Veena’s Duckies Do Series review of From Manhattan With Love Series by Sarah Morgan
Contemporary Romance published by HQN Books 31 May 16 through 29 Nov 16

 Ms. Morgan wrings an entire spectrum of emotions from her readers in this delightful series. Three friends move from their small, close-knit island community to the big, bold city of New York. Their trials and tribulations, as they look for financial and romantic success, inspired me as I rooted for them and cried with them.

Sleepless in Manhattan
31 May 16

Born with a heart condition, Paige Walker has been sheltered and protected all her life. Determine tdo take the Big Apple by storm, she doesn’t let much get her down.  When she and her three friends are fired unjustly from their jobs, she takes it in stride and decides to set up her own events business with her friends as partners.

Jake Romano is the only person who’s ever seen her soft underbelly.  Reluctantly she allows him back into her life to give her fledgling company a chance.  Chemistry was never their problem. Can she get this commitment-phobe to recognize love when it looks him direct in the eye and seize the opportunity?

This is a love story absolutely, but it’s also an inspiring story that showcases how commitment and hard work can win the day.

Grade: A

Summary:

From USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan comes the first book in a hot new trilogy about friendship, love and embracing life!
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 Manhattan? But when Paige loses 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?

Sunset In Central Park
30 Aug 16

Matt and Frankie have softer feelings for each other beyond friendship. Frankie, having suffered through her parents’ nasty divorce and then seeing her mother desperately looking for love in all the wrong places, definitely does not believe in true love or even a meaningful relationship. Matt has chosen to maintain a friendly relationship with Frankie even as he loves her deeply.

Given Frankie’s fragility, Ms. Morgan slowly develops this relationship patiently, coaxing Frankie along the path to discovering her heart and accepting Matt’s love. Their trip back to the island opens up Frankie’s eyes that she might have in her hedgehog fashion actually misjudged people and created a monster where none existed. Matt had endeared himself to me in the previous book in how he nurtured and encouraged his sister and her friends, but in this book I fell deeply in love with him myself as he encourages Frankie to open up and flower.

This is a deeply sensuous romance with a lot of layers that Matt needs to peel back to help Frankie emerge from her caterpillar stage and really embrace life and relationships at all levels. Perhaps in many ways this is the most emotionally satisfying book of the trilogy.

Grade: A+

Summary:

In the chaos of New York, true love can be hard to find, even when it’s been right under your nose all along…
Love has never been a priority for garden designer Frankie Cole. After witnessing the fallout of her parents’ divorce, she’s seen the devastation an overload of emotion can cause. The only man she feels comfortable with is her friend Matt—but that’s strictly platonic. If only she found it easier to ignore the way he makes her heart race…

Matt Walker has loved Frankie for years but, sensing how fragile she is beneath her feisty exterior, has always played it cool. But then he uncovers new depths to the girl he’s known forever and doesn’t want to wait a moment longer. He knows Frankie has secrets and has buried them deep, but can Matt persuade her to trust him with her heart and kiss him under the Manhattan sunset?

Miracle On 5th Ave
29 Nov 16

Eva is my absolute favorite of the three friends in this series.  Her one liners, especially when she talks about how starved she is for a physical relationship, had me cackling all through the series. Her innate kindness and goodness shines through, as does the sadness and loneliness she carefully masks under her cheery exterior.  It’s fitting that she of the three deserves a miracle.

There have been references to Lucas all along, but we don’t actually meet him until this book.  Lucas is struggling with bitter memories and writer’s block with an approaching deadline. He definitely doesn’t expect the effect that the fun and generous Eva has on his libido, as well as also making the words flow for him.  Poor Eva is thrilled when she learns that she’s going to be a character in the book that Lucas is writing, little realizing that he has her cast in the role of the killer and not beautiful victim.  Well, he deserves all he gets and more when she learns the truth.

This is a fitting end to the trilogy, and even as Lucas and Eve seem to be such opposites, they clearly have a lot in common besides their red-hot chemistry.

Grade:  A

Summary:

It will take a Christmas miracle for two very different souls to find each other in this perfectly festive fairy tale of New York!
Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan loves everything about Christmas. She might be spending the holidays alone this year, but when she’s given an opportunity to house-sit a spectacular penthouse on Fifth Avenue, she leaps at the chance. What better place to celebrate than in snow-kissed Manhattan? What she didn’t expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous—and mysterious—owner.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade is having the nightmare before Christmas. With a deadline and the anniversary of his wife’s death looming, he’s isolated himself in his penthouse with only his grief for company. He wants no interruptions, no decorations and he certainly doesn’t appreciate being distracted by his beautiful, bubbly new housekeeper. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva snowbound in his apartment, Lucas starts to open up to the magic she brings…This Christmas, is Lucas finally ready to trust that happily-ever-afters do exist?

Overall Grade: A