Common Decency is a lighthearted story about a suburban neighbourhood. It has warmth and wit and gives pause for thought about the lives and experiences of those neighbours that, on first sight, might be dismissed as caricatures. A nice cosy read, but not especially complex or memorable. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. 3.5 When I started this book I thought it was going to be too twee for me and after the first bit all I felt was sorrow for that bee! As I read on though, I almost unwillingly got invested in the story and characters. OK, the writing is a bit clunky with a lot of telling rather than showing; there is quite a bit of recapping/repetition as if the author is worried we wont remember the traits or circumstances of the characters; it is easy to guess Miranda's past and the characters and the situations are not that original. The Vince thing is obvious as soon as Fanny find s the text messages , no spoilers though. Although it is all a bit like a magazine serial there is something quite good about it, it ends well and I appreciated the epilogue. The author describes the tree very well but I think we all knew what was going to happen with the protest etc. A very small point, I was super irritated by the character having having 2 first names Nathan Luke this and Nathan Luke that.

I was given a digital ARC of this book by NetGalley. I like Tom Allen’s wit and it comes through in this book, which is a gentle tale of suburbia where local residents are working together to save a tree in the park.The plot is secondary to the character studies. These are well written but I felt they were slightly stereotypical. There are quite a lot of them too, which made me feel that I hadn’t really got to know anyone as well as I could have, although I did find myself attached to Miranda and the two newcomers to the neighbourhood, Vince and Nathan Luke, who have their reasons for having moved to this quiet spot.Overall, an enjoyable read, gently humorous, rather than laugh out loud funny.

This novel is entertaining, but I would not call it ‘hilarious’, although it's quite amusing in places, rather than outright funny. I was expecting more after reading the write-up on the book, but it reads well, with some great characters and a strong writing style. All in all, an okay read.

I wanted to love this book, and whilst there was nothing wrong with it, it just didn't quite hit the mark for me. It started well; with a bee motif, which returns at the very end - by which time I had forgotten about it because it wasn't mentioned in between. The introduction of the characters kept me reading; but then suddenly there was a lot of information about each household, and I struggled to keep all the threads in play in my head. There were some really interesting threads that were never developed, and so many questions unanswered and left to fizzle out as the narrative moved on. The passage of time was confusing too, whilst chapters were given day names and times it wasn't;t always clear when days, weeks and months had been skipped over. Some plots were too subtle to have the impact they needed and others had too much air time. As ends were tied up in the closing chapter, the epilogue really, I realised that I had enjoyed the book and was satisfied with where the characters were left, but I was sad that I hadn't got to know them better during the story. [Review copy]