The Favor is a domestic suspense debut novel which tells the story of two successful women married to equally powerful men. However, they both find themselves trapped in their seemingly perfect lives. It's not a super fast page turner and there's no necessarily any "twists" that you don't see coming. That said, I think it's a solid story that you can enjoy anyway. The subject matter is handled with compassion. Don't miss the author's note.

Check your content warnings.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for the electronic advanced copy.

This book is a fast paced thriller! Perfect for summer, beach read, vacation read or just in your own backyard! Well written, great plot and characters I genuinely cared about! Highly recommend this one!

Happy Publication Day! Nora Murphy is a debut author, but I feel like we're going to be hearing her name quite a bit. I really enjoyed The Favor. You figure out what the favor is about halfway through. Getting there is a fun ride. Even when you figure it out, the twists and turns are still fun to navigate. I loved how it ended, I just didn't love how abrupt the ending was. Also, the side storyline of the detective was a little confusing. It made me wonder if there would be another book coming out that focuses on him and his partner. Regardless, this was a great read. I loved how she took the real life problem of domestic violence and told it in a real way. It wasn't sensationalized. It's easy to look in and wonder why someone doesn't leave when they are in that position. But, to read it in this manner, you truly understand. I hope she writes more! I'd love to read whatever is next. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Favor is possibly my favorite debut of the year (at least so far). I found the similarities to Strangers on a Train (one of my favorite movies of all time) to be fascinating. I was riveted to the plot, and both McKenna and Leah are strong women caught in situations beyond their control. Nora Murphy handled the very sensitive topic of domestic violence with both accuracy and compassion.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review!

Link to 5/31/2022 Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeOfMlELzB9/

Another great debut this year which reminded me a bit of Strangers on the Train and The Girl on the Train. I got totally sucked into Leah’s and McKenna’s lives and before I knew it I read half the book in one sitting. I enjoyed the author’s writing style, the pacing was good and the characters believable. You could feel the desperation and anticipation through the pages. I literally tasted the vodka, and I don’t drink vodka 😳. There’s going to be a lot of reviews for this one so I suggest just going in blind and enjoying the story. Will definitely recommend and looking forward to her next book. TW: Domestic violence/abuse

I loved this suspense novel from debut author, Nora Murphy. The Favor has often been compared to Gone Girl which is high praise in my opinion and completely fair. The storyline is thought-provoking, and the characters though maddening are created fairly well. I was hoping for a fast-paced thriller, and was worried when the plot line started slow. The initial slow pacing ending up leading to more intrigue, and I was happily surprised when thirty percent into the story the plot quickly changed pace. I can easily say that after you get into the book The Favor becomes a “finish in one sitting type of book.” I will definitely be looking for more from Nora Murphy. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great fast-paced thriller. Part domestic abuse thriller and part psychological thriller it does an amazing job at showing the reader how easily a person can fall victim of abuse no matter position or level of education. The pacing was great and the characters were well developed. Fantastic debut and I'll be looking forward to her next one.

Wow! What an exciting thriller! This one kept me on-edge from the very beginning, all the way to the satisfying conclusion. And then to realize that this is the author's debut novel makes it even more amazing. Nice job, Nora Murphy.

The lives that these women had to live and the happenings inside their houses was gut-wrenching to witness. Sadly, it's a way of life for so many women though. So heartbreaking. How these women escape their fate will rock your world. Strangers who become something much, much more.

I absolutely loved The Favor and cannot recommend it enough! This should be a must-read for all thriller lovers. Wait until you find out what the 'favor' is.

Domestic Abuse at its Finest!

Nora Murphy will keep you turning pages long past your bedtime with her smashing debut, THE FAVOR! A winner out of the gate. I could not tear myself away from this one. A top 2022 debut, she will be an author to follow for years to come. On my list for sure. I cannot wait to see what comes next.

Two women, strangers, have more in common than they know.

Leah Dawson (former lawyer) and McKenna Hawkins (former pediatrician)— are both intelligent, well-educated, and beautiful and live in the same neighborhood in suburban Maryland.

They both live in beautiful homes, drive the best cars, and are married to well-to-do men that are ABUSIVE AND CONTROLLING! Neither have children. They are lonely and want more than anything to escape their miserable lives. They are trapped.

From their lonely trips to the liquor store, they try their best to grab a little happiness with some snacks and alcohol while trying their best to put back some money. Their husbands control their lives, phones, finances, bodies, clothes, food, and minds. They make sure they are isolated and have no friends and family.

Leah sees something in McKenna. She realizes they are in the same situation. She follows her and watches her house. She will be there for her the way she would love for someone to be there for her.

To rescue. To save.

When Leah steps in to save McKenna from harm then McKenna knows she must RETURN THE FAVOR!

Taut, exceptionally smart, addictive, and highly entertaining! I LOVED THIS ONE.

A superb character study and the author gets into the minds of her characters as they come alive on the pages. Wonderfully portrayed, the husbands reminded me of my evil, controlling ex-husband! I was glued to the pages and rooting for these women. For fans of B.A. Paris and Kimberly Belle.

I enjoyed the author's note and wealth of information and resources regarding domestic abuse and family law. The audiobook was exceptional, narrated by Dylan Moore, Leon Nixon, and Sarah Mollo-Christensen.

A special thank you to #MinotaurInfluencers, #netgalley, and #macmillanaudio for digital and audio ARCs to read, listen to, enjoy, and review.

Blog Review:
www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: May 31, 2022
My Rating: 5/5 Stars

This is a shorter and very fast paced read that will be perfect for summer reading. 

Leah and McKenna have never met when a random chance encounter starts revealing eerie similarities about their lives. It is a story of oppressive marriages and lives getting smaller and smaller.

Through the plot device of the detective’s POV assumptions about domestic violence are challenged and its occurrence in supposedly well off white collar settings is clearly addressed. Leah and McKenna are respectively a lawyer and doctor, they lead lives of visible privilege. Signs for domestic violence that are not as overt as bruises can be obscured, what does it look like to people in their social circle?
But even with this heavier topic that is handled well this is at its heart a popcorn thriller, you‘ll be captivated and turning the pages: breakneck pace, suspense, danger, and women you’ll care about.

The Favor is a thrilling, suspenseful, quick read and contains a list of resources for suspected abuse at the end as well as a thoughtful afterword which I think added to the novel.

For a first novel, Nora Murphy's The Favor is an impressive debut.

What I liked:
-It was a unique storyline. I'm not sure I've ever read anything similar.
-Very short chapters.
-I wasn't expecting a pivotal moment to happen so early on and was worried it meant the rest of the book would drag, but the level of suspense did not wane for me. I could not turn the pages fast enough.

What I didn't like:
-There was a storyline regarding a character that's comatose throughout the entire book, which ended up being completely irrelevant.
-By now, I'm used to the cleaning person always being portayed by a Latino, but when we are briefly introduced to a minor Latino character, who happens to be a cleaning lady named Maria, I felt more than just mild irritation. I wish writers would take a step back to make sure their unconscious bias isn't feeding into stereotypes. There isn't anything wrong with being a cleaning person but we have other professions as well. It also feels as if this was a way to check off a diversity quota. Latino, check. Black and Asian characters, check.

Despite my gripes, I really enjoyed this novel and it's always a pleasure to buddy read with @booknerd_4ever.

TW: murder, domestic violence, gaslighting

A very good debut of a psychological thriller! We have Leah and McKenna who have similar situations but have never met ala 'Strangers on a Train'. While the story revolves around domestic violence, there are lessons here too. Riveting read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this ARC!

Leah and McKenna - both strong, intelligent, compassionate, caring, driven women. And sadly, both victims of domestic abuse.

Leah is an attorney and McKenna a pediatrician. Both of them worked so hard to get where they are.
Both forced to quite their jobs and are trapped in their homes and in an abusive marriage. They want out, but attempting it could quite literally end up in their death and neither knows what to do.
They have a chance, brief encounter in a local liquor store, and neither knows this will change their lives forever.

Leah senses something there, and follows McKenna home. She keeps watching her discovers that McKenna lives a parallegl life to her own with a control freak husband who verbally and physically brings her down for the slightest thing. Leah has now been banished to the basement in her relationship, and fears for her own life and her mother's, as her husband has eluded to that, should she try to leave.

McKenna can't tell anyone what happens behind closed doors. To make matters worse, her husband wants a baby. He blames her for a prior miscarriage, and made her quit her job to focus on pregnancy. She secretly takes her birth control pills because she doesn't want to bring a child into this madness.

Leah sees something one day at McKenna's home that pushes her over the edge, and does something that will change the lives of both women going forward.

I don't want to give away anything else because it could spoil the story for you. But know that you will find yourself fully invested in the lives of these two women and rooting for them until the end.

I had both audio and ebook and switched between the two to finish this in record time.

Many thanks to NetGally, MacMillan Audio and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me advance copies of audio and ebook in exchange for my honest review.

What a thrilling debut novel! This one was hard to read at time because of the content, but the storyline pulled me in from the beginning and just would not let go. Touted as romantic suspense, it is so much more as it is a social commentary on the prevalence of abuse where you would least expect to encounter it. The main characters are Leah and McKenna, two young wives who live near each other in a wealthy suburb but who have never met. Unfortunately for them, they have a great deal in common. Both have given up their careers, Leah as a successful attorney and McKenna as a pediatrician. Both are married to men who are equally successful. Liam is an attorney like his wife and Zachary is a psychiatrist. These intelligent career women make some really strange choices that lead them down the path to self-destruction. And both become unwitting allies in their attempt to regain control of their lives. These ladies are empathetic characters, designed well to make me feel compassion and sometimes horror at their circumstances. Leah observes McKenna at the local liquor store and becomes obsessed with finding out more about her. What she discovers leads to a twisted plot of two woman who want out of the maze that has become their marriages, but they have no way to escape. The plot at times borders on psychological thriller but mostly remains domestic suspense. It is cleverly written and paced just right, with a slow and methodical reveal about what is really going on. The characters are fleshed out and so realistic that I wanted to reach through the page and rescue them myself. I really enjoyed the suspense that built in the book, but I was not a fan of the descriptions of violence in the homes. At times, the novel seemed to be a social commentary on domestic abuse, seeming at times to include overused and trite details. This is not to underplay the importance of people knowing about abuse and trying to help others escape the cycle. This, I think, was what kept me reading because I wanted so badly for the ladies to have a happy ending. Fans of domestic thrillers will enjoy the novel immensely as it delves deeply into the psyche of the abuser and the abused. But those who are triggered by such events will be horrified by the extent and the secrecy of it all. Brilliantly written and wonderfully thought-provoking debut novel!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

When a pediatrician, McKenna, married psychiatrist Zackary Hawkins, she was delighted with her handsome, attentive, and intelligent husband. Leah, an attorney, fell in love with an ambitious divorce and custody lawyer, Liam Dawson, and at first everything seemed to be going well. In Nora Murphy’s “The Favor,” McKenna and Leah meet by chance. Little did they know how much they had in common.

Although Murphy’s plot is not particularly original, she writes with such passion and empathy that we are swept up in the narrative and eager to discover if McKenna and Leah will extricate themselves from their respective prisons. Both Zack and Liam closely monitor and orchestrate their wives’ activities. At Zach’s insistence, McKenna quits her job; thanks to Liam, Leah is let go from hers. In addition, the two women drift away from their friends and extended families. Leah, in particular, becomes increasingly self-destructive as her home life deteriorates.

A shocking event changes everything and puts the heroines in the crosshairs of a detective who suspects that they may have colluded in the commission of a crime. The author imbues McKenna and Leah with enough intelligence and backbone to finally stand up for themselves. This taut, fast-paced, and intense novel explores provocative issues, such as: Why would a highly educated woman lose her self-esteem to such an extent that she allows her husband to torment her? This is an engrossing and riveting page-turner that has real-life implications.

A creative storyline! The pace of the story was good. Leah and McKenna lived lives that were so similar. The book clearly shows that appearances are very deceiving. The story unfolds from both ladies' perspectives. The pieces fell together well, and the ending was satisfying. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Think Strangers On A Train, 2022… Wow! Such a gripping thriller with all the psychological elements. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

The Favor is one of those books that once started you won't be able to set it down. This is intense and gripping from the first page. The story is about domestic abuse and is hard to read if you have been in this situation or know someone who has. We hear about the horrible tragedies that occur all the time in the news and it never seems to get better. This would make for a great book club discussion.

Every once in a while you need a popcorn suspense thriller to race through and I was lucky enough to have an impromptu buddy read with @a_novel_idea11 to read The Favor. It’s very reminiscent of the movie Strangers on a Train.

This book is such a quick read! Told in two points of view to start and later a third is added. Both Leah and McKenna are newlywed, professional women living in the suburbs of DC with their husbands. Both women have interesting relationships with their overbearing husbands; both are very controlling and encouraged them each to quit their prestigious jobs to be stay at home wives who cook and clean and stay fit. Leah begins to drink heavy and hide her from her husband. She’s out one day when she sees McKenna get pushed around by her husband and calls the authorities anonymously for her. A few days after this, McKenna’s husband is shot dead one night through an open window. A few weeks later, Leah’s husband is found murdered at his law office; also shot through an open window. Were these men victims of the same killer? What happens when these women are pushed too far?

I liked how easy it was to get lost in this story. Both women are in similar predicaments, but are struggling to find a solution to their situations. The men aren’t terrible in the beginning, but their constant jabs at their wives have a lasting effect on the women’s self view.

I liked how fast this book read, but there were many parts that just didn’t work for me. There’s several issues with banking and accounting that Leah is involved with and as someone who works in banking, none of the situations are realistic. I realize I might had specialized knowledge that the average reader might not have, but this was too unbelievable to me to make sense. I think if you are able to look past this, you would enjoy this book.

Thank you so much to @minotaur_books for my gifted arc. The Favor is on sale tomorrow!

The Favor is a absolutely mind-blowing book by Nora Murphy. The novel is raw and gripping. It deals with very difficult topics that will bring tears to your eyes. This may be a tough read for some because it hits close to home. Nora Murphy did a fantastic job telling the story straight from the heart.

Synopsis:
Leah and McKenna are not acquainted yet, but have much in common. On the outside they lead idyllic lives. Behind closed doors the story is quiet different. Their fake lives are dangerous and they are both trapped with no way out. Will they be able to escape?

The Favor is a 4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 read. It is a very relatable and intense book. The topics are relevant and well written. I was blown-away by Nora Murphy's plot. I can't wait to read more from her.

The Favor by Nora Murphy is available on May 31st.

Trigger Warnings: Domestic Abuse, Murder, Violence, Alcoholism

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for the jaw-dropping read! I appreciate you so much!