I was pleasantly surprised by the end of the story. When I first started reading it I felt like it was going to be too cutesy for me but the storyline drew me in. The "residents" quirky personalities and the beauty of the hotel getting put together had me envisioning everything and wanting to go stay at this beautiful place. A little romance helped as well. What drew me in was a woman in her 40's who had to start over due to circumstances that were really not in her control and that despite what she expected, she was able to do what she considered the un-doable. She took the only chance she thought she had and turned it into a life worth living.

Lucy Checks In was a relaxing and lighthearted read. After a professional scandal, Lucy cannot get a job in any hotel in the United States. When an opportunity to go to France comes up, she leaps at the opportunity. However, the job is not anything like she thought it would be. It requires work she’s never done before- painting, hauling furniture, and completely redesigning everything from the ground up. Along the way, Lucy builds connections and enjoys life in France more than she ever thought she could.

Lucy Checks In would be the perfect book for anyone who enjoys home renovation, remodeling, or the idea of building a boutique hotel from scratch. A majority of this book is the nitty gritty of dealing with the hotel. While there is a vivid cast of supporting characters, the romance is pretty sparse and the focus is truly on the hotel. I loved that Lucy is an older heroine (late forties) and the atmosphere of being in France was beautiful. The pacing is relatively slow, so I would recommend this as a relaxing read for when you want to escape to France and remodel a hotel.

Thank you to Dee Ernst, St. Martin’s Griffin, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy is a woman nearing 50 years of age, how enjoyable to read about a main character who is not a YA. She has lost her job due to her boss/lover disappearing with millions of dollars. She's considered pariah in the hotel business due to everyone believing she was also involved. She accepts a job in France since there's no one who will hire her and leaves her unloving family (parents, brothers, nieces) behind. What she finds when arriving in France is not what she expected, the hotel is in major need of repair and she's expected to do physical labor! She's use to given directions! Could I get myself a Bing? This is a really good read!

From time to time, I like to read messy women's fiction. I find them very entertaining to read. And it passes the time as well. I truly thought I was going to like reading this book, but it just wasn’t for me. The main female character, Lucy, was such a flawed character. I really tried to like her, but I could not. She kept putting herself in these crazy situations. She has no one to blame but herself. And the fact that she kept on lying so many times, she is the one to blame.

*ARC Review*

Do not let the book cover fool you, this book definitely is not a rom-com. I am really surprised that it is classified as a romance when I felt no spark between characters for most of the book. It is definitely women's fiction, and a lackluster one at that. The story did not give enough detail in some places, while WAY too much in others (i.e. discussing three different types of white paint). Nothing captured my attention that kept me interested. I was more excited when it was over sadly.

This was disappointing only because I absolutely LOVED this author's last book. In fact, it was one of my favorites of 2021. This was just ok for me... I loved the setting and want to visit Rennes now but the characters were not great. And I was really bored by the constant hotel renovation descriptions. It just didn't do much for me, overall, and compared to this author's last work. Hope you have better luck!!

Lucy Checks In comes out next week on August 16, 2022 and you can purchase HERE. You can read my review of this author's last book, Maggie Finds Her Muse, HERE.

As much as I would have liked to have spent days--weeks--exploring Paris and every single things I'd read and heard and dreamed about it, I had a life to get to, and that life was beyond Paris.

So I boarded the train to Rennes, rested my head against the seat, and waited for my second act to begin.
We were famous for that, weren't we? Women, I mean. We believed in the second act, the next great thing, the moment when fortunes would change for the better. We reinvented ourselves all the time. I myself hadn't done it before, but that didn't mean that I didn't believe it was all possible and that I couldn't start over with a new life right now.

I love this book! It’s a story of second chances - not just for Lucy but for the Hotel Paradis (and others too. But no spoilers!) It’s so, so good, you definitely need to read it! I don’t often give five star reviews to books, but this is five stars all the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press For the opportunity to read and review this book.

Lucy tries to find a new life in France after being lied to and betrayed by a boyfriend. The hotel she is the manager of is nothing like she expected and had to be renovated from top to bottom. As he process begins, Lucy begins to change alongside the hotel. It’s a charming story about growth, found family and love. The French background is also a big character and makes you feel like you’re right there with her. I enjoyed the journey to self discovery for Lucy

A lighthearted, second-chance story about Lucia "Lucy" Giannetti, who at 49, is at a crossroads professionally and personally. Her career as a successful hotel manager has been destroyed after a scandal that forced her to move back in with her parents. She accepts a position as a manager in Rennes, France to help renovate a small family hotel, Hotel Paradis. As she renovates the small hotel, Lucy rediscovers her confidence and rebuilds her life.

The ownership/partnership of Hotel Paradis is overly complicated and several shared investors live as permanent residents at the hotel. These quirky side characters all have skills that are helpful for renovating the hotel which is convenient - I think if I was living at the hotel my skill set would be - can make beds. Reader tolerance for the hotel reno section will vary, but I enjoy a good makeover montage moment and there are no major issues with the hotel it is very smooth sailing, basically a fantasy renovation.

I felt that the book was more romance-adjacent as opposed to strictly romance. There is a slow burn romance that develops between Lucy and Bing (David Bingham - one of the resident guests) and it is refreshing to read about 2 mature characters who have experienced love, have had their hearts broken, and are tentative about finding love again. But the real romance is between Lucy and Hotel Paradis and the connections she builds with the "family" at the hotel.

There's very little tension in the book and all of the issues are easily resolved. There are a few throwaway lines that felt off, and are not revisited in any substantial way and a few moments that are simply not developed. But overall, it was a breezy and entertaining read.

CW: off page death of family member, discussion of alcoholism

this book was a fun read I liked all the details of France and the overall story of Lucy fixing up the hotel and it was interesting to hear about her ex-boyfriend and how he scammed people out of a lot of money and how the FBI thought she wa involved as well. I wished there was little more romance in the book though i feel it was rushed i at then end.

Lucy Checks In (𝐞𝐀𝐑𝐂) — 3 ⭐️

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: August 16th, 2022

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: After her boyfriend runs away with their hotel’s investment money, Lucy is left to pay the price. With a ruined reputation, Lucy is left jobless, broke, and heartbroken. Years later, she is contacted about a hotel management job in Rennes, France, but her expectations were a little skewed. Not only will she be in charge of restoring the hotel, but it’s also her responsibility to build a website, create decor plans, clean, and so much more! Will her determination to prove herself be enough?

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: The most magical part of this story was the descriptions of the hotel! I enjoyed reading about the process of restoring it, and it made me want to book a trip ASAP!

Honestly, the romance was just okay, and the story was a little slow. There were no plot twists or big surprises, but it was a sweet story! The book cover is absolutely gorgeous, but it was a little deceiving since the main character is almost 50 years old.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 —
🫶 Found Family
🌍 Based in Europe
🔒 Forced Proximity
🔥 Slow Burn Romance

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐟 —
🛋 Your interior design skills are unmatched
🎨 You’ve never painted walls
🇫🇷 You’d move to France
💔 You’ve trusted the wrong person
☕️ Coffee is your love language

𝐓𝐖: infidelity, death, alcoholism, addiction, racism, car accident, emotional cheating

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for providing me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

LUCY CHECKS IN by Dee Ernst
⭐️ rating: 4 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 genre: women's fiction, romance
tropes: found family, self discovery

Let's just jump right in with the things I liked in this book:
✨ I love that the MC & love interest in this book are the later half of their lives. You could still feel the heat and attraction. You don't have to be fresh out of high school to have a libido!
✨ Found family is one of my favorite tropes of all time. And I LOVE the people who live in and work at the hotel and how they all know they can lean on each other & trust each other implicitly.
✨ Please give me all the French bread - I want it & I need it.
✨ Lucy was the perfect mix of all put together & one second away from completely losing her sh**.

This was a perfectly delightful book about a woman who finds herself in need of a fresh start & the family she finds along the way. Would definitely recommend.

We meet Lucy as she hits rock bottom and takes on a job overseas at Hotel Paradis (practically all she can get after her name was drug through the mud). The job is not what she expected and is nothing like what she had been doing for years - instead, she must put in the work to restore Hotel Paradis (and not just order others to do so).

The novel is a slow build, much like the restoration of Hotel Paradis. In fact, I found myself forgetting it was in the romance genre - but I didn’t mind that at all.

I loved how the author painted the picture of the areas of France Lucy found herself in. So many details in all parts of the book to really make you feel like you are there & experiencing it with her.

I really enjoyed this one! I liked the journey the main character took and the cast of characters surrounding her. It definitely made me dream about life in a little French hotel, and encouraged me to reflect on my own life and the choices I make. (Why don't I have the courage to up and move to France?!) The romance was sweet and simple, becoming a small part of the story instead of the entire focus. I liked that the main character's troubles weren't immediately solved by finding love. I found myself drawn into not only the main character's story, but the stories of the supporting cast as well. I could easily see myself enjoying future books about the other characters and their lives.

I would definitely categorize this more as women’s fiction rather than romance. I wanted the romance aspect to start sooner, it was way too long of a slow burn for me. It felt a bit long for me. I wish some would have been cut and replaced with more character development for Lucy. By the cover I was expecting a younger MC but turns out Lucy was in her late 40s.

The setting was beautiful and I loved the descriptions of the village. Perfect for a light, fun read this summer.

Dee Ernst created a fictional world with gorgeous characters. I enjoyed this fun, light read. It was nice to slip into the pages, away from reality before heading back to work as a teacher.

Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭑
Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst is about a woman who after a devastating career loss, has to remake herself and her career in hotel management.

Lucia Giannetti has been hiding out in her parent's home for almost two years. After a devastating scandal where the owner of the hotel she managed ran off with millions of dollars, she’s been hounded by the press and the FBI until finally, she’s been exonerated. However, the press and the hotel industry have a long memory and she can’t find a job anywhere due to her association with the scandal. It doesn’t matter that he also ran off with all her savings and her pension fund.

When she’s contacted by a small boutique hotel in Rennes, France, she’s ecstatic, and can’t wait to get back and manage a high-end hotel. But, what she finds in France is very different than what she thought she was getting into. The hotel hasn’t been a hotel since the war, and WWII, and there are several permanent guests who live in the hotel beside the owner. The property is run down and needs a lot of work. Can Lucy turn the old run-down hotel into a boutique hotel in time for the summer holidays?

I enjoyed this book and I also learned a lot about the hotel business. The setting in Rennes, France was beautifully described and I loved this varied cast of side characters. This is about found family, and friends supporting each other with a dash of romance. I also enjoyed Lucy’s journey from an uptight career driven individual to a happier person with more to live for than just her career. I also liked that Lucy is a bit older, she’s almost fifty, and I enjoyed her more mature outlook on life.

It was a little bit slow in the middle, but the end was worth it. I enjoyed how this book finished, and I liked all the characters very much.

I highly recommend Lucy Checks In to anyone who enjoys Women’s fiction. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I quite liked this book! I wasn’t entirely sure how I would feel about it, but I ended up really enjoying it once I was in it. Lucy upends her life to move to Paris to help run a boutique hotel, only to find that it was not the job that she had applied for.

The relationships that Lucy built with all of the people who were helping to fix up the hotel were so wholesome and led to some really cool character development on both sides. I love the way that she loved her nieces from afar was so sweet and really makes you love them too!

I loved the way that all of the character's lives were so intertwined with one another. This led to a very cohesive way in that each interacted with the other. I Enjoyed watching Lucy work through all of her trauma from her old boss and the fraud case that she was wholly blamed for. It was refreshing to watch someone work through trauma in a more typically lighthearted read.

I just finished this book yesterday afternoon and well I can honestly say I am super grateful to Netgalley and Dee Ernst for the advance reader copy. I received this copy in return for an honest review of the story. Everything you read here is entirely my own thoughts and opinions.

The main character in this book is not what I expected because she is not the typical twenty or thirty-something you often see in stories, especially ones with romance. In fact, the author made Lucia or Lucy ( the main character) a forty-nine-year-old woman who really was down on her luck living at home with her folks. I love that when reading this story I was able to get a full understanding of why she was in this position to begin with. I enjoyed the way she interacted with her family and the fact that it is not all sunshine and roses. Her family appears to be like many real life families that one might run across in their everyday lives.

I appreciate the way the author wrote about the foods (seriously if you are a foodie you will love it) and the French Culture. I have never been to France but the way it was described along with the people and the food just makes me want to hop on a plane and visit there myself. I also believe that the author did a great job with the main character and her confidence issues and trust struggles. I appreciate how death and difficult relationships were handled as well throughout the story.

If you are looking for a story that will keep you engaged and rooting for the main character then please give this book a read. It has all the things that in my opinion make up a great story. There is an adventure, romance, struggle, and coming into one's own not to mention courage and strength all rolled into one perfect little story. I would have to say that this is one of my favorite books of the year and I will be revisiting it again.

Lovely second chance in gorgeous France💋

4.5🌟 stars
I relished Lucy's story, cover to cover, from her professional setbacks and triumphs, to her emotional recovery from a romance turned to betrayal, to her family drama with the folks back in New Jersey and a slow-building new relationship. And the characters who help to revive the grand old lady hotel in Rennes she's been hired to transform -- some quirky but all at least a bit lovable. I had lots of positive reaction to this story with no hesitation to recommend it to others who would enjoy reading about an American transplant's heartwarming assimilation in France.

Author Dee Ernst did a phenomenal job of setting the local scene and describing the renovations without bogging down in the details. Made me want to take a seat in the courtyard or garden of the hotel and enjoy the quiet, the atmosphere and the tasty French cuisine right along with Lucy, Claudine, Bing and the gang!

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.