Review: Sunset in Central Park

Second in the From Manhattan with Love series
By Sarah Morgan
Available now from HQN (Harlequin)
Review copy

I felt that SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN (my review) was charming, but spent too much time setting up the other two romances in the From Manhattan with Love series. Luckily, SUNSET IN CENTRAL PARK keeps the focus on Frankie and Matt.

Paige and Eva, Frankie's best friends, don't lack romance entirely. Eva's prospective hero is mentioned once at the beginning of the book, and then she shows up only in a friend capacity, both offering support and needing it. Jake and Paige's relationship is referenced, but Jake only shows up briefly, mostly to serve as Matt's best friend.

Matt has been in love with Frankie for a long time, but Frankie doesn't believe in love and is reluctant to trust any romantic partners. Her father cheated on her mom, her mom decided to continually pursue men, and there was an attempted sexual assault. Frankie's issues did not come out of nowhere. But when Matt's flirting gets blatant enough, Frankie realizes that she wants to respond, even if she has no clue how.

SUNSET IN CENTRAL PARK is really Frankie's story. Matt is cute and wonderful, but the focus has to be on Frankie since she's the one keeping them apart. Matt is all in from the beginning. (A bit too all in for my taste, at times. Let a girl decide to date you on her own!) I did like that as Frankie confronted her past, she realized that some things were as bad as she remembered, but that she'd inflated other things in her mind because she'd been a hurting teen girl.

The bright purple cartoons and hearts cover promises a light read, but Sarah Morgan has served up a cute romance surrounded by darkness. There's also a significant subplot about a woman escaping her abusive ex. It's not a difficult read, but I suspect Eva's story will be the most bubbly and effervescent in the series. Frankie has too many sharp edges for a romance that is smooth summer sailing.

I thought SUNSET IN CENTRAL PARK improved on SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN and I look forward to Eva's romance to conclude the series.

Review: Sleepless in Manhattan

First in the From Manhattan with Love series
By Sarah Morgan
Available now from HQN (Harlequin)
Review copy

Paige Walker doesn't like relying on anyone.  Due to a childhood illness, everyone in her family is overprotective and it drives her nuts.  When she loses her job and old friend Jake Romano suggests starting her own business, she realizes how much the idea actually suits her.

SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN focuses on Paige and Jake's relationship, but it also sets up the next two books in the series.  Paige's best friends and business partners Frankie and Eva both have their heroes introduced already.  I know Sarah Morgan wants people to get invested in the series, but I sometimes thought that the setup for the rest of the trilogy took away from the central romance.

Jake is actually Paige's brother's best friend, and she's had a crush on him forever.  Unfortunately, he shot her down hard when she was a teenager. He proceeded to go on and sleep with a bunch of women while she pined.  I enjoy Morgan's novels, but this definitely isn't my favorite dynamic between the hero and heroine.

I do, however, appreciate that both of them had to grow as people to make their relationship work.  Paige needs to learn to ask for help when she needs it, and Jake needs to learn that he is worth loving.  (His mother abandoned him when he was young.) 

I also loved the friendship between Paige, Frankie, and Eva.  (Note: I object to the obvious setups of their romances being in this book, not them being present and charming.)  They truly compliment each other as friends and business partners.  It's a lot of closeness, but Morgan convinces me that it works for them.  Frankie and Eva's polar opposites thing could be a bit much (one is a cynic, one is a romantic), but with Paige in the mix there was a reasonable balance.

SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN is a sweet, easily digested romance.  It's not Morgan's best, but it has a lot of appeal for fans of the big brother's best friend romance.  (And he's a self-made millionaire, of course.)