I LOVED this story! Its charm was clearly in the development of the incredible characters in addition to the delightful descriptions of the irresistible settings. The theme of "finding yourself" and never being too late to take charge and change things up is endearing, encouraging, and so needed in all of our lives. I recommend this to the fullest and greatly look forward to more titles from this incredibly talented author!

I personally found the side characters to be the most interesting part of this story (besides the gorgeous setting of course). I didn't really like Lucy and found her annoying for the first 75% of the book and felt the same way about Bing. However, the other people living and working in the hotel (and Julia) really saved the day. Also I need a story all about Marie Claude and Phillippe because they were amazing. I also found that sometimes the plot could be quite abrupt and quickly change out of nowhere. However, I think the interesting setting of an old hotel in France with the quirky occupants was quite fun

This is a story about a women in her late 40s who needs to completely restart her life and does that in France. She’s hired on as a hotel manager to completely redo an old, falling apart hotel. She makes lots of new friends. I loved reading about the culture and the food. But I can only give this one 3 stars because I had to force myself to read it. It just fell flat for me, unfortunately.

What do you do when your life crumbles around you? Go to France and rebuild a hotel! This story of love and learning that you can do anything is just what you need when you are feeling down. Dee Ernst did an amazing job getting the reader to fall in love with the characters.

I received an e-galley of Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a light and fun read about starting over and building a life (and hotel) again. Lucy finds herself with a new job in France after two years of investigations into being involved in her boss and partner's disappearance with all the money from the NYC hotel that Lucy had fun. Here in France, she meets an assortment of characters who live and work at the Hotel Paradis as they attempt to bring it back to working order. While it was a nice light read, I don't feel like I really felt too invested in any character's stories.

I love a book about a good project, and Lucy has a good project. I loved watching her solve all the problems and create friendships and a new life in her new job and home in France. I also appreciate that the author tells a good story with ups and downs but without resorting to “the big misunderstanding,” some ridiculous invented conflict in need of resolution, or obnoxious cartoonish characters.

This book needs to become a movie ASAP!!!

I fell in LOVE with this book!! I truly was so invested in the hotel's status and cared for each and every character. I felt like I was living at the hotel (and now I'm a little sad I don't). I loved the character development, the incredibly perfect ending and although I'm a girl who loves a good spicy romance, the simple & sweet romance was perfect. I absolutely loved this booked and it definitely became one of my top 10 reads!!

After an embezzlement scandal breaks at the hotel she used to work at Lucia Giannetti finds herself in desperate straits, living with her parents at 49 years old. Without any job prospects, she jumps at the chance to manage a hotel across the Atlantic, where her reputation isn’t known. Picturing a shabby Parisian chic hotel, something vastly different greets Lucy after her arrival in Rennes, France.

I enjoyed Lucy’s adventure in France as she finds a new outlook and rebuilds her life after the major scandal. Lucy’s interactions with the unique cast of characters entertained me as she worked to remodel the hotel. Since this is a romance novel there is banter and also tension buildup between Lucy and Bing as they interact while remodeling Hotel Paradis. There are other themes also present in the novel such as self-discovery, and rebuilding oneself. Lucy is a go-getter and wasn’t afraid to push up her sleeves to paint or work, around the hotel, even if it wasn’t the experience she imagined.


The main character of the book is older than most novels I have read in the genre, and while some may see this as off-putting, I didn’t mind. Everyone deserves their own chance to find themselves and love, no matter their age. I was happy to see Lucy and Bing end up together, as Bing was so supportive of her.

If you are looking for a novel set in France, with the main character rebuilding her life after a tragedy with a second chance romance, I encourage you to pick this up.


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the complementary E-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.


Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Tropes: Second Chance Romance,
Romance: Open door non-descriptive scene

Lucy has lost everything and needs to start over. She's trying to pull it together and start over so she decides she needs s new city. She take a job in France for a chance to have a new adventure. She's expecting Paris glamor but what she gets in a charming hotel in need of some love. Lucy is up for the challenge! I was surprised at the age of character based on the cover, but the description does say 49 year old Lucy. Overall, I think this book is okay but I didn't really love it. It's not a romance and it was a very slow read for a book under 300 pages. Ultimately Lucy Checks In is a book about finding your place in the world.

I will definitely be recommending this to my book club! What a delightful story. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will be purchasing a hard copy.

What a great read! Really enjoyed this one. It did start just a bit slow, but it's such a feel good read. I can always tell if I really like a book by the amount of times I think about it during the day and this one definitely had my mind wandering a few times. The scenery was great, the struggle the character went through delivered and it overall just made me feel happy. Definitely recommend.

Lucy Checks In is a sweet, feel-good book that had me reading through the night. The story started a little slow but soon captured my attention with the easy to love characters, each who added their own depth to the plot. Lucy's journey towards redemption after a fall from grace in her career has you rooting her on at every turn. This is a fun easy read that will leave you wanting more.

Lucia Giannetti was hotel manager for the Fielding Hotel in New York, but after hotel owner and former lover Tony Fielding disappears with millions of dollars, Lucy has to cover the lawsuits and debts with her own money.

Broken hearted, discouraged, and broke, she accepts a job at the Hotel Paradis in Rennes, France to renovate the 200-year-old hotel. The owner, Claudine, is looking for an American manager to attract tourists. Fixing the run-down chateau with help from only the six hotel residents/co-owners, and with few resources or funding, Lucy faces a daunting challenge.

I got a better idea of what it takes to update and run a large hotel, from clean linens, to painting the walls, repairing woodwork, plaster and plumbing, decorating each room, and then attracting and taking care of visitors.

It was an interesting reading experience, following Lucy and the residents/co-owners of the hotel through the process of creating a beautiful country hotel. Romance helped the story too, as of course, Lucy meets someone she becomes attracted to. A delightful read for the armchair traveler and those who enjoy romantic comedy and France.

A big thank you to @netgalley for an ARC of Lucy Checks In!

I had higher expectations for this book. While I enjoyed it there were a few things that I didn’t enjoy so much. For starters there were a lot of characters to keep track of that at times it made it very confusing. When too many characters are involved there isn’t enough in depth character development as I would like. A pet peeve of mine when it comes to books is really long chapters and this book has lots of those.

Now onto the things I enjoyed about the book! I like that the main character is a little older in her 50s. I enjoyed that there was subtle romance involved in this book. The romance was slow to pick up but still very good. I really enjoyed the family drama involved in the book as well. It added more interest for me. Overall, not my favorite book that I’ve read but still a decent read.

I can't describe how amazing this book is! Lately, I have read many women's fiction novels, and this one will stay with me.

It is the story of Lucy, a fifty year old who has dealt with a lot in the past decade who loves to France for a job. She is initially shocked as her role is very different from what she imagined, but learns to cope with it and make friends.

I loved the various dynamics of all the characters in the story, including Lucy's family and her friends/colleagues at her job. Lucy makes for a great MC with a vibrant persona and a happening past, and the same can be said for the supporting cast.

The style of writing was quite stunning and although I don't really visualize books that well, everything in this novel popped out for me. A must read for everyone.

Disgraced when her long-time romantic partner embezzles a ton of money and disappears with her (and a lot of investors and co-workers) retirement savings, Lucy accepts a job in Rennes to reinvent an eighteenth-century family-owned boutique hotel into one with the notoriety of the Fielding Hotel in NYC. In the process, she rebuilds her confidence and whole life, makes new friends, and falls in love again. But first, she shows up expecting to simply manage a property, and ends up painting ceilings and building a website.

The characters are so wonderful in Lucy Checks In. There is brave Lucy herself; Claudine, who owns the building and barely speaks English; Bing, a children’s book illustrator and artist who shares a child with Claudine; and an entire cast of misfits who help to run the place: Karl the Jewish gardener, the grumpy chauffeur; the talented chef Starvos. Sweet Marie Claude will be running the front desk–but she and her possessive husband are dreading the return of her former lover, Phillipe (Claudine and Bing’s son).

This was one of those novels that just flowed without an extraneous or misplaced word or thought. While primarily about Lucy, the mystery of where her man and money went is a subplot that is interwoven (and satisfactorily resolved). Another subplot is Lucy’s family back in the States: she maintains close contact with her godchildren, her twin nieces, whose father is drinking again as he struggles to cope with the loss of his wife and their mother.

It was so refreshing to read about a woman of a certain age who gets everything she wants and deserves after starting over. The title didn’t do much for me, and the cover is a bit misleading, showing a trim woman in blue jeans and a striped shirt and long brown hair that is more American than middle-aged, international chic, graying, slightly over fighting weight persona that Lucy is portrayed as in the novel.

The details of the hospitality industry, and the process of starting a renovation from plaster and paint to linens was fascinating. The European setting left me hungry for travel (and a nice glass of French wine).

I received an advance reader's review copy of #LucyChecksIn from #NetGalley.

Cute book - not an in your face romance which I liked. The characters were well developed and I liked all of them. Makes me want to jet off to France for a vacay!

Initially, I didn't realize that Lucy was an older character -- thought she was in her mid-20s based on the cover, the book was sweet nonetheless. It took me a few chapters to get into it but I finally did. The end felt a little rushed and it didn't feel much like a romance novel -- not much chemistry between the couple and it felt like the romance was subplot. It was good but I don't think it was for me but maybe perfect for someone else.

** spoiler alert **

I liked that the main character is older, but I did not get that image from the cover. I expected this book to have a bit more romance spread throughout, but most of the action didn’t happen until the end. I would say that applies for most of the plot as well. I didn’t really find this book interesting until about 80% of the way through. I found that most of the story was just about Lucy fixing up an old hotel. While I’ve never read a story like it, she didn’t really seem to have many problems in her journey. She learned how to do everything that she needed to and the people that lived there helped chip in to get the job done without much of a fight. Between her and Claudine’s connections, they found guests. It seemed like a basic run of the mill story. However, once I got to the part where her brother died, that seemed totally out of the blue. I never would have expected Lucy to be the legal guardian because the twins had lived with their grandparents in the past. I almost would have preferred for this to happen earlier in the book so that I could have gotten more story about the girls and their transition into living in France. I’m glad that Lucy found love in the end, but I wish it would’ve been built up better. I would’ve appreciated if their attraction was instantaneous and uncontrollable from the beginning.

Lucy Checks In was the breath of fresh air that I needed. This book gave me so much life! Lucia is an easy to love character you instantly begin rooting for. Not to mention, every character is easy to adore in their own special way. 5 stars for this perfect read.