SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN – Sarah Morgan
From Manhattan With Love's 1st book of 3
HQN
ISBN: 978-0-373-8915-3
June 2016 (earlier in the UK)
Contemporary Romance

New York City

Paige Walker, from Puffin Island in Maine, is happily living her dream in New York. It wasn't easy getting here. Born with a defective heart that limited her activities until a final surgery when she was seventeen, she was fortunate to have loving parents and Matt, a caring big brother, who all watched over her. Much as she loved them in return, she has now achieved some independence. She and her two best friends since they were six, Eva and Frankie, live in Matt's Brooklyn brownstone and work in Manhattan for Star Events, an event planning company. Paige is very good at her job and was promised a promotion and a raise, but when the time came, her boss from hell fired her and others, including her friends, in a big downsizing of the firm. So much for her dream of one day having her own company.

Gathered in the brownstone's rooftop garden—created by Matt, a successful landscape architect in the city—the girls and Matt discuss what to do next. They are joined by Jake Romano, Matt's best friend and Paige's teen-age crush. Ever since Paige bared her young love for Jake and he rejected her, they have had a rather antagonistic relationship. Now he goads her into starting out on her own now. Why wait?

SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN celebrates the city. It puts you right into Manhattan's many delights as well as a glimpse or two of a Brooklyn neighborhood. The tale of the creation of a new business, with each of the girls growing in confidence and contributing her own talents, is captivating, but what I loved about the whole is the love and loyalty the three have for each other, Matt and Jake's friendship, and the evolution of Jake, the hot player. It's definitely a character and relationship driven novel. The best kind.

There will be two more full length novels to come in the trilogy, hopefully centered on Eva, the romantic, and Frankie, who prefers plants to people. Watch for SUNSET IN CENTRAL PARK in September and MIRACLE ON 5 TH AVE in December 2016. Meanwhile, April saw the publication of a novella, MIDNIGHT AT TIFFANY'S.

Jane Bowers