Sleepless in Manhattan by Sarah Morgan
Series: From Manhattan with Love #1
Rating: ★★★★☆
Cool, calm and competent, events planner Paige Walker loves a challenge. After a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, she’s now determined to prove herself—and where better to take the world by storm than in the exhilarating bustle of Manhattan? But when Paige is let go from the job she loves, she must face her biggest challenge of all—going it alone.
Except launching her own events company is nothing compared to hiding her outrageous crush on Jake Romano—her brother’s best friend, New York’s most in-demand date, and the only man to break her heart. When Jake offers Paige’s fledgling company a big chance, their still-sizzling chemistry starts giving her sleepless nights. But can she convince the man who trusts no one to take a chance on forever?
I’ve been pretty off romance books lately, especially contemporary romances – or anything not by my absolute favorite authors, really. But today I had this urge to read something sweet and fun, bantery and sexy, and settled in our real world. After paging through the many books I have on my to-read list, I settled on this one. It’s a review book, a lot of people highly recommend Sarah Morgan, and I’ve heard good things – all of which meant that I’ve been meaning to read this for quite a while. I was just waiting for the mood to strike.
This is a quick, drama-free read. It’s romantic, and empowering (for the most part). And the characters are fun to be around – all of them. I liked that there were real relationships outside of the romantic relationship. It’s one of the things I love most about Nora Roberts books (trilogies especially), too. And this book, the start of a trilogy, reminded me a lot of Nora Roberts. Three women, at a crossroads, taking chances – on themselves and each other – and falling in love along the way.
Where Nora’s books sometimes fall into a sameness that gets a bit repetitive after a while, this was a nicely similar book without feeling too similar. Nora’s books are comfort to me, especially the older ones, but I can’t read too many of them in a row because I start to see how much the same they all are. This book gave me that feeling of comfort without the sameness that I often get when reading Nora Roberts.
Which is all to say, that I enjoyed this quite a lot.
I did find some aspects a little…convenient. The business these women start really gets its start because of the ‘who you know’ aspect of succeeding. And I get that’s the way it really is in the real world, but it began to feel a bit like the obstacles were put in their way and then brushed a little too easily aside. Same thing with Jake’s aversion to love. It was there, but it was barely an issue for more than a couple of pages, and then it was resolved. But it didn’t really matter to me, because while these things did pull at me for a moment and make me purse my lips, they didn’t stop me from reading and enjoying this story.
There is a slight moment of body shaming in this book, and if it weren’t for the fact that I’m so tired of it – in all its forms – it probably wouldn’t have even hit my radar. It’s minute and over quickly. AND there are a lot more moments of the women empowering other women (beyond the circle of the three friends even). So I was able to get past it.
I’m still skimming sex scenes, but they seemed pretty hot. Especially the elevator.
This was right on par with what I was expecting and looking for today, a sweet romance with some romantic banter and a strong heroine. And a character that is my romance-novel-spirit-animal in her calls for them to JUST TALK. I’m going to continue the series just so I can see Frankie find a love that’s perfect for her – and I already have my suspicions who it’s going to be with.
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