Date published: February 1, 2011
ASIN B004HD62JE
Thriller, paranormal
E-book
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained Via Publisher
Following the death of her parents before her first birthday Jane Boyle lived with her grandmother until about six years ago. Coming of age she made tracks from her home in the French countryside to Paris and began the kind of life she wanted to live. Capping what was a pretty good life was meeting Malcolm Doran. Handsome, debonair, rich and totally enamored of Jane they find it almost impossible to stay out of each other’s bed. Just as impulsively, Malcolm proposes to Jane and she readily accepts. Together they head for the country to tell Jane’s grandmother the news before they depart for New York. When they arrived, however, all is not as it should be, most especially is Jane’s grandmother’s death. She does her duty, buries her grandmother and heads to New York with her man.
Upon their arrival she notices that not only is the Doran family mansion a tad ugly, the address is a bit strange. On either side is 664 and 668…and the Doran mansion is…665. Inside the house Jane is warmly welcomed and the family dynamics and tree are explained. But beneath the familial façade Jane glimpses something that doesn’t seem quite right. Is Malcolm marrying her because he loves her, or is something more insidious going on beneath the high society surface?
I eagerly anticipated reading Gabriella Pierce’s debut novel, 666 PARK AVENUE. I was so disappointed. The premise sounded so intriguing, so magical and it fell short. I’m all for descriptive adjectives but attaching a color to what seemed like every inanimate object, article of clothing, nail polish, shoes, etc. began to pull me out of the story each time it happened, and it happened a lot. The peach lips and peach lipstick got to me after awhile. At one point I wondered if the over-abundance of adjectives was to bump up the word count to a minimum number for submission. For me they tended to clutter what would have been a really good story.
I know with chic lit there is a lot of designer name dropping and done well it can be pretty entertaining—although chic lit isn’t one of my favorite genres. In 666 PARK AVENUE, it came across as forced. It was like the author made a list of designers and tried to include each one in the book. The last twenty or so pages the story picked up leading me to believe the next book will have something more to recommend it.
New York is such an exciting city with so much potential for a story – but it was barely used as a back drop.
Fans of chic lit will enjoy this story. The witchcraft twist is different and adds another dimension.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.
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