Marriage on Madison Avenue by Lauren Layne
Series : The Central Park Pact #3
Genre : Contemporary Romance
Publisher : Gallery Books
Publication Date : January 28th, 2020
Genre : Contemporary Romance
Publisher : Gallery Books
Publication Date : January 28th, 2020
Can guys and girls ever be just friends? According to Audrey Tate and Clarke West, absolutely. After all, they’ve been best friends since childhood without a single romantic entanglement. Clarke is the charming playboy Audrey can always count on, and he knows that the ever-loyal Audrey will never not play along with his strategy for dodging his matchmaking mother—announcing he’s already engaged…to Audrey.
But what starts out as a playful game between two best friends turns into something infinitely more complicated, as just-for-show kisses begin to stir up forbidden feelings. As the faux wedding date looms closer, Audrey and Clarke realize that they can never go back to the way things were, but deep down, do they really want to?
To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of best-friends-to-lovers romance tropes. I avoid reading most of them due to my personal preferences(that would be a long rant), but in the past few years I have occasionally come across a few good ones that have changed my mind!
On the other hand I lovvve romance novels with a marriage of convenience setup! It's one of my top favorite tropes! So, when I found out that one of my favorite contemporary romance authors was coming out with a new book that had both, I was like hmm..🤔
I'm kidding!😂
I pounced on this book like a hungry lioness and devoured it in a day! Because it's an LL book and I love her writing!
Marriage on Madison Avenue is the third book in the Central Park Pact series, and if you've read the previous two books like me, you'll know what I mean when I say that I've been rooting for Audrey and Clarke to get together!
Quick Series Background : The Central Park Pact series consists of standalone books that feature each of the three women who were romantically involved with the same guy - Brayden(but they didn't know about each other). When they meet each other on the day of his funeral, instead of hating each other in the typical manner, they decide to make a pact to warn each other about any potential liars/cheaters that they might date in the future and this is how the story(plus a beautiful friendship) starts!
In Marriage on Madison Avenue we get to meet the last of the three friends, Audrey Tate, who is a social media influencer and Clarke West, her best friend! Audrey loves what she does and she's quite good at it! Clarke looks like a carefree playboy from the outside, but he has had to work hard to prove himself as the successor for his father's company! Audrey and Clarke have been best friends since childhood and have had each other's backs through thick and thin. This includes getting into fake relationships/engagements when he needs to escape an overzealous fling!
So, it's natural that Clarke announces his engagement to Audrey when his mom tries to set him up with his lawyer ex-gf who left him for a job in Washington D.C. And when Audrey's latest dating shamble(her first since Brayden) lands her in the sights of @ScandalBoyNYC and his trollish comments(think Gossip Girl 2.0 but NYC), she needs a fake relationship to keep her image steady! So, what starts off as a temporary fake engagement, turns into something that is more longer! But, when will these two realize there's nothing fake about the sparks between them?
I loved the slow development of the relationship between Audrey and Clarke in this one! The reason I do not like best-friends-to-lovers romances is because I find it hard to believe that you could be so close with someone for so many years and only after so long you realize that you guys like each other? Shouldn't the spark have always been there? Plus, what if you end up ruining your friendship?
LL handled all these things so beautifully in this book and that's why I loved it!
My favorite thing about an LL book is that you're guaranteed to find well-developed characters with beautiful friendships and relationships! They may not be anything like you, but they will definitely be relatable! Plus, you can escape into the glitzy Manhattan world that she creates for you!
I have loved seeing the bond between Audrey, Naomi and Claire blossom into such a strong friendship! I admired Audrey's confidence but at the same time I felt so sorry for her when she kept blaming herself for being the 'other woman'(even though she knew nothing about Brayden's other relationships).
Clarke was an awesome hero! His relaxed playboy attitude was just a front that many people except Audrey didn't notice! He's always there for his closest friends and is quite the hard-worker. I loved seeing him navigate the tough relationships that he had with his family and watching LL peel off each new detail, layer by layer was beautiful! The chemistry between him and Audrey was delicious.
I think my only complaint about the whole series would be the fade to black scenes! Lol! They just don't have the same steam level as the author's other books, which I absolutely love!
I'm super sad to see this series end, but I hope we might see some of our favorite characters as cameos in her other books sometime in the future!(We got to meet Alexis Morgan from Wedding Belles in this one, and I was so happy to see her again as I loved her in To Love and To Cherish!)
I'd definitely suggest picking this one up if you're in the mood for a classy contemporary romance with adorable characters and beautiful friendships! There's no way you'll not enjoy this!
Lauren Layne is the New York Times, USA TODAY and Amazon bestselling author of more than thirty romantic comedies. Her books have sold over a million copies, been translated into more than a dozen languages, and have been featured in Oprah Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Glamour, The Wall Street Journal, and Inside Edition. She’s based in New York City where she is married to her high school sweetheart.
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