Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this book!

I enjoyed this one and I highly recommend. I binged read this in one day!

I usually enjoy most audiobooks but this one wasn’t my favorite. I did enjoy the narrator! If it wasn’t for the narrator, I probably would have DFNd the audiobook. I do love books about friendship but the friendship between Evelyn and Nora just seemed very manipulative. I wanted to enjoy this audiobook but it wasn’t for me. It was quick listen but not something I’d listen to again.

Thank you, NetGalley, Adele and OrangeSky Audio for the ARC!

The best part about Adele Griffin's writing is how infectious it is. It's so easy to get lost in her books. I stayed up till midnight reading half of it, then woke up at 3 AM and kept going until I finished it. It was just stuck in my mind and I needed to finish it!

My favorite part about the book was Nora. I loved her marriage with Jacob.
Despite the stress of their situation, I loved the intimacy of their physical space, their shared history, and their commitment to have each other's back, no matter what.
I also really connected with Nora's fear of standing up to people and the implicit, tacit deals we make with bosses, family members, and friends, especially when there's money involved.

Nora stayed with me for a few days after finishing this book. She broke my heart, I rooted so hard for her to come through this journey, evolved.


POTENTIAL SPOLER ALERT:

Without giving too much of the plot away, Griffin also really nailed the details of IVF and the surrogacy journey-- from the intimate strangeness of the hospitals, the nurses, the invasiveness, the reactions from family. Even the details of the hotel Nora stayed at. Griffin honed in on the specificity of the experience, and I felt like I was there in the room. God, and the way Nora shows up for Gloria. So good! So moving! Okay, okay-- I'll stop. Just read it!

For the most part, I enjoyed the character of Nora and found myself saying many of the same things she would go on to say in the narrative. But I had a hard time grasping the overall concept of a wealthy socialite asking to be the surrogate for a woman she barely knew. Wealthy socialites pay other women to carry their babies, not volunteer to do so with the hopes that this act would advance her "brand". I liked the ending, though.

THE FAVOR follows socialite Evelyn Elliot and Nora Hammond, who loves vintage fashion along a surrogacy journey.

I loved reading the physical copy of The Favor and pairing it with the audiobook format, and thought it was such a charming and sweet story!

WHAT TO EXPECT
-themes of friendship
-themes of family
-infertility and surrogacy

*many thanks to Sourcebooks, OrangeSkyAudio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC sin exchange for my honest review.

3.5 different women from different world become best friends?? Yah its never as it seems.
Decent book.

This audiobook's narrator was great. I struggling to continue with the storyline and found that I would have to restart a chapter because my mind had wondered. all-in-all, it was just okay.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @orangeskyaudio for a free download of the audiobook.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @orangeskyaudio for a free download of the audiobook.

The Favor blends the themes of friendship, family, infertility and surrogacy in to a wonderful story. Nora sells vintage fashion and antiques in an upscale shop in Manhattan when Evelyn walks into the store. The two form a tight but odd friendship that makes Nora’s husband raise an eyebrow. Evelyn enjoys looking out for her friends and offering to help where she can…even offering to be a surrogate.

This book was a pleasant surprise and I was sad when it ended. I fell in love with Nora!

4 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #sourcebooks #orangeskyaudio #ltbreaderteam #thefavor #adelegriffin
#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #sourcebooks #orangeskyaudio #ltbreaderteam #thefavor #adelegriffin

I enjoyed this audiobook! It was a pretty quick and easy listen, and it made reading it move a lot faster.

Beautifully written. I loved these stories and how it touched on fashion, friendships and life in action. It makes you feel all the feelings - and I do mean all of them. Narration is beautiful and heartfelt.

I was really nervous about where this book was heading. It’s a story about a friendship and a surrogacy and as the pages went on, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to handle what was next. But I was pleasantly surprised. And I left a little twist at the end. That was actually perfect. All in all, a delightful read.

Nora owns a high-end vintage dress shop in Manhattan. But is also drowning in debts from her fertility treatment. She meets Evelyn Elliot at her shop and they strike up an unusual connection. With the friendship comes valuable gifts and Nora works for Evelyn as her stylist on occasion. Their relationship evolves to the next level where Evelyn gives Nora the ultimate gift.
The premise is really interesting. For some reason, I kept thinking all the way till the end that there would be a thriller element and kept waiting for it. The book also left me with a lot of whys. Which wasn’t really developed as much as I would have liked. Besides that, it was overall an enjoyable read.

Thank you @sourcebookscasa for gifting me the ARC.

At I’ll Have Seconds, a high-end fairytale vintage dress shop in Manhattan, Nora Hammond loves nothing better than pairing a rare find with the perfect client.

At home, Nora grapples with the bleaker reality of enormous debt, a tiny apartment, and ever-dwindling hope that she and her husband Jacob will have a family of their own.

When socialite Evelyn Elliot charges into Nora’s life, the women spark an immediate connection, and Nora is jettisoned into the heady whirl of New York’s moneyed elite. As Evelyn’s stylist and confidante, Nora needs to learn all new rules of engagement for the uber-wealthy. But it isn’t until Evelyn decides her next cause is to carry a baby for Nora, that these rules–and this unlikely friendship–are tested.

𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨!
What a beautifully written story, and listening to the audiobook was a fantastic experience. A warm and moving story about family, love, friendship and motherhood.

Thank you @tlcbooktours and @orangeskyaudio for this tour invite.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿 by @adelegriffin released June 13, 2023.

Not what I expected. I struggled to finish this book because the 'friendship' between the 2 women who are like opposites was not what I expected. I hoped for a heartwarming, genuine friendship despite their differences before diving into this book but what I got was a manipulative, not-genuine friendship.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Evelyn Elliot is a socialite and force. Nora Hammond loves vintage fashion. When their worlds collide nothing is ever the same again.

The Favor has a lot of hiccups for me. First, was the story about surrogacy or a vintage Dior cloak? Depending on where in the story you were, both could have been the answer. The epilogue was a struggle in reality in terms of the cloak. Also, I didn't like any of the characters except maybe Jacob; Nora's husband and often the voice of reason.

Imagine you're a tween and you've just met your pop icon. You stalk them on social media, you make fake accounts to get comments, you have butterflies in your stomach and you can't speak, but when you do speak you sound like your age. That is the epitome of the friendship between Evelyn and Nora, whom she's nicknamed Spell. Nora is supposed to be an adult; she's married, she's independent, she's gone through the suffering heartbreaks of infertility for years and yet when she is around Evelyn, she sounds and acts like she's 12 years old. It made her insufferable.

Evelyn Elliot is a socialite who throws money around but doesn't want to be viewed as an ATM either. She acts like the stereotypical nepobaby you see in the media and her character comes off as very one dimensional. Even when depth tried to be added, it fell flat because as a character she never grew up either.

Jacob, Nora's husband, should have probably divorced her or posted red flags all over their apartment. Their relationship felt like roommates or siblings, they had their routines which I guess was supposed to make them seem mature but in reality they just lacked chemistry. If they weren't introduced as a married couple hoping to have a baby, I would have never pegged them as together.

The surrogate storyline and glaring issues were hard to get past. As someone who has suffered infertility and went through herculean efforts to have my daughters, I struggled with how stupid Nora was, how pushy Evelyn was and how annoyed the whole storyline made me.

The ending was okay. I actually liked the big ah-ha moment but only because it was finally a moment where Nora acted like an adult.

The Favor will likely hit better with other readers, just not with me.

Thank you OrangeSky Audio for this ALC.

When Nora meets Evelyn she is immediately enamored by her. She is thrilled with the idea of being friends with the rich and outgoing Evelyn, Evelyn lives a lavish lifestyle and brings Nora and her husband into the fold. With Nora dealing with devastating infertility issues, Evelyn decides she wants to be Nora's surrogate. 

This book deals with some serious subject matter. Nora and her husband have struggled with infertility for years. They are seeing everyone in their life have children and it is devastating that they cannot build their family in the way they want. When Evelyn comes into their life, things begin to fall into place. 

Evelyn is such an intoxicating character. She breezes into Nora's life and she brings such richness..yet Nora feels like she is on borrowed time with Evelyn. She feels like more of an employee to Evelyn than a true friend at times. 

This is a unique look at friendship and doing "selfless" things for others. 

I really enjoyed this book. I was expecting things to go in a completely different direction so this book really surprised me. I really liked how the author handled the issue of infertility. 

I alternated between the ebook and audio and loved every minute of it. It is very thought provoking and would be a very interesting book club book.

I initially liked the unique premise of this book, which is what helped keep me engaged, but I quickly found the content of this book extremely problematic and felt really icky by the end of it.

I really struggled with Jacob’s and Nora’s relationship. I felt like Jacob was extremely unsupportive and a misoneist, but Nora was selfish and seemed to only care about her relationship with Evelyn. Both of them were terrible in their own ways, making them both extremely unlikable to me.

I think it would have been really interesting to see Evelyn’s perspective in the book to tie everything back together. Seeing both Nora’s and Evelyn’s would have made for a more well-rounded story. There is a lot of speculation from Nora, and it got tiresome really quickly. This seemed to be the only way that the story was propelled forward.

I understand a large part of the book is about Jacob and Nora wanting a child, but they’re willing to go into debt so they can have a baby, which didn’t sit well with me. I don’t understand this mindset and why people aren’t willing to consider the possibility of forgoing children, waiting on adoption, or fostering.

If you want a child that badly, then consider waiting on adoption or fostering. The excuse used in the book for adoption taking a long time was weak - they certainly didn’t have the funds to raise children if they were already struggling and couldn’t afford to pay off their debt, so what’s another year?

People are too afraid to really admit the real reason they want biological children, which is that they want a child with their DNA. Otherwise why go into debt for fertility treatments? While adoption isn’t cheap, fertility treatments are significantly more expensive.

I can’t in good conscience rate this book higher because of the unlikeable characters and the antiquated thinking of what makes a family.

3.75!

This was such a challenging book in the sense that I had to take little breaks from it to think and re-shape my vision of the world and social issues, it forced my empathy to show and grow as we read the book from the point of view of Nora, a woman that works on a vintage-like/collectible luxuries shop and yearns for nothing more than to be a mother.
After agreeing with her husband, Jacob, to take a break from IVF and save up money for another round, Nora's life springs to life and excitement when wealthy and wild Evelyn shows up one day at her shop and instantly connects with her.
While her marriage becomes increasingly rocky, Nora is happier than ever with Evelyn's constant attention and introduces her to her world of money and privilege, however, as time goes by, Nora starts to feel anxious about her friendship with Evelyn.
While Nora starts to feel like her own identity is being split in two, Evelyn makes an offer that will solve the couple's problems: She offers to be a surrogate for Nora and Jacob's baby.

I adored Evelyn and the constant talk of fashion, that's my thing, that's my world, so I connected with her character more than anything in this book and it was difficult at times when the story delved into just Nora's and Jacob's relationship and problems, as I've, luckily, never encountered problems like having to sell a precious or sentimental item to afford a house, or afford basic necessities. I did judge the decision of Jacob of not really considering the idea of adoption and not taking into consideration his wive's feelings sometimes, he also came as rather pushy so no surprise I'm not a fan of him.

This is a great book for self-introspection and the writing flows beautifully and fast. Definitely recommend for fiction/women’s fiction junkies.

4.25ish stars

I don’t really know why, but I initially assumed this book would be a quick and rather fluffy read. It had more depth and complexity than I had anticipated, and while it could still be considered so-called “chick lit,” it was a bit of a layered story about friendship, motherhood, and love (with less of an emphasis on the romantic variety). It had me feeling a bit tense at tones, but over all, I quite enjoyed the story.

A beautiful and touching novel exploring the bonds of female friendships. When Nora meets Evelyn, she is swept up in Evelyn's socialite status and money. Yet at the same time, she also feels a tight bond with Evelyn that quickly becomes precious to her. However, there is always an unspoken imbalance between the two women in that Nora and her husband come from humble backgrounds whereas Nora has big trust fund money.

When Evelyn offers to become a surrogate for Nora and her husband, their friendship will be tried in ways neither of them was prepared for. The two opposite worlds that they live in quickly become obvious. It's a well written story about the impact of many issues facing women today. Nora has struggled with infertility while Evelyn has no problem getting pregnant and carrying a child. Nora is struggling financially while Evelyn has more money than she can ever spend. Nora wants to safeguard her fetus but it's being incubated in Evelyn's womb leaving Nora feeling helpless at times. In so many ways, it seemed Evelyn always had the majority of power in their relationship. Yet as the story progresses, you do see the negative sides to Evelyn's life as well. Things aren't always as glorious as they appear.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and felt that watching the evolution of Nora and Evelyn's friendship was well described and felt realistic.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The audio was really enjoyable. It pulled me into the story and the narration of the voices felt spot on. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for these early copies of both the audiobook and ebook. I chose to review them both and the opinions contained within are my own.