauren, and ends up getting more than she bargained for. I loved all of these characters and so enjoyed the ways they came to interact, to care for one another, and to grow.

I highly recommend this sweet, joyful, romantic story about love, family, redemption, second changes, and fresh starts, to all, particularly fans of Poeppel's previous work!

I adored this new book by Amy Poeppel about how unlikely acquaintances come together despite their differences to help when there is a need. It also touches on what a small world we live in and how sometimes we have to look past our differences to figure out what's best.

Loved this sweet story of community coming together to support each other! I really liked with women in this book and the personal journeys they each went on to find their own "Sweet Spots"!

THE SWEET SPOT is absolutely bonkers bananas, and I loved it. Amy Poeppel writes in an almost unclassifiable genre. The things that happen to her characters are things that would (most likely) never happen in real life, but she makes them real and jump off the page. This novel could easily be transferred directly to the Broadway stage as a farcical play. The decisions the characters make are chaotic and hilarious, and while this isn't a literary masterpiece, it sure is fun. Set in the contemporary West Village, a convergence of women into one another's lives happens due to a series of events that brings them together and eventually, forces them to take care of a baby. It's fun to just dive in and see where the story takes you. There's also a great dog, a fantastic brownstone, a cute pub, and some twists that will leave you both cringing and laughing out loud.

Wow, okay I went into this book not expecting it to be this good! We find these women whose life intersects with each other in surprising and sometimes unwelcoming ways. I kept getting 90s sitcom vibes in the best way! Lauren is an artist who works with pottery and is married to Leo who is an eccentric professor. They all move into a brownstone in Newyork with the kids and a dog. Things kept happening in this book that made me laugh. Imagine Full House & Family Matters combined but focused more on the adults. The Sweet Spot is the name of the bar downstairs, and also where the characters eventually find themselves in.