Park Avenue Summer

Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada as Renée Rosen draws readers into the glamour of 1965 New York City and Cosmopolitan Magazine, where a brazen new Editor-in-Chief--Helen Gurley Brown--shocks America by daring to talk to women about all things off limits...

New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big city dreams and unexpectedly lands the job of a lifetime working for Helen Gurley Brown, the first female Editor-in-Chief of a then failing Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller, Sex and the Single Girl. While confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands, someone tries to pull Alice into this scheme to sabotage her boss. But Alice remains loyal and becomes all the more determined to help Helen succeed. As pressure mounts at the magazine and Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she quickly learns that in Helen Gurley Brown's world, a woman can demand to have it all.


My Review

I am a fan of this author. The last several books were really good. The best part of the books from Ms. Rosen is that I can be transported back in time and step into the shoes of the main character. Thus, the reason that I was sadly disappointed that I did not find that magic in this newest offering from Ms. Rosen.

Alice is the voice of this book. She is a nice voice. She started out as a naïve girl but by the end had grown up into a talented woman. She had a good mentor in Helen. It is a dog eat dog world; especially in a male dominant industry as Helen was in charge of. I liked that she did not back down. Yes, she may have gotten a few runs in her panty hoses and taken her earrings out when she meant real business but she still never gave up; no matter how stacked the odds were against her. Alice was the shoulder that Helen leaned on.

While, I did enjoy this book and the two main lead female characters, I did not fully embrace them as strongly as I usually do and did with some of Ms. Rosen's prior novels. Yet, this still was a fairly quick read for me. I am still a fan of Ms. Rosen and do look forward to her next book.

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