Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot. And I even recommend against reading the synopsis of you want to avoid all spoilers. So this review will be a bit different format from my usual, as I avoid even an inkling of synopsis.

I really loved that Part 1 was told through emails. They were fast and fascinating, especially paying attention to the date/time stamps.

Although at times I was quite frustrated by the main characters, I came to love them. Even when most disappointed in their choices, I still really enjoyed the story. I found it fascinating and kept wanting to read more. And I loved the character growth

I also enjoyed the steam and all the references to literature, publishing, and the importance of diversity in both.

What a delightful romance! Lily is a big reader, and one day she sends an email to one of her favorite authors. To her surprise, he answers, and they begin a months-long flirtation. But Nick (who she knows under a pseudonym) breaks it off on the day they were planning on having their first video chat and they don't write again. Another few months later and he's living in NYC... in her building... on her floor. Lily is trying hard to boost her confidence after her catfishing experience, so she pursues Nick. But when he realizes she's the same woman he hurt, he knows he can't be with her. They strike a romance novel bargain: they'll be "just friends" while he helps teach her how to flirt so she can find a date for her sister's wedding. You can probably guess what happens from there - but of course, it's how the end up at the HEA that we love to read.

Kristina Forest's first adult romance isn't just a love story between two adults. It's also an homage to all of the BIPOC SFF authors out there who are finally getting their deserved places in the sun. Lily and Nick bond over their shared love of N.K. Jemisin, R.F. Kuang, Amal El-Mohtar, Tochi Onybuchi, and more. (In fact, they both love Elena Masterson so much that we went to our library and started looking up her Dragons of Blood series before we realized that she doesn't actually exist.) A defense of SFF in an adult romance? Yes, please!

The Neighbor Favor also avoids some common pitfalls of romance. There are a few minor spoilers to follow! Yes, Nick is hiding their previous virtual relationship from Lily, but before he gets serious with her, he comes clean. In other words, the major conflict of the novel isn't that he started a relationship with her under false pretenses. This was such a breath of fresh air! Also, Forest avoids the dreaded third act breakup and still gets the reader an emotional payoff in the form of a public grand gesture. And finally, when part of the resolution is that the MMC starts going to therapy - WE STAN.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

Quite possibly the most enjoyable read I have had so far this year, if not in months, The Neighbor Favor stole my heart from the start. It has a dash of You've Got Mail vibes, but it takes that trope and expands upon it in the best possible way. A good portion of the book is dedicated to the main couple's emails back and forth, and while I would normally be skeptical of this style of intro, it worked so well. The reader can clearly feel the chemistry between them, and their personalities absolutely shine. I instantly started smiling as I read them banter back and forth, and I would worry when time passed between emails. Once the story shot forward to the real world, I was invested wholeheartedly. I needed this couple to find each other like I needed air to breathe. Their love story felt timeless from the start. I have been looking for a romance story styled similarly to You've Got Mail, and every book until now has failed to capture what I loved most about that story. The innocence of getting to know someone without seeing them in person. The joy of realizing that the one person you're close to the most in the world is also the person who sparked your joy through the written word. It's a special sort of feeling. Kristina Forest captured it perfectly.

Lily Greene is a hopeless mess according to her family, where a Greene must be successful in all things or die trying. Well, that is probably too literal, but some days Lily felt that all she could do was disappoint them. Stuck in a job with an ungrateful boss, she dreams of being part of a children's book publishing company, where she could help tell stories of Black children and the adventures they get into in fantasy worlds. One of her favorite books features Black elves, written by an author who wrote one book and then disappeared. When she finds his new website, she impulsively emails him, and thus begins an exchange of banter that soon becomes something much more intimate. However, when they begin to plan a meeting in person, he suddenly disappears, and Lily must accept the fact that she's been ghosted. Nick Brown had no intention of doing anything but sending one email to Lily. No one knew his true identity, only his pen name, so what harm could one email do? But when the emails turn into a genuine relationship, he gets scared, and cuts things off for good. Only the universe isn't done with him. When he moves to NYC to work on publishing his second book, he gets feelings for his next door neighbor...who he soon realizes is Lily. He knows, she doesn't, and he wants to keep it that way. Keeping his distance, though, is easier said than done. And what will happen once she finds out who he really is?

Okay, that was a much longer story blurb than I normally write, but I can't help but gush about this book. Lily and Nick were so relatable and genuine, and I felt connected to them like they were family. Lily was unlucky in love, constantly going out on dates set up by her sisters with men who were not her type at all. Her only real connection was with a man she met online, who turns out to be Nick, who also happens to be her favorite fantasy author. Her life is a mess by anyone's standards. Before she finds out that Nick is also the author, their relationship blossoms. Nick tries to keep his distance, knowing they can't be a couple as long as the truth stands between them. But he's too stubborn and scared to reveal his true self to her. Suffering from childhood trauma, he doesn't believe himself worthy of her, and he even tries to convince her of that. Thankfully, our sweet, shy Lily becomes a lioness towards the end of the book, showing her true strength and courage in front of the cowardly lion that is Nick. Don't get me wrong, I loved Nick and wanted to give him a big hug. But the boy was a runner. I wanted to shake him. Several times. Ultimately, though, their love was so pure and warm. I wanted to wrap myself up in this book and never leave.

This was Kristina Forest's first adult romance novel, and she knocked it out of the park. I can't express my excitement enough about her next book. I need it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I read a YA book by Kristina Forest last year, and really enjoyed it. So, I was hyped to hear she was releasing an adult romance, The Neighbor Favor. And while transitioning from YA to adult can be hit-or-miss, Forest managed it with ease, and with a trope that can often be hard to pull off, even for veteran romance writers.
I love how Lily and Nick bond over emails she sent to his mostly defunct author email, and what started as an author/fan interaction quickly turned into something more. It perfectly replicates the vulnerability readers and authors have in being able to share parts of themselves online, even if it is from a different angle than I’ve personally experienced. And the way that translates to their real life encounters, with her being burned both when he ghosts her and later when she finds out the truth, and him struggling when he finds out who his new neighbor is, I truly felt the tension.
Nick has believable reasons for initially wanting to keep his identity private, related to his relationship with his father. And while I did sometimes question how he could let things go on for as long as they did with Lily in the dark, I also understood his own insecurities and fears. The narrative also gave him enough time after his reveal to prove his genuineness to Lily, as well as begin the road to healing, which helped massively.
As for Lily, I really liked how her own struggles to measure up within her family were rendered. She’s an editor for nonfiction, but she desperately wants to break into children’s publishing. She also faces a lot of pressure from her family to compete with her sisters with regards to both her job and her love life.
With both protagonists in the book industry in some capacity, there’s a lot of book talk. It’s mostly fantasy genre oriented, but there are a lot of familiar industry issues, from the more serious, like the struggles publishing professionals deal with, to the more mundane, like why every fantasy by a woman is miscategorized by YA.
This is a charming first adult romance, and if the excerpt at the end is any indication, it’s hopefully the first of many for Forest. If you’re looking for a fun bookish Black romance, I recommend checking this out! out!

‘The Neighbor Favor’ is really cute, very much an adult romance though at times it can feel a little young adult. Our main characters Lily and Nick are so likable individually and together. They’re perfectly nerdy in their own ways and their shared love of fantasy novels gives us such nice bonding moments between them. They really fit together. The side characters made up of friends, family and coworkers are in turns funny, sweet and vaguely villainous, all perfect in a romance novel.

What keeps this at a 3 star is the pen-pal premise and execution. It just didn’t fit with the rest of the story. It was very info-dumpy, shoehorning in a lot of information I think would have been better given spread out or removed in general. Maybe if each chapter began with an excerpt of emails? I would give this author another read, especially since she seems to be continuing the stories of Lily’s two sisters, Violet and Iris.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to @PRHAudio for the complimentary audiobook and @letstalkbookspromo and Berkley for my e-ARC.

Pub date: 2/28/23
Genre: romance
Quick summary: Bookish Lily thinks she's won the lottery when she strikes up a pen pal relationship with her fave author. But things get a lot more complicated when he becomes her neighbor - and she has no idea.

This book just got me from the first page. I loved meeting the shy, socially awkward bookworm Lily (as I am also a shy, socially awkward bookworm), and her emails with Nick (aka Strick) were so cute. Their bookish bonding made my heart sing - both were fantasy nerds. I loved the You've Got Mail vibes once Nick moved to NYC and quickly discovered he already knew Lily. Insta-love is not my favorite trope - but these two just fit together!

I love character growth in a romance, and Lily and Nick helped bring out the best in each other! Kristina Forest did a good job tackling issues of representation in publishing and the difficulties of living up to parental expectations.

I did hybrid audio/text and loved both formats, with a slight preference for audio, as Keylor Leigh and Malik Rashad nailed the characters' banter. I hope lots of romance lovers will pick this one up - it was a pleasure to read.

Lily Greene is a quiet introvert who has always felt inadequate around her super achiever family who expect her to do better than be a lowly assistant in a publishing house. Lily’s dream is to work as an editor in children’s books; however, she is stuck in a position with a boss who runs rough shod over her demanding long hours and making unreasonable requests. When Lily notices that the mysterious author of one of her favorite Fantasy books suddenly has an internet presence, she begins corresponding with said author, N.R. Strickland. As their online relationship develops, Lily thinks something beyond corresponding may come of it until he suddenly ghosts her.

Several months later, Lily is living on her sister’s couch; she is pressed to find a date for her sister’s wedding or suffer once again being set up with highly inappropriate men by her family. After witnessing her handsome neighbor helping out someone with a relationship, Lily decides Nick Brown can help her find a date though she really would like it to be him. Nick makes it clear he is keeping her in the friend zone because little does Lily know the man she is so attracted to is the same one who ghosted her. It does not take Nick long to realize who Lily is; however, he plans to never let her find out about his duplicity while painfully watching her make connections with other men.

Both Lily and Nick have a lot of emotional baggage related to their respective families. Lily feels like an underachiever and that fact is brought home by her parents constantly trying to get Lily to change careers and her sisters’ successes. Nick grew up with a reprobate conman father and a mother who seemed to always be running after him. He wrote his book some years before under the pen name in order to hide any accomplishments from his money grabbing parents. For too long Nick has let his father make him feel unworthy of happiness. Lily and Nick have to learn not only to stop being doormats, but reach for their dreams letting go of fears of failure.

The first part of the book is told through Lily and “Strick’s” emails then switches to present day. Nick and Lilly’s story is about hits and misses since he is keeping a big secret, and she feels awkward around men. The story drags in places and the results of Nick’s big reveal are predictable. The characters’ love of Fantasy books and the stressful side of the publishing industry are the most interesting parts of the story.

The Neighbor Favor was a very cute bookish book! Kristina Forest took some pretty common tropes and wrote them in a way that still felt fresh and fun. I enjoyed the main characters' vulnerability and how genuine they were. It's fun to read about introverted book lovers!

The main thing that didn't work for me was the correspondence between Lily and the mysterious author. Usually I like some emails or letters in a romance novel, but this felt too much like an awkward information dump. The emails account for about 10% of the book and it was just... a lot. Maybe if they had been spaced out?

The dialogue felt a smidge juvenile at times but we did get some spice! As a whole, it wasn't my favorite romance novel but it was very sweet. That being said, I loved Lily's sisters and I'm really excited for Violet's book!

I think this was just a case of personal preference, but this story really just was not for me. The dialogue between our two main characters is cringy and immature and I was just dying from second hand embarrassment the whole time. ALSO NICK DOESNT LIKE CATS??? Immediate no i’m sorry.

This is an excellent book-centric rom-com, and an all-around phenomenal adult debut from Kristina Forest. I've loved her YA books, so I had high hopes for this one, and I was not in any way disappointed.

This was cute. I liked it - didn't love it. I appreciate a MC bookworm. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early read.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5083557895

Okay I hate to say it but...this book was a DNF for me. The email dumping at the beginning really just - I would've liked it more if it was distributed throughout the book. I also didn't feel like the characters had a ton of chemistry. I see that others really enjoyed it, so this one may just not have been for me!

Two people meet by chance when she discovers that the author of one of her favorite books has finally gotten a website and sends an email, and the author writes back to her. This starts a six-month correspondence that lets them get to know each other before he ghosts her.

Lily Greene is the youngest in her very successful family and is feeling the family pressure to succeed. She wants to edit children's books but is stuck working as the assistant of a demanding publisher on nonfiction. Nick Brown is a man who writes for a travel magazine and is constantly on the move. Oh, and he wrote a fantasy book when he was twenty-two.

When Nick's college roommate who is now an agent in New York sells his book to a new publisher, Nick finds himself faced with a life change. Now he has to own up to his book and write two sequels. He's chosen to come to New York to do this partly in the hopes of meeting the woman he wrote all those emails to.

However, Nick didn't expect to be renting an apartment on the same floor as Lily or finding it hard to tell her that he is the one who communicated with her for so long and then broke her heart when he stopped writing.

They get together when she needs a date for her sister's wedding that isn't organized by one of her sisters and asks Nick to go with her or, at least, find her a date.

I enjoyed this story of two people who find each other, lose each other, and find each other again. I liked that each of them was vulnerable. I liked the way their new relationship grew slowly and resulted in personal growth for both of them.

Both of the characters are Black and some of the Black experience did inform their lives and choices.

The Neighbor Favor has the right level of romance and tension between the protagonist and the love interest. It’s a cute book!

You’ve got mail with some twists!

From the beginning of this book I was hooked and engaged! I LOVE a you’ve got mail type book where the two main characters are anonymously messaging each other without knowing they’ve met.

In this case, lily emails her favourite author one day and when he responds, they begin an email exchange for a long time. That’s until, he randomly ghosts her one day without saying anything. Super sad and heartbroken, Lily tries to forget and focuses on work. Thats until she meet her attractive neighbor that’s recently moved into the building. They strike up a friendship. However, little does lily know that the author she was emailing anonymously is actually her neighbor Nick. When Nick figures it out pretty quickly he doesn’t tell lily and this leads to some fun banter, fiery chemistry and of course some drama and hurt. All in good fun, The Neighbor Favor is a great book with lots of side characters and a cute calico cat.

The only reason I’m not giving a 5 star is because I felt like the plot dragged a bit towards the end with a bit of unnecessary stuff happening! It was relatively drama free which I enjoyed!

HUGE thanks to NetGalley & Berkley Publishing for an ARC in exchange for a honest review! #Berkleypartner

Keep yours eyes out for this one, it’s a good one!

This book starts off with an email exchange between Lily, a publishing assistant, and Nick, her favorite fantasy author who writes under a pen name. After six months of nonstop email banter, Lily asks to meet in real life only to get ghosted. Fast forward and fate brings the two to the same apartment building in NYC and after becoming friends, Nick realizes that Lily is the girl from the emails. The only thing is Lily doesn’t who Nick is.

This was a beautiful and lighthearted strangers to friends to lovers story. I loved Kristina Forest’s writing style and how even though there are many books set in the book world, this felt totally unique. Nick and Lily were two introverts that brought out the best in each other and their passion for reading was everything. The only negative for me is that I didn’t love the open-door scenes and honestly feel like they were a bit forced within the context of the story.

What to expect:
-BIPOC representation
-NYC publishing world
-You’ve Got Mail trope
-Bookstore dates
-Close proximity: same apartment floor
-Hero who is a fantasy author

Thank you to Berkley for the copy of this ARC!

How stinkin cute is this book!? A bookworm and a fantasy author as main characters? SOLD. Kristina Forest writes really dynamic characters, and I love the entire cast that she created in The Neighbor Favor. The friendship and romance was a mix of sweet, fun, and gentle, and I thought Nick's background storyline was absolutely excellent and showed how people can change over time. The little bookish gems and fantasy references took this next-level for me. I love romance with plot, and this was a winner!

Read if you:
- want a guy who can read The Fifth Season in a day
- like You've Got Mail vibes
- enjoy books about books
- like plot with your romance

This was just not that great for me. I had a hard time seeing the connection between the two MCs because of their exclusive email contact at first (which went on way too long imo). The writing style also wasn’t for me tbh

3.5/5, rounded down
I really liked the premise of this book! I love the good old "internet pen pals that don't know each other irl" trope. I particularly enjoyed how Kristina twisted the trope a little bit (no spoiler though!). However, I think the characterization of the characters was very flat and 2D. We barely know anything about the characters aside from 2 or 3 defining things that are repeated throughout the book. It felt half baked.

I loved this book immediately. The emails really sucked me in! I read this in about a day and a half. Loved it loved it loved it. Definitely will be picking up a copy!