Pretty Little World

By: Elizabeth LaBan, Melissa DePino

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

On a cozy street in Philadelphia, three neighboring families have become the best of friends. They can't imagine life without one another - until one family outgrows their tiny row house. In a bid to stay together, a crazy idea is born: What if they tear down the walls between their homes and live together under one roof? And so an experiment begins.

Celia and Mark now have the space they need. But is this really what Celia's increasingly distant husband wants? Stephanie embraces the idea of one big, happy family, but has she considered how it may exacerbate the stark differences between her and her husband, Chris? While Hope always wanted a larger family with Leo, will caring for all the children really satisfy that need?

Behind closed doors, they strive to preserve the closeness they treasure. But when boundaries are blurred, they are forced to question their choices...and reimagine the true meaning of family.

©2017 Elizabeth LaBan and Melissa DePino (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"A skilled, funny, and highly engaging examination of family, love, and marriage...This book is a win." (Meg Mitchell Moore, author of The Admissions)

take a chance

This is another book I have been on the fence about getting based on star reviews. I am very glad I purchased,it was a great easy listen. narration was excellent and the story kept me interested!

Not an enjoyable read

I tried really hard to enjoy this book... If it hadn't been for a bookclub, I probably would have DNF'd it a few chapters in, but I made it about 70% through and just had to quit. The characters never felt like real people. It seemed like the authors picked every emotional issue/mid-life crisis that upper middle class white people go through and through them all in. All three families had children, but they were never really portrayed as individuals, just showing up when it would serve the plot. The parents all seemed very selfish, especially in regards to how they viewed their children. All of the couples had significant issues with secrets and lies before they combined houses - it just forced those issues out into the open. No one was likable, and there was a lot of internal talk about how they felt guilty about their actions, but no one seemed to try to do anything about them, or reach out for support. I'm still cringing a bit over where things had gotten within the story, and I wish I forget what I had read... Ultimately, it wasn't the communal living that ruined things for them - they just couldn't keep up their pretenses anymore and it forced things to the open earlier.

I had a hard time separating the story from the narrator, but it did seem a little slow in the pacing. I ended up speeding up the playback speed, and that seemed to help somewhat.