Alice, aka Ali Wiess, has big-city-dreams living in
Youngstown, Ohio, Ali was brought up hearing exciting
stories about how her mother lived and worked in New York
City as an aspiring model. With her BFF Elaine Sloan, they
lived at the famous Barbizon Hotel for Women. Her mother met
a sailor at Coney Island, married him and moved to
Youngstown, where Alice was born. That was the end of her
dream. When her mother was killed in an automobile accident,
her father remarried an old childhood friend, Faye. Elaine
attended her mother's funeral and told Ali if she came to
New York and needed help to call her. Upon graduation, Ali
worked as a typist, saved $357 and was off to make her mark
in The Big Apple. Her boyfriend, Michael Siegle broke up
with Ali and married someone else. Now free, Ali decided to
pursue her mother's dreams of living and working in the big
city. No help promised by her father, Ali had to make it on
her own, and she was certain she would. New York, here I come!
Ali had bad luck in the three jobs she applied for. She did
not want them anyway. She wanted to be a photographer, not
an accountant. But the good luck is when she found a notice
on a billboard in a restaurant advertising an efficiency
apartment for $110 a month — vacated by the former tenant
who left a bed, a bureau, odd bits of furniture and some
clothes, so who cared that it was located over a butcher
shop? It would do, and now she needed to find a job. She
called Elaine Sloan. Elaine was happy to hear from her and
invited her to her apartment, which was gorgeous. Elaine was
an editor at Bernard Geis Associates. She asked what work
Ali was looking for? When Ali described her dreams of being
a photographer, Elaine could not help but know of someone
who needed a secretary. An interview was set up with Helen
Gurley Brown, who was the first female editor of
COSMOPOLITAN magazine, working for the Hearst owners. Brown
wrote the highly successful, controversial best seller, SEX
AND THE SINGLE GIRL. Ali read it twice!
The interview went well, and they liked each other. Although
Ali had no experience in publishing a magazine, Helen was
impressed by her secretarial skills and felt she would be a
hardworking and loyal assistant. EVERYTHING about Helen
impressed Ali. Not even 100 pounds, pretty, full of
imagination, chutzpah, and charm, Ali was ready to "walk on
water" for her. She was hired, and their adventure began.
The fight for the new and better COSMO was filled with
backstabbing, lies, deception, new thinking, and actions by
the gals of that era. What fun, hurdles to conquer and
succeed in the end so hard fought by Helen Gurley Brown.
Renee Rosen dazzles with her descriptions of some of the
"in" places of that era. Glamourous TAVERN ON THE GREEN, and
the spectacular RUSSIAN TEA ROOM, You felt like you were
there watching the famous arrive. Ali had her Don Juan
Moment with Eric, who Elaine described as "smooth as glass,
but he will never marry you." Handsome, passionate about
photography, Christopher Mack stole my heart as he will
yours, is sweet, a gentleman and protective. PARK AVENUE
SUMMER is a sweet, romantic story about making it in that big
city, having your dreams come true, while finding friends,
recapturing family, and finding forever love. Be still my
heart. I loved it and found it hard to put down until the
ending. It is a delicious delight that is simply wonderful!
Thank you, Ms. Rosen.
Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada as
Renée Rosen draws readers into the glamorous New York City
of 1965 and Cosmopolitan magazine, where a brazen new
editor-in-chief—Helen Gurley Brown—shocks America and saves
a dying publication by daring to talk to women about all
things off-limits…
New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls
like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small midwestern town to
chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands the job of
a lifetime working for the first female editor-in-chief of
Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.
Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters
as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work
for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and
the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas,
and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong
hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to
sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help
Helen succeed. While pressure mounts at the magazine and
Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she quickly
learns that in Helen Gurley Brown’s world, a woman can
demand to have it all.
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