Park Avenue Prince

I am listening to this collection on Audible and I enjoyed this one as well. Narrated by Sebastian York and Andi Arndt, of course, this audiobook was wonderful. As for the story, Grace refused to be a Manhattan Princess. Sam was a self made billionaire- he was brought up in the foster system and suffered from loss, making him not want to take chances again. I loved the chemistry between the two characters and there was plenty of steam. I have to admit that I felt like the story itself dragged a little as the push/pull between Grace and Sam was a little exhausting towards the end. But in general, there were many smiles and I liked the interplay between the characters.

I absolutely loved this couple and their story, as well as their back story. Sam avoided becoming attached to anything or anyone because of his past and Grace was a “fixer” always dating the wrong kind of guy. It’s sweet how they try their hardest to not like each other, which makes for such a sweet story but also a sexy story because their chemistry together is so hot.

I loved this one, Sam coming from nothing and making billions and Grace coming from money but not wanting to be “that” girl.
Sam doesn’t want to own anything or get attached because he knows he will lose it. He lost his parents at a young age. So as he made his money he has only had one person in his life. His best friend he met in foster care. She is the only family he needs. That all changes when he meets Grace.
Grace doesn’t want to be known as the Park Avenue Princess, she just wants to run her art gallery and live her life. When Sam Shaw shows up at her gallery, she can’t take her eyes off him.
Can they maneuver their way around Sam’s insecurities and fears to make a future together? This is the second story from this author and I am loving her and looking forward to reading or listening to more. I am also loving the narrators, Sebastian York, and Andi Arndt.

What a fabulous listen. Great characters, good friends and a wonderfully romantic HEA. This is one my favorites by this author. The narration is also wonderful and adds to the story.

Loved it and all the other books in this series. Louise Bay is awesome.

*3,5-4 stars*
Although the beginning was a bit slow, I quite enjoyed reading this story. During the story you felt more of the emotion and depth of what both Max and Grace went through.
I do hope we get Scarlett’s story aswell as Angie’s though 🙂

Max may look like a rich man but underneath he is so much more than that. He hasn’t had an easy life, losing his parents at a young age, and he still feels the consequences of what he’s lost. He meets Grace at her art gallery doing a presentation of new works but doesn’t seem that much interested in the art. Until she shows him more than he ever thought was possible.
Grace has been brought up in a wealthy environnement but never acted as a spoiled rich kid. She makes her dream come true by starting up an art gallery. After a bad break-up, she doesn’t want to get involved with anyone but when she meets Max, he is slowly breaking down her reservations.
And will Grace be able to get Max to open up to her?…

Louise Bay never fails to intrigue me within the first few chapters. Not by throwing in unnecessary drama, but by crafting a solid story with characters that catch my imagination and leave me wanting more. And Park Avenue Prince is no exception. Sam Shaw and Grace Astor are characters you yearn to know more about. Both their stories are compelling. They are a couple worth rooting for.
And I want to reiterate that all these books are true stand alones. I read Ms. Bay’s books all out of order and it lacked nothing. The other couples may or may not appear in a book, but they are not in any way vital to the telling of each other’s stories.
If you love a solid romance novel without a lot of angst or unnecessary drama, please check out this author!

Grace and Sam and a royally hot duo that heat up this Park Ave love story! Grace is a fixer. She grew up entitled but knows that a silver spoon life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and has left that life behind to peruse her true passion of art and life and love. But along the way she always falls for and tries to fix what can only be classified as losers. ( Probaly steaming from years of watching her mothers falandering ways). Ever determined she has her gallery and friends and life and she is happy with that for now. Sam has his walls that stem from losing his parents and years in foster care. He keeps everyone at arms length and doesn’t get attached to anyone or anything. But when when he the undeniable Grace walks in to his life he is helplessly drawn to her zest for life and love. Draw he starts to open his life and heart. But when tragedy strikes and it’s too close to home will Sam be able to take a chance on love?

Sam Shaw has lived a life of limited means, thanks to his heartbreaking past. At the age of twelve, he became an orphan and had no living relatives. He knows true loss and because of that, he has shut off his ability to love anyone, for fear of losing them. He has only one true friend, Angie, whom he met at his new school after being placed in the boys’ home. “She was in a girls’ home nearby and must have recognized a fellow orphan. We’d been best friends ever since.” But even Angie was kept at a safe distance. “Growing up as I did had forced me to detach from others. To not care about holes in my soul that would never be filled. I’d taught myself to tune into people—to read them, but not comfort or protect.” –Sam. For many years he had nothing, so he was determined to acquire a successful career in Manhattan and buy stable investments to make him financial set for life. In his experience, he’s learned that one has to be careful what they reveal to others, so he remained aloof and observant. Even though he wasn’t truly one of the “Manhattan elite”, he knew how to play their games. He used his observational knowledge to make himself powerful and became someone that belonged among them, a “Park Avenue Prince”. Now, a proud owner of an apartment on Park Avenue, he’s been advised by his art director to invest in fine arts. His advisor, Nina, has him attending an exhibition at GRACE ASTORS FINE ARTS. But shortly after arriving, he finds himself more intrigued by the strong and feisty owner, Grace Astor. He studies her as if SHE is the paintings. He gets an overall impression, but looking more closely he’s determined to look deeper. He wants to look over those walls she so obviously has. So he pursues her. But after spending time with her, he learns real fast it’s impossible to stay completely detached from her. She’s working her way into his life and heart unexpectedly and that scares him immensely. He knows he can’t truly let her in because in his experience, that never ends well.

Grace Astor is hosting her debut exhibition in her fine arts gallery tonight and it needs to be successful because she’s literally put everything into the success of her gallery and it has cost her plenty. The biggest issue was the artist she is featuring on her first exhibition is that he is her ex-boyfriend, whom she single-handedly caught cheating on her four weeks ago, with her assistant, in her office. This unfortunately wasn’t the first time she’d been disappointed by a boyfriend. Her upbringing as a “Park Avenue Princess” has her slightly jaded towards men in that world, so she swung in the complete opposite direction when it came to potential boyfriends. She became a “fixer”. She found up and coming artists, musicians, writers and helped nurture their careers. The only problem with that is, all those men are too focused on building their career that they don’t truly care about her and just end up leaving her behind once they get a sniff of success. Now, on her gallery debut evening, she has to have that thrown her face…she has to spend the evening telling everyone how special her ex’s work is and try to make him an instant success because that’ll help her gallery out. It doesn’t help that a “spoiled and indulged” Wall Street man named, Sam Shaw, comes into her gallery and makes her intrigued about all the things she’s been trying to avoid her whole life. “He was everything I shouldn’t want—everything I’d spent my life rejecting…” –Grace. She tried to avoid him after he left the gallery, but his unrelenting pursuit leads to an unexpected job that. “I’d like you to be my advisor.” –Sam. Grace knows this is bad idea, her body and mind are at battle. She doubts she’ll be able to resist this pull she has toward him for long if they actually worked together. But his pursuit was intoxicating and she finds herself caving to it. “I wanted to find out what it was like to be pursued. To be under a man as big, as confident, as in control as Sam Shaw.” –Grace.

What will happen when two different worlds collide? Sam and Grace may appear to outsiders as if they are both from the same upbringing, but that is very much not true. “Could people from contrasting backgrounds really like each other?” –Sam. Can Sam finally let someone in and let go of his fear of loss? Is he willing to find his ultimate bliss?

“Had she been what I waiting for? Was she my ultimate bliss?” –Sam.
This is my first Louise Bay novel and I couldn’t have been happier with it! I LOVED every minute of Sam and Grace’s story and was left with a goofy grin at the end. They were both broken characters, but in their own unique ways. They had VERY different upbringings, but those trials and experiences brought them together in a seamless way. Sam’s upbringing shaped him into the man he is now: guarded, determined, strong, controlling. Grace’s childhood and adult experiences shaped her into the woman she is now: independent, passionate, feisty, broken but not defeated. They both had set boundaries and it was extremely fascinating to read about those boundaries being tested. “I’m not going to make it that easy for you, Grace Astor. If you want to push my boundaries, I get to peer over your Park Avenue Princess walls, too.” –Sam. And man, did they ever push each other! I absolutely LOVED Sam’s bluntness with Grace. He’s not your typical billionaire a**hole, he’s just matter of fact and I find his pursuit and strategy particularly sexy *wink*….Grace had no chance, but to give into his tactics.

My favorite Louise Bay novel! This story was about figuring out you can become whoever you want, your past doesn’t dictate your future. It was about letting go and realizing that YES you are deserving of being loved and loving. It was about not living life out of fear. That will only lead to you being alone and lonely. It was about finding love in the most unexpected and unplanned way. Fate will find a way to bring that person into your life, whether you want it or not. And most importantly, it was about “weathering the storm…together”. You can think you have all these plans set up and block out everyone in your life, so you do not lose them, but in the end, you’re not weathering the storm…you’re just sitting in the down pour…alone, with no umbrella. You can face life WITH someone and make it through the storms, together.

Louise had us experiencing right along with the characters their ups and downs. I could sense their pain and happiness while reading and because of that I felt emotionally invested in their story. She had me smiling along with the characters, swooning right along with Grace, and feeling the confusion right along with Sam. And feeling the love grow between the two. From what I understand, this is a spinoff from KING OF WALL STREET (the 2 characters from that book are in this novel), so I plan to read their story next!

“Because,” he said, tilting my chin up for a kiss, “you taught me the most important lesson in the Count’s story. ‘Happiness is like those palaces in fairytales whose fates are guarded by dragons: We must fight in order to conquer it.’” He smiled down at me. “I won’t ever stop fighting again.” –Sam.

5+ waiting & hoping stars!

Check out my Pinterest novel board for PARK AVENUE PRINCE here: https://www.pinterest.com/vgrey14/park-avenue-prince-by-louise-bay/

Life is not always easy for all of us. Some lost who they loved the most and others may be ungrateful with their loved ones. This is really contradictory, isn’t it? However, we should be ready for all that life has for us. If we lost anyone, we must face it as good as we can. People around us always help us. And there is another kind of people who is always fixing damage persons.

I did devour Park Avenue Prince. It’s the kind of books that have you wanting more and more until you realized you have finished it. It’s the first time I read a book of this author and I was fascinated by her writing. The sex scenes made me blush like a teenage. They are well cared. The peace of the story was fast and the characters were well developed. You must not miss this book. It’s a contemporary romance that will catch your attention from the first pages.

Let me tell you more about this book because something I loved is that the story is told from both main characters. One chapter is from her and the other one is from him. Grace is a fierce woman who has weakness for dating male artists who don’t have any penny in their pocket. Her big issue is that she is a fixer so that’s what made her to fall for the wrong type of men. She defends her independency even though her family has a good position. She worked hard to have her Gallery Art because she loves all about the art world. Her gallery will attract the attention of someone who will put her world upside.

“And for some reason that mattered. I want him to like me, find me attractive”.

Sam Shaw is not the type of man who Grace dates. He is totally opposite. Not the type who wants hearts and flowers. He does not want any commitment because of his past. He is afraid of losing people who he cares for.

“I wanted to know her secrets.
I wanted to discover more of what she was hiding, physically and mentally”.

The chemistry between Grace and Sam is explosive. At some point of the story I hated Sam because he let his past rules his future. He is the kind of man who does not like that people around him emphasize their feelings about him because he is fearful of losing more.

“Strong was the only word to describe Sam Shaw. And it wasn’t just his body that earned that description. When he spoke, the way he walked – everything about him exuded strength. Like rock, having weathered a thousand years of the world, Sam was strong inside and out”.

For me, they are a good match: a damage man and a fixer woman. Both have fears and they will discover that they are meant to be together despite the stubbornness of Sam.

“We were from different worlds. Could people from contrasting backgrounds really like each other?”

No matter where we came from, what matters is the feelings. I assure you that you will like this book as much as I did.