Lauren Layne's take on the classic fake engagement/friends to lovers story. What helps set this story apart is that Audrey and Clarke have been characters in the previous books in the series, so finally being able to read about their history was in itself exciting. The depth of Clarke's character was particularly surprising based on what we have seen in the previous books. I also enjoyed reading about Audrey and the other women who were all in love with the same man and the different perspectives on what led them to where they are. Audrey particularly would be a difficult character to write since she is the one who knew she was participating in an affair. Layne does a good job making Audrey likable and understandable and deserving of her HEA.

Marriage on Madison Avenue is a clever and witty story with charming characters. It has great dialogue and I especially loved all the banter between the characters. This is a carefree and fun story about two best friends who pretend they are engaged and along the way, realize they are in love with each other.

Clark and Audrey have been best friends since childhood and decide a fake engagement will solve some of their problems. As they spend time pretending to be in love, they discover they really do love each other. Everyone around them seems to realize this before Clark and Audrey do and they all wait and watch as Clark and Audrey slowly discover how much they care about each other.

Audrey comes from a wealthy family and has lived a pampered life. Unfortunately, her wealth didn’t insulate her from being hurt by a cheater. She has never recovered and finds it hard to trust again. Clark loves his privileged playboy lifestyle but he also has been hurt in the past. Clark and Audrey help each other overcome their issues and are good for each other. I enjoyed Clark and Audrey and all the other characters involved in this engaging story.

I can’t think of a better book to share about today on Valentine’s Day than this delightful romance that shined in all its upbeat, witty, slightly dramatic, glamorous glory! Audrey and Clarke got all the love from me and my only complaint is that I wanted MORE. I really liked Audrey’s character even though I think I clicked with her the least of all the women throughout the series, and gosh, the whole fake engagement thing here made for a highly entertaining storyline. This friends to lovers romance totally nailed the mark! I love how everything wrapped up into this perfect conclusion, making this quite possibly my favorite of the series yet.

I really can’t say enough wonderful things about this series, and as a whole it gets 5 stars from me! It was bingeable and FUN, the friendships and bold characters have earned a place in my heart, and it was fairly clean/not super steamy which is a personal win in my book (don’t worry, there was still a whole bunch of swoon-worthy romance). I will be singing this series praises for a long time to come!

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the complimentary copy.

I absolutely love this series and this book was no different. I love the characters and the storyline of each one of these! This may be my favorite installment of the series yet!

“Marry me, Audrey. Marry me today, marry me next week, a year from now, ten years from now. I don't care, just promise me someday. I need you, Dree. I need you with every fiber of my being. I've needed you from that very first day on the playground. I know the way you tell the story is that I saved you from a bully, but the truth is you save me from myself every damn day. Marry me because I love you, not the way a boy loves a girl, not the way a friend loves his friend, but the way a man loves a woman. Forever.”
Best friends to lovers is THE SUPERIOR TROPE once again

I knew when I started this series that Audrey and Clarke would be my favorite couple, and they didn't disappoint AT ALL!!! Literally everyone but them realised they were in love with each other and going to end up together. I LOVED IT.
Having them all together where it all started was the perfect way to end the series and say goodbye to these amazing characters!

Audrey Tate is heartbroken as the man she was seeing fell off a boat and drowned. That is until she learned that he had been married and had yet another girlfriend! Audrey meets his widow, Naomi, and his other girlfriend, Claire, and they become friends.

Audrey is from a very wealthy family in Manhattan and works as an influencer where she receives free items and evaluates them. Her best friend since childhood is the very handsome and wealthy Clarke West. Now, it appears that someone on social media has said that they are engaged. When she asks Clarke to stop the rumors and set the story straight, he tells her that they need to pretend to be engaged for awhile. His very pushy mother is once again trying to pair him up with Elizabeth, a young woman she feels would be perfect for him. Clarke disagrees.

As the pretend engagement becomes more real, Clarke and Audrey realize that unless they call a halt to the wedding, they might actually find themselves married. Can friends become lovers and have their happily ever after?

Very cute, thoughtful, clean, and funny. Kinda silly at times, but that’s what makes this book lighthearted, while imparting some truths for everyone to consider. I enjoyed reading this and look forward to reading even more books by this author.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is Lauren Layne's final installation of the series and this one did not disappoint. I loved the friends to lovers trope, fake boyfriend or fake fiancée trope. This was definitely a swoon worthy read that will have your heart fluttering and rooting for this cute couple. I loved all the characters and really enjoyed them. Ezch of the book in this series could be read as a stand alone and I did read this without having read Book 1 and 2 and it did not change the way I loved and enjoyed this book. I highly recommend this amazing RomCom.

Marriage on Madison Avenue was the perfect ending to this series. I fell madly in love with the fake fiancée story-line...oh my heart, it was so much fun! And I loved Audrey, Clarke, and their group of friends. I found myself laughing, crying and even gasping out loud while reading, this book was such a huge win! So if you're a fan of swoon worthy romance, a fabulous group of friends and the fake boyfriend trope, you definitely have to pick this one up!

Clarke’s fingers dug slightly into her hip, reminding her of the plan, and she played her part, winding an arm around his waist and beaming up at him. “Me, too. I don’t know what took me so long to see that he’s the one, but I’m glad I finally woke up.”
The smoldering look Clarke gave her in return caused her breath to hitch just for a second and made her think the man had seriously missed his calling— that was some Oscar-level acting right there.


I have been excited for Audrey's story since the first book, Passion on Park Avenue. She was always my favorite, but shhh don't tell the others. Audrey was an Instagram influencer who was extremely popular. But an evil troll got dirt from her past and tried to tarnish her reputation. When her best friend since childhood, Clarke, announced they were engaged, it looked like all of their problems could be fixed. Her troll would hopefully disappear, right along with Clarke's ex who was back in town. And being pushed on him by his over bearing mother.

What had been brutally true was that Audrey was the other woman. The whole time she’d thought she’d finally found her happily ever after, she was destroying someone else’s. A woman who, as Audrey had come to discover, deserved it more than anyone she knew.


I absolutely loved Audrey, she felt like a friend. Her thoughts made her easy to relate to and I loved all of her energy. But my heart hurt for her. She had lost faith in herself when she was damaged by a horrible man. And it ate away at her. Audrey had been the other woman, even though she had no clue. So she didn't think she deserved a happily ever after. A fake engagement was not only perfect, since it'd fix her reputation, but it'd be the closest thing she would ever get to experiencing marriage. Without it going anywhere. Or so she thought.

“Smile,”he instructed, stepping even closer and sliding his hand around her waist. She smiled automatically, even as she registered that his hand had slid low on her back, his face needlessly close to hers.
“Clarke—”
“Brace yourself,”he said out of the corner of his mouth.
“What—”
His lips closed over hers.


Clarke was the ultimate friend and book boyfriend. He was driven, dedicated and I loved how much he loved Audrey. And how he always tried to do right by her. Even the relationship Clarke had with Audrey's parents was what hopes and dreams are made of. But with his overbearing mother pushing his ex in front of him and his ex showing up where he was, being engaged seemed like the perfect answer to fix it all. It was a safe plan. Especially since Audrey had been his best friend since they were kids. What could possibly go wrong?

It was no big deal, she told her thundering heart. Just a perfunctory stamp of a kiss to get the doubters to back off. It’d be over before she knew it.
Clarke’s lips moved against hers, his head tilting to the side, deepening the kiss slightly as his hand slid up her back, pulling her more firmly against him.
Audrey felt something strange and unfamiliar flutter in her stomach.


As Audrey and Clarke got further into their charade, I was a smiling, laughing and oh my gosh what's going to happen next mess. I had butterflies and excitement, but I was also so nervous for them. Because what happened when pretending to be in love with your best friend caused feelings to stir inside? Especially when you had to touch each other in public. Act like you're in love. And have kisses that melted those around you. It was only a facade. Right?! Ahhh see that's why I love these types of books so much. They're such a blast and Lauren Layne, for the second time, has pulled this trope off beautifully and seamlessly (the other book she wrote with this trope is Isn't She Lovely and that book is like a modern day Pretty Woman...sooo addictive!).

“Okay, I’m going to ask something that’s not my business,” Naomi said.
“Now, there’s a surprise,” Claire said. Naomi gave Claire a toothy smile and turned back to Audrey.
“Have you ever thought about trying this whole romance thing for real with Clarke?”


On top of a beautiful romance story, there was a friendship that spanned these three books. And it was such a huge gem in these stories! Audrey, Naomi and Claire seemed like an unlikely trio. Especially since Audrey and Naomi had been sleeping with Claire's husband, unbeknownst to them that he was married. And from their first meeting on the day of his funeral, a beautiful friendship blossomed. One that was based on trust and respect. These ladies had true friendship goals, and I loved watching them grow with each other throughout this series!

She glanced down and winced. “I was in a hurry to talk to you.”
“About?”
Slowly she dragged her gaze back up, but only as far as his Adam’s apple. “About us getting married. Shouldn’t there be . . . more?”
He swallowed, though it felt like a Herculean effort. “Do you want there to be more?”he asked roughly, needing to ask the question even if he wasn’t at all sure that he wanted to know the answer.


If you're looking for a fun romance story that is light and will make you smile and laugh, but also deep and will pull at your heart, then definitely add Marriage on Madison Avenue to your list! This story left me feeling so happy, especially with that epilogue! Just keep in mind, this series is a little different than LL's other books, since it's a fade to black. But it was still extremely sexy! So yes, I definitely recommend this book and series! And Marriage on Madison Avenue can easily be read as a standalone.

PS The crossover with Alexis Morgan, from To Love and To Cherish, as their wedding planner had me squealing with delight! Especially with that Bride Wars reference...the scene with it was absolutely perfect!

Marriage On Madison Ave

**received an ARC in exchange for an honest review**

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A cute friends to lovers romance that will force two best friends to really look at their relationship. Audrey and Clarke are so comfortable with one another and have each other’s back always. I love their relationship and that its a slow burn between them that surprises both of them.

What do you when you once again find out that you are engaged to your best friend, you use it to your advantage. Audrey once again is engaged tp her best friend but this time she decides why not go with it for a couple of days. It will help change what the gossips are saying about her and help Clarke keep out of his mother’s match making schemes.

But each time they decide they are going to tell everyone that it is over, something comes up and they continue on with their engagement. What they aren’t expecting though is to find out that maybe being engaged isn’t so bad and that they could actually make this work.

Can they get married and still just be best friends? Or will they finally realize what they have been looking for has been right in front of them all this time and they just need to trust one another?

Marriage on Madison Avenue is a wonderful addition to the The Central Park Pact Series by Lauren Layne

Clarke is handsome, fun bachelor that had no intention of changing his status until one day his bestie needed him in-ways he never imagined. Can he really do what she asked? I have loved Clarke from the first book in the The Central Park Pact Series. I am happy to have his story.

Audrey is stalked by a nasty gossip that is out to ruin her and her name. Audrey has got to get the upper hand, after her mistakes in the love department she needed someone who knew her and was still willing to help her out, but will Clarke agree? Audrey is a delight, I enjoy that even though she is money she knows how too relax and have fun.

Clarke and Audrey’s story finally!

These two have charmed me from book one in the The Central Park Pact Series. Ms.Layne did not disappoint in any way. I enjoyed getting to know Clarke’s secrets which had me understanding him much better. Audrey’s own issues broke my heart. Can these two figure out that maybe just maybe they had what they always wanted in front of them the whole time?

Supporting characters are just brilliant as ever. Claire, Naomi, Scott and Oliver. It was nice to see them grow as couples, but they have a few secrets of their own. Clarke’s parents are an interesting lot that had me torn between dislike and understanding. Marriage on Madison Avenue is full of characters that stay with you even after the last page is turned. The family dynamics are interesting and fun . True friendship and sisterhood between three most unlikely candidates. Absolutely Charming!

Rated 5 Stilettos and a Recommended Read by Deb !

I absolutely love best-friends to lovers trope in books. It probably has a lot to do with a fact that I married one of my best friends in the world.
Audrey and Clark were each other’s safe haven when the vultures came swirling around. I found their transition to lovers to be unenviable. Your simply can not go through life without falling for your closest friend. I even like the drama throughout the book. And let’s talk about the epic speech Clark delivers after she was on the verge of walking out from their life together. Swoon with a capital »S« .

I really liked this book and I’m adding book 1&2 to my TBR and starting them ASAP.

***Review copy requested and reviewed on behalf of OMGReads Blog***

I have been a fan of Lauren Layne for a while, and was so glad that I was able to read and review the three books in this series. This is the last in a trilogy of stand-alone, friends-to-lovers romance, and this one features Audrey and her best friend since childhood, Clarke. This book had everything I love about Lauren's books. Great settings, characters who are accomplished but still have their quirks, and strong female friendships. Romance novels often use familiar tropes, and as Lauren Layne closes out this trilogy, she definitely did an entertaining job with the friends to lovers trope. This was such a fun read and I think it will be enjoyed by anyone who loves the friends-to-lovers story.

I’ve been waiting for Audrey and Clarke’s HEA forever! I have loved them since meeting them and seeing the sexual tension between two best friends who have always loved each other and maybe meant more to each other than either realized. While I loved the whole fake marriage set up, I felt zero spark between them in this one. While I was excited to watch them get their happy, I was also disappointed in the fade to black that might have connected me more to them. I just felt sad...especially for an author I like reading, and a series I’ve really enjoyed... I just felt meh. :(
I still look forward to reading more from Layne but wish it was a better ending to a series and a cast of characters I really loved.

Marriage on Madison Avenue finally gives us the story we have been anticipating from the very beginning of the series, Audrey and Clarke!!!!

I have to say my heart broke for Audrey, she is such a loving and giving person yet so very negative and harsh with herself. Having had her romantic dreams shattered by a philandering pig she has taken the experience and carries it around with her like a boulder weighing her down and preventing her from being truly happy. She has put her happiness on hold and yet works tirelessly to help those closest to her achieve their hearts desire.

Like all good things, Audrey and Clarke’s relationship starts off as a matter of convenience easing their respective lives and the outside pressures they are bombarded with. However, as their pretense escalates so does their self-awareness regarding their feelings for each other.

I loved the way in which all of the peripheral characters were intuitive regarding the bond between Audrey and Clarke before they were. Especially the way in which they had to hold themselves back from pushing the relationship forward, allowing Audrey and Clarke to come to terms with the change in their dynamic by themselves.

It was surprising how Audrey and Clarke hid so much of themselves from other people, and were extremely harsh with their view of themselves. The way in which they helped each other blossom was wonderful to witness.

The conclusion of the series was stunning in it’s delivery, the way in which the end mirrored the beginning added to the sense of completion and provided a host of warm and fuzzies.

LOVEDDDDD the story of Clarke and Audrey!!! I loved the entire series and can’t wait to read what comes next!

Audrey and Clarke was a story we all knew would happen. Their love was undeniable.

Marriage on Madison Avenue is the story of the two best friends that everyone knew were in love, well everyone except for them. Audrey and Clarke have been best friends since they were kids, they’ve been with each other through everything and just skipped the part where they ever got physically close. So when Clarke tells the biggest busybody he and Audrey are engaged, she is prepared to just go with it.

I really enjoyed how this story developed. It was cute to see Clarke and Audrey literally fake it until they started to make it. It was like once they started touching, it dawned on them how nice it was to see the other person in that way and finally the physical feelings started catching up and gaining on the friendship feelings between them.

Audrey is likable. She went through the emotional ringer after finding out she’d been the other woman after her boyfriend of a year died in a boating accident. You’d think his wife and the other mistress (yes, he was THAT guy) would hate her, but in true The Other Woman style they became BFFs trying to make sure to protect each other from the jerk faces in the world. Still it is hard to find a new love while you still feel like the villain in someone else’s love story.

Clarke has been a playboy his entire life. Audrey is the uncomplicated girl he hangs out with and takes to events when he is between short term love affairs. Every girl he has dated has been jealous of her and he is starting to see what maybe they saw. Every day the fake engagement goes on, he is more reluctant to end it, since everything about it is starting to feel real.

Lauren Layne again does fantastic dialogue and fun friend relationships. I always like the group dynamic she sets up. Marriage on Madison Avenue is the third and final book in the Central Park Pact series. While all of the stories can be read as standalones, it is better to read the other two books in the series. There were some cameos from The Wedding Belles series and Oxford that were fun if you’ve read those books as well.

I do like to point out that this book only has fade to black sex scenes, completely PG-13. It really threw me for a loop when I read the first book in this series and found that out. All of the other Lauren Layne books I’d read to date always had that payout scene. I still love her books but like to bring that up in case you need something less…sexy for a book club or to read with a late teen’s daughter.

“It’s also not like guys have been banging down the door trying to woo me.”
“Maybe it’s because you use words like woo?”
“You’re the worst fake husband ever.”
“Our ill-fated love affair will end just as soon as you get off me.”

“I forgot how scary your parents’ house is,” Audrey muttered, leaning in to look at the door knocker on the West’s 80th Street residence. “Is that a lion? With its mouth open?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Audrey,” Clarke said, opening the door. “That’s not a lion. It’s clearly the spitting image of my mother.”

Audrey and Clarke have been friends all their lives. Audrey is a social influencer and a rumor surfaces that she and Clarke are engaged. Audrey is mad and demands Clarke sets the record straight. But then Audrey is targeted as someone who cannot hold on to a man, Audrey and Clarke decide to let the engagement rumor keep going. Everything is going well until Audrey starts to question her feelings for Clarke. Could her feelings be more than just friends?

This book is the third in a series but this is the first book I read. I was not lost in the story or feel as if I was missing anything. It can definitely be read as a stand alone book but I'm excited to read the first two books to find out more about Audrey, her friends, and Clarke. My favorite characters were Audrey and her friends, Naomi and Claire. The first chapter of the book describes how they met. Naomi and Audrey were dating the same man without knowing it and also did not know he was married to Claire. They meet at his funeral and form a pact never to be hurt by a man again. I loved this part of the story because they chose to place the blame at the man who deceived them rather than blaming each other for what they could not have known. I feel this formed a strong bond between the women that was evident throughout the book.

It is a great story about the power of friendship and following your heart. It is a light, romantic read.

Absolutely loved it, like all of her books. An excellent conclusion to the series. (and a surprise cameo by one of the Wedding Belles!)

So here's the thing... After binge-ing Passion on Park Avenue and Love on Lexington Avenue, I was SO ready for some Audrey and Clarke friends-to-lovers fake relationship yumminess. And perhaps all of that anticipation set me up for a bit of disappointment, because what should have been my favorite book of the series just ended up feeling sort of meh for me. Audrey's feelings about her own HEA felt out of proportion, Clarke's relationship with his parents and ex could have been expounded on more, the whole situation with Gossip Boy (or whatever he was called) was a missed opportunity for more umph, and don't EVEN get me started on how fade to black this fade to black was (and I was semi prepared for fade to black because that's how the other two books were handled but this one felt even more faded to blackness if you catch my drift). All that being said, I did like the book... I just wanted more. But all's well that ends well I guess. I am interested in reading more from Lauren Layne, as I did enjoy how she handled female friendships as such, but I'll definitely go in with different expectations. 3.5 out of 5 wine glasses.

5 Stars / 2 Steam Fans

This third book of the Central Park Pact was the perfect bittersweet ending to this friend group that started after an unfortunate event. This book concentrates on Audrey and Clarke, who are childhood friends, adolescent saviors, and adult beards. Whenever Audrey needed Clarke, he was there for her, and when he couldn't get rid of a woman fast enough, Audrey was there for him. When an Internet troll goes after Audrey, Clarke steps in to help her appear as if she is in a stable relationship. I loved this fake relationship so much!

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