Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingPark Avenue Summer
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreSummary
“‘Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada,’ which might as well be saying ‘put me in your cart immediately.’”—PopSugar
It’s 1965 and Cosmopolitan magazine’s brazen new editor in chief—Helen Gurley Brown—shocks America and saves a dying publication 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 a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.
For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters. Editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed.
While pressure mounts at the magazine, Alice struggles not to lose sight of her own dreams as she’s swept up into a glamorous world of five-star dinners, lavish parties, and men who are certainly no good. Because if Helen Gurley Brown has taught her anything, it’s that a woman can demand to have it all.
Reviews
Praise for Park Avenue Summer“A delightful and empowering read.”—PopSugar
“Renée Rosen is my go-to for whip-smart heroines who love their work. Park Avenue Summer is a delightful summer cocktail of a read!”—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network
“Filled with wit, heart, and verve, Rosen's novel dazzles and empowers. Simply wonderful!”—Chanel Cleeton, author of Next Year in Havana
“Part historical fiction, part coming-of-age story, this is a novel for our keeper shelves to read and re-read when we begin to doubt that there is still time to become the best version of ourselves. Lovely prose, a unique storyline, and a heroine who will stay with you for a long time make this a book I highly recommend.”—Karen White, New York Times bestselling author
“A breezy, delightful novel that celebrates female friendship and ambition. With Park Avenue Summer, Renée Rosen brings legendary magazine editrix Helen Gurley Brown back to life and captures a beloved bygone era with acuity, wisdom, and heart.”—Jamie Brenner, bestselling author of The Forever Summer and The Husband Hour
“Once again Renée Rosen works her magic, transporting us to the offices of Helen Gurley Brown’s Cosmopolitan in 1960s New York, and the result is a delight...Rosen’s command of historical detail is masterful; so, too, is her ability to create fictional characters, among them her heroine Alice, who are as fully realized and compelling as the beguiling Brown herself.”—Jennifer Robson, internationally bestselling author of Somewhere in France
“Rosen delivers a cast of complex and ambitious female protagonists to truly root for. The Devil Wears Prada meets Mad Men, Park Avenue Summer is pure joy from cover to cover. I loved it.”—Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home
“Pussycats, Renée Rosen brings Helen Gurley Brown to life 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 Expand reviews