Park Avenue Summer

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Author: Renee Rosen

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Berkley

Published: April 30, 2019

Book Description: 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 a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.

For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters. Editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed.
 
While pressure mounts at the magazine, Alice struggles not to lose sight of her own dreams as she’s swept up into a glamorous world of five-star dinners, lavish parties, and men who are certainly no good. Because if Helen Gurley Brown has taught her anything, it’s that a woman can demand to have it all.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

Review: Park Avenue Summer was such a surprising read. This is a historical fiction story of Alice Weiss who becomes the assistant of the fames Helen Gurley Brown who just took over as Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Rosen did a wonderful job writing this book. It had a lightness that made it easy-breezy to read but with a very important story. The narrator Alice is starting out on her own in NYC, still recovering from her mother’s death and the break-up of her engagement. Her one goal to become a photographer. Quickly she is receives an offer to be Helen Gurley Brown’s assistant. All the executives want to make sure she fails, and quickly it is Alice’s job to protect that from happening.

This book was so good. Rosen did an excellent job portraying Brown in the fast paced world. By writing this in the eyes of a fictional character she was able to make the minor changes that helped make this story seamless. You will be rooting for all the central characters in this book. So very glad that I read this one.