This book was a delight to read! It was charming and the main Character in this book Lucy was strong-willed and refreshing. I love that it was set in France which made me feel as if I were there myself. Great Read for sure!! .

I smiled all the way through Dee Ernst's newest book, Lucy Checks In. Lucy is a protagonist for readers to live and to pull for. Along with a delightful supporting cast. I could see this growing into a series maybe . . .

Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst is a charming gem of a story about new beginnings, friendship, trust and France. Lucy, once a respected legend in hotel management has been a piriah since her last boss absconded with his employees’ savings. The offer to revitalize a small hotel in France was her last resort. The characters Lucy meets are unique and interesting as are the situations in which they are placed. I loved every minute spent reading the story. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Most highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Lucy Checks In is a charming story set in a picturesque town in France following Lucy's journey. Lucy was caught up in a scandal with the hotel she managed in New York City and found herself in need of a second chance. That second chance comes as she is given an offer to manage a hotel in France. Lucy accepts the job but after arriving in the town of Rennes, realizes that she is taking on more than she ever imagined. While I enjoyed the writing style, I found the story to be quite slow. It took me quite a while to get into it and I usually read books rather quickly. I kept coming back to the story though because I did enjoy the characters. I do wish that we saw more interactions with and depth from a few of the characters but overall, this was an easy and cute read.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

I just couldn't get into this one because I simply found it... boring.

Lucy is a 49 year old woman who is down on her luck after losing her highly successful career and boyfriend. This is written like she is almost 20 years younger (which is actually a phrase mentioned a few times, if I was 20 years younger...) If it wasn't for the fact that her age is stated a few times I really would have gone on imagining someone much younger.

It centers around an old family hotel in a city in France. Yes there were some French things mentioned but I almost felt like this really could have been set anywhere and the author chose France because it will seem more like a woman reborn kind of story. I wish I could envision this city and this should be beautiful hotel but the writing just didn't give that to me.

I also felt disconnected from some of the situations. An at large criminal just taking all the blame and willingly giving all the money back? Taking guardianship of children and just up and moving them to another country like it's not a big deal? Not believable. I also found the ending pretty predictable as well.

This might be a great book for someone else which is why I gave it two starts instead of one but it was not for me.

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C'est Magnifique. Lucy Checks In, written by Dee Ernst, is a magnificent and cozy romance novel. Our lead protagonist Lucy has been unemployed for two years after her unparalleled career running one of New York City’s most luxurious hotels until it is embroiled in a case of fraud. She is not guilty of any criminal activity but is believed guilty by association. At 49 and living with her parents, her life seems ruined. Enter a hotel owner in Rennes, France, who hires Lucy to renovate her 1740’s château called Hotel Paradis. Lucy is so eager to take any job that she arrives only to find the charming place in ruins, making her dreams come crashing down. Over time, her can-do spirit, along with the help of a great cast of characters and a slow-burn romance with an American writer/resident, turns her life around. Sometimes when things seem hopeless, a light shines in unexpected places. I liked this story because it is more than romance; it is refreshing to have a 49-year-old heroine with romance written realistically, the charm of locating the story in France, and an excellent cast of supporting characters that make this book so charming. Lucy Checks In will be published in August 2022, and I encourage you to buy this one. Ce livre est Charmant. #Netgalley #Lucychecksin #cozyromance #adventure #love #family #france @netgalley @stmartinspress @dee.ernst.7
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Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins for the opportunity to read this book which was amazing.
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This was an okay read, unfortunately not really memorable.

I didn't really empathize with Lucy's character. She travels to France to take up a job at a small hotel, after a life changing incident back at home. It was comical that she didn't read more into the job she was taking in another country, but plot device.

There was somewhat of a romance, but I didn't feel much chemistry between the characters.

Quick read overall.

france. growth. development. a protagonist on a journey of self discovery. if any of these things appeal to you, you might enjoy lucy checks in! this book follows lucy, an adult who is forced to restructure her life after a situation goes down at her previous work place (to say the least, the owner of the hotel she worked at wasn’t the best person). an opportunity eventually presents itself for work in france, so lucy jumps at the possibility and makes a huge change in her life. as she attempts to improve a run-down hotel in rennes, she embarks on finding herself (and encounters some romance and a new home along the way).

i think the premise of this book was wonderful; i loved the setting of the book, and i enjoyed reading about lucy. however, there were sections of the book i wanted more of. i wanted more romance (the book is marketed as a romance, despite this being a definite subplot). i wanted more about lucy and her personal journey, instead of unimportant details. i wanted a faster paced plot, with even development throughout the entire book, instead of sections of quick development to further the previously slow plot. all in all, this was just an okay read. 2/5 stars!

thank you so much to netgalley and st. martin's press for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for offering this book to me in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the locations in this book and the way the author described them in detail.
This was an easy read about perseverance and the challenges of starting over. The main character has her struggles but she remains strong and pushes through for a better life.

I also like that the main character was a bit older as well, showing that you can start over at any age.

Rating: Enjoyed It, 3.5 stars

Lucy is a very successful hotel manager who has fallen into disgrace in her field due to the criminal actions of her boss/boyfriend. Unable to get a job in the States, Lucy takes a job to get an old hotel in Renens, France up and running. She is a bit surprised to find that not only is she going to be managing the hotel and it's day to day operations, but she is physically in charge of the remodel as well. There are a number of live-in "guests" who make for an enjoyable cast of characters, including Bing, who is an artist and a bit of a pain for Lucy as she goes about her tasks in bringing this hotel back to it's former glory.

Overall, I definitely think that this is more Women's Fiction than Romance. There is a subplot featuring a romance; however, this story was much more focused on Lucy and her journey. The characters were a fun cast, but I don't think that the character work was very deep. I did enjoy Lucy's journey, but I think part of that is that I liked the setting.

It's a small thing, but Lucy and Bing are both in their 50s, which is definitely not reflected in the cover art. It didn't bother me at all that she was older, but I just thought it was interesting that they put a slim, brunette on the cover when the heroine is described as having gray hair and being heavier.

So all-in-all a fun read, but not a new favorite. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Lucy Checks In releases on 8/16/22.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I love a story about redemption. Especially when a woman is done dirty and ends up pulling herself up and proving everyone wrong.

This book was fun. I felt myself transported to France. I wanted to go to the hotel. I wanted to meet all the quirky people that lived there - the people that become your family.

If you are looking for a fun book, a cute beach read or an escape - definitely pick this book up!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press / St. Martin's Griffin for this eARC! I really loved it.

Lucy arrives in France for a job restoring an old hotel but when she arrives things are not what she expected. As she tries to navigate what this hotel has to offer and how much extra work it's going to take, she realizes that the people who live at the hotel aren't just tenants, but an unusual little family.

This book was cozy in all the best ways. I loved the idea of this extremely successful former hotel manager dropping herself into an entirely new place with a culture she'd never been in and people who questioned her abilities. The characters made me smile on so many occasions and I really wanted all of them to succeed.

Dee Ernst writes beautifully. One of my absolute favorite aspects of this book was that I could perfectly picture these characters and this hotel throughout its entirety.

A couple issues I had with it:
The cover was slightly misleading in that Lucy is almost 50 years old, and mentions her gray, curly hair often. The cover had me going into this thinking that Lucy was in her 20s - just based off of appearance. So while I love the cover, that did throw me off while I was reading.

Another somewhat minor issue was that a few times Lucy came off as a little harsh in her tone and words to some of the people who live at the hotel and work there. I realize that Lucy is very good at her job, so all of those instances came from a place of knowledge and wanting what was best for the hotel and future guests, BUT she was also a newcomer and didn't quite know how things went in France. I sometimes felt like she should be more understanding and gentle with them.

I also am just now realizing that on Netgalley this is marked as a 'Romance' but I honestly felt like the romance aspects were secondary to the story of the hotel revamping -- which was wonderful and very well done, but I just don't feel like there was enough romance focus for it to be a romance. Unless you think of it as the SLOWEST slow burn haha

BUT overall, I really did love it. Will be recommending to friends!

***4.5 stars***

I will start this review by saying that this isn't a true romance or rom-com. It's maybe more women's fiction with a subplot of romance. And what romance there is, is highly slow-burn and very clean. A lot of people so far are really upset by this and I agree that it should be reclassified. However, I honestly really enjoyed my reading experience of this novel. It's pure escapism set in an 18th century French chateau. All I wanted to do after finishing this book was book a flight to France and stay at this hotel. And the food! I wanted to crawl inside the pages and taste all of it. I was starving by the end of this book and wanted all go to France and eat all of the bread and butter and cheese I could get my hands on.

I do have a couple things that made this not fully a five star read for me. Lucy herself is a bit hard to like or relate to at the very beginning of the book. She is consumed with dreams of a five-star hotel where she can be ferried around in a Bentley, live in a penthouse suite and order around her staff without having to do any of the hard work herself. Now there is nothing wrong with liking or wanting the finer things in life, and she did have those things in her last job. But she comes across as a bit stuck up. Despite her numerous email exchanges with the hotel owner, she expects to have those things when nothing was promised, and in fact the expectations of her were outlined very clearing in her contract. Lucy does change over the course of the book to become a happier, more well-rounded version of herself and in doing so, she became a character I could really root for.

The cover is a bit misleading. It speaks to the 20-30 age demographic. With the average character in this book being about 50 years old, I think a lot of people my age would be put off of this novel once they read the synopsis or started reading the book. There's also the fact that the woman on the cover, who is supposed to be our 49 year old main character Lucy, doesn't reflect what Lucy is described to look like. She has "salt and pepper" curly hair. It would have been nice to see a woman with greying hair who is thriving on the cover of a book.

Overall, this was an easy and relaxing read with an overall hopeful tone. I loved the found-family aspect and how they all worked together to bring a dilapidated old mansion into a world class hotel. Maybe it stems from my love of the Home network but I loved all the renovation scenes.

Lucy Checks In kind of took me by surprise, I'm not gonna lie. This book started a bit slow for me, but there was a lot of backstory that lent itself well to character development, so once I got used to this author's style I really enjoyed the book.

This book was sweet. It's basically a second-chance, later-in-life romance -- which is not typically my favorite genre. I really like a straightforward HEA-type romance. This one, however, is one of a few I'd count alongside my favorites, simply because of how well-written it is. There were times in this book where I found myself very much identifying with Lucy, our main character.

She was completely relatable, frantic, a hot mess, picking up the pieces of her life, starting over, ending a long-standing relationship in which she'd been betrayed, had to get a new job because previously-mentioned long-standing relationship cost her hers -- one she loved. I think we've all been in a similar situation. Lucy was a bit of a stuck-up character in the beginning, but she rediscovers herself along the way and begins to make friends with her "co-workers."

I loved the situation in this book. Lucy accepts a job in France, getting an old hotel ready to take guests again. She finds out when she gets there that she won't be fluffing pillows and delegating, as she'd assumed. She gets to jump in and do the work, get blisters, get messy, and make mistakes! Sorry - couldn't help the reference to the Frizz. ;)

So eventually she meets the romantic interest - Bing. I'm sorry, she totally loses me here. Bing? I don't want my name character named Bing, lol. All I can see is Chandler, then I'm reading all the lines in Chandler's . . . PARTICULAR tone. Again - Friends reference. I don't love that. Otherwise, Bing is an awesome lead. All in all, the book was really good. I loved it. I could see it being a beach read or vacay read, or just a good ol' it's-time-to-read read.

Worth the time to read!

Britt

Lucy Checks In was a delightful and quick read. The characters this story was centered around were in their late forties to mid fifties and it was refreshing to hear a story that involved characters with established careers and children from previous relationships and how they worked to blend that together. The HGTV lover in me also enjoyed the details of flipping the run down French Hotel Paradis and the host of characters involved in that as well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and realized I might need to stop reading stories set in Europe before I cave and buy a flight!

So many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review!!

Lucy at 49 years old is looking for a fresh start. After being involved in a scandal with her ex, Lucy takes a job managing a hotel in Rennes, France. When she arrives, Lucy realizes there was a lot more work to do than she originally expected. Through the story we see Lucy regain her confidence and even has another shot at love.
Lucy Checks In is a feel good book that you definitely won't want to put down.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Dee Ernst and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Easy read about a women going through a hard time in her life who has to take whatever prospect comes her way even if it seems and impossible feat. To men, a lot of the things that happened in the story seemed to be just too easy, and I saw the shocking event that happens from a mile away, but the book isn't trying to be anything more than it is. I could easily see this as a Hallmark movie.

I'm going to try not to gush about this book but it's very difficult because it was so #$%& good! Inhaled it in one sitting (not a huge accomplishment because it's not too girthy, kind of 'Goldilocks Zone' for me) and the pacing, characters, and the oh! lovely! setting were just completely absorbing.

I've whinged frequently about the lack of older characters in romance - sorry, but I just don't connect with teens, college-age, twenty-somethings...even the thirty year-olds are slipping out of my wheelhouse. So, how awesome it is that Dee Ernst has written such a capable, accomplished, smart character as Lucy. The supporting cast was also fully realized, and Bing the love-interest was Lucy's equal in maturity and complexity.

Lucy's life has been derailed in a spectacular way, so she takes a job managing a hotel in Rennes, France and after realizing how daunting a task it will be, she rises to the challenge and regains some of the confidence in herself she had lost. She and Bing joust a bit, throw sparks a lot...it was good fun to watch that in the beautifully described setting of château converting to a hotel to meet the needs of the modern tourist.

I won't say too much more about the plot, except that there's a bit of found-family, and a late twist that was both sad and satisfying.

If I had one wish it would be for everyone to have a friend like Lucy has in Julia. Loved her.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley and all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved Lucys character and how even though she was thrown into a situation she was not expecting, it all worked out for her in the end. I do wish that we got to see her and Bings love story a little more. I feel like we didn't get to read much about them getting closer so when they finally did get together, it seemed a little rushed.

I feel like this book is a little mature for most of my students but I can see a few picking this up and enjoying it. I personally thought it was okay but a little slow for me personally. Had the pacing been a bit quicker, primarily at the beginning it would be more engaging.