Park Avenue Summer

wasn't there before one pulled up alongside me. I gave the driver the address while he laid on his horn, inching forward, leaving barely a whisper of air between his bumper and the taxicab in front of us. We were one in a chain of yellow cabs going nowhere fast.

 

I checked the clock on the dashboard. "I have an appointment in twenty minutes," I said to the driver through the cloudy Plexiglas window separating us. "Do you think we can make it in time?"

 

He shot me an impatient look through his rearview mirror. "You coulda walked it, lady," he said in a thick Brooklyn accent.

 

I sat back, trying to relax, clutching my portfolio: a homemade case that protected my photographs, mounted to sheets of construction paper and held between two cardboard covers. I used a black ribbon to tie it shut.

 

It was a bright, unseasonably warm day, and the driver had all the windows rolled down. I drew a deep breath, unable to place the scent until I realized that it was everything I was not smelling: the absence of grass, trees and those easy, open-space breezes. The flow of air, obstructed by the buildings, seemed stagnant, almost stale, yet the city was in constant motion, all vigor and energy.

 

At the corner of 47th and Eighth Avenue, I spotted a man and a woman waiting for the light. They reminded me of couples I'd seen in the movies. He was in a dark suit, his fedora worn with a Sinatra tilt. She was impeccably dressed in a skirt and matching jacket, belted at the waist. He pulled a cigarette from his breast pocket, offering her one before he suavely lit them both. As puffs of smoke gathered above their heads, the streetlight changed and off they went. I watched until they disappeared into the throng of New Yorkers, wishing I had my camera with me. You didn't see people like that back in Ohio.

 

My cab cleared the intersection and I grew giddy thinking that soon I'd be taking my place among the locals, walk

with all her cunning, vision, and shocking frugality. Park Avenue Summer is both a breezy Girl-Takes-Manhattan fairy tale, and a crackling account of how a brazen editor against her bosses' better judgment invented iconic Cosmopolitan Magazine. This novel perfectly captures the zeitgeist of 1965. Sally Koslow, author of Another Side of Paradise and bestselling author of The Late, Lamented Molly Marx

Renee Rosen combines meticulous research with a true affection for her characters to bring this heady time movingly to life. Elizabeth Letts, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion 

This is a satisfying read about one young woman s attempt to take advantage of the doors opening for women in 1960s America, and Alice is a likable complex heroine...Recommended for fans of Fiona Davis and Melanie Benjamin. Library Journal

Where the book sparkles brightest is in Rosen s complete success in creating a soapy, small-town-girl-in-the-big-city story that includes sophisticated bad boys, designer clothes, and lots of smoking and day drinking. An ode to idealized 1960s New York, this champagne bubble of a novel takes the Mad Menapproach to depicting single, twentysomething women. Booklist

Park Avenue Summer is a sweet, romantic story about making it in that big city, having your dreams come true, while finding friends, recapturing family, and finding forever love. Be still my heart. I loved it and found it hard to put down until the ending. It is a delicious delight that is simply wonderful! Thank you, Ms. Rosen. Fresh Fiction 

Park Avenue Summer is a frothy and fun cocktail of fact and fiction, perfect for anyone who has ever been a Cosmo Girl. Augusta Chronicle
 
Park Avenue Summer is a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of the iconic Cosmopolitan magazine and its equally iconic editor, Helen Gurley Brown This novel features strong heroines and intertwines a love story and a mystery, and most of all, heart. The storyline is fast-paced and utterly absorbing: a delight from start to finish. Historical Novel Reviews 

Instantly absorbing, thoroughly researched and a fun, breezy read. It s like revisiting Mad Men, but from Peggy and Joan s points of view. BookReporter