PARK AVENUE SUMMER by Renee Rosen-Review & Giveaway
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About the book: Release Date April 30, 2019
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.
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REVIEW: PARK AVENUE SUMMER by Renee Rosen is a stand alone story of women’s historical fiction focusing on a young woman in 1965 whose short lived career as the personal secretary to Helen Gurley Brown jumpstarts a life of love, loss, and professional success as a world renowned photographer.
Told from first person perspective (Alice) PARK AVENUE SUMMER follows twenty-one year old, single woman Alice Weiss as she ventures to New York City in 1965, to experience the life her late mother had always promised. With the help of her mother’s one time best friend Elaine Sloan, Alice will be hired as the personal secretary to Cosmopolitan’s new editor in Chief, Helen Gurley Brown, who along with Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem changed the world. As Helen struggles to keep Cosmo afloat, Alice battles the office gossip, lies, betrayal and manipulation, and her own heart breaking relationships.
PARK AVENUE SUMMER is an imaginative retelling that takes liberty with the events surrounding the first few months following Helen Gurley Brown’s entry into the world of magazine publishing. From boardroom squabbles to rampant employee departures, through the eyes of twenty-one year old Alice Weiss, we are witness to period in time that started the feminist revolution in North America. Our heroine’s venture into the world of publication is the stepping stone to a successful career as a photographer for Cosmo, as well as several popular women’s magazines. A fascinating and captivating piece of women’s (historical) fiction meant to entertain and intrigue.
Copy supplied by Netgalley
Reviewed by Sandy
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Renee Rosen is the bestselling author of historical fiction. Her novels include Windy City Blues, White Collar Girl, What the Lady Wants and Dollface as well as the young adult novel, Every Crooked Pot. Her most recent novel is Park Avenue Summer (April 30, 2019 from Penguin Random House/Berkley).
Renee is a native of Akron, Ohio and a graduate of The American University in Washington DC. She now lives in Chicago where she is at work on a new novel, The Social Graces, a story about Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt vying for control of New York society during the Gilded Age. (Coming in 2020 from Penguin Random House/Berkley).
She frequently visits with book clubs (either in person or via Skype/FaceTime) and is available for speaking engagements. For more information, feel free to contact her using the contact form.
Renee Rosen’s Publisher (Penguin Random House) is offering a paper copy of PARK AVENUE SUMMER to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.
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