Hannah B.'s Reviews > The Neighbor Favor

✨Imagine getting to bang your hot neighbor who also happens to be your favorite author!!!✨

Reading The Neighbor Favor felt like having someone in your life who takes you to a bookstore and NOT ONLY buys you any books BUT ALSO knows which books you want.

Nick took Lily to Barnes and Noble, disappeared for a little while, and came back with a book he’d already purchased her. If that’s not peak romance I simply don’t know what is!!!

The Neighbor Favor was a charming love letter to all things bookish. Lily was an aspiring children’s book editor, Nick was a fantasy author, and the reader (me) was smitten. There wasn’t much happening in the plot to distract from the main couple, and it was pretty low angst, while still being engaging.

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The story started off in an epistolary fashion, when Lily emailed her favorite author’s inbox. Strickland aka Nick and her started emailing each other daily and got pretty serious…only for Strick/Nick to ghost her (for reasons). Fast forward to the neighbor part of the book…because DUN DUN DUN her incredibly sexy new neighbor wasn't such a stranger after all. Nick found out pretty early on, but Lily was none the wiser.

I actually really liked the placement of when Lily found out and how she reacted to it! I think it was both a mature reaction and an honest one. It happened with a good chunk of the novel left, so the pacing didn’t feel rushed. I know some people can get uncomfy with lying and probably the ghosting and catfishing, but I wasn’t too perturbed. The ghosting/lying wasn’t really necessary, but I didn’t mind it.

Before Lily finds out about Strick’s identity and after Nick denies his attraction to her because of said ghosting knowledge, they become friends! While the favor of this book was Nick helping Lily find a wedding date, it felt more like a sub plot. I was never really invested in the wedding date search because by that point, there was already extreme chemistry and attraction between Nick and Lily. But since Nick was hot and cold (for reasons we knew but Lily didn’t), it just didn’t make a lot of sense for the rest of the story.

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So while I wasn’t 100% invested in the plot, I was definitely in love with Nick and Lily together. Nick could bake, was a reluctant cat dad, and chose to buy a bookshelf before any other piece of furniture. Lily was such a lovely person and I think most readers will see a lot of ourselves in her.

I also LOVED the way we were introduced to Nick’s POV in the present. Him waking up at his neighbors house had me HOWLING. There’s also a point when Nick says “I’m really sorry, I gotta go to IKEA” and I could ONLY think of the iconic “see you in chemistry” line from Drake and Josh.

Overall, I found The Neighbor Favor to be a mid-2000s romcom in the purest, most delightful sense. I could see this being a movie that I’d finish and then immediately hit play on again. Plus, I just know the dynamic for book 2 is going to be pure gold. The sneak peek we got had me hunting down the release date.

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Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Audiobook Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5*/5
Steam Rating: 🌶️.75**/5

*My audiobook rating is 3.5⭐️/5 but I think the story itself warrants a full 5. The female narrator has a voice perfectly suited to YA because I definitely got confused a bit by the genre that I was hearing and the genre that I knew the book was. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the male narrator sounded super hot…until he made Lily sound about 15. Why does this always happen??? It was still a good audiobook, but I think I’d have preferred a single narrator. I did like how some emails/texts were read in a duet/alternating format so like a script read! That worked!!

**We got two open door scenes! They were both pretty short but felt in line with the vibe of the book. To get a sense of the scope, you’ll get hits when you search the word “nipple” but not “cock.”


I received an eARC via NetGalley from the publisher and an ALC from PRHaudio. All opinions are honest and my own.