THE FAVOR
By: Adele Griffin
Published: June 13, 2023
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Fiction
Nora, who works at an upscale vintage shop called I’ll Have Seconds (isn’t that the best name?) has a chance meeting with Evelyn, a millionaire. Evelyn doesn’t take no for an answer when she enters the shop one evening at closing time and ends up buying thousands of dollars worth of vintage couture. Over these few hours with Evelyn, Nora finds that even though their bank accounts may mean they have nothing in common, they actually find that a friendship begins to bloom.
Nora and her husband, Jacob, live in a tiny apartment in NYC. Nora’s closest friends are Meg, her best friend from college, and her co-worker Frankie. Nora and Jacob have a wonderful marriage and live by their routines together. The only problem is that they can’t get pregnant and have depleted their bank accounts trying. Nora struggles when her friend Meg seems to have no issues with getting pregnant while Frankie and his partner have decided to go the surrogate route (which she and Jacob couldn’t afford) to have their baby.
“Her requests are like a bright silk ribbon woven through the plain cotton fabric of my day, and I’m thrilled when she’s back in town and wants to make an in-person plan.“
Adele Griffin, THE FAVOR
Nora’s friendship and business relationship with Evelyn deepens as she repeatedly hires Nora to source her some outfits, paying her large amounts to go toward “their baby fund”. When Evelyn suggests that she become Nora’s surrogate, their friendship takes on a whole new meaning and as you can imagine, isn’t without some bumps along the way.
Griffin’s raw and honest peek into the lives of a couple dealing with infertility, a woman grieving her mom, and the reality of friendships that ebb and flow were quite realistic. Her creative use of similes had me highlighting all kinds of sentences because I was thinking, “Yes, that is such a great way to describe that feeling.”
It’s moments like this when I realize I haven’t moved past my grief at all; I’ve just hidden it, like a drop cloth thrown over a pile of broken glass.
Adele Griffin THE FAVOR
As the novel moved along, Evelyn and Nora’s friendship started to annoy me. Neither was being honest with the other and Nora was obsessing over Evelyn’s social media posts and ignoring some pretty important real-life relationships. Evelyn was acting quite immaturely while flaunting her riches rather than focusing on being a good friend to Nora. But, when push came to shove and they both had to face the reality of their situation, I saw the reason for the drama Griffin created.
I didn’t expect to love all the vintage fashion mentioned in this novel. Living in small-town Iowa doesn’t offer many opportunities to see or experience the kind of amazing dresses, purses, coats, etc that Griffin describes in this novel. Her fashion research and a fun surprise twist at the end of the novel definitely had me swooning.
I was surprised by how emotional the novel’s last section made me. Nora’s thoughts on motherhood overwhelmed me and I had to put my Kindle down a few times to wipe away my tears and keep reading. Sometimes, it’s these last few moments in a novel that will push a book into the win category and this definitely was a win for me. Evelyn and Nora’s relationship isn’t one to model a friendship on, but their relationship served a purpose. The Epilogue was maybe my favorite section of the whole book and I was so thrilled with how Griffin tied up everyone’s story together in one special event. Stick with this one and ride out the eventual frustrations you might have with the characters because, just like in real life, we have to have the roadblocks to experience the joy.
Adele Griffin is an American fiction author who has written numerous novels for adults, young adults, and kids including some National Book Award finalists. Griffin was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but she now lives with her husband and their two children in Los Angeles, California. Check out her website, HERE.
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Posted Under Adele Griffin, Book Review, fashion, fiction, Friendship, infertility, kindle, women's fiction