Built to Last
A Park Avenue Promise Novel
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake, discover The Park Avenue Promise Series...
Three young women make a pact in high school—
to always be friends and to one day make it big in Manhattan
Built to Last
Harper Ross has always dreamed of working on one of the magnificent brownstones of Park Avenue. Now one of her closest friends has bought the house of her dreams and hired Harper to do the construction work. She wants to showcase the renovation on a television show for her brand-new production company. It’s the same grand home she and her friends promised themselves they would be able to afford one day. Working on it isn’t the same as living in it, but it’s all a part of Harper’s grand plan to grow her father’s construction business into one of the biggest in the city. The only obstacle—the designer on the project.
Reid Dorsey believes in the balance between beauty and functionality. As one of Manhattan’s new voices in design, he’s excited to get to work on a true Gilded Age property. If only the owner had selected a contractor he enjoyed working with. Oh, Harper was brilliant and her work was excellent, but she has an opinion on everything—and it’s usually the opposite of his.
Over the course of the job, these enemies start to see different sides of each other, and suddenly their fights don’t seem so bad. But when the project is threatened, they might have to choose between their jobs and the beautifully designed future they could share.
Customer Reviews
Thought provoking, twisted, emotional
BUILT TO LAST is the third (and final?) instalment in Lexi Blake’s contemporary, adult PARK AVENUE PROMISE erotic, romance series focusing on three friends: Ivy Jensen, Harper Ross,and Anika Fox. This is contractor Harper Ross, and designer Reid Dorsey’s story line. BUILT TO LAST can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.
Told from first person perspectives (Harper) BUILT TO LAST follows Harper Ross as she is contracted to renovate a large brownstone on Park Avenue, a brownstone the trio had once hoped for their own, but Harper is about to discover the renovation would become part of a televised home show, and the proprietor has hired a professional designer, a television personality whose past is about to run interference on everyone involved. As Harper struggles with her loss of control on the project, her position as CEO of the family run construction business is threatened by jealousy and greed. Meanwhile, Reid Dorsey’s attraction to Harper becomes a bone of contention as their back and forth reveals a love-hate relationship that is about to explode for all the world to see.
The world building follows several paths including the reveal of the dysfunctional family dynamics for both Harper and Reid. Harper’s greedy relations have all but destroyed the company her father built; and Reid’s past has returned in an effort to take down them all.
The relationship between Reid and Harper begins acrimoniously. Harper feels dismissed and heartbroken in the wake of the arrival of Reid Dorsey, and in this, she is struggling with her place in both friendships and love. Reid must battle between head and heart knowing that his past’s return could destroy everything he has built and more. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
The secondary and supporting characters are energetic, quirky and determined with the return of Anika and Luca, Ivy and Heath, as well as Ivy’s mentor Cece Foust. We are introduced to Reid’s ex Britta Olensoff; his brother Jeremiah, producer Patrick Dennings, as well as several members of Harper’s extended family including her mother Margie Ross, and cousin Paul. Here’s hoping the author has plans for Reid’s brother Jeremiah.
BUILT TO LAST is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and vengeance, power and control, family and deception, mistrust and misunderstanding, acceptance and love. The character driven premise is thought provoking, twisted and emotional; the romance is seductive; the characters are real, vulnerable and spirited.