The story begins with Lily Greene, a shy bookworm who works in non-fiction but dreams of being a children’s book editor, starting an email correspondence with her favourite fantasy author N. R. Strickland. After months of intimate email exchanges, “Strick” suddenly ghosts Lily. Sometime later, Lily desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding and, after witnessing his matchmaking skills in action, enlists the help of her handsome neighbour Nick…who’s secretly a fantasy author with the pen name N. R. Strickland. The Neighbor Favor is a contemporary adult rom com featuring the pen pals/ secret identity, “friends to lovers”, and forced proximity tropes. I would highly recommend The Neighbor Favor to fans of “books about books” such as By the Book by Jasmine Guillory, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, Booked for the Holidays by Chelsea Curto, or Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. Some themes present in The Neighbor Favor include communication, companionship, escapism, empowerment, family, fear of failure, love and heartbreak, isolation, and overcoming fears. Some trigger warnings include cheating, toxic relationships, death of a partner (in the past), and absentee parents.
The biggest downfall for me was that The Neighbor Favor was very slow to start and hard to get into seeing as the first forth of the novel consisted of Lily and Strick’s email exchanges; I felt like the email section should have been shorter and I felt like I had to wait too long to get into the main action of the story. Overall, the plot wasn’t really what I was expecting…the plot was unrealistic, almost Hallmark-y (but with some spice), and not very action-packed. Lastly, I didn’t really like the miscommunication/ secret identity plotline; there was almost a sense of impending doom while I was reading as I kept on waiting for the inevitable fallout that would accompany Lily discovering Nick’s secret.
I’m not sure if it’s been announced yet but, at the end of my copy of The Neighbor Favor, there was a sneak-peek at Lily’s sister Violet’s story so I assume that there will be at least 2 more installments of this series (one for each of Lily’s sisters). If you’re a bookworm, enjoy “books about books”, and have always fantasized about befriending your favourite author, then you should definitely check-out The Neighbor Favor.
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February 2024
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