The Favor Paperback – October 13, 2020

Fantastic. I've had a top 5 favorite book/series list for several years now that no other book has come close to touching. Until now. This book just kicked out one of my top 5 and moved into its slot.I'll start with the heroine. Vienna is a dream heroine for me. I'm conditioned to overlook a lot in a heroine because to be honest, most do not behave the way I wish they would. Because of this, I don't let most of what they do bother me and instead focus more on the hero. Now saying that, when a heroine comes along that demands respect and proves me wrong, I am in book heaven.What makes Vienna a dream heroine for me? She had self respect. She didn't fall all over the hero and allowed him to disrespect her, not that he really did, but you'll understand when you read this. I also really loved how she handled the drama with side characters. She called them on their BS to their face. I LOVE THAT. I'm not a fan of a lot of drama unless it's handled. She handled it. Also, she was a genuinely good person. She put others before herself, but not to a point that she was a doormat. There wasn't one time in the book that I wanted to change Vienna. I loved her.Now for the hero. Dane is very cold, aloof, calm but cutting at times. You do not get his POV in this so I was left guessing about his intentions from the very beginning. I actually really liked to trying to figure out when things changed for him with Vienna or if he had a plan from the very start.This mystery lasted a long time, and to me it had me completely enthralled. Not only because I was left guessing, but also because I adored his actions even though I was never sure if they were because he loved her or if he was just protective. Despite the fake marriage, he was very protective and always had Vienna's back.Loving the main characters as much as I did, I also loved how much time we got with them in the book. Due to the fake marriage, the story was about them as a couple almost from the start. My favorite thing to read with a couple is when they work together agains the drama, and not have the drama keep them apart.I feel like I could go on and on about this book but I don't want to spoil anything. It was fantastic! I want more books like this and I want the author to write more about this couple. I don't think I could ever get enough of them.

If you've ever read a Suzanne Wright book, you'll find little to no surprises in this book and since she's chosen a well-used trope as the framework for this story, it's especially been done before. I still found it an entertaining read and the author uses her regular tricks throughout the story. Dane is a super successful businessman - of what, I'm not really sure because even though it was emphasised how powerful and dominant he was, there was quite a lack of detail and examples given around this. He's ruthless, alpha, intense, *insert all of the adjectives this author likes to list in all of her books*. His uncle left him and his brothers a significant trust fund. The only condition? He has to be married by his late 30s to inherit. Enter his PA, Vienna, a beautiful and hard working woman who has set some kind of record in putting up with her mercurial boss having worked for him for four years. She owes him a favour as he helped her out with a sex tape incident years ago, hence the title, asking her to be his fake bride for a year so he can get the sentimental items that come with inheritance. On top of that, someone isn't happy that they're getting married so there's a heap of drama with an unknown party trying to sabotage the happy couples fake marriage.The book was entertaining enough. If you've ever read a billionaire or fake marriage romance before, let me heavily emphasise that there are absolutely no surprises here. There's not even a unique twist but luckily this author's writing is enough to carry it over the line (and carry it quite well). There's the deep and broody hero of the story and a strong but sensitive heroine and while they kept it PG rated while they had a working relationship, living in close quarters heats things up a notch and they give in to their long held attraction to each other. If you're a fan of age gaps, Dane is 37 and Vienna is 25. I found the premise for the favour a bit far stretched - he helped her with a sex tape problem and he asks her to give up over a year of her life and lie to all of her friends and family. Apples and apples? Not really and by not really I mean not at all as they are not even remotely comparable. Just a side note: If you've read Shiver from this author, there's a super quick mention of Kensey and Blake which was a nice touch. There was also a reference to Rags to Riches.As I've said above, if you've ever read a book by this author, she is pretty formulaic and her books only variate depending on how much she emphasises well-used tropes and themes that are through all of her books. I'm going to list the recycled themes from this author. The Favour has the main characters both having less than happy backgrounds - foster care, abusive fathers, a mean foster sister, troublesome siblings and in-laws. Vienna's father also has IDI with 5 or so personalities so there's a random tragic back story thrown in with this. Dane is uber jealous and possessive so if that floats your boat this author always ticks that box. The reader is metaphorically bashed over the head with repeated reminders of how intense, masculine, dominant and hot Dane is and all of his manly attributes that make him so swoony and irresistible. If I had a dollar for every time the author tried to not so subtly vomit out how male Dane was, I could probably retire early.There's also the usual dribble about how helpless Vienna was to resist him even though she tried and tried and tried. You get to read several times about her lady bits waking up when Dane enters a room, how his manly attraction wasn't fair and was unrelenting and how she was helpless to resist him and his magic peen mojo. This goes on through the whole book along with 'I think he might have feelings for me but I could be imagining it but no he feels something because we had a little nooky but now here is something to put a spanner in the works and make me doubt him again because it'll never, ever, work, waah, waah, waah, I'll just watch his magic mojo from afar because it'll never happen'. Rinse and repeat. Lots of mentioning of it only being a fake romance and him not really being that into her and their relationship doomed from the start. I mean, if you didn't get that it was a fake marriage from the blurb where it literally says it's a fake marriage, you might need someone to help you sound out the words in the book anyway.Now for one of my pet hates churned out by this author - over the top ex and other woman drama. Vienna's ex fiance cropped up throughout the book and while I was happy to see early in the book the ex drama was a male for a change and not a female, I spoke to soon because along came the womenz trying to get Vienna's man, y'all, and just generally causing trouble. As per all of this author's books, the other/ex woman drama was still shoved in there and once again ruined parts of the book for me. There was Dane's brothers' wives who were causing drama and one whom he had a past with. There was also the nasty foster sister so once again, there was no shortage of cattiness and over-emphasised ridiculousness that Wright loves to include. This is always the biggest downfall of a lot of her books for me because it automatically makes it feels as though I've already read the book...because I basically have in every other book she's written. That being said, I keep coming back and clicking on the books, so more fool me lol.A lot of this book reminded me of The Dark in You series. We were constantly told how masculine Dane is and how he gives out a 'you're mine' vibe. Dane repeatedly told Vienna to hold her orgasm until he said it was cool to explode. A little bit of Knox Thorne, anyone? And seriously, Suzanne Wright's characters have the worst luck with breaking and entering. Her books are like the epicentre of break in crime in the fictional book world. Another pet peeve - there are the token dialogues thrown into the story to spell out the story, what happened and break down of the perpetrator's motives that also imply the readers is stupid and not able to piece the plot together themselves. It makes the characters speak almost unnaturally and clumsily ties up loose ends in the story. There's one or two recurring jokes throughout the book used as catch phrases for some characters - again, another writing technique this author uses. There's one liners forced in to the story for a bit of humour and a good amount of steam and sexy times. A couple of the characters that were in a relationship had recurring arguments that got old quick, too, that I think was chucked in there for humour.The plot points and direction they was taking the story were pretty obvious and without spoiling anything, the resulting whodunnit was an absolute fizzer with no surprises at all. Like, not even a teensy bit of a twist or revelation. And the reasoning behind it? Holy where the heck did that random ridiculousness come from, Batman? The backstory was so silly I assumed I was reading one of her Shifter books where all the characters have a back story that is reminiscent of a crack addict on a bad trip.I know I've listed a lot that the author repeats, but hey, if I have to dive into it every book it's only fair I get to harp on about the well-used writing devices in my reviews, too, yeah? I like quite a few of this author's books but my word does she love a good regurgitation of themes and repetition of phrases, style, etc. But this is what her readers like and this is what sells her books so I get it, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to highlight the fact. I still found it an enjoyable read so four stars.

Really enjoyed the book. I didn't want to put it down...then I made the mistake of switching to the free audio version and got a terrible shock. The story is told in the p.o.v of the main female character who is a natural blonde, american, but the audio reader is a heavy, stilted, indian accent. Naaaasty.Anyway, the story and the characters are a bit deeper than your typical fake marriage/relationship books. Highly recommended.

I genuinely enjoyed the storyline. It’s a fake marriage story. There was so much of the story I truly enjoyed. The issue I have with this book is the writing. So many books I’ve read are so smoothly written. They say a lot without having to say much. The author’s writing is long with the need to make it longer than it needs to be. The writing goes into detail about something. And then it’s paragraph upon paragraph of unnecessary details that basically repeat what was already said. I skipped so many paragraphs because I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over. At times it felt like the author tried too hard to make it work. She used the word “droll” a lot. I picked up on it because I eventually was annoyed by it. I did think the excess of details went well when it came to some of the spicy scenes. But very much dragged for no reason. Once I began skipping the extra stuff I ended up enjoying the story.