...sigh...Lauren Layne, my current favorite romance author. The premise of this one was really cute; three women scorned over the same man become fast friends and help each other navigate the wilds of NYC dating, all the while trying to remain true to themselves and not settle for anything less than the best.. All dress fabulously and have super expensive taste in shoes. What's not to love? There was a definitive lack of heat and romance in this one, for sure. I know Lauren has expressed this before, saying that she didn't want to keep writing these steamy love scenes but those are what really drive her books and make them unforgettable and unput-downable. Without that, I felt as if there was a slight lack of chemistry between the 2 main characters, Naomi and Oliver. Oliver was definitely likable enough but there was something missing. I do look forward to the other 2 books in the series because I'm curious how Claire and Audrey's stories will turn out and if Lauren will revise some of her plot, based on my and others' reviews that had a similar flavor. That being said, this one would still be on my to-read list, had it not been for the generosity of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren Layne is one of the best contemporary romance authors writing today. Loved the book, the characters, the chemistry. The premise is interesting and I am looking forward to the other books.

A new series by Lauren Layne check . Set in NYC check. Sassy classy main character check. This book totally hit it out of the park for me ! I love loved this book . A must read for sure . This book was graciously provided via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was kind of my breaking point in wishing that romance books came with ratings because I was expecting angst and steamy scenes in this but there's only one fade-to-black scene. So from now on, I'm rating romance books in my reviews, and this is definitely rated G.

I enjoyed this book mainly because it was written better than a lot of romance books I've been reading. The writing was actually very nice and I never found myself caught up with cheesy dialogue or wishing something had been explained better; it was consistently pleasant, which isn't to say it was amazing, but it never hindered my reading experience. I also loved the premise of this book and the main character. Following the POV of a CEO and hearing her story of being a badass and a self-starter, especially in a male-dominated business world of NYC. I loved Naomi immediately. Her backstory set up an actually compelling story behind the enemies to lovers element of the plot that I found believable and also justifiable for her to have held a grudge all those years and still consider him trash.

But though the things I enjoyed about this book were plenty, other things I wasn't so much a fan of. Firstly, the pacing of this book just didn't capture me, and I think it's a me thing and not anything the book itself did (see: there was very little actual romance/kissing/sex in this to drive my attention). I initially liked that this book focused equally on Naomi's work, friends, and romance, but by the end of the book I found myself skimming for the romance. Maybe I'm biased because I was just in the mood for some lovin, but nothing really drove the story from any of those other parts of her life, which made her drama with Oliver more elevated. I just found I wasn't super eager to pick up this book, hence why it took me over a week to read whereas I normally read romane books in less than a day.

This isn't to say that the romance wasn't good. I LOVED Oliver and their banter was so witty and, again, driven by that enemies to lovers vibe that I find so addicting and great. I just didn't really care about the plot that surrounded them, which is a shame because I think the book being about a CEO was important, yet the setting of her actually working as that CEO was a bit dry. In a way, it felt like the plot of this book got side lined to make room for the romance, but the romance itself didn't really deliver on angst or steaminess, so nothing was left to keep my attention.

Even so, I think this book provides a fun and empowering story with a healthy relationship that readers of non-explicit romance might enjoy more than I did. I don't think I'll finish this series, but I would definitely read more by this author if I were promised some steamy scenes.

I was super excited for Lauren Layne's newest book especially because I was getting Stiletto vibes, and I loved that series! Passion on Park Avenue was a great opening book to what I'm sure will be a great series. I'm so excited for the next books!

If you've seen the movie The Other Woman, Naomi and her friends' "meet-cute" is similar to that. Despite them all unknowingly being involved with the same guy, when they finally meet, their friendship takes off immediately. They make a pact, and from there, we have our story!

Their friendship is so cute, and I can't wait to get more of it! (Side note: I'm so intrigued by Audrey's book if the hero is who I'm thinking [eye emoji]) They're so supporting of and uplifting to each other. This book shares the best thing about the Stiletto series: strong female friendships.

I liked Naomi's dedication to her business, which she built from the ground up. It was nice to see the heroine as the CEO and the hero in a less intense job. Also, Naomi wanting her story to be told to inspire young girls that they too can accomplish their dreams was great.

And now to the main point: the romance. I loved the love interest, Oliver! He was hot and thoughtful and caring. His chemistry with Naomi was soooo good. There was so much great tension, I loved it.

Lauren Layne is starting yet another great series, and Passion on Park Avenue is evidence of it. This book was so nice and soft but also filled with tension and electricity. I can't wait for the next books! Pick this one up on May 28.

**This review will be posted on April 7, 2019.**

I found the relationship to be underdeveloped and was concerned that Naomi's need for revenge drove their interactions more than anything else. I'd be more curious to see how the rest of the series plays out.

Okay, so where to begin? The blurb. I was instantly intrigued, and thought that I would really enjoy this, but it was just okay for me. I loved the premise of Passion On Park Avenue. I loved how strong the characters were. Overall, I did enjoy the story line, even though it was hard for me to concentrate because of the back and forth. I did enjoy the secondary characters though. I felt like most of them, made this story what it is. Their bonds were created out of a hardship, and it made such strong friendships, which was very admirable. I felt like the conflict was overrated. It didn't flow with the story as well, as what I am assuming this author thought it would. Some of the characters made me question them, because as adults it felt like they were extremely childish, and not understanding given the circumstances. They seemed fake, which I am not a fan of. Overall, I am glad I picked up this book, and gave it a chance. Maybe for others it will not fall as flat.

Oliver. I was really hoping to fall for him. I will say he is admirable in some ways. He comes across as an entitled jerk. I didn;t really feel a depth to him. Ya, he has always been rich and spoiled but he was also kinda snobby in a sense. I don't think he was very understanding either. He does love solving puzzles though.

Naomi has lived most of her life dealing with people trying to make her feel inferior. I also feel like she was childish in a lot of ways and not very understanding. She is very sassy and has grown a backbone since she was younger, and isn't afraid to make it known.

What happens when the past mixes with the present?

I absolutely adored this book. I am a huge Lauren Layne fan and this book did not disappoint. I love how the prologue seemed to set up the whole series. I liked Naomi's character a lot, even when she behaved in ways I didn't like. She seemed very realistic. I also really loved Oliver. The secondary characters were mostly great as well. This story had a lot of relatable real-life issues and I liked that it didn't make Naomi and Oliver's lives seem easy just because they are super wealthy. I really enjoyed this book and am excited to eventually read Claire and Audrey's stories!

3.5 Stars

Naomi Powell is a self-made woman with a childhood that she never really recovered from. Success has done a lot to help her achieve putting her past behind her... and then she comes face to face with her childhood nemesis.... and brand new next door neighbor.  

Oliver Cunningham has no idea what the sassy and intriguing Naomi has against him, but now that she lives right next door to him, he is determined to find out... and so much more...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Passion on Park Avenue was an entertaining read and such an exciting start to the brand new Central Park Pact series! Naomi and Oliver come from two very different worlds that have collided once before, and this time they are headed for a direct impact... to their hearts.

Naomi has come a long way from being the live-in housekeeper's daughter in the elitist 517 Park Avenue building of her worst memories. So, when she is contacted to return to that very same building, the older, wiser, and supremely self-confident Naomi is prepared to put some of it's stuffiest residents in their place.  

Oliver's life has changed drastically since he was the young and spoiled boy of Naomi's past. After the death of his mother and his fathers Alzheimer's diagnosis, Oliver has sacrificed much of his personal life to become his part time caregiver. With no idea that the Naomi he is infatuated with now is the same red-headed, freckled kid from his past, he is at a complete loss as to why she shows such a disdain for him. 

I was completely sold on the premise for this book, and the characters were represented as multi-faceted and extremely interesting. But, while reading I felt that the storyline just did not flow in a pleasing manner. The banter and relationship between Naomi and Oliver was spot on, but once Oliver inevitably finds out who Naomi really is, I felt that everything was just too easily wrapped up and forgiven. For the gravity of their feelings about the past, I really wanted more from this aspect of the story. 

I can't wait for more of this series, the concept is a fascinating one, and the friendships at the center of the Central Park Pact have provided such promise for the rest of the series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest and unbiased review.

This book was amazing! I loved the premise of the women’s friendships. Naomi and all of her nerdy reading symbolism was fantastic. This story has me laughing out loud, yelling and cheering and crying.. a perfect balance! The romance was A plus! I just adored Oliver... a new book boyfriend. You must read this book!

This was my first read from Lauren Layne but definitely won’t be my last! Something I really enjoyed from this story was not only the romantic aspect but the focus on friendship in the story as well.

Naomi befriends two women in an unlikely circumstance and the three women become best of friends, through the story the help of these two friends becomes imperative to her love story as well.

I love a good enemies become lovers scenario... and this does just that. Naomi wants revenge for her mother after her death and returns to where she lived for a short time as a child, Park Avenue, to get that revenge on a rich family that resides there. This revenge involves Oliver and his family. Unbeknownst to Naomi, Oliver’s father has developed Alzheimer’s, not to mention that Oliver doesn’t remember who she is. As the pair gets to know each other (again), you can see the walls and guards coming down and Naomi has to decide if she wants revenge or love...

I loved Naomi's character. She started off with a huge wall up that slowly gets chipped away as she gets to know her new friends, and she starts getting to know the family she seeks revenge on. I highly recommend it for a lighthearted romance novel that has a theme of friendship throughout. Thank you to netgalley and Gallerybooks for the ARC copy of this read.

I thought this was a fun book and I loved Oliver and Naomi together, but I was not a huge fan of her independently. I had a hard time buying into her friendship with Claire and Audrey and I thought some of the handlings of that situation was unbelievable in Naomi's crassness when speaking of Brayden to Claire.

I thought Claire was a really well-characterized character and I would be super interested in reading her story. I found Audrey to be kind of annoying with Clark.

Oliver is just adorable. He is a nice guy but still makes those first moves that really helped with the pacing. I liked him and Naomi together a lot.

oh gosh. i *love* lauren layne's books, so please know that when i say this, i say this with love.... this book was underwhelming. and i am SO sad about it. slight spoilers in this netgalley review because i can't hide them like in goodreads.

there were lots of good things - i loved the characters, both main characters and the friends. i loved how the girls became friends. i love their conversations, their friendship seemed so realistic (well, maybe not the beginning but how they interacted, and i loved the beginning of their friendship regardless). i liked how naomi grew, i felt all the feelings for oliver and his dad. i loved the idea, their past, the plot was really working for me... so much of it was working for me until it wasn't..

the things i didn't love about this book - the sex scenes are behind closed doors, which is fine, but not what i was expecting from lauren layne. i don't need sex in my books, but when it's a short book and there's not a whole lot of other ways to provide that connection we need, it leaves me feeling kind of disconnected or not as invested in their relationship as i wanted to be. the sexual tension beforehand was there and i was feeling the build up, but then it fizzles out and i didn't feel any chemistry afterwards.

the other thing i really didn't love is how the conflict happens or resolved. i mean, there are so many other ways that could have come up that i was a little bit shocked she chose the option she did. kudos to not being predictable, but in this case, i don't think it worked very well. oliver could have found out about naomi in any other way - something in her apartment, a picture of her and her mom, his dad calling her by her mother's name - he made that one comment and i thought oh shit here it comes, but it didn't, having the tv show people dig deeper and question him or something, watching or talking about anne of green gables with someone else and making the carrots connection... any of those options were things i expected and what i got was... unsatisfying. there was so much build up, it was stretched out so much that i knew it was going to hit the fan when it came out, i wasn't looking forward to it exactly but i knew it was coming and obviously couldn't wait for the reconciliation. instead, naomi is hurt by oliver's father - a scene we don't see until oliver finds naomi - and when naomi wakes up in the hospital, oliver knows and is mad at her. what! we miss the whole reveal???? and he is an ASS. like, not just he's cranky and needs to be a jerk for the book to have conflict but we still love him because he's our hero and we can understand where he's coming from etc etc but a real freaking ass. he was unnecessarily mean and he just stated his case and left - i felt so... disconnected and dissatisfied, a little bit shocked that that was how the conflict was playing out. i pushed past it though, and thought okay, he's gonna grovel great and we'll get a really lovely ending and it'll be worth it. i liked the ending, but it felt anticlimactic, not enough grovel for me compared to how he acted.

they declared their love but i never got to feel it, and maybe that's where the whole problem comes from. again, not saying you need sex in your books, but i never felt the connection besides a slight sexual tension beforehand.. so when oliver loses his mind, all i see is a jerk, not how i want to feel about the hero in a romance book so close to the end.. and when they declare their love, i'm thinking wow, really, already? because i didn't get enough development or connection.

i am no writer and i hate shitting on books, so please don't think i am doing that for this book. but the reason we get ARCs is to hopefully bring things up that other people may not notice and i want this book to do well. i'm not so self absorbed that i think my comments will change the whole book, but i couldn't not say something. i wanted to love it and i normally do love lauren layne's books. this one was going so well until the conflict and resolution, like, the last couple chapters i think. i could have dealt with the no sex (and not really feeling the connection between the two characters) if the conflict had been handled a different way.

like i keep saying, i adore lauren layne's writing and have enjoyed all of her books. i will absolutely continue this series and read anything else she writes, this has not put me off her books even in the slightest. but i had to be honest about how i felt about this particular book.

also, i noticed a few errors and i normally don't mention them because this is an arc, but my friend told me to mention this one just in case - 'her pausing hummed'.

Just what I needed for a Friday night read! Lauren Layne has done it again- perfect blend of romance, chic power and friendships, and characters you can’t help but love. First in a series with hints of stories to be told of the other two friends of an unlikely trio, this is sure to be a hit among readers.

I am in love with this story!! Lauren Layne did a fantastic job with this one. The characters were excellent and I absolutely loved diving into this novel! Go out and read this one!

This book had a slightly more dirty feel of Maid in Manhattan. a women who was not going to settle for what her family and peers thought she should do, but a women who rises thru the ranks by using her brain and her wits. This book has an incredibly strong female lead which I love and of course you have to throw in the wealthy privileged man Oliver, who is always there to continually push Naomi to her limits.

Series are a real treat for avid readers. Who doesn't like delving deep into the lives of unforgettable characters in more than one book? We do! That's why New York Times bestselling author Lauren Layne's new release, Passion on Park Avenue, has us buzzing this spring. The first installment of The Central Park Pact is rich with drama (which we like!) and lots of passion (who can resist that?) making it Momtrends' book club pick of the month.

Naomi Powell is a successful entrepreneur. As the brains behind one of the most successful jewelry empires, she appears to have it all, but she doesn't. She still has one thing left to prove ... her self-worth. As a child, she and her mom barely scraped by. Now she can buy whatever she wants, including a fancy apartment on Park Avenue, right next door to her childhood nemesis, Oliver Cunningham.

As if Naomi doesn't have enough on her plate, the Bronx-born businesswoman is having some romantic woes too. When Naomi's boyfriend passes away, she learns the truth about his secret life. The best perk from her disappointing affair is her budding friendship with Claire and Audrey, two women with which she has a lot in common. The unexpected trio soon becomes inseparable in the city that never sleeps.

Passion on Park Avenue is a chic read with relatable characters and witty humor. The inclusion of an ailing parent suffering from Alzheimer's, a situation some of us are all too familiar with, brings out Naomi's compassionate side lending depth to the storyline. The relationship between the three women is just beginning to blossom as each tries to find her own way. Momtrends can't wait for the next book in The Central Park Pact series, Love on Lexington Avenue, set to debut in early fall.

(This review will appear on Momtrends.com in late May.)

I have to admit it pains me to give this book 3 stars because I love Lauren Layne's writing so much but I have to admit this one just didn't do it for me. The premise is interesting enough and I was curious to see how it would play out but neither main character got me invested in their story. Yes, I felt bad for Oliver for having to deal with his father's condition, especially since he admits several times he didn't actually like his father before he developed Alzheimer's. Naomi's character was lukewarm for me. I admire that she made so much of herself through hard work and her own grit but she just wasn't as likeable as the heroines in other Lauren Layne books. Without caring much for either character I never really became invested in their relationship.

As for the storyline itself, it wasn't bad but the ending was a big turn off for me. I didn't care for the conflict, especially the way Oliver reacted. It made me actually dislike his character for being so cruel and brushing off Naomi's feelings and past. I also felt like Naomi let him off too easily in the end and that he never truly felt remorse for the things he said to her.

The saving grace for me in this story was actually the supporting characters. I loved Naomi's friends, Claire and Audrey, and I am hoping to see Clarke get his own book!

Another fantastic book by Lauren Layne. I was anxiously waiting for Kennedy's story and it was worth the wait! It's sad to see this series end but this was the perfect ending.

I squealed with glee when I was approved this ARC! The start of Passion on Park Ave was a little slow, but that very well be me because it’s a new series with all new characters and I didn’t know any of them yet. I loved how Naomi, Claire and Audrey met! I’m not sure I would be so understanding in real life, but LL makes it work.
Without giving away the plot too much, I loved the complexity and backgrounds of both Oliver and Naomi. I will be honest and state that it took me some time to warm up to Naomi, but I fell fast and hard for Oliver! Both of them have their own demons that they have to work out, but I loved their backstories for making them who they are.
I’ve read A LOT of LL romances and I will say that this novel isn’t so heavy on the sexy times as some of her previous reads. But it doesn’t take away from the novel either. I honestly can’t wait for the next book in the series and I’m hoping that it’s Audrey and Clarke’s love story - so much spark in the few moments they were together in this book! **ARC provided by NetGalley and the Publisher. Special thanks to TastyBookPR for giving me the opportunity to read this book. All opinions are my own**