I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Lauren Layne did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would highly recommend it!

I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis held so much promise, but the book failed to deliver as much as I hoped for from it. I enjoyed it well enough, but with a few tweaks it could have been an even more enjoyable read.

This book has a fantastic premise that sucked me in from the first page. The growing friendship between these women over the worst of circumstances was at times hilarious while also being heartfelt. I loved Naomi's tough attitude and vendetta against those who had wronged her in the past. I also loved her realistically growing to change her stance after meeting the adult Cunningham's. I can't wait to read Audrey and Claire's stories next.

Naomi Powell is moving up. Her accessory subscription service, Maxcessory, is growing, so she’s getting ready to move the whole team into a new office. And she has just signed a new lease on a beautiful condo in Tribeca. The Bronx-born, self-made owner of her billion dollar business is ready for more in her life. She’s moving forward from her last (bad) relationship. She’s moving on to a better future.

And then she gets a call from her past.

A woman calls from 517 Park Avenue about setting up an interview with the co-op board. Naomi doesn’t completely understand at first, as she hadn’t put in an application to live there. But she recognized the address right away.

When she’d been 9 years old, she and her mother had lived at 517 Park Avenue. Her mother had been a live-in housekeeper for the Cunninghams. Her mother had had an affair with Walter Cunningham, and when his wife confronted him about it, he lied. But worse than that, his son Oliver hadn’t said a word, even though she and Oliver had both walked in on them.

Walter’s wife had kicked them out immediately, without offering Naomi’s mother a chance to find other accommodations or even her last paycheck. Naomi and her mother survived, but her mother was never the same. She had been blackballed from working as a housekeeper again and never quite regained her spark for life.

Naomi had worked very hard to put herself through school and open her own business. Now she has the assets to be considered for an apartment in the old prewar building from her childhood. Now she’s made it. And as she waits for her interview with the representative for the co-op board, she holds her application in her hands, the one that her mother had filled out and sent in just weeks before she had died. Naomi was there for her mother, to prove that they belonged there as much as anyone else. And when the representative for the co-op board came in to interview her, it was none other than Oliver Cunningham himself.

Naomi never expected to be put through to a second interview, but somehow it happened. And then she found herself moving in, right next door to the same Oliver Cunningham who called her “Carrots” as a kid because of her red hair. Now she can show him and his father who she really is and that she’s just as good as they are.

Working at home one day, she hears noises in the hall. She opens her door and discovers an older gentleman knocking. He has on an expensive shirt and boxers. Naomi tries to ask him if he needs help, and when he turns to face her, she recognizes him immediately: Walter Cunningham, who made her life a nightmare back when she was a kid. Clearly though he is no longer than man. Naomi coaxes him into her apartment and calls Oliver to tell him that his father is safe in her apartment. She finds out that he has Alzheimers and while his caretaker is generally very attentive, Walter had taken the three minutes she needed for a bathroom break to leave the apartment.

Seeing Walter so helpless softens her feelings towards him, and watching Oliver care for him makes Naomi stop in her tracks. What does this mean for Naomi’s attraction to this new Oliver? Can she trust him? Can she trust her own feelings? And what does this mean for her future?

Lauren Layne’s Passion on Park Avenue is the first in her Central Park Pact series, and she starts the series with a bang. From page one, this novel is bursting with strong women taking Manhattan by storm. The personalities of these women move their stories forward, and though they face doubts and fears and challenges just like everyone else, they face them with grace, with intelligence, and with a strong support system of friends.

I listened to Passion on Park Avenue as an audio book, so I got to hear narrators Nancy Wu and Sean Patrick Hopkins take turns telling the stories of Naomi and Oliver. I thought Wu did a great job with Naomi’s story, but it was Hopkins who stole the book away. He brought to mind the Colin Firth as Mark Darcy vibe (that’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, if you don’t know) to Oliver that brought his buttoned up sexiness to the story. I blew through this audio book in only 2 days because it was just too hard to stop listening. I definitely recommend the audio version of Passion on Park Avenue!

Egalleys for Passion on Park Avenue were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio book myself through Audible.

As a huge fan of Lauren Layne's books, I was excited to read this new series after reading the tease when the book deal was announced. Unfortunately, this book didn't leave me frantically turning the pages like some of her previous novels.. The book fell flat in the chemistry and romance department. I wanted more connection and more steam and this book didn't deliver.

This was my first Lauren Layne read and I was highly impressed. I loved her fun writing style that made her characters so relatable right away. The enemies to lovers trope is usually a hard one for me but I loved the execution and chemistry Layne created. Naomi and Oliver are incredibly memorable characters for me and I'm excited to read the rest of the series.

I enjoyed this modern romance. At first I wasn't 100% on board with the background of the 3 ladies who the story is built around, but it grew on me and by the end of the book I was rooting for them all. I look forward to the rest of the books in this series. Another Layne book that did not disappoint.

Love! This story was so much fun and I enjoyed every piece of it. I cant wait to read the rest of the series. Smooth writing and relatable characters made this story come to life. A fun weekend read!

I LOVE Lauren Layne books and this was no exception. I don't know why it has so many negative reviews on Amazon. It was a good read, fresh concept and likeable strong characters. I've already read the entire series and would highly recommend it.

I loved this. Though I love all Lauren layne so that’s nothing new. I loved Anne of Green gables references.

Great book. Liked the writing and the story line. I would definitely recommend to others and would read more from Thai author

This book was underwhelming for me. I couldn’t really get into it and the sex scenes are behind closed doors which I am ok with, but wasn’t expecting with this book. The characters were cute. A good fluff read.

Passion on Park Avenue was an interesting story about a young woman trying to make it in Manhattan. It's filled with fun characters and an entertaining story. First in a 3-book series I'd be interested in reading the second and third books that come after.

Such a cute story! I love that the book had a strong female protagonist. The character development was fantastic and I recommend this one to all lovers of chic-lit and romance readers.

Thank you Publisher and NetGalley for the early copy.

I enjoyed the writing style but found the plot/genre is not for me.

Special thanks to Lauren Layne, Gallery Books & Lisa Filipe for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Passion on Park Avenue is a wonderful start to a trilogy following three women & their unlikely yet special friendship.

In all honesty, it took me a bit to get into Passion on Park Avenue. Anytime a title has the word "passion" in it, I gear myself up for some open door romance. Well, over halfway through & no romance, I', thinking this may not be the book for me.

Yes, I'm liking all the characters. Of course, I think the focus on women's friendships is amazing. But, where is the romance?

I did what any good reader does, I put the book down. Passion on Park Avenue sat on my nightstand for over 6 months. Meanwhile, I kept hearing wonderful things about the series. Finally, I felt like I was in the mood to finish it & guess what?!

I really liked it!

Well, as soon as I start reading, I think the story moved in a way that fully captured my attention. I'm beaming when I turn the last page.

As soon as I finished Passion on Park Avenue, I moved on to Love on Lexington. The friendships between the three female leads is really special. Layne is able to write the women in a fun but still authentic manner. If you're a fan of women's fiction, but newer to the romance genre this is a great way to test the waters. Most of the romance is closed door with little to zero steam. Overall, I am so glad I finished this book.

This book is a romance, without any explicit scenes, so if you read romance specifically for love scenes, you might not love this book. I personally thought it was wonderful. Lauren Layne Is especially talented at evoking warm and fuzzy feelings in her readers. I tend to read her books most when I need that “high” that comes from a sweet love story. Ms. Layne is really talented at creating relationships that pull on your heartstrings, and creating difficult situations that don’t seem impossible. In this book, the protagonist must overcome childhood trauma to experience her happily ever after.

I have to admit, I had a really hard time connecting with Naomi and that made getting into the book sort of difficult. I also wasn’t prepared for the sort of “fade to black” approach to the steamy bits which left me vaguely frustrated. But beyond that, I actually ended up enjoying the book enough to want to continue the series (which isn’t really a hardship since it’s only a trilogy). While it’s sort of evident when we meet him that Oliver has matured and become a better person as an adult than he was a 10 years old, I liked that Naomi was forced to analyze herself and her personal motivations and that she actually grew as a person as the story progressed (yay for character development!). In fact, I think that her character arc is my favorite part of the book. I’m particularly excited for Audrey’s story (since I think we met her love interest here) and for Claire’s story as well. 3 out of 5 wine glasses.

This was great! A fun and quick read with a really interesting premise. I'd love for this to lead to a series where we can see what happens to the three women!

Sweet, cute, G rated. I like the women friendships and the adorable romance between Naomi and Oliver. Well written. Over all, fun and entertaining read.