This is a Women's Fiction/Chick-Lit. I found the very beginning to be ok and a little hard to get into, but it took a turn quickly and had me totally pulled into this story and characters. The characters in this book's characters are not the lovable cute characters, but they grow on you and they feel real. I really loved Lucy. I really loved getting to know all these characters, the setting in this book, and storyline in this book. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (St. Martin's Griffin) or author (Dee Ernst) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

This one took me by surprise in all the best ways! The plot was wonderful and although I could see most things coming, there were enough little twists to keep the suspense. I also particularly enjoyed all of the characters. It felt like I was getting to know them all right along with Lucy. Everybody had a chance to shine, even if they only appeared for a fraction of the novel.

One downside for me was that the characters didn’t always read their age. I was very surprised (and must have forgotten from the description) that Lucy is almost 50! It wasn’t a bad thing, but just didn’t seem to fit. Also, the novel doesn’t read like a traditional romance novel; it’s definitely more literary fiction with a side of romance.

Still, I really loved this one and it’s well worth the read!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

Lucy Checks In is a charming, comfortable read. Lucy’s life dissolved into a major mess because she loved a con man. However, a dilapidated hotel in France needs her special touch. The parts I loved best about the book were all the renovations and decorating. Claudine’s hidden treasures being unearthed to once again Grace the hotel.
I loved the community of residents and all the angles they added to the story. I wasn’t quite convinced of Lucy’s new romance, but to each his own.
Find your joie de vivre by reading it.

If you loved The Hotel Nantucket and One Italian Summer as much as I did, Lucy Checks in will be right up your alley. A feel good women's fiction, set in beautiful France with a lovable heroine in her late 40s. What's not to love?

Lucia Giannetti had a very public fall from grace. Despite making the hotel she was running a great success, she's been unemployed for 2 years because of the cloud of suspicion following an embezzlement scandal she had nothing to do with. When she gets an offer to manage the Hotel Paradis in Rennes, France it finally feels like a chance to start over. Except the job turns out to be nothing like what she expected, and neither do the current residents - in particular the infuriating but very attractive artist Bing. Will Lucy be able to rise to the challenge? And along with wonderful food and culture, will France be offering a taste of new romance as well?

It was so refreshing to read a light-hearted novel with strong romance vibe that features a middle aged main character. Stories set in hotels that focus on second chances hit the spot for me, especially when the writing simply flows. The cast of characters was so colourful and memorable and it was impossible not to feel emotionally invested. Beware though, this story might activate your travel bug and make you feel the urge to visit France and experience some of the things so beautifully described in the book.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Attempting to make a comeback after an unexpected, catastrophic, and out-of-her-control career and romantic failure, Lucy moves to France to take a job as a hotel manager in Rennes. She signed the contract while still in the U.S.—having never visited her new place of employment—and, well, the hotel, the cast of characters involved with it, and what is covered under her job description are not what she expected.

After spending 30 years working in the North American hospitality industry and the last two years of her late 40s unemployed and living with her parents, will Lucy be able to adjust to the change of culture and pace?

And what will she do about that instant attraction and instant antagonism that she feels toward Bing, one of the hotel’s permanent residents?

Joining Lucy on this journey was definitely worth my time. I loved the found family aspects, watching her grow and regain her confidence, and the slow burn buildup between reluctant Lucy and magnetic Bing. I became invested, not just in Lucy’s story, but in the relationships and friendships surrounding her as well.

If you have a Saturday afternoon to spare, I recommend picking up Lucy Checks In.

I received an advance copy from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. All Review opinions are my own.

CW: fraught familial relationships, cancer, death of a loved one, alcoholism, betrayal, divorce

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of "Lucy Checks In" by Dee Ernst, scheduled to release on August 16th, 2022,

Overall, I rated this novel a 3/5 stars!

The novel centers around Lucy, who flees to France after spending time at her parents' following a huge hotel scandal where she's originally from. In France, she has the opportunity to work for a smaller boutique hotel and rebuild her life. Lucy, the main character (and others in it) are around 45-5o years of age, which is not something that I'm used to reading about just yet. However, I was extremely thankful that for the most part, it was a clean novel, and closed door, with basically only implications.

There were certain sections of the novel that were slow-paced and a bit boring for me, though I did learn a lot about hotel management, which I would not have gained knowledge of otherwise. This novel was alright, but I probably won't be rereading it anytime soon, unfortunately.

"Lucy Checks In" is a lovely story of Lucy's journey of rebuilding, both figuratively and literally, when she travels to France to help renovate an old hotel. She learns so much about herself in the process. The pacing was a bit slow, and I could've done with a bit more dialogue, but overall, I really enjoyed this read.

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

Totally charmed by Lucy Checks In!!!!

Lucy has had a realllllly tough couple of years (i.e. center of a major fbi investigation) but it's time to attempt to pick up the pieces. She heads to France to help set up a hotel like she has done many times over. She arrives to discover it's a run down building in need of a full remodel with a cast of people living in various apartments on site. It's certainly not what she had anticipated. The story that follows is just lovely and filled my head and heart with the charm and warmth of an old but beautiful French hotel. I loved all of the characters and all of my time spent at the Hotel Paradis. It is not "exciting" or "fast paced" but it was fun and delightful with a few heavy moments and laughs along the way. There's a bit of romance but it's closed door and I never had to skim over a steamy scene! I'm still thinking about the setting and wishing I could check back in with the characters and story.

Thank you so so much St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for my e-arc!!

I fell in love with a book by Dee Ernst long ago and have read all of her books since. I like that our main character is not a 30-something female. I also love the setting, characters, the small amount of steam and angst. It's just a great story. I hope you'll like it, too!

This book had a hard time keeping my interest. I think I should’ve been more interested in the love story but I stuck with it for the home renovations. The hotel was full of fun side characters and I wish we’d been able to see more of them because it would’ve added a lot to the story. I did enjoy that the main character was in her 40s! That was a very different twist. Overall, this was just not a memorable book for me.

Lucy is a highly sought after hotel manager and at the peak of her career, when the owner of the hotel (and the man she loves) disappears with almost 3 million dollars stolen from employees pension accounts among other places. What is even worse is that nobody believes she wasn’t involved, and she spends all of her savings on lawyers to defend her innocence.

When a small hotel in France offers her a management job, she leaves everything she knows and finds a job that is completely out of her comfort zone. The hotel hasn’t had paying guests for years, but has a determined group of characters who live in the hotel and are willing to invest their time, money, and effort into bringing the hotel back to it’s former glory.

If you are looking for a light hearted read about an eccentric cast of characters, then you will certainly enjoy this book. There are so many good things about it! One of my favorite things about Lucy Checks In is that Lucy is knocking on the door of fifty, which I don’t get to see much in contemporary romances. Another is that the descriptions of France are awe inspiring and immersive, making me want to hop a plane tomorrow. Each character have their own interesting personalities and reasons for coming to the hotel, and each are incredibly endearing while still being imperfect people.

This book was a bright spot in my week, and a refreshing view of a middle aged heroine. I wish there were more books like this out there!

Thank you to Dee Ernst and to St Martin’s Press for gifting me an ARC of this book.

Lucy did not expect to be starting over at age 49, but after a professional scandal makes continuing to work in the US hotel industry improbable, she heads to France to take up a post managing a hotel. When she arrives, the hotel is rundown and her job as "manager" includes tasks like painting. The task of preparing the dilapidated hotel for opening day is symbolic of her attempt to piece her life back together after a devastating betrayal by her employer/boyfriend which resulted in the loss of all her money.

I thought Lucy Checks In was a very sweet women's fiction/romance book. It was an easy read and I was swept away by the breezy way that Dee Ernst writes. I loved the medley crew of characters who are tenants of the hotel and the role they each played in the process of fixing up and opening the hotel. Lucy was at the center of the story, but she was not the only character to experience love and growth within the pages.

The book left me with a pleasant, optimistic feeling. If you're looking for a feel good book that contains a sweet love story, this will be a winner.

This was a book that had me hooked from the very beginning- I was eager to see the Lucy Checks was going to turn her world right again after the nasty abrupt end to the job as a a manager in a luxury hotel in New York.
She ends up going to France to renovate an old family hotel. She was in her mind seeing the things she thought would be needing doing. Her vision and what was her reality sure did not match as close as she thought.
She was envisioning a reno crew she would be overseeing but what she got were six permanent residents. Lucy knew she could take this rag tag group and turn the not so pretty or fancy place into what she knows it can be.
The characters in this story all fit together and make this a book that I know I will read over and over again.
Thank you NetGalley, Dee Ernst and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Lucy Checks In. This is my personal review.

ARC Review: Lucy Checks In

Thanks @stmartinspress for my copy of this book - it’s out tomorrow!

Overall I really enjoyed this book! The story was perfectly developed and I felt like I was transported to France while reading. The small inn where this story takes place is so sweet and charming!

I loved reading about Lucy starting over in her late 40s, it was the perfect message of “it’s never too late”. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of all the work that she had to put into the hotel and how it changed both the space and everyone involved, it was so heartwarming to see Lucy finally being sure of herself by the end of the story. Claudine, the inn owner, was perfectly frustrating and I really got a sense of how she occasionally got under Lucy’s skin.

While I loved Lucy’s journey to love in this book, I actually enjoyed that it wasn’t the main point of the story and it just sort of came together as her confidence started to grow. I could have done without the side character love drama which felt a little forced and underdeveloped. The grief in this story was also very well done and added so much to Lucy’s story and character.

This is a perfect read if you’re looking for a quick escape to France!

Read this if you:
- Can never relate to all the impossibly young MCs
- Have ever had to accomplish a near-impossible task
- Know how hard it is to rebuild yourself from the ground up

Lucy Checks In is a very quick, fun read about a woman who travels to France to start her second act after her previous employer (and lover) embezzles millions of dollars from the hotel they ran and she ended up embroiled in the scandal too.

She arrives in France to discover that the hotel she is coming to manage isn't actually a functioning hotel at all, and in fact, will be helping to redo and launch it, all with a great cast of characters who live on the property.

While it's a shorter read, the story is told over several months. I really enjoyed the story and it will transport you to the streets of Paris.

Thank you, St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

Lucy Checks In is exactly the kind of romance novel I love when I’m looking for something on the sweeter side rather than the spicy side.

As the description says, Lucia Giannetti was the hotel manager at a glamorous NYC hotel until it’s owner, and her lover, ran off, taking with him investor’s money, all the employee’s retirement savings, and Lucy’s planned out future.

Two years later, a 49-year-old Lucy hasn’t recovered. Her name may have been cleared of any wrongdoing, but her reputation hasn’t. With a few hundred dollars left to her name, the only job she’s been able to find is in Rennes, France to manage the Hotel Paradis. She’s expecting an elegant boutique hotel, but she finds a charming, but run-down building in need of major overhaul. Lucy is used to delegating tasks, but here she’s going to be doing it all, including picking up the paintbrush! Will Lucy, and the cast of characters at Hotel Paradis find a way to bring back the hotel to its former glory?

A trope I love in a sweeter romance is an older heroine (i.e., not 20s/30s) reclaiming her life and finding a family, home, love, etc. If you like Jenny Bayliss novels, I think you will REALLY like this. It gives a very similar feeling.

In this novel we have a single POV, Lucy. I found her character to be pretty flushed out and I found our hero, Bing, to be decently developed too. The romance is extremely slow burn and low stakes, which I found nice to read. Outside of these two, we had additional characters in the way of the tenants of the hotel. I loved them all. They were sweet, and each had their own personality even though they had small parts. The interactions between everyone made me laugh throughout. When I have a romance like this I expect to laugh, and this did not disappoint.

The scenery is also amazing – who doesn’t want to read about France?! The writing transports you there and is perfect for when it’s a beautiful day you’re enjoying, or a dreary one you’re trying to escape.

There is a side plot involving alcoholism, death, and grief. I was not expecting it and it did not bother me, but I could see some readers being triggered by this. I understand the thought behind it, but I would have preferred a different vehicle for the eventual outcome. That’s really the only thing that brought this down from a 5 to a 4 star read.

I think this would be a very fun world to stay in and would read more books here if written. I’ll also 100% continue to read contemporaries this author writes. This won’t be for everyone, but if you like a novel about a women finding a new life somewhere new I think you’ll like this.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Alcoholism, Death, Grief

As a former hotel employee i absolutely loved this story!
The writing was beautifully done. the plot kept me engaged and wanting more. I loved all the characters and the banter involved.
The descriptions were so great, i really was able to lose myself in this book.
Such a fantastic rom-com! one of my favorites for 2022

Imagine having your professional life all perfect and then out of nowhere it all goes down the drain. This is what happened with Lucy, this woman is in her late 40’s and she lost it all, thanks to a greedy and selfish boss. Lucia is a hotel extraordinaire, she knows her stuff and when she finds out that the man she’s been working for was stealing from his investors and his employees, she was to blame as well.

She had to start all over again, and with no money, but she was offered something awesome. She was offered a job in France and it was to be a general manager to an up and coming hotel and help make it this awesome place. She had a HUGE awakening when she got there and it was FAR from what she expected. I loved that, because not everything is as it seems, and Lucy was experiencing everything, but one of the things I loved most about this book was the characters. Lucy had to put in some work, and the characters in this book were very different.

Lucy finally belonged, and even with things changing back home, and she was able to finally let people in especially the people from Hotel Paradis. This book was a reminder that it’s never to late to move on, forgive and start again. This book had the perfect amount of romance, that I really appreciated and the sense of family from those who are not blood. It was a great read.

Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

The world Dee Ernst created in this book reminds me of the warm summer sun beating down on my face as I sit on a patio surrounded by a garden with a glass of white wine, breathing in the summer in the air. It reminds me of Europe and the joy of hard work and family and it reminds me of happiness - like summer sun happiness. Needless to say, I loved it.

Quick Synopsis: Lucy is a 49 year old workaholic now destitute, living with her parents, and in desperate need of a job and a chance after her former lover stole all the money from the hotel she worked at and fled with millions of dollars. Now with a tattered reputation and no savings, Lucy is offered a job to bring a small, boutique hotel to live in Rennes, France. What she doesn’t realize is that she’ll be doing the grunt work along with a rag tag group of devoted tenets who have lived their for years. Lucy embarks on a journey to not only create a beautiful hotel, but also to reconnect and find a family in a new country and new life.

Trigger warnings include but are not limited to: betrayal; financial ruin; embezzelment; white collar crime

What I liked:
-This is a beautifully written novel and I couldn’t put it down. It’s easy to read but also engaging and dynamic.
-The relationship dynamics are nuanced and very French. I loved that we don’t get American relationships but based in France, these are French people with French dynamics and it seems authentic.
-There is so much chemistry between all of the characters. I found myself rooting for all the couples. Which is another reason I loved this book: we get more than one happy ending.
-The final climax of the story was unexpected and I loved the way it was handled.
-There was one scene that made me tear up and almost cry, and it wasn’t between Lucy and our main love interest, Bing, but rather between Lucy and her best friend, Julia. *minor spoiler alert* Once the hotel is completed, Lucy’s best friend Julia not only comes, but is the first to book at a room. The support Julia demonstrates for her best friend is just beautiful and it’s a small thing sure, but something I found so beautiful in this book.
-There are so many little moments that seem small, they’re small acts of romance and small moments, but they build the dynamic and the story beautifully.
-There are some hilarious moments, truly hilarious. The humor is dry and it can be hidden sometimes, but there are moments where I was laughing out loud.
-The scenery and descriptions were perfect and I could picture myself in France, in a little hotel, sitting on a patio with a glass of wine.
-I loved how hard Lucy worked. She gave it her all and she knew herself, but throughout this novel, she learns to appreciate more than just work.
-The characters are older - Lucy is 49 and Bing is 55 (I believe). While there are younger characters, I loved that our main characters are not 20 year olds.


I loved this so so much. It was just a beautiful story with beautiful characters. It’s not a tale that will knock you over the head with its tropes, but is a quiet, beautiful story to be appreciated for its simplicity and subtlety (and humor it’s hilarious).

The following review was posted on my blog today, Sunday, August 14th, 2 days before publication. It will be shared on Twitter and Instagram between today and the day of publication, as well. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.





“You sound happy, she texted me.
Maybe I am, I texted back. Or maybe I’m too tired to be sad.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warning: Mentions alcoholism, parent death, and cheating.

“Lucy Checks In” follows Lucia Giannetti, a shunned hotel manager, as she moves to the other side of the world, from New Jersey to France, in order to help renovate Hotel Paradis, a boutique hotel in Rennes, a small historical town. As soon as she arrives, she notices she’s way in over her head, but after a scandal left her unemployed and unemployable in the United States, she has nothing left to do but try.

I don’t even know where to begin. How can I describe a book that’s well written but not particularly captivating to me, personally? Basically I wasn’t a fan of the hotel remodel theme, but I liked a few of the characters and it was definitely catchy, I read it almost entirely through a 5-hour airplane flight.

Also, not to sound age-ist, but it seemed weird to me how Lucy was described as a 49-year-old with grey hair, yet the girl in the cover looks like anything but that, in my opinion. Misleading covers are one of my pet peeves.

This book was a slow-burn romance that drove me insane, and I am sad to say that the fire was not worth the wait. And not to mention that the nickname “Bing” was a bit of a turnoff for me, but for each their own, I guess. Actually, I wouldn’t even classify this as romance per se, more like Women’s Fiction or just Fiction would be fine. It deals with a lot more than just romance and the romance parts aren’t even the most important if you ask me.

This is would be a very cool read for anyone who likes DIYing and remodeling and fixer upper shows. “Lucy Checks In” is a colorful romance with a plethora of whimsical characters and an enemies-to-lovers and Grump-meets-Sunshine trope that’s quite cute. I would highly recommend this read, especially if you’re looking for a mild romance with not a lot of sexual descriptions.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

“She said, ‘But if you loved me, you’d stay.’ He said, ‘But if you loved me, you’d go.’ ”