Name of Book: The Favor
Author: Nora Murphy~ Debut Author
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press ~ Minotaur Press
Genre: Domestic Suspense
Pub Date: May 31, 2022
My Rating: 3.5 rounded up

Leah and Liam Dawson are both Attorneys; McKenna and Zack Hawkins are both Doctors ~ they don’t know each other but it appears these beautiful highly educated couples have a lot in common.
Leah sees the signs in McKenna’s perfect husband and takes it upon herself to do McKenna a favor.
Then still without knowing each other McKenna does Leah a favor!

Personal note: I really wasn’t in the mood for another domestic violent story but the reviews from readers I trust were great.
So decide to give it a try ~Yes! It was better than expected.

Additionally I always enjoy reading the ‘Author’s Notes’ and/or “Acknowledgements”.
In this case Nora Murphy]tells us in her “Author’s Notes” that she is a lawyer and her practice is in family law and legal studies. She also tells us that domestic abuse has reached endemic level. She gives many resources for someone who is struggling with domestic abuse. Also has a resource section entitled ‘Family Relationship Advice Line’.
I applauded Ms. Murphy for added these resources so often an author tells a disturbing story and leaves readers hanging without help or support.

Want to thank NetGalley and St. Marin’s Press ~ Minotaur Press for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for May 31, 2022

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

2.5 stars. (Rounded down because I sort of feel like I wasted precious reading time on this one). I never write reviews with spoilers but being that I’m giving it such low stars I feel like I need to explain why I didn’t like it. In a nutshell it was slow, repetitive and just a stupid storyline! Two women who don’t know each other, stalk each other because they can sense they are also being abused by their spouse and then they do each other a “favor” and kill each other’s husbands without ever speaking. Just dumb! Then there are other little details, like Leah smashing a gun with a sledgehammer and throwing the pieces into the lake. I mean, can that even be done? I don’t know, maybe it can, but then why would people dispose of guns in whole if it’s that easy to crush one up?! Also, Leah with her drinking. She drank so much every day and passed out the night her husband was killed so of course she didn’t remember anything about that evening…all she knew was that she didn’t do it because she crushed up the gun she used to kill Zack. BUT yet two days after her husband was killed, she just magically stopped drinking! She didn’t need the alcohol anymore because her husband was dead. I kinda think if you’ve become an alcoholic over the past year, it wouldn’t be so easy to just quit drinking over night. Just so many eye rolling moments. And probably one of the slowest and most repetitive books I’ve ever read. I also didn’t like any of the characters. Not even the detective. They were all just meh. Sadly, this was a huge miss for me and I don’t recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

McKenna, a pediatrician, is married to Zack, a successful psychiatrist. Leah, a practicing lawyer, is married to Liam, a successful divorce attorney. Both men are handsome and expect a trophy wife. Once married, they become abusive and controlling. They force their wives to quit their jobs and disengage from their friends.
This book centers around domestic abuse and shows how hard it is to get out of a terrible, fearful marriage. It also shows how abuse occurs even with smart, educated women. I loved the detective and how hard he worked to solve his cases. It was interesting to see how much those around McKenna and Leah knew about their lives without them mentioning anything. This book certainly had intrigue and kept the reader wondering what would happen. I did not like the going back and forth in time in both lives. It made the book a little harder to follow.

4.5 STAR READ, ROUDNING UP TO 5 STARS!

We were guilty. But we were also victims. We were survivors.

Do you ever come across a book that truly does hook you from the first page? This was totally that kind of book for me! I enjoyed how the author took two main characters, McKenna and Leah, who were strangers, but had such similar lives, and linked them together to get through some experiences they were both going through. McKenna and Leah first run into each other on a Friday afternoon while picking up some spirits for the weekend, not knowing they would ever see more of each other over the next few weeks. What happens over the next few hundred pages is NOT what I was expecting, but boy did it keep me engaged fully.

This book was so suspenseful and I literally could not put it down, even in some of the parts that were tough to read (TW: domestic violence/coercive control). As a lover of people watching myself, I feel like I always wonder about people. This book gave me just that....what goes on behind closed doors and how different it could look from the outside vs. the inside! I will leave it using a quote from the book "Perhaps these women had committed the prefect crimes. Perhaps these men were better off dead. When we didn't know who did it? We kept looking. We never gave up. When we knew who did it, but we knew we couldn't prove it? To keep trying was pointless."

This is definitely a book I would recommend to all! Thank you Nora Murphy, NetGalley & Minotaur Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book for an honest review!

Reminiscent of Strangers on a Train, we get a gripping domestic suspense following a "favor". This book shows some of the different sides of spousal abuse, from the psychological to the physical, and feels authentic. It's less of a mystery or thriller, as the audience is in on it the entire time, but still manages to have surprises. I liked Leah and McKenna's perspectives, but thought it was weird when we started getting Jordan's as well. It shifted from suspense to police procedural and kind of slowed down the pacing. Overall I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to get into thrillers (but may be a scaredy-cat) or fans of Alfred Hitchcock.

*Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

The Favor by Nora Murphy

Many women—those we know from school or church or work—seem to have bright and shiny marriages. Picture-perfect. Enviable. At least, that's how they appear for the world to see.

But behind closed doors, these intelligent women are trapped by controlling men who manipulate every aspect of their lives.

Why don't they leave their spouses? If they do, their charming, successful, attractive, well-respected husbands promise threats. And the men are unhinged enough to follow through.

Leah and Mckenna lead parallel lives in this domestic suspense novel with short chapters and good pacing. They don't know each other. Neither can leave the locked lives their husbands have imprisoned them in.

So, they take matters into their own hands.

Leah and McKenna are living the same life and only a couple streets away from one another. They both were highly educated successful women in abusive marriages. Both husbands Liam and Zack controlled the women is so many ways, money, relationships with friends and family and mental for sure. I wanted to scream when I read the part that Liam told Leah she needed to exercise, drop the weight and she could come back to his bedroom! I couldn’t put this book down and I definitely want to see what the author Nora Murphy writes next.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I wish I could read a positive review about The Favor, but I just can't. I found this "thriller" to be so unrealistic and repetitive that I could not wait to be finished with it. The characters were shallow. All I seemed to read about was alcohol and liquor stores, and I was just done. 2 stars. I may be in the minority, but this book just was not for me.

This was an intense read about two high paid women who are trapped with men that start to control and abuse them. I really enjoyed this raw, intense book. Murphy is an incredible writer who knows how to grip your feelings and give you all the feels. I'm telling you that everything that was happening in the book, I could feel in my own body. This book was fast paced and kept you thrilled. The chapters are also short so it feels like you are finishing the book quicker because I read this book in two days. The only problem that I kind of had was that I think the alternating pov could have been better or clearer because sometimes it would get a bit confusing.

The main characters in this book are McKenna and Leah. Both women are facing relationship issues and have/had high paying jobs; one a doctor the other a lawyer. Their stories show how even though they have amazing jobs, they too faced abusive relationships. They have great character development and I enjoyed reading their stories. There is a third pov who is the detective and I enjoyed his involvement too with the murder mystery. There are some side characters in this book, some whom you can guess and would prefer they disappear. There is kissing in this book but not the romance type but more they had to.

The ending was very well done and I enjoyed this book. It was such an amazing read and I'm so glad to have read this book. Usually when it comes to abusive topics, I tend to skip it but this one caught my eye because of how good the summary sounded. Murphy is a great plotter and an amazing writer. I totally recommend this to fans of thriller/mystery books.

The Favor by Nora Murphy #jaylammreviews

Leah and McKenna have never met, though they are leading parallel lives. Their perfect husbands are not what they seem...

Whew, this was a good one! This had me flipping through the pages like a mad woman and staying up way past my bedtime. I love a fast paced thrill and this fits the bill!

What I loved about this book was the structure- short chapters and each chapter leaving you wanting more. This was told through alternating perspectives of the two main characters, Leah and McKenna. There were times where we would reread a scene so we could get the other woman's perspective..sounds repetitive right? Wrong, this was so well done. I was dying to know what was happening with the other woman during certain times.

There were a few times that I had to put down the book and say "whoa, did I read that right?" I love reading experiences like this.

This book is about domestic violence, please be aware of that going in.

This debut novel by Nora Murphy is out May 31st.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this incredible arc!!!

Wow! This was so intense! Exactly what I want out of a revenge-like thriller which is what this basically is.

Two women, absolutely controlled by their husband's, are able to somewhat help each other in the most fierce way possible. Their husband's look great to the outside world, like so many abusers do. And, when I speak of abusers, it's with the knowledge that anybody, any gender, any person, can be an abuser. And, abuse can come in many forms. In this case, it is control. These women live such similar lives and really do not know each other. However, that does not stop them from seeing each other's common reality and taking steps to stop it from happening.

I definitely recommend this one!

Out May 31st!

TW for abusive situations, death and alcohol abuse.

I have tried to read this book since last month,. Im not sure what it is but Im just confused and i dont think its for me.

Even though I had an idea as to where the storyline was going, I was intrigued by the parallel lives of Leah and McKenna. It was extremely difficult to read about the abuse they received from their husbands. I wanted to save both of them from their prisons of loneliness and darkness. Losing yourself in alcohol seemed like a drastic way for Leah to deal with her husband and it was hard for me to see her drink to excess. There appeared to be no way out for either of them until the favor.

When Leah first saw Mckenna (before she knew who she was), she reminded her of her younger self, well dressed and confident with the world at her fingertips. Leah missed that person and she hoped that Mckenna was living a wonderful life, free of ridicule and control, but wishes rarely do come true. It was as if Leah and Mckenna were telling each other; “I will set you free from your pain and suffering, then your life will finally be your own.”

I was invested in these characters from the first page as I followed their movements around the small town, through their neighborhoods and back to their houses of horror. Leah and Mckenna surprised me, shocked me and showed me that everything is never how it seems. I felt bad for the detective because even though he worked on the case day and night, it was hard to find the clues that he really needed. This is a creative and thought-provoking debut domestic thriller from Ms. Murphy and I look forward to what she has in store for us next.

Don't Get Your Roses In A Bunch! 😳😯😳🤯

Wow! Wholy Cannoli! Geez let me take a breath! Well, this was an excellent plot and definitely a unique storyline that I totally enjoyed. Murphy kept upping the anti with every chapter that kept you on the edge of your seat and worrying about each character. The suspense is plenty in this novel and keeps you interested & curious needing to know what's next. Even if there's parts you could foresee, that didn't take away from it at all! Genius!
Leah and McKenna lead two very separate lives in different ways, but they share one common issue. Yes, they're both married to successful husbands. Yes, they both had fantastic, high-end carriers. Yes, they don't have children. & yes, they're both have wealth in their family. But what they share most is being micro-managed & confined by their husbands. After an errand where Leah runs into McKenna and sees something in her & her life, Leah knows all too well what she sees and suspects. And before either one knows it, they'll meet by intervention.
For a debut novel, this was crazy good! The writing, the flow, each character point-of-view was well done. The difficult topics of spousal abuse & how it isn't so easy. Murphy clearly did her research & executed seamlessly. What a crazy ride that was filled with lots of gasps! Adored this gem.

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for this ARC.
Release Date: May 31, 2022

🔴 Trigger Warnings: Domestic Abuse, Alcoholism

I give this 4 / 5 Lily's! 🪷

II really liked this book; the characters, the plot, and especially the ending. McKenna and Leah are smart, efficient and have good jobs. They do not know each other, but live parallel lives and randomly don't live far apart. This is a story of survival, outwitting, and determination. Great story. Thank you @NetGalley@MinotaurBooks@TheFavor

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. I loved this book. It is similar to “Strangers On a Train” with interesting twists and incredible back stories. Of course the characters are flawed - that is part of what makes the whole book more intriguing! There are heart-breaking situations that make these characters even more vulnerable. I totally recommend this book to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with unpredictable outcomes. I could not guess how this whole, mixed-up story would end!

3.5/5



I was drawn to the premise of this one, it was intriguing to me. 👇🏻

Synopsis: Staying is dangerous. Leaving could be worse.

Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.

They don’t—ever—find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop. They don’t—ever—discuss their problems and find common ground. They don’t—ever—acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.

Because Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be more dangerous than what’s outside. Driving past McKenna’s house one night, she sees what she knows only too well herself from her own marriage: McKenna’s “perfect” husband is not what he seems. She decides to keep an eye out for McKenna, until one night, she intervenes.

Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.

So two women both in dangerous situations so there are major triggers for domestic violence here. I emphasized with Leah and McKenna even though parts of their situation required the suspension of disbelief. That part didn’t really bother me as I was invested in their personal stories but I did have some other issues. Parts of it felt repetitive, there were scenes with each women separately but both would be internally thinking in very similar ways so that got a little boring. Then a detective is introduced about halfway in and his chapters obviously gave it a police procedural feeling, not bad just unexpected for me. As he was working cases he tended to repeat himself quite a bit so those two aspects made the book feel a little too repetitive for me. I can’t say I’m upset I read this though, there was something compelling here and the author is a solid writer, just a few minor issues for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thanks to the tagged partners for my copy.

This domestic suspense thriller was thoroughly gripping! Leah Dawson and McKenna Hawkins are both successful women who have never met but live parallel lives. Driving past McKenna’s house one night, Leah sees what she knows only too well herself from her own marriage: McKenna’s “perfect” husband is not what he seems. She decides to keep an eye out for McKenna, until one night, she intervenes.
I feel incredibly blown away that this is Murphy's debut novel. The characters are developed very well and the suspense and mystery are on-point. Highly recommend!









Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy.

I'm still having a hard time believing this was a debut novel. It was so well written and developed, I will absolutely be reading anything this author writes in the future. I love that we have no idea what the major plot is going to be based on the synopsis, it adds so much to the reading experience.
I was a huge fan of the multiple points of views and time lines. Our main characters had so much in common, and I was rooting for both of them throughout the whole book. I really felt like we got to know the both so well.
If you are looking for a solid read with a bunch of twists and heart pounding moments, look no further. This is both very character and plot driven, which gives you the best of both worlds.

Holy crap this is good! A domestic thriller, this story kept me on the edge of my seat. Literally.
Two women, living mirrored lives. They are beautiful. Educated. Successful. They live in beautiful houses and are married to handsome and prosperous men. Who would not want to be them????
No one. Because these two women, who have never met, are eerily connected. They both have become prisoners in their own home. Cut off from their friends, their family, their careers; they have become subservient to spouses who want the perfect wife. Manipulative and jealous husbands who insist their wives’ lives revolve around them, and ONLY them.
I love a good thriller, and this one is excellent. The premise is brilliant; two women who suddenly become connected in a moment of violence. And a favor, meant to save one, may put the other in even more danger. Will either of them survive the outcome?
I LOVED THIS STORY. Nora Murphy’s take on the domestic thriller is fresh and inventive. I found myself connecting with the characters immediately, following them as they followed each other. I empathized with Leah, sneaking off to different liquor stores so no one store clerk will realize how much she drinks in one day. I sympathize with McKenna, whose husband spiralizes into a rage when she ingests wine and kettle chips while visiting with friends. How dare she violate her body, the vessel that will eventually carry his perfect child…
Nora Murphy has crafted an exciting and imaginative novel. As a debut work, it is incredibly well-written. I have already started talking to my friends and family about this book and am looking forward to sharing it on my blog come publishing date. My congratulations to Ms. Murphy on a work well done.
Thank you again to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for allowing me early access to this novel. Absolutely one of my favorites so far this year. Am looking forward to reading more works from this author.