Well that was lovely! This is the second book in a trilogy involving three friends who have started their own business after moving from a small town to Manhatten. Frankie and Matt have known each other forever and have had crushes on each other for years but only now does it seem like the right time to start taking steps towards each other. Frankie has more than a little baggage and some serious trust issues around relationships based off her parents' disasterous split when she was a teenager. This is one of the few times when trust issues make some sense. Frankie has been through it and is just now really in a place where she can come to terms with everything. I loved both the characters and couldn't help but root for them. My favorite thing was that they actually communicated and listened to each other. I also really loved the friendship between the three women and how supportive they are of each other. The ending was also pretty fantastic. My only issue is that I listened to the audio and for the most part I was good with the narrator but her voice for Eve drove me up the wall. It was very Marilyn Monroe-esque and just felt so overdone. I read the third book (Eve's story) years ago and now have added it back to my TBR as I enjoyed this enough I want to revisit it.

I requested this one back in the day as I had every intention of reading it. However, its been years and I still haven't gotten around to it and while I feel guilty at not reviewing a book I think that I need to admit to myself that I won't be reading this one anytime soon....if at all.

This book is about Paige’s best friend Frankie and her brother Matt. Paige and Jake appear in this book as well, as does Eva, who will be the focus of the next book in the series. In this type of series, I tend to become attached to the characters and worry about whether I will like focusing on a new main character in the next book. Luckily, I loved reading about Frankie just as much as I enjoyed reading about Paige. This is a romance novel, but it also tells the story of Frankie’s difficulties with relationships stemming from her parents’ failed marriage. It is lovely to see how Matt helps her through this and their relationship develops.

We finally get Frankie’s story! I admit I was really looking forward to her book because she seemed like a great character, and she definitely was.

To briefly recap the series, it centers around 3 childhood friends, Paige, Eva, and Frankie, who form an events company in New York City after losing their jobs. Paige, the heroine from Book 1, is kind of the take-charge manager of the group. Eva is the bubbly and soft hearted chef. And then there’s Frankie, the florist, who is prickly and introverted. She’d much rather stay home with a book and her plants than do just about anything else, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love her friends fiercely. Her circle of friends also includes Paige’s brother, Matt, though Frankie does her best to ignore her low-key attraction to him. When he needs her help with a job, they have to spend more time together, and Matt finally decides to make his own long-time interest in Frankie known. Frankie definitely has an unfavorable view of sex and relationships, though, so Matt sets about convincing her that she’s mistaken.

I really enjoyed Frankie. To be frank (harhar), she’s pretty messed up. She is completely terrified of relationships and believes they can’t last, so she goes to extraordinary lengths to push men away. Her parents had an ugly divorce, after which her mom completely fell apart before spending the rest of her life hopping around from younger man to younger man. At first I was thinking Frankie’s genuine phobia of relationships was kind of overdone. Lots of kids of divorced parents go on to be perfectly well adjusted so I felt like her issues were a bit extreme. But after learning more about her dad’s despicable behavior and seeing how selfish her mom was, it made more sense. It’s still over-the-top, but I could at least see where she was coming from. She certainly had a lot of self-esteem issues as a result of her childhood, too. It was a little hard to read sometimes, because when you boil it down, I think she was actually not sure she was even capable of love. Of course, we know that’s not true because we can see how much she loves her friends.

I could talk about the very steamy sex, the amazing use of the NYC setting, or a dozen other things I like about these books, but by a wide margin, the thing I am loving most about this series is the friendships. Paige, Eva, and Frankie are totally devoted to each other and it is a damn pleasure to read about. They share their feelings, they console, they lift each other up when necessary, and they always have each other’s backs. I know more page time is technically spent on the romantic relationships in these books, but for me the friendships are really the heart of the whole series and obviously the foundation for these women’s lives. I also love that, while not the core, others are also included in the circle of friends. For instance, there’s a really touching scene where Eva gives Matt someone to lean on when he’s hurting near the end of the book. It’s so lovely to see a bunch of grown ups who support each other like family. The dialog between everyone is snappy and funny and just makes me want to get to know these people in real life.

And yet…this book also frustrated me a bit, mostly near the ending. My frustrations started when Matt kept pushing Frankie. Yes, I know you’re in love with her and yes I know she’s almost impossibly skittish, but if she’s not ready to get more serious back the hell off! I kept thinking how none of her behavior should be a surprise to him so why was he trying to change the rules on her, especially when it really hadn’t been THAT long? Ease up and give her some more time instead of making it all about your poor manly heartbreak. And I won’t explain the ending, but I just wasn’t completely sold on the speed of the resolution. Frankie had some genuine, deep-rooted fears that are suddenly just resolved…poof! I would have liked to see a slightly more realistic (for Frankie) ride off into that Central Park sunset.

Despite these issues, I am so, so ready to read Eva’s story now. I wasn’t quite as interested in her in Book 1 but after learning more, I badly want her to get her own happy ending. Now that I know who her hero is going to be I’m extra excited, too. Hoo boy, he ain’t gonna know what hit him!

Grade: 4 out of 5

*Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin for the ARC given for an honesta review

The stories of friends who become lovers are somewhat worn out in these times. But Mrs. Morgan has managed to create a refreshing and fun story. The way in which the characters are structured contributes to the good development of the plot. Also, she uses the chronology of events in her favor. You can see that she usted really good at this type of topic, and each time you read one is different from the previous one. It does not deviate into clichés regarding the interaction between the main characters (although there are other clichés in the plot), which is to be welcomed.

I also appreciate the extensive knowledge of the subject regarding Frankie's profession. Mrs. Morgan has done the homework and it shows every time Frankie is in her work area. Also, Matt's profession is credible to me. Each scene is well thought out and written.

The secondary characters have their weight in the story. We must remember that the basis of the series is friendship. Although Paige is not so present in this book, Eva is an overwhelming presence. But, like a good secondary character, it does not overshadow Frankie. What it does do is leave us intrigued, eager to read the happy ending of Eva's stories. I wished there were more scenes between Matt and Jake (book 1). It seemed like the relationship between them had been diluted, now that Jake is with Paige, which is not the case (obviously, Matt and Paige are brothers).

In conclusion, Mrs. Morgan has given me a story of friends and lovers, I have bought it (literally) and I am a satisfied client. One or another failure in some moments of history concerning the rhythms, but very good delivery. Highly recommended.

I can't do anything other than give this book a 5-star rating. What an amazing read!! I loved Frankie and Matt as minor characters in book 1 and reading a full-length novel about them was such a joy. I was really impressed by the writing in this book especially, given Frankie's issues. Her character development was so amazingly well done. And Matt... Matt is that 'typical' perfect book boyfriend, which you can love or hate, but I LOOOOOVE him so much! He was the perfect match for Frankie and I love how determined he was to not give up on Frankie. Their romantic journey of exploring their feelings for one another and act upon them was just really great. I was addicted right from the start and just couldn't stop reading.

It has humor, it has great character development, the minor characters are really well written as well, the New York setting is just awesome, it has the sweetest and most amazing well-written from friends-to-lovers-romance and it is so sexy from time to time. I seriously loved every aspect of this book! The writing, the characters, the story-line, the romance, and sexiness. Sure, books like these are a bit predictable, but it didn't bother me at all because the story-line and character development are so perfectly written down and the whole reading experience was just amazing. I normally don't rate a 'regular' romance novel with a 5-star rating, but given how much and how intensely I enjoyed this book, I just really feel it is deserving of a 5-star read. I miss Matt and Frankie already. Thankfully Eva's book is waiting to be read, which means I get more of these amazing writing skills and I get more of ALL the amazing characters I got to meet in this series so far.

If you're in need of a sexy, interesting romance with a great New York setting, this is definitely a book (but I'd recommend reading the first one as well because it is really great too) you need to add to your tbr. A great read for every romance reader out there, I'm sure of it!

This is a tale of learning to trust again...of being yourself and owning it. Of realizing that just because you may get hurt... it is the risk you take for the type of reward love can bring.
It is part of a series and although I had not read the first one, I was fine with reading this. The friendships of these women joined by growing up together, moving to New York City and also working in this new venture is very solid. We understand each of their personalities and Eva is the next gal who will get her HEA.

This was a new author for me and her style was easy to read. The story was sweet, did take a bit of patience...But overall I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this.
I really loved the characters Frankie and Matt in the previous book so I was looking forward to their story.
The writing is so good that you can just "feel" the chemistry coming off the pages between the two of them.

Frankie doesn't believe in love or marriage. She often thinks people are pretty ridiculous over the whole thing.
Matt, even with a failed engagement, still believes in both and wants the whole package with Frankie.

Their whole romance was very sweet, including the fact Frankie thought she wasn't "good" at sex, making their first intimate scene quite funny.
Her secret, wasn't really that much of a secret, I assume other readers guessed it correctly.
My only real disappointment with this book is the fact there was no showdown with her lousy no good father.

With Sarah Morgan's books though, it isn't just the main characters from the story you're reading, its the other secondary characters that make the books as good as they are. I love the friendship that the three girls have. They help the book overall and you find yourself getting invested in all of their relationships and wanting the best for them all.

Frankie and Matt were perfect for each other and it was beautiful to read because it was obvious.
I became way more invested in Eva than I did the first book and couldn't wait to start it.

I just spent a rainy Saturday curled up with a delightful romance novel and couldn’t be happier about it. Sarah Morgan writes great stories, with characters that she creates and develops through changes in their environments and lives. Sunset in Central Park is a character-driven story wrapped up in a plot that carries the reader from a damaged woman to the man who helps her overcome the baggage that is keeping her from living a fulfilled life.
As introduced in the first book, Sleepless in Manhatten, three young women, Eva, Paige, and Frankie are living in Manhatten and have started their own event business. With things initially slow they must accept almost any proposition that is offered to them and that means a lot of bridal showers and weddings. Frankie is love-phobic so she is not thrilled with being surrounded with all of the happy ever afters and when things go south for a customer she believes that is the truth of all romance.
Matt is Paige’s brother and he owns the house where Frankie and the others live. He also has his eye on Frankie but it will take some tricky finesse to get Frankie to put aside her fears and accept that Matt is everything he appears to be.
This story is heartwarming and full of sexy overtures as Frankie and Matt slowly, oh, so very slowly, draw closer to each other. There is no insta-love here, although Frankie is drawn to Matt but just can’t admit it even to herself. The almost-first-kisses are quite funny as Frankie begins to wonder why they don’t happen.
I love Sarah Morgan’s style of writing and this is a book I will enjoy reading again.

I love reading a series! And Sarah Morgan writes some really, really warm romances that gets to the heart and bring smiles as the hero and heroine find their happily ever after.

Her “From Manhattan, With Love” series is one of those very warm romances set in one of the most romantic cities, New York. Book two of the series; “Sunset In Central Park” is the love story of Matt Walker and Frankie Cole. Both have feelings for each since eternity but have been dancing around each other forever!

Matt always thought he knew everything about Frankie. But finding out that she’s hiding from the world behind glasses is a revelation itself that sets the ball rolling in wooing Frankie and helping her through her fears and uncertainties. He may be a successful businessman, when it comes to the matters of the heart, Frankie scares him but he is one determined man in love to protect and to cherish.

A broken home and a wandering butterfly of a mother did a number on Frankie. She may be successful with her friends in business, a master at Kung Fu, but when it comes to showing any emotions, she hides behind fake eyeglasses, t-shirts and jeans. Her work is her refuge and sanity, but lately with Matt discovering her vulnerabilities, she finally may be brave to test the feelings she had for Matt for the longest time.

Frankie, as an amazing woman with her kindness and support and Matt as the patient and protective lover, make “Sunset In Central Park” one of the most beautiful love stories to read. And the credit goes to Sarah Morgan to for her writing prowess, creating two amazing characters in Matt and Frankie, the chemistry among the friends and the unconditional support and care for each other, just creates a beautiful story to enjoy to our heart’s content.
Received an ARC from Harlequin via NetGalley for an honest review.

Short Summary: Frankie doesn’t want anything to do with love, thanks to her parents tumultus relationships… On the other hand there is Mark, her best friend’s brother and curent landlord.

Having met both Frankie and Matt in the previous installment, this book jumps right in. Frankie was a complex carácter, a lot of her issues were based on reality, sure, but were way bigger in her own mind than in reality. She does have good reason to avoid relationships, though, even if she takes it a little too far.

Matt was almost too perfect: he was nice and kind and hot and ran his own succesful landscape company. He could be a bith thick headed but really, it was his response to Frankie’s reticense.

The book had it’s good moments, I particularly liked their visit to Puffin Island where everything was beyond adorable - everything is Puffin this and puffin that. But yeah, as it happened with the previous book, a lot of the conflict came from Frankie being too set in her ways and too stubborn, it was almost too much.

I was actually much more interested in the story revolving around two of Matt’s employees.

But all in all, the book was pretty sweet.

I was so impatient to read the second part of "From Manhattan with love" series by Sarah Morgan, and I finally had time to do it. What a lovely return from the 3 girlfriends, Frankie, Paige and Eva! On the first book, the story was focusing on Paige and this time on "Sunset in Central Park" the story focuses on Frankie and her difficulties to love and how she will deal with it. The book is also about a wonderful friendship between 3 girlfriends who are also colleagues, it's also about love and trust. I really enjoyed this second part. Now I can't wait to discover a bit more the lovely Eva! I suppose the 3rd part will focus on her? can't wait to find out! I really recommend this series, very very good! and so well written!!!

“Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world” says the inimitable, raspy-voiced Rick in Casablanca. And we in romance-landia think, with that statement, Rick capsized the HEA. World events, ideals and ideologies, peace, order, justice, and equality sitting in every HEA’s background and ensuring it, are imperiled. Then, individual desires for the domestic HEA that completes the romance genre’s narrative cycle, are subsumed by themes greater than those the genre embodies. Miss Bates concurs; recent events make reading fiction, much less romance, difficult. Focus is elusive and the safe spaces we once cocooned in are tottering and toppling. And yet, what greater gift can a free, open, and tolerant country offer its citizens than the safety to make choices, love, live in plenitude and generosity and offer something to the next generation in having or succoring children, plants, animals, knowledge, nature, or art. Embedded in the romance narrative is the conviction that every person has the inner resources, given safety and love, to live without crippling constraints, whether they are internal, or external. Though Miss Bates feels “itchy” and can’t always immerse herself in a romance, she still feels life-affirmation after reading one of its best practitioners. Though she started and dropped it restlessly, she read Sarah Morgan’s Sunset In Central Park, a quiet and lovely romance.



Second in Morgan’s From Manhattan With Love series, Sunset In Central Park tells of the relationship of Matt Walker, overprotective, loving brother to the first book’s heroine, Paige, and one of Paige’s best friends, Francesca “Frankie” Cole. Morgan has set up a lovely urban community feel to her novel by having Paige, Frankie, and friend Eva, share a business and a brownstone with owner Matt and the ever-present male friend bromance, Jake (who is to marry Paige and served as book number one’s hero). Young people make a success of it in Manhattan without losing themselves in the rat race and enjoy each others’ company and the joys of urban living. Central Park is always prominent in the narrative as are drinks on their roof-top garden, pubs where they laugh over brews, walks in the park, and lovely shared meals.

Matt and Frankie have known each other their entire lives, growing up together on Maine’s Puffin Island. Their childhoods, however, were as different as the slow-paced, close-knit island community is from Manhattan’s speedy energy and anonymity. Matt grew up in a loving, happy family and Frankie’s childhood and adolescence were blighted by her father’s infidelity, parents’ divorce, mother’s breakdown and then wild promiscuity. Matt is healthy about receiving and giving love and having a relationship and Frankie is … not.


Sharing the Brooklyn brownstone, Matt and Frankie are in each others’ pockets. Childhood and now adult friends, everything changes when Matt, owner of a successful landscaping business, asks Frankie, a talented horticulturalist, for help with a project. Though Frankie is busy starting a new business with Paige and Eva, an events and concierge company, Urban Genie, she can’t refuse a friend. It’s soon becomes clear, however, that Matt’s motivation to bring Frankie closer, physically and emotionally, isn’t merely dictated by business interest.

Though Sarah Morgan is a lovely writer, with a delicate touch and a great scene-setter, who also writes witty dialogue, the novel’s set-up and initial characterization (except for Claws, Matt’s cat; she’s brilliant) are wonky. Miss Bates didn’t quite understand why Matt went from charming rogue-ish friend to smitten boyfriend. Especially because the only reasoning behind it was his discovery that Frankie deliberately wore glasses she didn’t need to “hide” her prettiness. It was as classic as the 1950s film cliché of the geeky secretary letting her hair down and whipping off the specs to … TARA! KaBOOM! insta-beauty. On Frankie’s part, she obsessed way too much over her inferior appearance to Matt’s hotness.

The novel soared, however, when Frankie agreed to accompany Matt to Puffin Island for a wedding (that of the Puffin Island series’s first hero and heroine in First Time In Forever). What seemed expedient in bringing Matt and Frankie together suddenly took a more compelling, persuasive turn. Frankie’s neuroses, frankly (hardy-har) are deep: her mother and father were dysfunctional and mother continues to be so (her father with ne’er a contact for her since her fourteenth year). Frankie has worked herself up to a “touch me not” state both for fear of being anything like her needy mother and being abandoned. Add some demoralizing sexual experiences and Frankie is as skittish as Matt’s temperamental cat, Claws. Frankie’s fear and cynicism would take a saint to penetrate and that is exactly what Matt is, a rogue-ish, loving, charming saint. He’s loving, supportive, and understanding. Morgan’s written a really nice guy who’s NOT boring.

If you’re looking for a plot-heavy romance, Sunset In Central Park isn’t it. Matt and Frankie date, though reluctantly, at least initially, on Frankie’s part. They have dinner, attend a wedding, take walks, make dinner and breakfast, share a bed, stories, confidences, and work they love. In a nutshell, they’re perfect for each other. Their love’s impediments centre solely on Frankie. Thus, Morgan writes a romance about the heroine’s emotional working-out of what stops her from trusting and loving. The hero is her spirit- and sex-guide: he leads her on the paths of pleasure and the heart until Frankie’s fear, when the truth about her feelings for Matt and his for her, becomes too much. Her emotional walls run smack into her heart’s desire. Matt’s all there, all out, and ready to love Frankie, marry Frankie, and have little Matts and Frankies with her, but Frankie … isn’t. Frankie has to overcome her fears, walk through a desert of loneliness, to reach out to Matt … and the scene when she finally does, absolutely one of the best EVER, funny and poignant as heck.

Morgan never disappoints. Sunset In Central Park is funny, heartfelt, and endearing. Matt and Frankie are the stuff that HEAs are made of. With Miss Austen, Miss Bates would say that Sunset In Central Park is evidence of “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma. Sarah Morgan’s Sunset In Central Park is published by HQN Books. It was released in August of 2016 and is available at your preferred vendors. Miss Bates received an e-ARC from HQN Books, via Netgalley.

Sunset In Central Park is the second book in the From Manhattan With Love series, and even though I haven’t read book one or any other book by Sarah Morgan, I really enjoyed this book and the author’s writing style. This is really a friends to lovers book at its heart, and its also a slow burn before things start to happen somewhat quickly.

Frankie Cole is a commitment-phobe who’s never dated anyone seriously, due in large part due to the nasty breakup her mother went through with her philandering father when Frankie was a teenager. Her mom did a 180 and has become a serial dater of younger men ever since the divorce (and earning her daughter a bad reputation by association on their small island), and she’s quite hard on her daughter’s celibate ways. Frankie’s had a few disastrous relationships with men that were very wrong for her, so she’s sworn off men altogether to focus on her career as a horticulturist and to read as many books as she can while living a quiet, anonymous life in New York City. She’s found quite a bit of success running Urban Genie, an event planning company that plans just about everything with her two best friends Eva and Paige, so Frankie’s just fine closing herself off emotionally to most people except her best friends. But then Paige’s older brother Matt starts hinting that he wants more than a friendship with Frankie…

Matt Walker is a successful landscaping business owner, getting his hands dirty while planning and carrying out beautiful urban landscapes all over the east coast. He’s known Frankie for twenty years, and he thinks he knows all of her baggage and hang ups–but that doesn’t keep him from liking her all the same. He’s patient, kind, friendly, and persistent, and he has his work cut out for him when Frankie comes to help him out during the summer on a rooftop urban garden project that then turns into another project when she reluctantly returns to their home island with him. Frankie is skittish when it comes to relationships–she’s convinced that they all end badly no matter what–so Matt has to convince her that he’s in it for the long haul, and she’s not just some fling.

I give Sunset In Central Park a four out of five. This romance started out a bit slowly as Matt and Frankie really felt their boundaries and friendship out, and it’s when Frankie started to come out of her shell that her character really grew on me the most. She was a bit repetitive in the beginning about her hangups, even though her friends already knew her story with her parents for the most part since they’d grown up together. The characters were very likable and fun, with the New York City backdrop and the island setting painting a nice picture throughout. This was a fun, quick read where two friends explored their feelings for each other. Sarah Morgan’s writing was clear, concise, and easy to read. I’m definitely open to reading more from Sarah Morgan in the future. Even though this was the second installment in this series, Sunset In Central Park can be read as a stand alone novel.