Marriage on Madison Avenue

$10.00 overpriced. I won’t be reading the other books. I can’t afford it.

3.5stars--MARRIAGE ON MADISON AVENUE is the third and final instalment in Lauren Layne’s contemporary, adult CENTRAL PARK PACT sweet romance series focusing on three friends: Naomi Powell, Audrey Tate and Claire Hayes-three woman who would discover there were all in a relationship with the same man. This is thirty-one year old, businessman Clarke West, and twenty-nine year old, social media influencer Audrey Tate’s story line. MARRIAGE ON MADISON AVENUE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading book one, PASSION ON PARK AVENUE, for back story and history.

SOME BACKGROUND: Approximately 18 months earlier, Claire Hayes, newly widowed discovered that her husband of seven years had been having numerous affairs including affairs with the two women who would become her best friends. The Central Park Pact was an agreement to never let one another fall for a womanizer like the man with whom they had all fallen in love.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Clarke and Audrey) MARRIAGE ON MADISON AVENUE follows the childhood, best friends to lovers, fake fiancé relationship between thirty-one year old, businessman Clarke West, and twenty-nine year old, social media influencer Audrey Tate. Audrey Tate considers herself a loser at love, and social media appears to agree calling her cursed when it comes to men and love. As her best friends begin to fall in love, Audrey becomes the odd woman out until Clarke West offers a deal that would likely stop his mother from trying to set him up with a woman from his past-a fake engagement to quiet the haters but an engagement that quickly spirals out of control. What ensues is the fall-out of a relationship that is threatened by jealousy and the inability to see the forest for the trees.

Audrey Tate and Clarke West both consider themselves non-marriage material, and continue to reiterate the belief at every opportunity but as the ‘fake’ engagement begins to take on a life of its own, our couple struggle between head and heart preferring to ignore the obvious when it is obvious to everyone else.

The relationship between Audrey and Clarke is a best friends to lovers/fake engagement that finds our couple doing what couples have done from the beginning of time but Audrey refuses to acknowledge the elephant in the room believing herself cursed to never marry or fall in love. Clarke struggles with a failed relationship from the past, a relationship that is hoping for something more. The $ex scenes are all implied and fade to black.

All of the previous story line couples play secondary and supporting roles: Naomi and Oliver (Passion on Park Avenue), Claire and Scott (Love on Lexington Avenue), as well as the introduction of Clarke’s mother and father Linda and Alton West; and his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Milsap.

MARRIAGE ON MADISON AVENUE is a story of jealousy, controlling parents, past mistakes, and moving forward in life. The premise is entertaining; the characters are energetic; the romance struggles in the face of secrets and lies, and in this I did not feel the connection between our story line couple, and I struggled to like our story line heroine.

From the outset Audrey is quick to dismiss any action that resembles a loving relationship but it is her friendship with Clarke that is battling to survive. From my perspective, Audrey is immature and self-centred, and all she cares about is her social media image, but again, it is her image that forced our couple to take drastic steps in an effort to fend off trolls and commenters. Clarke’s mother Linda is desperate to reunite Clarke with the woman from his past but Clarke only sees Audrey, a woman who is unable to see beyond the immediate gratification of social media. MARRIAGE ON MADISON AVENUE is a frustrating read but the author has done her work if she can get an emotional response, one way or another.

Perfect book to end the series. Really enjoyed the story she choose for Audrey and Clarke. I fished this in 1 day and cried and laughed through parts. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this one.