Flip the Page
A girl perpetually stuck in books, reviewing and recommending books to get you perpetually stuck in books.
This podcast will be highlighting fiction books across all genres from mainly Black authors. If you're struggling finding or deciding what books to read written by Black authors with Black characters and dope storylines, you've found the right place!
For those who love reading, those who don't love reading, and those yet to find their love of reading. This is a safe space, sis, so don't be afraid to tap in!
Flip the Page
Ep 10 | The Neighbor Favor: Quest For A Good Straight Black Romance
The Neighbor Favor is an adult contemporary romance book centered on Lily Greene, a 25-year-old Black woman, currently working in the nonfiction division of a publishing house, but with dreams of working as an editor for children’s books. Lily comes from a well-established and accomplished family and due to the nature of her job and salary, she struggles with feeling inadequate in comparison.
When one of Lily's sisters announce their wedding, Lily decides to enlist the help of her new neighbor, Nick, to secure herself a date to the wedding to finally take control of her life.
Nick Brown is charming, attractive, emotionally unavailable and unbeknownst to Lily, her favorite fantasy author who ghosted her months prior. Upon realizing Lily is the woman he caught feelings for via email and ghosted shortly after, Nick decides it’s probably for the best that he not go as Lily’s date to her sister’s wedding, but instead, help her secure a date to the wedding then promptly exit out of her life to avoid complicating things. Of course, the simple favor he extends to Lily leads to complications as feelings inevitably resurface between the two.
[Intro Music] Welcome back to episode ten of Flip the Page. I just got to take a second to give myself a little shout out ‘cause... Did I think I'd ever actually drop ten consistent episodes when I first started this podcast? No. Low key though. Why was this the hardest episode to put out so far? I struggled so much recording it. Oh my gosh. Y’all better buckle in, ‘cause this is about to be rough. Content warning for child neglect. Today we're going to be digging into the Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest, an adult contemporary romance book. Lily Greene, the female main character of the story, is a 25 year old Black woman currently working in the non-fiction division of a publishing house. But with dreams of working as an editor for children's books. Lily comes from a well-established and accomplished family, and due to the nature of her job and salary, she struggles with feeling inadequate in comparison to her family by some stroke of luck, fate, or pure coincidence, Lily strikes up an email correspondence with the author of her favorite fantasy novel, finding camaraderie and a space to open up about her struggles with her job and family. That is, until he ghosts her. Months pass by and one of Lily's sisters announces she's getting married. Lily's two sisters constantly try to set her up with famous and successful men from their respective industries, and plan to do the same when it comes to securing her a date for the wedding. Typically, Lily has gone along with the antics up to this point, but this time she decides to enlist the help of her new neighbor, Nick, to secure herself a date to the wedding to finally take some control over her life. Nick Brown is charming, attractive, emotionally unavailable, and, unbeknownst to Lily, her favorite fantasy author who ghosted her months prior. Upon realizing Lily is the woman he caught feelings for via email and ghosted shortly after, Nick decides it's probably for the best that he not go as Lily's date to her sister's wedding, instead help her secure a date to the wedding, then promptly exit out of her life to avoid complicating things. Of course, the simple favor Nick extends to Lily leads to complications as feelings inevitably surface. Or resurface I should say The first part of the story is literally just emails between Lily and Nick under his pen name before he goes, ghost. No, Danny Phantom. Considering I didn't fully realize how long that string of emails was, I think I can honestly say they had me hooked and invested in the plot and characters, as you gain introspection into Lily and Nick throughout their correspondence. Lily being someone always looking to appease her family and prove herself to them while undermining her own abilities. Nick, on the other hand, being someone more reserved who moves around a lot, never settling down long enough to form meaningful or lasting connections Honestly, this is a cute and quick little read if you're looking for a romance to sink your teeth into with some nice tension built into it, both sexual and anxiety inducing. The chemistry between Lily and Nick was palpable, translating smoothly from emails to face to face interactions. I wasn't too keen on the plotline of Nick keeping the fact he was the author who ghosted Lily a secret from her throughout the novel. A personal grievance, really. But I did enjoy the underlying tension the secret added to the story. Yeah, the tension was delicious. Now, the actual angst that the reveal resulted in? Didn't much care for it, I fear. It just didn't have that jenny say quan that I look for with these types of problems and reveals. I also did enjoy the secondary / tertiary plotline with Lily and her job. Her struggling with where she is in her career, and getting to where she wants to be was so frustratingly real. It’s ghetto out here. Moving on to spoilers. Ye been warned. Somehow, when working the script for this episode, I found myself unconsciously elbows deep in Nick's business. Patriarchy... you won this round, I guess. Well, actually, considering I'm about to drag him, maybe not. My biggest pitfall with this story. I couldn't fully buy into the romance between Lily and Nick. I'm crying because based on this and previous episodes, I know the girls are going to say I hate straight romances. And you know what? Maybe it’s true. But walk with me, y'all. There's always reasoning behind the ramblings. Why didn't this book, or specifically the romance between the two, click for me? The ‘I don't deserve you’ trope. Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. That trope where the love interest tells the lead that they don't deserve them, or they're not good enough for them. A trope I find is a lot more common with cis straight men in romance books. Maybe 13 year old Zo would have eaten this up, but grown ass Zo? She's tired. She's sick and tired, and I can't believe I just unironically refer to myself in the third person. As soon as I read those words or a similar strain on a page, I'm like, okay, then why are we here? Sis, that's your sign to run. At the beginning of the story. Nick works as a travel writer. The lifestyle has him moving around constantly, never staying in the same place long enough to forge long lasting relationships. The perfect job, honestly, for someone like Nick, whose childhood with a deadbeat, manipulative father and a mother who prioritized said deadbeat over Nick has him believing he'll follow in his father's footsteps, destroying any meaningful relationship he were to get into. One of the only friends Nick has works for a major publisher and gets the book Nick published at a much smaller press that eventually went out of business, picked up and re-licensed for another printing with a huge ass lump sum and payout to Nick, along with movie rights. This is what has Nick moving to New York, being forced in a sense, to slow down and settle down. Something you can see Nick initially rejects, both verbally and non-verbally. For example, his apartment isn't furnished. I'm talking about you've been here for months. You got a nice large six figure check sitting in your bank account, and you ain't got no furniture but a mattress. Yeah, that looks like the apartment of somebody who's used to being on the run. But again, this is a coping mechanism/ survival tactic for Nick. Never stay in one place and never get too close to people and you can never hurt them. Outside, his close friend who works at the publishing house chatting with Lily via email was the first long lasting relationship Nick had formed. Initially, his emails were brief and reserved, and he was slow to reply. But you see him opening up more throughout the email exchange. When his book was picked up by a publisher and he moved to New York, Nick and Lily made plans to meet up in person for the first time. When the time came for their meet up and Nick was faced with the reality of moving their relationship into something a lot more tangible. Homeboy ran Like He's a runner, he's a track star. He gon run away when it gets hard. And that's exactly why I'm sick of his ass. Nick believed he'd ruin it. Such is the life of someone who self-sabotage is due to unresolved trauma from their childhood. When Nick first sees Lily at his apartment complex and talks with her, he has no clue that this is the same Lily he ghosted. When he goes to her apartment and sees her cat and hears about her sisters, all topics they talked about via email, he puts two and two together and decides to distance himself even though he likes her. Distancing himself is a lot harder though in the real world, especially when they literally live in the same apartment building. Lily sorta kind of barges into his life, and he doesn't resist it for very long because like I said before, he likes her. Now... This is where the drag is about to start, so be warned. I have no qualms with this. Be a part of her life. But when you start talking about how you don't deserve to be in her life, so you're just going to stick around for a bit then dip out... Babes. You're losing me. Either stay in or stay out. I'm so sorry for me. You're going to have to pick one or the other. Ain’t no straddling the fence, because you straddling that fence is going to end up hurting my sister's feelings. And shocker, that's exactly what happens. And I get it. He had a rough childhood growing up with absentee parents, an absolute asshole of a father who manipulated his son's desires to have some form of a relationship with him, to use Nick to get his hands on some coins while floating in and out of his life on a whim, and a mother whose priorities always lay with his deadbeat dad. Listen, I get it. But that still doesn't excuse Nick's actions and selfishness in reentering Lily's life, scrambling up my sister's emotions and feelings and then dipping out when you realize things are getting to #REAL and you think you're going to mess things up. Like. Y’all. This man was posted up at her family's cookout talking about he doesn't want to hurt her again after ghosting her, so he's going to try to disentangle himself from her. Babes. You don't see where we're standing at right now? I need you to be so astronomically serious right now, because you're literally having a good ol ki with her family at this barbecue, talking about it's time to separate yourself from her. Don't you think it's a little bit too late for that? We thank God when he broke things off with Lily, saying she deserves better than him and he's not good enough for her sister, said she ain't convincing him that he deserves good things of his life, and dipped. Like I had to give the author her tens for that because I am not here for no damn struggle love. Oh my gosh. Y'all don't understand [pop sound] ...My back just cracked. Y'all don't understand. I hate this trope so bad on a page and inna real life. Like stay away from her! Shortly after this, and an incident with Lily's cat falling sick that Nick helps her out with the two decide to stay friends. Obviously this doesn't last long as it's only days later that, Nick got her pinned up against a wall outside a club macking down on my sister. You see why he piss me off? You see why he piss me off, right? You see it? Okay? Right? Right, right. The Lord works hard, but the devil works harder. I'm dragging him. But it's not even like I dislike him as a person. I just hate the way he's navigating this. Following this little makeout... Nick admits he has feelings for Lily and reveals he is the author who ghosted her. Lily rightfully feels betrayed by Nick and distances herself from him for like two days. Okay. Ultimately, she realizes she loves him regardless, forgives him, and they get together officially. Yay! So Flip or Skip. It’s a skip from me y’all. And I'm going to give it a 2.5 out of five, I guess... I enjoyed the book, she said unconvincingly. It was disappointing, though I can't even lie. I had an opportunity earlier this year to pick up a physical copy and I didn't because for some reason I thought I already had it on my shelf. I do that a lot actually. But after reading it... Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be picking up the physical. Sorry babes. The prices of the books these days, we got to be a little strict around here. Even if I was to get it for free tonight, I don't even think I’d put it on my shelf. No shade. When it comes to the romance between Nick and Lily and their relationship. Yeah, I think they were cute. The chemistry was there, and they had good banter. Nick was just pissing me off with the whole she deserves better than me schtick, so I'm going to dip out, but I'm not going to dip out until I’ve burrowed myself deep into her heart so when I do dip out, I'll make it sure she really feels it in her chest. Okay, let me stop dragging him. Nick also somewhat confronted both his parents about his situation growing up. Although you didn't get much verbally from his mom, you can tell she's not someone who talks about her feelings, you could see there was a bridge steadily being built between the two, and it gave me optimism that they can get to a good place in the future. When it comes to his deadbeat daddy. Yeah. I don't give a damn like that man is a trifling ass deadbeat. I don't care. And based on their interaction at the end of the story, he ain't learned shit from all those antics. I do not give a damn about that, man. On that positive note. That's it for this episode of the pod. This one was a quickie. I hope y'all enjoyed. And don't forget to drop a comment or a like if you did. I'll see you in the next episode. Buh bye.
