Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Book Summary and Reviews of The Favor by Adele Griffin

The Favor by Adele Griffin

The Favor

A Novel

by Adele Griffin

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2023, 352 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

From National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin, an insightful and warmhearted story of two very different women who make an unexpected connection when one decides to carry a baby for the other.

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.

A contemporary story that celebrates alternative routes to family, The Favor is an incisive examination of what it means to long for a child and what relationships cost us—and what they're worth.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] tale of hope in the advent of unexpected change. A touching novel about the power of female friendship, forgiveness, and honesty." ―Kirkus Reviews

"Empathetically portraying the toll of fertility treatment...recommended for book groups and readers that appreciate engaging, warm-hearted stories that delve into complex relationships and situations." ―Booklist

"A celebration of the unexpected paths and lasting power of female friendship….a gem of a book" ―Rebecca Serle, New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer

"Adele Griffin is a compelling new voice in literary fiction." ― J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, and Saints for All Occasions

"Beautifully written and charming and funny and real." ― Jennifer E. Smith, bestselling author of The Unsinkable Greta James

This information about The Favor was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

PhyllisE

Fashion, friendship, and a surprise twist ending
Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark Publishers & NetGalley for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

This book checked some of my favorite boxes – fashion, friendship, and an ending with a surprise twist.

The novel begins with the definition of “Favor – An act of kindness beyond what is due or usual. Friendly regard shown toward another, especially by a superior.”

Author Adelle Griffin incorporated the concept of “a favor” and then surprised me. The premise sounds predictable, with one girlfriend offering to carry a baby for her friend who can’t conceive. So that’s the favor, yet the friendship is a bit unusual, as is Evelyn, one half of the friendship who sweeps into Nora’s life in an overwhelming and overbearing way.

When I read the book’s description: “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.” There was no question I was going to read this book.

It’s a story of the haves and the have-nots – wealth vs. debt, children (pregnancy vs. infertility), employment and more. It’s a story of girlfriends, trust, and honesty. It’s an unexpected yet heartwarming story of family and forgiveness.

I highly recommend this extremely readable novel!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Adele Griffin

Adele Griffin is a New Yorker who enjoys living in Los Angeles even if never snows here. She is the author of over thirty books across a variety of genres, including Sons of Liberty and Where I Want to Be, both National Book Award Finalists. She loves dog videos, bakery cakes, vintage everything, and writing about herself in third person. Find her on TikTok at @adelegriffinbooks and Instagram at @adelegriffin or www.adelegriffin for big surprises (okay, small surprises, but that's where you can find more bio and the book list).

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.