The Favor

July 15, 2013
Hart's romance is inspired by the belief that young lovers who shared a loathsome secret, a tragic accident, and emotional turmoil can reconnect and rekindle years later to address unfinished business. When troubled teen Janelle Decker was told "rehab or reform school," she opted for her beloved Grandma Nan's house instead. Next door to Nan were the "motherless Tierney boys"âGabe, Andy, and Mikeyâliving with a vulgar, abusive father who made mysterious, unexplained late-night visits to the boys' rooms. Forward 20 years and now single mom Janelle returns to care for her ailing grandma and enroll her son, Bennett, in sixth grade. Still living next door is handsome, surly Gabe, who is openly hostile toward Janelle. Janelle and Gabe's teen romance is portrayed as intense, yet aloof; intimate, voyeuristic incidents expose their mutually gratifying antics via facing bedroom windows, both as teens and now. Hart (All Fall Down) gradually reveals the lurid circumstances surrounding "the favor" and the mystery of the shooting that left Andy disabled as a teen. Janelle's kindness toward Nan, and the emotional toll it takes as she watches her die, is heartfelt, and the detailed physicality involved in caring for an elderly loved one is portrayed vividly and compassionately.

May 1, 2013
After nearly 20 years, Janelle Decker returns to her grandmother's house, facing secrets long buried, a complicated, interrupted love affair, and an opportunity for the kind of truth that breaks down barriers and opens up hope for the future. When Janelle's uncles ask her to move to the tiny Pennsylvania town where her Nan lives to take care of her, Janelle finds it depressingly easy to leave her California life behind. She'd visited most summers in her childhood and even stayed for a time in high school, growing close to the Tierney boys who lived next door: Gabe, who was her age, and his younger twin brothers, Andy and Mikey. At the time, Gabe and Janelle had shared an intense, secretive relationship, but when Gabe asked Janelle for a favor, one violent night changed everything, sending Janelle across the country and uncertain of the details that left Andy fighting for his life and Mikey and Gabe stuck in the painful grip of guilt and recriminations. Now, as Janelle helps Nan prepare to die, she and Gabe dance around their continued attraction and the brutal secrets buried in the past. None of the Tierneys want to face the devastating truth of one horrible night, or the tragic events that led up to it, but they'll have to before the past repeats itself or the door closes on the hope for a brighter future. Hart's book has an interesting premise, and for the most part, it's an absorbing read. However, a narrative that moves jarringly from past to present and an overly melodramatic buildup to a bombshell secret that, in the end, seems fumbled muffle the emotional impact of crucial events and weaken the success of the book. A tense look at dark secrets and the redemptive power of truth; not perfect, but compelling.

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June 1, 2013
At the behest of her aunts and uncles, Janelle Decker and her 12-year-old son, Bennett, have moved from California to take care of Janelle's dying grandmother. When Janelle was a child, she often visited Nan, and, as a rebellious teen, she lived with her. The Tierney brothers lived next door: Gabe, the eldest, and the twins, Andy and Michael. Gabe and Andy are still next door with their incapacitated dad. Andy, who has a stripe of white in his hair where he was supposedly accidentally shot by Gabe, has cognitive disabilities but is still good with math and video games. Bennett has issues fitting in at school, but when Andy starts tutoring him, they become friends. Flashing back and forth in time, Janelle and Gabe's complicated relationship is slowly pieced together. White lower-middle class families are underrepresented in contemporary fiction, giving Hart's mainstream novel, which should appeal to Oprah book readers, a touch of novelty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)