Author: Lauren Layne
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: May 2019
Genre: Chick Lit / Contemporary Romance
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: From the author of the New York Times bestselling Stiletto and Oxford series, the first in a sizzling new series following the unlikely friendship of three Upper East Side women as they struggle to achieve their dreams and find true love and happiness in the city that never sleeps.
For as long as she can remember, Bronx-born Naomi Powell has had one goal: to prove her worth among the Upper East Side elite—the same people for which her mom worked as a housekeeper. Now, as the strongminded, sassy CEO of one of the biggest jewelry empires in the country, Naomi finally has exactly what she wants—but it’s going to take more than just the right address to make Manhattan’s upper class stop treating her like an outsider.
The worst offender is her new neighbor, Oliver Cunningham—the grown son of the very family Naomi’s mother used to work for. Oliver used to torment Naomi when they were children, and as a ridiculously attractive adult, he’s tormenting her in entirely different ways. Now they find themselves engaged in a battle-of-wills that will either consume or destroy them…
Filled with charm and heart and plenty of sex and snark, this entertaining series will hook you from the very first page.
My Thoughts: Passion on Park Avenue by new to me author Lauren Layne introduces us to three women, who by all intents and purposes should never have met or became friends. Two of these women are the mistresses of the third woman’s husband and these women meet on the day of the husband’s funeral. Awkward,, yes, Captain Obvious, but this trope pulled me all the way into the story. Who needs salacious daytime talk shows when this book provides everything enquiring minds want to know?
This is the first book in a series and I absolutely insist you read this one before the others as there is a lot of background detail on the three women that is crucial to know beforehand. This story is about one of the mistresses, Naomi, who still carries the shame of her mother’s affair with her mother’s employer and the fallout it brought to their lives. Now, decades later, Naomi is finally in a financial position to go for one of the apartments in the building on Park Avenue where she and her mother lived while working for the elite Cunningham family. Naomi carries a lot of anger towards this family because the Cunningham son, Oliver, lied about the affair, causing Naomi and her mother to be thrown into the street, penniless and homeless. The best part of this is that Oliver doesn’t remember his childhood playmate and his father is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s so he doesn’t remember much of anything either. I was on pins and needles watching this play out and the chemistry between Naomi and Oliver was palpable. I even felt a little bit of empathy and compassion for Oliver’s father, though he wasn’t a nice man before his illness and was hard to tolerate now at times.
In addition to Naomi and Oliver, I really liked the other two women, Claire and Audrey and look forward to getting to know them better in their stories. The plot moves at a wonderful pace and kept me fully engaged.
My Final Verdict: Overall, I found this story to be charming and hard to put down. I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy stories of unsuccessful revenge, letting go of past pain and characters who rise up from the ashes of their past trauma with head held high.
Thank you to the publisher, Gallery Books, who provided an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.
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