Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Maggie Bliss is a middle aged romance writer trying to finish the last book in her latest trilogy. Maggie has writers block, so her agent invites her to Paris to try and find her muse. Exploring the streets of Paris, undergoing a mini makeover, and meeting a few fun characters along the way helps Maggie get out of her writing funk. Maggie rediscovers things she didn’t realize were missing from life and is able to get another chance at romance.

I loved this beautiful story of an enchanting city. Maggie is a romance writer struggling to write the final book in her series. She goes to Paris to find her muse and finish her book. Maggie finds more than that! I loved the relationship between her and Solange, Lee, and Martin. I loved how she roped her daughter into her shenanigans. Her ex husband was kind and loving, but he was a little dull. I didn't feel the spark between them. When it came to Max, I could tell she found him attractive. The reason this book is 4 stars instead of 5 is Maggie's relationship with Max. It seemed to come out of left field. Abrupt. It was hot and sizzling once it started, but it just started weird.

The writing was descriptive and Maggie was hilarious. My favorite scene was the whole group acting out the action scene. It was a very memorable book!

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me ARC read and review this book.

This was a very good book! It follows Maggie, a 48-year-old writer on a trip to Paris where she finds her muse, Max. It had everything to be a success, from the beautiful city of Paris as a background to the amazing food descriptions and the interesting love interest. I enjoyed reading it, but only gave three stars because I didn’t feel the chemistry between the love interests, which is a must in a romance for me. However, I’m sure many readers might feel differently about it and love the story!

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Maggie is a successful romance writer working towards buying her cozy dream house on the beach. The only problem? She's got major writer's block and hasn't been able to even START the third and final book of her best selling series. With the potential of a TV deal hanging in the balance once the trilogy is complete, Maggie's book agent convinces her to fly off to Paris is search of inspiration. Between the beautiful French scenery, hot French men, and an attractive ex-husband, there's a lot to be inspired by. But will Maggie get her book done? And will she pick her loving ex-husband Alan or her new French beau, Max?


This book was a delight to read. Definitely something I can imagine reading on the beach or tucked away in a coffee shop. Ernst beautifully crafted the Parisienne streets while keeping Maggie and her work grounded in reality. The characters were complex and interacted in realistic ways that kept the plot moving. Definitely will recommend to friends!

I read "Maggie Finds Her Muse" by Dee Ernst during my week off of work after Christmas. I loved it! I would definitely pick more books from dee Ernst to read. I thought the character development was great and wanted more! I had a hard time putting this book down. The story kept me entertained and held my attention.

Dear Fellow Reader:

Happy New Year! I hope you had a safe and happy holiday season. Hard to believe that it is over already! And (as Silent Sam sadly pointed out the other day) we have almost six months until our next day off. Now, that is depressing!

For those of you, like me, who are facing another grey day outside, it is time for some LIGHT reading. Unfortunately, the book I am reviewing today will not be available until April 20th. Yes, I know, I don’t usually review books before they are out, but I have had this book for a long time and it still has a long time until it comes out. I thought I should review it while it is still fresh in my mind. (And yes, I received a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.)


Maggie Finds Her Muse is a story about Maggie, who is a writer with a deadline. Her third book is due to the editor in six weeks and she hasn’t had any inspiration to sit down and write. This book is part of the key to her financial independence and she feels that she needs to get going on it. But the words aren’t coming. She is frustrated.

And then we meet her live-in. He only spends part of the year with her – otherwise, he is off doing speaking events or closed into his cabin writing. He is with her when he is teaching at the same school where she teaches. She tries to talk with him about how she is stuck in her writing, but he ignores her and tells her what he needs her to do for him. And that was the end. She kicked him out. This is not helping her writing issue. In talking to her agent, she confesses that she has not been writing and that she has kicked out her current man. The agent is horrified. He tells her that he and his partner are leaving for Paris the next week and she should come with them to their apartment so she can write. (under his watchful eyes) At first, she hesitates but then gives in and goes to Paris.

She has a daughter living outside of Paris and it turns out that her ex-husband will be in town at the same time. They are friendly; they agreeably split years before so seeing her ex is not an issue.

She has no thought about rekindling her love for her ex nor does she expect to fall in love with the man she finds in her bathtub one morning. She just wants to write her book. Love is not part of her equation.

This is Dee Ernest’s 30th book. Wow! She writes Chick lit and cozy mysteries. The book was the balm I needed when I read it. A light, quick read that is satisfying. I see that Kindle has one of her other books (A Mother’s Day Murder) free on kindle right now. It is the first in a series. I have downloaded it. While not a book to change your world view, it is a comfort book. And come on, there is a pandemic, who doesn’t need a comfortable book?

Thanks for reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the Arc to read and review.

Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernst

Very light hearted story of a forty year old author who travels to Paris to finish a book and finds second chance at love.

I appreciated the more mature heroine of this book. We need more over 40 romances.

Great summer read.

Delightful women's fiction/romance novel. Maggie is a successful novelist with writers block and a due date for the third book in her trilogy. Her agent invites her to stay at his apartment in Paris hoping she will find her muse. It is a bonus for her that her 20 something daughter is studying and living in France. Maggie relaxes into all things Parisian which I love. I was almost as excited for her food descriptions and the locations she visits as for the direction of the story itself. I love Paris and have visited several times and this makes me want to return as soon as the pandemic allows.

Maggie finds her inspiration and begins writing. Is it the city? Her ex-husband who visits for two weeks? Or the charming Max, son of the housekeeper? I particularly liked her daughter who is pragmatic and has Aspergers. This is isn't rom-com but has amusing moments. I also liked that is a mature (40 something) woman who is still trying to figure out what she wants in life. The genuine fondness of friends and family add to the story. I enjoyed her descriptions of tropes and inspirations for the novel within the novel too. I felt the romance itself was fairly mild and not much of a dilemma.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this book because of the cover which made me think it could be a fun romance story set in France, my home country. In this book, you'll meet Maggie has she has writer's block. She's about to go on a trip to Paris after dumping her now ex-boyfriend who thought his work was more important than hers. When that happened, I was rooting for her.

This book is described as a romantic comedy but I have to say that I didn't find the comedy anywhere in this book. As for the romance, the sort-of love triangle wasn't very exciting to be honest. I didn't feel any sparks between our heroine and her ex-husband or Max, her "muse". And should we call it a love triangle if we knew from the beginning who she would end up with? I'm not sure.

Overall, this was a nice story but sadly, I didn't find it very interesting. A writer finding her "muse" in a person/place sounds nice enough on paper but I got bored very quickly and I was hoping the romance would pick up my interest. Unfortunately, that didn't happen but at least this was a quick read...

<i>(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

I love a good story about a woman doing something for herself. In this case Maggie is newly single and has writers block so she says f it and goes to Paris and rents an apartment to finish her book. In Paris she has the time of her life and learns about herself while gaining the confidence she needs!

Let's start with the Paris setting. Maggie’s version of Paris “with two gay men on an unlimited budget” seems like the stuff of dreams. It begins with a first class flight and a gorgeous apartment in the centre of the city with stunning views. They consume more delicious wine than seems possible and sample the most divine meals and desserts, many courtesy Solange, the older live-in housekeeper. The setting is a character and a key element of the story.

Another part of the book that immediately captured my interest is Maggie’s attempt to conquer her writer’s block. Oh boy… the superstitions, the hopes, the fears, the anxiety and the relief when finally she’s able to write… loved the descriptions! If you have no interest in a writer’s process or in how traditional publishing works, you may want to skip this one. There is a good bit of page space devoted to just that. I happened to really love it.

The love triangle that isn’t really a triangle. That might sound confusing but it’s not, really. Maggie finds herself rediscovering feelings for her ex-husband, with whom she’s always maintained a friendly relationship. Those feelings could lead to a reconciliation, especially with grown-up daughter, Nicole, advocating for it. However, there is a charming, sexy Frenchman who might just steal her heart and provide Maggie with her muse… In fact, what or who is her muse? Is it Alan, the ex, or Max, the new guy, or maybe it’s the city of Paris and the idea of love itself? What is it? And who will she ultimately choose? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out.

One more thing I loved about Maggie Finds her Muse is Maggie’s age. She’s in her late forties and several of the other characters are older. I liked that this wasn’t a story about ‘young’ love. It’s about a mature woman, still open to finding a happily ever after, pursuing a relationship worthy of her.

Admittedly, this book isn’t perfect. I think there are some parts that perhaps could do with a little more development or follow through. Also, the pace slows a little while Maggie is in Paris trying to figure out what to do next. However, for me, those are minor issues. I was fully invested in the story from page two and I found myself immersed in Maggie’s world. I kept wanting to know how it would all turn out. Most importantly, I connected with the story, the characters and really enjoyed every moment I spent between the pages.

I literally just read this book in less than a day. I started at 6am and finished at 8pm with a lot of breaks in between as I have an almost 2 year old son 🤣 I could not put this book down! I loved Maggie and her willingness to pickup and go to try and find her muse. I told my husband earlier today when I was about half way through the book that I wanted to to Paris 🤣. This is a book that has great character development and a wonderful plot. I highly recommend to anyone who loves romcoms or just contemporary fiction in general.

This book was a super fun read and I loved that one of the characters was Paris! It was refreshing to read a rom com novel that follows an older woman, and the love triangle kept me guessing til 3/4 of the way through. Thank you for the opportunity to read this galley!

Maggie Find Her Muse was the older romance that I didn't know I needed. Often times when I hear "older romance" I assume the characters are like 32. Not this time. Maggie is firmly in her late forties with gray hair everywhere and an adult daughter. When she has a difficult time meeting her deadline on an important book, she flies to Paris to find her muse. If her muse happens to be an age-appropriate Frenchman who travels the world and is hot as sin, who can complain?

I was granted the chance to read this as an ARC through netgalley in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

This review may contain spoilers.

Maggie Finds Her Muse is a romance novel about Maggie a 40-something romance novelist who goes to Paris to find inspiration to finish writing her 3rd book in her trilogy. She finds her muse and writes her book, falls in love with Paris, spends time with her daughter and ex-husband. But does she fall in love? Ex-husband? New French muse?

I found this book to be a bit flat. I thought the dialogue between Maggie and Greg in the beginning of the book was lengthy and not really all the necessary. I didn't have any real feel of either character at that point in the book and could not fully get behind the argument. They both came off as selfish, childish people who were not getting what they wanted. After that Greg was just briefly mentioned throughout the book and really wasn't a major factor in the story.

A lot of this book I feel could have been shortened up and simplified. While the book flowed easily the story was long and kind of dragged out. The romance between Maggie and Max did not feel built up to and I was not rooting for them to get together. When she is first seeing Max in the bathtub he is described as just missing handsome.. but then suddenly later on in the book she is describing him as sexy and wanting to have her way with him. I felt there was much more character development to be had between the two of them.

When Maggie said, "I loved my daughter, I really did, but some days she was a total bitch." I was floored. I had to reread that sentence a few times to be sure I'd read it correctly. First off any mother who loves their daughter is not going to call their daughter a bitch, they just won't. Secondly a mother of someone with asperger's definitely wouldn't refer to them as a bitch. Anyone who knows anything about the Autism spectrum knows that they do not intentionally act as a bitch or asshole. The unconventional, sometimes inappropriate social aspects are just part of their life. The portrayal of Nicole having asperger's was not well done at all and frankly she came off as any modern young woman. It seemed the only way I got that she had asperger's was when it was specifically mentioned by Maggie or Alan. Given that this was the ARC, I'd highly recommend cutting the bitch line, it's going to leave a sour taste in readers mouths.

Overall, the book was okay. I felt there could be many improvements, less unnecessary background story, less details of her writing and more details and development into the actual romance that was supposed to be going on

I loved this book! I plan on buying a copy the second it’s available. Maggie was such a real character and except for all the wine drinking, I completely related to her. The descriptions of Paris were so amazing that I actually want to go to Paris one day, though I want people like Lee, Martin, Solange, and Max to guide me! The scene when they acted out an action part of Maggie’s book in the park was so fun. Read this book!

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernest was a perfect cozy read about a middle aged struggling writer traveling to Paris in hopes of meeting a rapidly approaching deadline. While Maggie is in Paris she is reunited with her ex-husband and meets a dashing new Frenchmen, and is forced to make a decision between an old flame and a new swoon worthy romance, worthy of her own romance heros. I highly recommend this book to all fans of the Netflix show Emily in Paris!

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I look forward to the release! I don’t feel like I connected with the characters as much as I’d like but it was a quick and easy read that has me genuinely laughing out loud!

Trigger warnings: Sex (somewhat detailed descriptions), mentions of a teacher-student relationship (20-year-old college junior and her professor), divorce, mentions of parental death (car accident), mention of cancer, ableist language

Maggie Finds Her Muse focuses on forty-eight-year-old author Maggie Bliss as she struggles to write the third and final book in her bestselling trilogy. When her agent suggests that she travel to Paris with him and his partner she takes him up on the offer in the hopes that she'll be able to finally get started on her book. While in Paris she not only finds her muse, but she finds it in the handsome Frenchman, Max.

The premise of Maggie Finds Her Muse drew me to the book right away. I absolutely adore Paris (well what I know of it as I have never been) and since quarantine has the travel bug in me itching even more than usual, I thought that this book would be a great escape. While I found the book to be easy to read and follow with good descriptive writing, it fell a bit flat to me. I found myself getting a bit annoyed with Maggie throughout much of the book. While I understand that she's feeling just a little bit lost, especially when it comes to her book, and looking for something to spark her creativity I found her to be a bit childish. In fact, I felt like she came off as someone in their late 20s-early 30s and not a woman in her late 40s. I found her to be a bit flaky and aloof. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, it made me get a little annoyed with her.

I also felt that she made some very questionable choices. While this happened in the past, it made me very uncomfortable that her first husband she met when she was a junior in college and he was her professor. They in fact began a relationship when she was still in school and were married shortly after she had finished school. Her ex, Alan, is a very nice man and respectful and clearly still cares about her (as she does for him) but the origin of their relationship, even though she was 20, made me uncomfortable. She also had a lot of communication issues and it bothered me. In fact, she talks about how in her books she doesn't like to use the Big Miscommunication trope, but that's exactly what she does in her own life. I kind of just wanted to shake her and say "Maggie, if you used your words this wouldn't be an issue"

While yes, you know right away that there's a spark between her and Max, I wasn't very invested in them. I found myself thinking, "alright, when are they going to get together?" but when it happened I didn't feel too strongly about it. I thought "finally", but not in the 'YES I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS" kind of way, but in the "well we knew that was going to happen it just took forever"

For me, the side characters were the best characters. In fact, I think my favorite character was Maggie and Alan's daughter Nicole. Nicole lives in France, has good relationships with both of her parents, has a great boyfriend whom she clearly adores, and is portrayed as a confident, intelligent, and kind person. We find out in the book that she has trouble in some social situations and Maggie tells us that in her junior year of high school they found out that Nicole has Aspergers. Now, I'm not a parent, but I think that waiting until your child's junior year in high school is a bit neglectful especially if the entire reason why you had them go to a psychologist is because of how much trouble they were having socially. They were definitely having that trouble before then, so why would you wait that long? Really though my issue was that sometimes Maggie would say things about her daughter that would rub me the wrong way. Part of Nicole's personality is that she just straight up tells it like it is. She's not rude or brash, she simply says what she's thinking and moves on. She doesn't ever intend to upset someone. There's one point where she's teasing her mom because, as Maggie has said herself, she's not great with directions and Maggie says (not to her), something along the lines of "I love my daughter but sometimes she can be a real bitch." I found that so odd. I can state for a fact that even if I was being a bitch to my mother, she would never say that about me. That sounded like someone talking about their 'tell-it-like-it-is' best friend and not their daughter. There was also some ableist language that just bothered me. Sometimes Maggie made it seem like she had to try so hard to make sure that she was looking at things through her daughter's eyes and how difficult that could be for her, but not acknowledging how things could be difficult for Nicole. Furthermore, I don't think Maggie would've actually owned up to some of her actions if it weren't for Nicole, and when it backfired for Maggie, Nicole felt like she had done something wrong when in fact, she'd gone out of her way to support her mother.

Overall Maggie Finds Her Muse is fine. Really the 3rd star is because the book had an easy-to-follow writing style and I read it all in one sitting.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin Publishing and Elizabeth Ernst for the advance readers copy of “Maggie Finds Her Muse” for my honest review.

I found “Maggie Finds Her Muse” delightful. It is a perfect “beach read”. Maggie as a writer is struggling to finish her book and meet her deadline. In fact, she has asked for extensions and hasn’t started when she heads off to Paris. The book is perfect for anyone wanting a light, fun read.