Fran Littlewood Archives - The Litertarian

A tree falls in the woods, and all three of your adult children are standing beneath it. You dive forward to remove one from danger, but the tree never falls, and the child you went to save was decidedly not the one nearest you. There is no hiding what happened. Nothing at all, and yet something. Something none of them can unsee, unknow, and Patrick cannot undo.

The Accidental Favorite by Fran Littlewood Book Cover

Meet the Fisher’s. It’s not often the whole family gets back together in the same place at the same time now that they’re all grown, but it is Vivienne’s seventieth birthday, and her three daughters and their family’s have come to stay for a few days at a unique glass house for the celebration. Once everyone arrives, they gather for pictures, which is how the sisters ended up in the path of the falling tree. After, from their father’s reaction and because of their sudden forced proximity, old resentments start to boil back to the surface, and secrets being held close.

I absolutely loved Fran’s first novel Amazing Grace Adams. I loved everything about that story, and I can see after reading this second release that she is very interested in family dynamics and the human response to trauma (some big, some small). The thing I admired most about The Accidental Favorite is the exploration of how the most subtle moments in a family, or any relationship really, can have ripple effects that resound through personalities and time.

The novel itself is quite subtle. The metaphor of the glass house is so interesting, and big things do happen throughout the novel, but the meaning largely hides between the lines.

I am such a fan of Littlewood’s writing and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Accidental Favorite
Author:: Fran Littlewood
Genre:: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher:: Henry Holt & Co.
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 10h 45m
Audiobook Narrator:: Fiona Button
Published:: June 24th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Amazing Grace Adams | Fran Littlewood
The Most Fun We Ever Had | Claire Lombardo
Apples Never Fall | Liane Moriarty (Or Three Wishes!)

Have you ever had a bad day? Bad week really. Months, even. Or a decade, if we’re being honest. Grace has. And she’s kept it together, mostly, through most of it. But you can only hold together for so long once your vessel is cracked and leaking and you refuse to acknowledge it.

Amazing Grace Adams, Fran Littlewood, Book Cover, Book Review

Grace Adams is a mess. A perimenopausal, hot-flashy mess, stuck in a traffic jam that is preventing her from reaching her estranged daughter’s birthday party. Everything has gone wrong lately. Everything. And just maybe if Grace can deliver the custom inside-joke birthday cake she had made to the party she was never invited to, her daughter would forgive her. Her ex-husband might forgive her. Everything might take a step back in the right direction. But she can’t get there if she’s stuck in the misery of traffic until it’s over. So, as a hail-Mary last-ditch effort, she opens the door of her car and walks away from it. Right there, in the middle of traffic, and foots it the rest of the way to the bakery. This is only the first of many questionable decisions Grace makes that day.

The genius of this story is in the revelations. While the present Grace is on a frantic quest to fix everything she thinks she’s broken in one desperate grand gesture, we’re traced back through the steps that led her to such a desperate moment. The magical meeting of her eventual husband at a linguistics conference, their unconventional courtship and marriage, the family dramas they’re forced to navigate, the trials of new parentship, partnership, and beyond. Each petal is pulled back and back and back until we get to the real hurts that Grace and her family are struggling with. And they’re big ones. Heart shattering. I sobbed for…a long time…as I read through the last chapters. Right there on the couch, while my family watched TV. This book is devastating and beautiful and the writing is so lovely and clever. Here are some of the quotes I underlined:

A message that has made him fizz inside with what? Laughter?

She has doughy skin that makes her look like one of the pastries she’s selling.

Amazing Grace Adams Uncensored Book Cover, Fran Littlewood, Book Review — The uncensored cover.

They stand without speaking until the woman has moved past. As if in tacit agreement that their conversation is private, a secret between them.

If she could, she would walk out of any room that she was in.

Grace is hugging her knees to her chest and listening to the hypnotic suck and pull of the filter system.

This is a great book, and it was a pleasure to read. Fran Littlewood has delivered a story that is witty, passionate, and a little bit manic. It explores depths of love and forgiveness and grief that won’t soon be forgotten. I love all of it. The title, the cover, and the gift that is the prose.

I would recommend this book to women around Grace’s age. A woman who’s seen it all. Marriage, children, the chaos of it all, and the monotony of it too. The routine. The staleness. That, I think, is the audience who will get the most out of it. Who will understand her. But of course any fan of literary fiction might enjoy it. It’ll probably make you cry, so try not to go into it with a fragile heart.

Details

Title:: Amazing Grace Adams
Author:: Fran Littlewood
Genre:: Literary Fiction
Publisher:: Henry Holt & Co.
Length:: 272 pages
Audio Length:: 9h 51m
Audiobook Narrator:: Claire Skinner
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: September 5th, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars
Spice Rating:: 1 (brief, not explicit)