REVIEW: The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest: Coming from a high achieving family Lily can’t help but feel the pressure to live up to the Green family standards. With everyone in her family having the formula down; get a great job, find a perfect partner and live their best life, Lily can’t help but feel a bit frustrated especially when all she wants is to transition from nonfiction editor to children’s book editor with absolutely no promotion in sight! Which is how she finds herself sticking up an unlikely online friendship with fantasy author N.R Strickland, the two click almost instantly but when Lily suggest that they FaceTime Strick bails on her and then cuts all communication with her abruptly! Now not is Lily a bit heart broken but she also needs to find a date to her sisters wedding, hopefully with the help of her new cute neighbour Nick. However once again things don’t work out for Lily which is how she wins up propositioning Nick to help set her up with a guy… the only problem being Nicks feelings for Lily…

There was something very cute about this book that I really liked, maybe it was the fact that both main characters were so invested in books and the literary world or maybe it was just that book store scene that stole my heart. I loved that this book read as so much more than a romance, there were huge notes of family and that not all family are your blood.

I loved Nick to bits! Sure he came across as hot and cold for a lot of the book but we knew his reasons and it was hard to fault the guy for having his insecurities. Gosh I have to say my heart really broke for Nick this guy really didn’t want to let more people into his heart because of his fear of being hurt again and this really held him back in so many ways. As far as the quiet hero goes Nick was definitely winning, I mean it was hard not to love his reluctant but sweet relationship with his cat and the fact that his first purchase for his new home was a book shelf, total book hero. Now I think it was Lily that actually made this book so relatable, not only was she down to earth but her love for books was clear from the get go, also I think everyone can relate in same way to family pressures and having to live up to expectations. This however only made me love the bond that she shared with her sisters and how in-tune with each other they were.

I really liked the bond between Nick and Lily, as different as these two were there was something very similar about them and I liked this. More than that I loved the fact that being friends with Lily and being around her helped Nick learn that he has to open himself up to new people and experiences if he ever wants to truly be happy. I really enjoyed getting to see these two grow together and supporting each other. For Lily I really liked seeing her standing up and taking charge of where she wants her career to go and for Nick I loved seeing him open his heart.

The Neighbor Favor is a definite must read, this book was the perfect example that everyone has baggage but this is what builds character and makes us into the people we are. I loved how real and relatable this book was all while still keeping things light and sweet.

Book Info:

Publication: February 28, 2023 | Berkley Books |

Shy, bookish, and admittedly awkward, Lily Greene has always felt inadequate compared to the rest of her accomplished family, who strive for Black excellence. She dreams of becoming an editor of children’s books but has been frustratingly stuck in the nonfiction division for years without a promotion in sight. Lily finds escapism in her correspondences with her favorite fantasy author, and what begins as two lonely people connecting over e-mail turns into a tentative friendship and possibly something else Lily won’t let herself entertain–until he ghosts her.

Months later, still crushed but determined to take charge of her life, Lily seeks a date to her sister’s wedding. And the perfect person to help her is Nick Brown, her charming, attractive new neighbor, whom she feels drawn to for unexplainable reasons. Little does she know that Nick is an author–her favorite fantasy author.

Nick, who has his reasons for using a pen name and for pushing people away, soon realizes that the beautiful, quiet woman from down the hall is the same Lily he fell in love with over e-mail months ago. Unwilling to complicate things even more between them, he agrees to set her up with someone else, though this simple favor between two neighbors is anything but–not when he can’t get her off his mind.