Great novel, enjoyed reading this so much on a recent trip.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access this book in exchange for my feedback.

It took me a while to get into this book. It was slow to start but perseverance paid off and enjoyed the story.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Soo good! Really enjoyed The Favourites, loved the premise of the story and I loved reading about each of the characters and their stories. Thought this was great!

Everyone seems to live this book but for whatever reason it just didn’t strike a chord with me.
The story of three super close sisters, all taking a family break together with their parents and children to celebrate their mother’s 70th birthday. A chance accident in the woods accidentally seems to reveal that their father secretly has a favourite child. Every siblings worst scenario. We then play out the fallout of this whilst delving into the childhood of the 3 girls.
I’m wondering if it’s because I’m an only child that this is why it just didn’t click for me.

Having loved Amazing Grace Adams i was so looking forwards to this latest title from Fran Littlewood.
I found this book so hard to get into, the first chapter introduces so many characters within the family it confused me as to who was who. Unfortunately i found it hard to really xonnect with any of the xharacters and found most of them quite unlikeable. The first half of the book had me feeling a little like this, with the flash backs and current day narrative. The second half definitely got better and showed the complexities of the families dynamic and the secrets they all held.

I found this hard to get into at first. I found it hard to sympathise with the characters. However the second half of the book brings the strands together quite cleverly and I was much more invested in the plot and the explanations for how people behaved.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review

I absolutely loved ‘Amazing Grace Adams’ so looked forward to reading this second book. I struggled to get the sisters and their relationships straight at the beginning and didn’t quite relate to anyone the way I did Grace. A few months on from reading and I’ve forgotten again who was who, but despite that it was an enjoyable read. Families, and the relationships within and between, are complex and I think this book really captured these. I would definitely read further from the author but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this as much as her first.

I did enjoy this book, however I felt the end was extremely rushed and I felt that the characters could’ve gone deeper with a more profound, or more fullyexplained story ending.
This is a family story full of flashbacks and flesh outs of the characters and their situations with their partners, children and relationship with their parents.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fran Littlewood’s *The Favourite* is a beautifully written, emotionally charged novel about sisterhood, grief, and the complex web of family dynamics. The story follows Cate and her younger sister, Margie, who have always had a tense relationship—one shaped by childhood wounds, jealousy, and the lingering presence of their mother. When Margie suddenly disappears, Cate is forced to confront the past and unravel the truth about their relationship.

Littlewood does a fantastic job of capturing the raw, messy emotions that come with sibling rivalry and unresolved trauma. Cate is a compelling protagonist—flawed yet deeply relatable—and her journey is one of self-discovery and reckoning. The writing is immersive, with sharp observations and moments of unexpected tenderness that make the story resonate.

While the novel is gripping and evocative, the pacing felt a little slow at times, and some of the character dynamics could have been explored further. That said, *The Favourite* is a poignant and thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Following a slow start this book became very absorbing. The three sisters have a very close relationship but are each hiding a host of worries, problems and lifelong resentments. The fact that the siblings seem to harbour huge resentment towards each other was well communicated, plus that fact that episodes in their pasts continue to resonate as they're continually swept under the carpet in the name of maintaining peace. Also, that memories can be very different depending on the emotional affect of the incident. Despite this their love for each other shines through as all three work their way through their current problems and the turmoil they're thrown into following their father's impulsive action in seemingly choosing a favourite.

As one of three sisters myself I found The Favourite to be very authentic, especially the love/hate dynamic. The characters were all mostly relateable although I found it hard to recognise one from another for a while. I was drawn in by this gorgeous story which would probably do very well as a television series, Very enjoyable.

When the three Fisher sisters-Alex, Nancy and Eva- set up a week-long family reunion in a high-end glass house in the Lake District to celebrate their mother’s 70th birthday, nobody expects the family to implode. Their father’s response to a freak accident suggests that he has a favourite daughter, and this triggers a whole raft of memories, resentments, betrayals and secrets. To paraphrase the late Queen Elizabeth, recollections of the events differ, as do perceptions and interpretations of past events, As the Fishers reach crisis point, they will need to draw on those most primal bonds of sibling love and loyalty to find a way to move forward. This is an emotional, often raw and frequently hilarious novel about growing up, love, marriage and parenthood, about going it alone and making a relationship work, and about how things are not always what they seem. Littlewood is a very clever writer and the characters come alive from the page with all their flaws and strengths. The skillfully portrays how the girls have placed different interpretations on things that happened when they were younger, and others that they never knew about, with one significant incident highlighted by the sisters each “remembering” their mother’s wearing a different dress. The deterioration of the break in the strange house is emphasised by the increasingly horrible smell spreading through the rooms. I was fully absorbed in the lives of the Fisher family and was sad to part from them when I finished this vivid and relateable book. A wonderful read.

I really enjoyed this story, at first it felt like a strange concept and I was unsure where it was going. I kept expecting something terrible to happen. It's a really good story of family dynamics and how each person can have a different experience of the same parents.

3 sisters, always very close growing up. Parents happily married. Alex is having problems settling into life with a new baby, Eva , a successful business woman has a relationship with Scott, disliked by all her family. Nancy is a successful oncology consultant. All the characters are so easy to relate to, a very enjoyable novel showing family relationships, hidden secrets and tragedies .

Fans of ‘The Split’ will love this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the family dynamics in this novel. Fran Littlewood explores each character’s psyche with depth and understanding.

The setting was well-drawn and the prose was cinematic. I can envisage this being adapted for TV.

The Favourite has a lot of potential and holds some genuine, wonderful insights about family, love, resentment, forgiveness, memory, and growing older. However, the novel felt too crowded, messy, and ambitious in parts, which impacted the resonance of the central storyline.

Wow, that reading experience was a lot to wrap my head around. The Favourite is a chaotic and complex family drama that has its shining moments but ultimately left me unsatisfied.

Littlewood's latest endeavour experiments with a stream-of-consciousness style of narration that feels disorganised and turbulent. The run-on sentences and jarring flashbacks are unruly and confusing, distancing the reader from the narrative.

Moreover, there are so many characters to keep track of. This isn't an issue in itself (for instance, I recently read My Other Heart and found that Strenner's large cast added a lot of value to the story). However, Littlewood fails to keep the extensive family tree understandable, and there so many side plots that the overall narrative becomes lost.

Essentially, the story is about three sisters... and their parents, their partners, and their children. The Favourite explores ideas of jealousy, insecurity, feelings of inadequacy, and competition after Eva, the youngest daughter, is revealed to be Patrick's (the father's) supposed favourite. Despite my critiques, I enjoyed the psychological exploration of how this event impacts the entire family.

Nancy, the middle child, is the most admirable character in my opinion. She's a doctor and is embarking upon a new romance after a failed marriage. Alex and Eva, the eldest and youngest, are a bit too unlikeable. In fact, many of the characters in this novel are at times unpleasant.

The novel's strongest features are passages when Littlewood hits onto some wonderful observations about life. For instance, when Nancy struggles to recall a memory, Littlewood describes the situation with keen insight and grace about the vulnerability of aging. Furthermore, I did enjoy the novel's conclusion and enjoyed the unexpected plot twist.

Overall, The Favourite has a lot of potential and holds some genuine, wonderful insights about family, love, resentment, forgiveness, memory, and growing older. However, the novel felt too crowded, messy, and ambitious in parts, which impacted the resonance of the central storyline.

*I received an e-ARC for free in exchange for an honest review*

Family drama deluxe. As the oldest of three sisters, I can absolutely relate to the close and complicated relationships sisters can have. Alex, Nancy and Eva are all facing their own crisis and it takes a family holiday (from hell) to help them work out what is important to each of them.

Reminded me a little of Marian Keyes' novels in that, Vivienne, the matriarch of the family, is a larger than life character with the personality to match.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Although it took a little while for me to work out who was who, I rapidly became quite engrossed in the characters in this story. They were all very relatable and the sibling dynamics and tension were soooooo accurate! The bitching amongst the sisters but also the fact that deep down they absolutely had each other’s backs- all so authentic!

I can't quite put my finger on this one! The Favourite is a fun look at sisterhood and family relationships.
I found it quite scatty and a bit all over the place and struggled to keep track of who was who to begin with. That said there was something endearing, honest and truthful about the relationships that unfolded.
3.5 stars.