BOOK REVIEW: Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen @berkleypub @reneerosen1 #parkavenuesummer #bookreview #bookbestiesapproved

One of the best books I’ve read in 2019, I absolutely was captivated by Alice’s story about her summer in New York for Helen Gurley Brown! With a blend of historical fiction built around historical fact, Renee Rosen crafted a compelling story that allowed me to not only fall in love with the fictional Alice, but also love Helen, a woman who changed the way young women were able to think about their own bodies, empowerment, and relationships. An incredible novel!

About the Book

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.

Reflection

Friends and long-time readers will know I’m a big fan of Kate White, who happened to be the Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine only two years after Helen Gurley Brown left. I’ve always loved the way Cosmopolitan magazine promotes a new way of female empowerment—feminism that focuses on not only equality, but celebrating all of the wonderful things about being a female. When I went into this book, I thought it would be the story of Helen told through Alice’s eyes, but it wasn’t that at all!

In fact, the story of Alice completely captivated me. Alice is this amazing example of the type of reader that Helen’s vision of Cosmopolitan would not only reach out to—but change fundamentally. Alice is coming of age, in her early 20s and new to New York City. Alice struggles between being a “good girl” and finding out who she is and what she wants. Alice is the exact person to show readers about Helen’s girls (“my girls” as she calls them)—the ones who are young but empowered, who want careers, who want to be single but still have sex. This is the story of Helen’s girls told through Alice.

I absolutely adored Alice!!! She was this wonderful mix of inexperienced and savvy, navigating challenging situations based on her instincts, which over time she learns to trust to lead her the right way. I loved how everywhere Alice goes in the city, she thinks about her mother and what could have been. How did her glamorous, talented mother end up in the Midwest raising a family?

As Alice finds her way to working for Helen Gurley Brown on the re-imagined Cosmopolitan magazine, she learns who she is—a girl who is fiercely loyal, who wants to experience different men so she knows when she finds the right one for her, and who wants to be a photographer but is scared she isn’t talented enough. Alice and her Don Juan, as Helen calls him, was such a fun and relatable part of this book. Helen is right—we all have a Don Juan who we go back to even though we know he will leave us shattered.

This was such a unique way to celebrate Helen Gurley Brown’s life—through a fictional story about the exact sort of girl that Helen reached through her pioneering efforts at Cosmopolitan. I hope readers love this book as much as I did!

Book Besties

I read this with the other book besties and it was a unanimous favorite for us! Check out their reviews as well, and make sure you get your copy of this wonderful book.

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.