Renée Ahdieh
Bedford Square Publishers
17 July 2025
320
eBook - EPUB
Contemporary Fiction
ARC via NetGalley
Jia Song was always destined for greatness. As the daughter of Korean bodega owners, she promised herself that she would have every Fifth Avenue luxury when she grew up, and it is all within reach. She has just made junior partner at her prestigious Manhattan law firm, she has two best friends who are always there for her, and she is even about to score the ultra-luxe Birkin bag of her dreams. Sure, maybe her love life is in shambles and she’s spending too much time at the office. But she is set up to become the firm’s next star. So when her boss asks her for a Friday morning favor, sitting in on the hush-hush family implosion of a high-level client, she accepts without hesitation—only to find out that the client in question is one of the most famous Korean families in the world.
The Park family’s net worth is estimated at a billion dollars, and their mega-successful Korean beauty brand has shaped the culture for the past two decades. But the patriarch is filing for divorce while his wife is dying, and their three children can’t stop snapping at each other. With both the family fortune and legacy under threat from the worst kind of scandal, it’s up to Jia to set things right—and she only has a month to do it. Suddenly, Jia is thrust into the three Park siblings’ back-stabbing family politics and embroiled in a drama that feels straight out of a Korean soap opera. As Jia sorts through the lies and subterfuge, chasing the truth across the globe on private jets, she finds herself falling for this broken, badly-behaving family in ways she can’t quite explain. But it is also becoming all too clear that the Parks are hiding dark secrets, from themselves and from Jia. Can she separate the truth from the lies in time to protect the Parks’ fortune and secure her success at the firm? And can she hold on to what’s most important, even if it means admitting that what she always wanted isn’t what she actually needs?
Park Avenue was a story that started really strongly. I was invested in Jia, her hopes and dreams and determination, and drawn in by the various members of the Park family and their staff. Things initially moved at a good pace, but my interest waned a little around the middle of the book when it felt like little progress was happening in the narrative and I begin to skim, waiting for something more to happen. Luckily, things picked up again in the final third, with a few twists and turns as we reached the story's conclusion. Jia definitely grew as a character over the course of the tale and I found the ending mostly satisfying. I am giving this book 3.5 stars. It was an interesting read, but you do need to persevere through the middle section. Recommended for fans of contemporary fiction, family drama, and books with a bit of a mystery twist.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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