Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for The Favour. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Blurb:

Fortune favours the fraud…

When she was thirteen years old, Ada Howell lost not just her father, but the life she felt she was destined to lead. Now, at eighteen, Ada is given a second chance when her wealthy godmother gifts her with an extravagant art history trip to Italy.

In the palazzos of Venice, the cathedrals of Florence and the villas of Rome, she finally finds herself among the kind of people she aspires to be: sophisticated, cultured, privileged. Ada does everything in her power to prove she is one of them. And when a member of the group dies in suspicious circumstances, she seizes the opportunity to permanently bind herself to this gilded set.

But everything hidden must eventually surface, and when it does, Ada discovers she’s been keeping a far darker secret than she could ever have imagined…

Review:

When I started The Favour, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was captivated by Laura Vaughan’s writing. She takes us effortlessly from an old house in Wales to Italy, then to London and back again several times. Her descriptions are wonderful and I really felt as though I was taking in the scenes with the characters.

There is quite a large cast of characters and I must admit that it did take me some time to fully get to grips with who was who. That said, each character was really well developed. I wouldn’t say that any of them are particularly likeable and even the protagonist, Ada, does some questionable things, but that doesn’t matter in the case of this novel – part of the fun is watching them squirm.

The plot of The Favour is really well constructed and I enjoyed trying to pick apart the web of lies that grew as I got deeper into the story. It is probably best described as a slow burner, but this gives the reader plenty of time to get a feel for the toxic atmosphere and complicated relationships within the novel. The revelations are exciting and I was keen to see how everything that had built up over a period of years would unravel.

The Favour is available from Amazon.

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