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.

Lucy Checks In was a delightful trip to the French countryside to witness firsthand Lucy's transformation of both an old hotel and her own life. This book was classified as a romance, but I feel it is more Women's Fiction. Even though there is a romance in it, the book to me was much more about Lucy's interactions with the other people living at the hotel who help her bring her vision of transformation to life, and how Lucy gets her own confidence back and learns she's capable of much more than she realized. I really enjoyed this book and loved all the various characters.

Really enjoyed this story, Lucy is a fun character,whom has hit rock bottom , but has a chance to fulfill her destiny when she goes to Paris .All the side characters brought this story to life , the Hotel and all it's treasures , was fun reading .

Lucy moves to France to start over and run a hotel. Except when she arrives, she discovers that the hotel is not quite what she expected. She spends months with a hobknob crew trying to adjust to living in France and renovate the hotel. Along the way, Lucy learns to trust herself again and maybe even finds love.

Lucy is pushing 50 when she has her life turned upside down. She is the manager of a very successful hotel and is in love with the owner when he disappears with millions of dollars. She spends every penny she has trying to clear her name and stay out of jail. After being unemployed for 2 years, she is offered a job in Rennes, France bringing a very old hotel back to life. She realizes she may be in over her head when she arrives, but pushes forward and finds her confidence, joy and a found family in the people who live and work there. There is a small romance as well with an artist.

I enjoyed this cute story and loved the France setting. I always enjoy the references to good food and the laid back style. The characters were interesting and I loved their personalities. The hotel was a gem and I would love to stay somewhere like that! However, I would have liked to have the romance been a little more in the forefront and developed more. I liked that the female lead was older but I don’t know if the cover threw me or she read more immature but somehow she seemed like she should have been younger. Overall, it was a fun, easy read and I would love to revisit these characters in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book and although it is billed as a light novel, I think it would work well in a book club. While the story itself is pretty basic, I think the idea of a discussion having to rebuild your career at a later stage in life is important. This isn't your basic 20-something PR professional getting canned, starts up her own agency with her best friends type book. Yes, it is pretty light and frothy, but I think the situation Lucy is in really hits home for the older audience.

Here's the basic idea of LUCY CHECKS IN: With nowhere else to go, Lucy takes on an impossible challenge: turn a rundown, seen-better-days chateau in Renne, France into a luxurious, profitable destination and business. Given six months to refurbish, renovate, and restore former glory, Lucy also restores her own self-esteem and sets a new course for herself following years of heartache and turmoil caused by her former lover and employer. As it currently stands, this novel does not deliver what could be a fascinating and engaging piece of women's fiction. Characters are caricatures, wands are waved and huge problems are solved. Throughout, Lucy's nonstop internal narrative yammers and doubts, suggesting there is a lot more going on than is shared with the reader. As a writer, I recognize talent and smart ideas, some lovely turns of phrase, but also the creative desperation and awkward bits of a typical early draft. Refusing to believe that Dee Ernst would not deliver the sparkling and well-wrought story shared in her debut MAGGIE FINDS HER MUSE, I read all the way to the soggy, saggy end hoping it would improve. It did not. I received an early copy and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

In short: In the aftermath of a scandal Lucy finds herself employed, homeless and nearing 50. She accepts a hotel manager position in France and builds up on her mind what she’s walking into. Her perception is quite different from reality but perhaps it is just what she needs.

What I liked:
🇫🇷The setting. From the French countryside to the hotel.
🇫🇷The hotel characters. What a charismatic group!
🇫🇷 A main character in her 40s! We need more of this.
🇫🇷The plot of rebuilding the hotel, while also rebuilding Lucy’s life. She found a home and a found family.

Final thought: I enjoyed this book but it was a little slow paced at times. Lucy’s journey was enjoyable to read and I adored all the side characters. I’d definitely stay at their hotel!

Usually I start with the positive things in a book, but I have some venting to do first...

Things I didn't like:
- OK folks, let's start with my biggest peeve about this book. You don't have to look too far, because it's right on the cover. The titular Lucy is 49, almost 50 years old. Please tell me how I am supposed to believe that the person on that cover is that age. Because I am 53, and nobody my age looks like that. The illustration on the cover is someone who is maybe 30 years old. Can the book industry please get its act together and give us older folks some appropriate representation? I mean don't get me wrong, I absolutely love that this book is about someone my age. It's rare to find one. But heaven forbid that we put a middle-aged woman on the cover of a romance novel. I'm sure the reason that cover Lucy is shown from the back is because we certainly can't show a face with - GASP - wrinkles! I am greatly disappointed in everyone who let this one just slide on by their desk.
- Everywhere I look this is billed as a romance. It's not. Is there a love interest? Yes. But that is not the focus of this story. Don't go in expecting good chemistry or even the barest hint of steam, because you won't find any.
- The slow pacing and general lack of...I don't want to say plot because there definitely is one, but it didn't really have a lot of highs and lows, just a plodding story about a woman rebuilding her life as well as a hotel. There's a little bit of action at the end, but it all seemed very rushed, especially given the slow pace of the rest of the book.

Things I liked:
- The French countryside setting. The descriptions were beautiful, and it all made me want to go back and visit France again.
- Most of the characters. A few were a little underdeveloped, but most were solid and well-done.
- I'm always a sucker for a found family story, and this one did an excellent job with that.
- Although I think the plot could have definitely used some more dimension, I loved it as a whole. Everyone coming together as a family to save this hotel made me smile often.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst was such a fun read. From the first page, I was drawn into the story. With reading so much I can get bored but this was spectacular writing by Dee Ernst. Dee lets us know right away that Lucy is an underappreciated dynamo that hasn't got her due credit while many others have taken credit for what she has done. As a woman, I said I am here for this story.

I highly recommend Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst. I would like to thank Net Galley and for the opportunity to read and review Lucy Checks In.

A pretty decent and uplifting read. The hotel characters all worked well together. It would be nice to read more about them in other books. The ending was satisfying. Only one thing put me off. Lucy and Julia went to Paris for a few days on the train, then took the train back to Rennes so Julia could get up the next day and train back to Paris to go to the airport. What a waste of time.

Thank you NetGalley, Dee Ernst, and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin Publishing for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It took me less than a day to read it so it was a really good quick read. Lucy is 49 and is now jobless and homeless. Until she gets a job in France to return a rundown hotel to its former glory. Along the way she meets some pretty amazing characters who help her learn to open back up and trust herself and others.

There was romance in the book, but it wasn't the focus of it. The real focus was on Lucy learning to get back to the person she was before the tragedy that struck her life. I loved watching how each character in the book had an impact on different aspects of Lucy's life.