Happy to do a favor like this. I enjoy when two people fight their attraction to each other. This was a cute romcom that was enjoyable from beginning to end.

I loved The Neighbor Favor so much!! The characters of Lily and Nick were written so perfectly! Both were so realistic and relatable. Nick broke my heart over and over again because he didn't think he was good enough when in reality, he deserved all of the love in the world! He was such a cinnamon roll. I also really enjoyed Lily's family! They were all such wonderful people. I thought this book was so charming, like a warm hug.

I’ve never read Kristina Forest before but I think I need to get some of her YA after finishing this. In her first novel for adult readers Forest gives us a charming tale about two neighbours who fall for each other without realizing they’ve connected online before. I loved everyone in this book and found it to be just the right amount of romance and steam mixed with light comedy. Highly recommend this one!

This was such a sweet, heartfelt romcom. It’s a classic setup – falling in love via email with someone you then meet in real life but only one of you knows it – and it hits all of the beats you’d expect from that. It may not reinvent the wheel, but as romance readers know, sometimes you want all those familiar beats, you want to just focus on the fun and the swoon without worrying about plot because you know it’s all going to be okay. If I had one complaint, it would be that the initial falling-in-love was too fast for me, but once Lily and Nick start falling IRL, I felt every heartbeat.

My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cute little adult romance book that gave me you got mail vibes. I think it was pretty crappy that Nick didn't tell Lily he was the author who ghosted her, but I think the author revived that aspect of the story. Overall enjoyed this one!

The Neighbor Favor was so adorably charming and a cute contemporary romance! I think this was the author’s first adult romance, before she had done YA, and this was such a sweet surprise with two bookish main characters!

Lily is a shy, bookworm who is being overworked as an editor’s assistant for an uncaring boss. She dreams of being a children’s book editor one day and loved reading fantasies. One day while trapped on a subway, she notices her favorite fantasy author—who wrote one book and disappeared—finally has a website with an email form. So she reaches out and can’t believe her luck when he responds back! Nick is the man behind the screen and he and Lily form an email/penpal friendship that carries on for months! They don’t share photos of themselves, Nick never gives his name (he writes under a pseudonym) but they share so much more and become friends. One day when they’re going to finally have a live chat, Nick ends up ghosting Lily and she’s crushed.

Months later, Lily meets her new charming neighbor who ends up being Nick, she just doesn’t realize it since his author name was a pseudonym when they did chat. Lily and Nick feel pulled to one another right away, but when she makes a move and invites him back to her place, he realizes who she is and ends up saying they can’t be more. Lily ends up asking Nick for help instead, in scoring her a date for her sister’s wedding. Lily says she needs help in flirting and offers to help Nick furniture shop for his apartment in return.

These two were so cute together! I love bookish characters: Nick is a fantasy author and Lily works in the publishing field, with both being avid book lovers as well. I loved seeing them book shop and talk books and Lily’s discussion about female fantasy authors was so great too. The secret identity-penpal trope is always a fun one and I just loved the angst layer that added to their growing friendship. While I do think he should have told her sooner his actual identity, I can see why he held out too. I loved Lily’s family and just the overall slowburn of the story.

I received an ARC from the publisher (Berkley Romance). All thoughts in this review are my own.

Lily found an email address for her favorite obscure fantasy author, and sent a message, just in case it was legit. But when he ghosts her instead of meeting her on a video chat, Lily is embarrassed and frustrated but knows she needs to move on. Her meddling sisters won't stop pushing men into her way, and she makes a bet that she can find her own date for the family wedding. If only she could find the courage to talk to the hot guy down the hall. Little does she know, he's the author she fell for.

The storyline is fairly classic. Nick figures out pretty quickly who Lily is, and while I know that holding the secret is the conflict issue that has to be held off so there's drama on the book, it drives me nuts when the characters withhold that info instead of getting it handled. I know it's part of the trope, but it still drives me nuts. BUT! The writing is good, and the story is well done. It's fun and mostly light-hearted, with just the right amount of angst. There's a decent amount of smutty goodness too. Really sweet book.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Solidly enjoyable albeit a little long and drawn out.

Part 1 is epistolary yasss -- this is such a fun way to get engaged in a relationship!

And throughout Forest pays tribute to amazing contemporary BIPOC fantasy/sci fi writers 🔥🔥

I like stories about writers and editors, but can find them cliche sometimes, and I didn't get that feeling from this at all. Secret identity (and not coming clean about it) isn't my favorite trope, but overall, I still enjoyed the book!

Check this out if you like
❤️ epistolary
❤️ characters who love books
❤️ city living

First of all, the cover is beautiful and so striking - love the yellow and purple together. This is a lovely, sweet romcom between a shy publishing employee and her favorite writer. I've read all of Kristina's books, and they are always incredibly sweet and fun. Loved the inside baseball of the publishing plot lines and commentary on the industry. Lily and Nick are a very cute slow burn romance.

this was a cute and fun rom com, i just didn’t find myself completely invested in the story

the entire premise was interesting to me and i was really excited to read it but it somewhat fell flat in a way?

The Neighbor Favor was such a surprise. I enjoyed this romance in the sense that it is more mature and the issues are real and relatable. The reason I did not rate it higher is because there were times that the story felt like it was repetitive and could not move past the roundabout. The romance was also very PG, nothing wrong with that, just keep that in mind. The characters were cute and I appreciated that they were both bookworms.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked that the emails allowed the reader to get to know the characters while they were getting to know each other. I really loved how much the different personalities of Lily’s family members were developed and I can’t wait to read what seems to be Violet’s story next. I also thought it was great that they all had flower names but it never came across as cheesy, it was just endearing. I appreciated that the author managed to do a good job of portraying both Lily’s “perfect” family and Nick’s not-so-great family without turning it into a dramatic element to create conflict between them. It was refreshing to not have the drama stem from characters not understanding each other’s family life - they both acknowledged their different experiences and how that affected them. I did find some parts of the book slow, especially in the earlier parts after it switched over from the emails to their lives in New York, but the overall flow was enjoyable.

In this heart-fluttering romance by Kristina Forest, a shy bookworm enlists her charming neighbor to help her score a date, not knowing he's the obscure author she's been corresponding with.
This was a super cute, super cheesy exploration of a catfishing gone right. Lily and Nick had super good chemistry and their friends to lovers journey was a delight to read. I don't love Nick's lying and though the story tried to justify it I still think it was silly and went on for a little too long. Still a super sweet romance!

I listened to this title as an ALC through Libro.fm.! I really enjoyed the audio book and we ended up purchasing this and still hand selling it in our independent bookstore! I loved it!

This was a cute read that left me smiling. Both of the main characters find their way to each other, to their confidence, and to achieving their dreams. I loved the references to the fantasy reads in the book - and I am now curious to read some!

Summary: When shy bookworm Lily seeks help from her equally introverted, but very sexy new neighbor Nick, she has no idea that he is the beloved fantasy author she has been corresponding with for months.

Thoughts: This is such a sweet read with major Shop Around the Corner/You’ve Got Mail vibes. I loved the use of the epistolary format during the opening chapters, that helped us get to know the characters, while also furthering the plot line. Right off the bat, the strong connection between our MCs, Lily and Nick, really stood out and that connection remained during the entirety of the book.

Read if you like:
•neighbors to friends to lovers
•book about books
•epistolary format
•you’ve got mail
•open door romance

Thank you to Berkley Romance and PRH Audio for my gifted copies in exchange for my honest review.

Do you ever read a story and love the writing, but not the trope? The author did a great job building the characters and had so many details to bring the story and people to life. I really enjoyed the main characters and felt for them BUT the trope drove me bonkers. It’s a personal choice, and I know tons of people will love this story because of it. I do NOT like miscommunication and lying story lines.

Other than that, the book was cute. The characters were so authentic. I did the audiobook and the narrators were perfection.

Such a charming read. Love a book that takes place in the book world and this one was done particularly well with fun details about the publishing industry. Also thought the characters had great chemistry and were easy to root for!

Nick and Lily are just adorable! I loved the opening section of the book with all the emails - they showed a lot about each other's characters without us actually seeing any of their lives or choices. It was an interesting way to introduce us to the characters and show six months of their lives in a concise way. I loved the ones where they both felt embarrassed about something they said and panic-sent multiple emails in a row trying to explain.

A few things I LOVED were that the secret came out before they got together so that Lily could walk into the relationship with all the information and no third 👏🏻act 👏🏻breakup 👏🏻!! I am always here for when the FMC stands up for herself to her family and explains that she is going to do things at her own pace.

The spice is low in this book but it isn't a fade-to-black. I felt like the story had a vibe where I didn't notice myself missing the spice in a good way.

If you just need a make-you-smile romance between two book lovers look no further! I can guarantee I will have my eye out for when Violet's and Iris's stories come out...

This is a really sweet You've-Got-Mail style romance, also for book lovers. I enjoyed Kristina's YA work and was looking forward to this move up in age range. I was not disappointed whatsoever.