Customer Reviews

Princess of Park Avenue

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Okay ladies, let's admit it. We've all had a guy in our lives who we just couldn't get over even though he treated us in a less than sterling manner. It might have been when you were younger or even at an embarrassingly older age, but we've all done it. Oh yeah, there might be a few of you out there who don't take any crap, but the rest of us have been there in Lorraine Machuchi's shoes, so to speak.

Now I'll have to say, it usually doesn't continue for the amount of years that Lorraine has been hanging around waiting for Tommy to crook his finger so she can go running, but hey, who are we to judge?

Lorraine and Tommy are from Brooklyn, Bay Ridge to be exact, a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else and their business. Family members know other family members and there are no secrets. Such is the setting where we meet Lorraine.

But a girl can only take so much, and when the opportunity for a new job in Manhattan presents itself, Lorraine takes the leap and moves across the bridge to a new job and a new life. While her heart is still in Brooklyn, changes are taking place in and around Lorraine.

For instance, a free apartment in Manhattan makes it irresistible for Lorraine to avoid the move from all that is familiar. The new apartment, a rich, sexy neighbor named Matt, and a gargantuan but lovable dog known as Pooh-Pooh take Lorraine out of herself and force her to get involved in life around her.

While PRINCESS OF PARK AVENUE might be a story of unrequited love, it's also a fish-out-of-water story. While life in Manhattan may be strange to this Brooklyn-born girl, she digs down deep to find her inner strength and rises to meet the challenges her new life provides.

Lorraine might start out as a lowly shampoo girl in the swanky salon, but she soon rises to fame thanks to her unique hair-coloring skill, which draws the attention of an illustrious group of socialites known as the Park Avenue Princesses.

While you might find yourself gritting your teeth and urging Lorraine to get some gumption and stand up for herself, keep reading. She finally manages to get back in touch with the girl she used to be.

Daniella Brodsky, author and freelance magazine journalist, charms us with her second novel, following the success of DIARY OF A WORKING GIRL and her nonfiction work, THE GIRL'S GUIDE TO NEW YORK NIGHTLIFE. PRINCESS OF PARK AVENUE is an entertaining and amusing book that will remind any of us who have found ourselves lost in a relationship with a man that the real "us" still exists and we only have to look in order to find her.


--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor

Bravo for Princess of Park Avenue! Amid the thousands of chicklet flooding the market finally a literary voice that is real. Daniella Brodsky does it again. I couldn't put it down. What a great way to spend my week off, reading this book!!

I stayed up until 1:00 AM to finish it... it was so good, I couldn't wait to see what happened next! At first I thought it would be your typical "chick" type book... but it was not at all!!! At the risk of sounding cliche', I must say this book tells a wonderful and inspiring story of love, personal growth, and following your dreams. The NYC references were so fun to read, having lived in NYC myself. The story itself holds a great, positive message, and an interesting twist at the end. I REALLY HOPE to see this come out in a movie! I highly recommend this book!!!

A book with such a simple theme shouldn't be hard to follow, and yet this book digresses on nearly every page with flashbacks galore. It was a cute idea for a book, but frankly between the poor writing style and the caricatures in lieu of charachters, I wish I hadnt wasted my time trying to read this.

Coming from a small corner of New England, I have read Ms. Brodsky's previous books and tremendously enjoyed them. "Princess" provides all the fast-paced NY life without having to travel to The City. Her research is detailed and shines in the detail of her characters and desciptive locations. It transfers you into the pages to forget your every day life or your recently purchased Starbucks 'pepperment mocha latte.'

I recently met Ms. Brodsky at a public appearance in Connecticut - it was a pleasure! If you live in The City, want another reason to love The City, this Brodsky novel is a must read for the geography and storyline in The City.

As always Ms. Brodsky doesn't disappoint with this fun, fast and funny read. The storyline is great with tons of hilarous New York details thrown in. You really want these characters to work out their lives and have Lorraine turn into a true princess. I loved all the insider fashion tips that the friends give Lorraine when she is living in NYC. Also the parts about Brooklyn are so true! Take it from me, I live there. This is the perfect book to read on a trip or vacation and great for a summer beach read.

Alright. I didn't like this book very much. As Chick Lit goes, it wasn't bad; somewhere between Travelling Pants and Jane Evanovitch's books. However, I'm not a fan of chick lit, so this book didn't appeal to me so much. On the ovreall spectrum of books I read, this book would be somewhere near the bottom.

This book talks about Lorraine and her climb from lowly hairdresser to Princess of Park Avenue. This in itself wouldn't make for a bad story, but then you throw in all the guys and it becomes one hard, long slog. The people that Lorraine says she loves are all more or less the same; they just want to get laid and have a bunch of girlfriends and be rich - all at the same time. This was okay for about the first 150 pages, but this book is so LONG!!! About halfway through my interest started to waver, and then I was forcing myself to finish. The part that should have been the climax (the bachelorette party) was actually a poorly written mess. I had no idea what was going on.

This was a bad book. It got an extra star because some of the ideas are a little original, but not enough to make this a good story.

In Brooklyn twenty-eight years old Lorraine gave up her life including a scholarship to NYU when she fell in love with Tommy two decades ago. However, she re-looks her goals when he informs her he is going places while she will always be here with no ambition.

Lorraine attends a stylist class in Manhattan where she meets Don, who introduces her to his Uncle Guido at Bendel's in the Waldorf-Astoria. Guido hires her and when the salon's superstar breaks down, Lorraine takes care of the Park Ave. Princesses, a group of spoiled wealthy offspring who can make or break a place or stylist. She becomes stylist to the group at about the same time her dog Pooh-Pooh introduces her to her neighbor Matt and his canine Lena Horne. As she wonders how she could have fallen in love when she always thought Tommy was her Dodger she begins to dream of opening her own place. However, the Queen of the Princesses has plans that include destroying her Brooklyn rival.

This fun chick lit tale centers on the prime question of the universe that "you can take the girl out of Brooklyn, but can you take Brooklyn out of the girl?" Lorraine proves she can adapt to the Park Avenue world of the princesses while always being that woman from across the bay. Fans will appreciate her maturity in Manhattan while wondering what took her so long to move past Tommy. Lorraine keeps the story focused as the hair stylists to the prima donnas whose airs are higher than the stratosphere and ethics at the dregs of a septic tank. Readers will appreciate Brooklyn defeating Manhattan.

Harriet Klausner

Hmmm... where do I begin? Sometimes a book just isn't your taste... and I guess Princess of Park Avenue was one of those books for me. I found myself speed reading through most of it, and even skipping a few parts at times, because I felt that it was much too long and dragged on quite frequently. I just couldn't get into the characters and the plot, and was often wondering if I had missed something because I just wasn't following the storyline.

I think my main problem with the book, and the reason I didn't enjoy it, was the amount of errors, both spelling and punctuation. Most of them were just small spelling errors, but they were on almost half of the pages in the book. Since I was provided with the eBook I did find myself wondering if the hard copy had all of these errors too, or if somehow I just got a rough draft to read for my review. I'm still left to wonder if I would have enjoyed it more had there not been all of the errors throughout the entire book.

I did enjoy Lorraine's struggle between Mr. Wrong and Mr. Perfect, while learning and growing within herself. And I giggled quite often where Pooh-Pooh, the enormous dog, was involved. But overall, I just wasn't into the story as much as I wanted to be.

I really thought I was going to love this book. I'm having a hard time saying I would recommend this book to others. Assuming the hard copy doesn't have the amount of errors as the eBook copy does, maybe I should say I would ONLY recommend the hard copy of this book? I'm sorry to say this book just didn't do it for me.

I've read all of Ms. Brodsky's works to date and await each new arrival. This was her best by far. The characters were quirky but real especially if you grew up in Brooklyn and can identify with the going's on of a neighborhood. The characters came alive and I could see each of them so clearly. It was like casting a movie, of course JLO and Jessica would have to play cameos as themselves..What a dad and the mom makes Raymond's mom take a back seat on butting in.

On a serious note it shows how important female friends can be and sheds light on male/female friendships as well. Materialism can be a trap that we all fall into from time to time and yet our heroine seems to take it in her stride and remains true to herself and her friends throughout the book. The Princess shows us that people can be thrown into new situations but is they have the proper upbringing and a sense of self they can be themselves and adapt and even rise to new challenges.

I am almost sorry I took this book on my recent cruise as it would have been a grand escape from the everyday world.