Really enjoyed this! An interesting book about sisterhood and sibling rivalry. It did take a while for me to get stuck into the story, but the flashback chapters helped to build the characters.

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy!

I have to say I struggled at first with this book - it seemed like an odd idea for a story as I wasn’t sure where the story was leading to. But I’m glad I preserved as was full of of feelings that could be so real and felt by any siblings- how we each have our own experience with the same set of parents. Definitely an interesting read in the end.

An interesting story, full of family dynamics, sibling rivalry and complex characters. This is a family who, on the surface are doing well, heading off to celebrate the special birthday of their mother as well as the naming ceremony of the newest member of the family. A split second moment and a choice made by the father sets the family on a downward spiral where lots of memories and grievances from the past begin to emerge. The 3 sisters in this family are all dealing with their own separate issues, and this book does a really good job of exploring the dynamics which exist between them.

This was a good read that plunges the reader into the middle of an interesting family dynamic. The title comes from a split second action on behalf of the dad of the family, Patrick, that gives the impression that he has a favourite child of his three daughters. What then flows from this is a complex history with many secrets and twists that have shaped all members of the family.

Fran Littlewood is very good at creating three dimensional characters that generate emotion in the reader. So, we can be empathising with someone one minute then raging at their flaws the next. The family is very believable, with the sisters fiercely loving each other and feeling resentful at each other at the same time.

There's a lot about insecurity and worries about doing what we 'should' be doing, which readers will be able to relate to. The part where both Nancy and Alex tell each other that they'd always felt themselves to be the 'ugly one' of the sisters is so poignant, because it points to how people can live with limiting beliefs for years.

The story takes place in a glass house in a remote spot where Eva, the youngest and richest daughter, has brought everyone to have a naming ceremony for her sister Alex's baby and also to mark their mother Vivienne's 70th birthday. This is the setting for all kinds of tensions to come to a head.

Everyone has a secret. Eva has secretly married her lover, Scott, who is wonderfully irritating. Nancy has been suspended from work. And Alex is finding it hard to feel love for her baby.

Littlewood does the dialogue between the family members really well, and we really do feel like we are right there in the middle of them all. There isn't a 'plot' as such, just the unfolding of various family dramas over the course of a few days, where we wait to see whether various secrets and resentments will surface or not. It's a really easy read and I would recommend it - thanks to Netgalley for the preview.

What would you do if you found out that your sibling was the favourite daughter? A brilliant story of family dynamics, sibling rivalry and a house in the woods. Interesting characters and I enjoyed reading about how their pasts made them who they were and how they worked through the issue of finding out that there was a favourite.

A book about the complex relationships between sisters.
There's a lot to like about this book, it does transport you back in nostalgia to childhood memories and picks apart the little instances in families that become defining moments and especially how even grown ups regress to their childhood/teenage selves once back in the bosom of family dynamics.
For me, I found there was a lot of characters to keep track of and a lot of characteristics in some of them that made them dislikeable. This combined meant I never felt a necessary connection to the family in a way I would have liked.

Unfortunately, this is a dnf for me. I’ve reached halfway and I’m just not gelling with any of the characters - I keep forgetting who is who and I’m not engaged enough to go back and check. Sorry, as I loved the authors previous book.

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.