Peggy Lampman previously owned a specialty food store, The Back Alley Gourmet, in her college town of Ann Arbor before writing a weekly food column for the Ann Arbor News. Now she writes a food blog, dinnerfeed.com and all this led her to write two novels- The Promise Kitchen (2016) and this year's The Welcome Home Diner.

Addie and Sam, two cousins from Birmingham, Alabama, move to Detroit to open a diner. Detroit has been through some rough times, and the cousins hope to help resusitate an area of Detroit with their neighborhood diner.

They got their love of cooking from their Babcia, their Polish grandmother. She inspired them, and her photo hangs up in a corner of the diner to remind them of how they got here. Addie and Sam share a two-story house- Addie lives upstairs with her boyfriend David and they seem very happy and well-suited to each other.

Addie is the organizer and planner, she handles the ordering, and the paperwork, along with the front of the house issues. She sees a future for her and David, marriage and children, but David is happy with things the way they are.

Sam runs the kitchen, she is beautiful and a great cook and after getting out of a bad relationship in New York, she is trying to find her footing again with men. Meanwhile, she has Hero, her dog who watches over her.

The Welcome Home Diner has money issues, as most new businesses do. They don't have much money leftover after payroll and food costs, but Addie and Sam are committed to making the diner work, sacrificing much to make it successful.

They draw a decent crowd from the young professionals in the area, but they are perplexed as to why the neighborhood residents do not eat at the diner. Their prices are reasonable, the food is delicious, and there isn't another comparable restaurant in the neighborhood.

In addition, there is a person giving them bad and inaccurate Yelp reviews, a next door neighbor who is openly hostile to them, and a business vendor who is menacing them.

I loved the characters in The Welcome Home Diner. Along with Addie and Sam, they have an interesting staff- Braydon, who started with them on day one and has worked his way up to floor manager, Quiche, a cook who brings her smart young daughter Sun Beam to work with her, and Sylvia, a young woman rescued from sex traffickers whom Addie and Sam take under their wing.

Having owned a restaurant with my husband, I found The Welcome Home Diner fascinating. Lampman gets so much right, such as the stress, the hard, physical work and the comraderie of the team effort. You get a great look at the day-to-day grind of running a restaurant.

The setting of Detroit is a character as well. We get a real feel for what a once-vibrant city is now going through, the struggles of the residents to get back on their feet. Some people appreciate the efforts of newcomers investing in their city, others fear the gentrification and the strangers moving into their neighborhoods.

I recommend The Welcome Home Diner for those who like foodie fiction, and family stories mixed with serious issues and there are even some recipes at the end, like Lamb Burger Sliders with Tzatziki and Beetroot Relish, and Sylvia's Heartbreakers, which are similiar to the amazing Levain's Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, famous in NYC (and my guilty pleasure). ( )

When we lived in suburban Detroit, I organized an annual service day for my alma mater. One year we joined an organization that planted trees in the inner city. As we dug holes and planted new trees to replace those dead from disease, several people came out of their homes and questioned us about what we were doing. Most were suspicious of our motives and some wanted us to stop, at least until we mentioned that the minister of a local church had volunteered to water all the trees in hopes of helping them root and survive. It was a reaction I'd never expected to encounter. After all, we were just trying to help make their neighborhood more beautiful and replace what they had lost long ago. Trees couldn't possibly be political, could they? We moved away from Detroit in 2008 as the housing bubble was bursting in a spectacular way all across the US and so I don't know whether our trees survived or even whether the inhabitants of the neighborhood itself are still there or if they were among those so hard hit that their homes were torn down and they were displaced. What wasn't lost on me though was the idea that what one person sees as a gift of good can be seen otherwise by the people on the receiving end. This is just one of the issues addressed in Peggy Lampman's newest novel, The Welcome Home Diner but one that resonated with me for sure.

Addie and Sam Jaworski are cousins who have bought both a home and a diner in a depressed area of Detroit. They've realized their dream of refurbishing the diner and opening a restaurant focused on the cuisine that means the most to them, the foods they learned to make in childhood with their Polish Babcia and the comforting soul food of their diverse, local staff. They have a kitchen garden behind the diner to supply many of their vegetables and they use local artisans and purveyors for the rest of their supplies. Despite their outreach to the neighborhood and even as they become more successful professionally, they are avoided by the neighbors and patronized mainly by suburban hipsters, a point which continually nags at them, and which runs counter to their vision. Initially things seem to be mostly going well personally and improving professionally for the two women but there start to be cracks in their lives. Addie's boyfriend can't commit to marriage and family, two things she wants more than anything, and Sam's boyfriend has plans that could change everything for the two cousins. A troll has started posting negative and untrue comments about the diner and they are faced with threats by a shady linen company. And the cousins, who not only work together but have bought a fixer upper home together, have a relationship damaging fight. Only the community they have created around them can buoy them up and get them through all of these difficulties and more.

The narrative flips from Addie to Sam so that each woman has a voice for the reader and so that her internal thoughts and pressures can help explain all of the decisions, good and bad that she makes. Occasionally it is difficult to determine who the focus is on, especially when the character in question is ruminating over a problem both women share. Sam and Addie, although growing up under very different circumstances, both need to discover their own self-worth over the course of the novel. They are so focused on the stresses of running the diner and of their respective love lives that they either don't know or they lose sight of their own identity and truth. Their fumbling makes them feel terribly real and familiar. The secondary characters are generally a delightful bunch (although there are one or two who are more irritating and problematic than delightful). Like the city itself resurfacing from the economic disasters of the past, the secondary characters, and in many ways, Sam and Addie too, are looking for a second chance, a personal revitalization if you will. The stresses of owning a small restaurant and the difficulty of having it truly be a welcome home in the midst of a neighborhood that views them with suspicion is very well depicted here. Addie and Sam do want to be good community partners but it's not as easy and immediately appreciated as they had assumed. The novel is full of weighty plot lines, many of which are quite secondary. Lampman takes on a veritable cornucopia of issues in this novel: gentrification, sex trafficking, family, both created and chosen, race, the farm to table movement, rehabilitating convicts, second chances, and forgiveness. There is a clear love of food here with delectable passages about cooking and ingredients that will make any reader's mouth water and there are recipes at the end for any cooks looking to make their own Polish soul food fusions. There's a lot to think about in the pages of the novel and readers of women's fiction as well as foodies and those interested in the rebirth of Detroit will certainly enjoy the book. ( )

I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sam and Addie Jaworski are just two people struggling to make their diner a success. They were raised with the idea that those who can do and those who have give. And that's exactly what they're trying to do in The Welcome Home Diner by Peggy Lampman.

Sam and Addie Jaworski are cousins. Sam studied to be a chef and helps manage their restaurant's kitchen. Addie manages the restaurant and the staff. Both Sam and Addie have issues from their past that they are working through, but they are happy to be in Detroit and struggling to make a go at their business. Success seems to be difficult to attain for the cousins for a while, but they gradually begin to make a name for themselves and their business. Just when it seems as if all is bright and wonderful, Sam and Addie begin to deal with blow after blow. Their diner is trolled on the internet and an employee's daughter is part of an attempted kidnapping scheme. How much should they have to suffer in their efforts to give to a city they've come to love? When will the city begin to show them some love in return for their efforts?

I struggled to read The Welcome Home Diner, not because it wasn't a good read, it is, but because I've been dealing with severe migraine headaches and other family medical emergencies over the past few days. Being able to escape into a good book was my respite from these issues, and yes, The Welcome Home Diner was a good book to read. It was easy to become invested in Sam and Addie's lives and the lives of their friends and coworkers. I wanted them all to have success and was wishing I could sample one of their lamb burgers and Heartbreaker cookies last night. The Welcome Home Diner incorporates the basic angst of any small business owner along with the desire to give back in a meaningful way to a city that's on the edge of rising like a phoenix. The story also has family drama, interpersonal and intrapersonal drama, envy, enmity, revenge, and more. At its heart, this is a story of a hope and love. Sam and Addie love what they do and just want to share that love and joy via food. Ms. Lampman has crafted a great feel-good story with colorful characters, amazing settings, and believable action. I strongly encourage you to grab a copy of The Welcome Home Diner to read for a variety of reasons but primarily because it is a delightful feel-good story about family, friends, food, and love.

This review originally posted on 10/27/2017 at http://www.thebookdivasreads.com/2017.... ( )

Food and family equal love, and The Welcome Home Diner in Detroit definitely oozes with love.

Addie and Sam's grandmother taught them the love of and joy of making fresh food, and they both knew that opening a diner was something they were destined for.

Opening a diner in the new Detroit was a challenge, but a challenge that was proving to be very fruitful. The fresh food offered at the diner drew in the crowds along with great reviews from food bloggers. The only problem was the neighbors and specifically the next door neighbor to the restaurant.

The next door neighbor was grumpy and reluctant for the change, and the entire neighborhood was not happy about rebuilding that area.

We follow the cousins through the ups and downs of owning the restaurant as well as the ups and downs of their once-close relationship.

The descriptions were so beautifully detailed in THE WELCOME HOME DINER you could see the butter dripping down the sides of the pancakes and smell the delicious soups and sandwiches being served.

The descriptions also allowed you to experience the characters' feelings for each other, their passion for food, and for Detroit. You will also experience the kindness and love for mankind.

I enjoyed the banter between the characters and the uplifting feeling THE WELCOME HOME DINER gave off. The cover ITSELF is very welcoming.

If you are a fan of food and love, THE WELCOME HOME DINER fits the bill.

I truly enjoyed the book and the characters, but felt it could have been shortened a bit. 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the author and NetGalley in return for an honest review. I also reviewed this book for the GREAT THOUGHT'S NINJA REVIEW TEAM. ( )

MY REVIEW OF "THE WELCOME HOME DINER" BY PEGGY LAMPMAN

I appreciate some of the relevant topics in "The Welcome Home Diner" by Peggy Lampman. The genre for this novel is Women's Fiction. The story takes place in a vintage diner in a depressed area of Detroit.The author writes this in a current timeline, only going back to clarify and describe something relevant to the characters or story.

The author describes some of her characters as dysfunctional., quirky and colorful. The characters are diverse and some are complicated and complex as dictated by the circumstances. Cousins Addie and Samantha partner together to buy an old house in need of much renovation. and old diner and name it "The Welcome Home Diner" Their dream is to unify and help rebuild the depressed town in Detroit. Some of the neighbors are less than happy to see the neighborhood change. They encounter obstacles and problems.

For those of you who love great recipes, the author provides most of the recipes described in the story at the back of the book for you.

I appreciate that the author brings up topics such as human sex trafficking, kidnapping, rescue dogs, unifying and building, and integration of a community.

The author also discusses the importance of family, friendship, loyalty, love, hope and faith.

I received a copy of this ARC for my honest review. For those who love delicious food and recipes, you will appreciate this book. ( )