Book Review: 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce

Title: 666 Park Avenue
Author: Gabriella Pierce
Publisher: Avon A
Release Date: 02/01/2011
ISBN: 0061434779







If The Devil Wears Prada married Rosemary's Baby and had their way with Cate Tiernan's Sweep series, then I think the resulting offspring would probably come out a little bit like this.

What if your mother-in-law turned out to be an evil, cold-blooded witch . . . literally?

Ever since fabulously wealthy Malcolm Doran walked into her life and swept her off her feet, fledgling architect Jane Boyle has been living a fairy tale. When he proposes with a stunning diamond to seal the deal, Jane can't believe her incredible luck and decides to leave her Paris-based job to make a new start with Malcolm in New York.

But when Malcolm introduces Jane to the esteemed Doran clan, one of Manhattan's most feared and revered families, Jane's fairy tale takes a darker turn. Soon everything she thought she knew about the world—and herself—is upended. Now Jane must struggle with newfound magical abilities and the threat of those who will stop at nothing to get them.

Before I get started with my review, I have to stress that this is more chick lit than urban fantasy. To be honest, this is really more of a new genre- not quite chick lit but not quite urban fantasy or supernatural/horror thriller. It doesn't even really fit into the paranormal romance genre either. As such, there's going to be a few who will probably be a little weirded out by this book. That's OK as long as they don't completely dismiss it because this book is a very easy & interesting read.

The premise of the book (boy meets girl then discovers wicked mother in law) isn't very new, nor is the addition of magic, yet Pierce does a pretty good job of mixing it all into something that's a little new. Jane's a little bit of an average girl in the heroine category, but she's got gumption. Despite being overwhelmed by everything, she refuses to play the victim but doesn't go the "spunky/happy/gritty" route that other heroines tend to be in magic related fiction. Readers will really love the description of magic in this world, but some might get frustrated that we only get to see a brief glimpse of it here.

Some might get a little discouraged that much of the action doesn't really happen until the later part of the book or that there's not a huge amount of chemistry between Jane & her fiancee. Stick with it guys- there's a reason for the chemistry & while Jane does take a while to really get rolling with her magic, it does help make it a little more realistic. (After all, the average person would probably take that long to get started, being so overwhelmed.) When the stuff does start going down, I promise that you'll be hooked.

This is definitely a first novel, but Pierce already has an easy style of writing that will be appealing to many & there's room for more novels in this series (please?), so we're sure to see some top notch writing in the next book in the series. (Pretty please?)

(ARC provided by NetGalley)