Paris Is Always a Good Idea was a wonderful story about a woman who has spent almost a decade mourning and losing herself in grief, finding her way back to herself again. Chelsea threw herself into her work after losing her mom seven years ago and after her world has been shaken up a bit, she decides to go find the girl she left behind.

Chelsea was almost unbearable when this book started. So much so I didn't actually want to continue reading it if she didn't start to change her tune. But almost as soon as you're annoyed by her, she starts on her journey of self-discovery and healing. Also, can I just say how difficult it is to read about people travelling right now when we're all trapped wherever we are because of this virus? Jenn McKinlay writes an adventure that I'd love to just book a trip for immediately. I only wish it described what she was seeing more. Italy stole my heart though and of course, it's where we see everything come together.

Honestly, I wish I could give this five stars but I do think it was missing a little something here and there to fill out the story to the best it could've been. I did really love it though and I definitely would revisit this author's work.

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sending me this E-Arc for an honest review! I really enjoyed reading this book. Where I found the plot a little bit predictable, the characters and the romance made the book fun and enjoyable. I loved traveling around with the main character Chelsea and going along on the trip with her while she discovered how to open up, be happy, and love again.  I thought that the author did a great job of expressing the hard emotions that Chelsea's character was dealing with, and making the reader connect with her in a deep way.

Also, I LOVED Jason Knightley's character! I think I fell in love with his character from the second chapter, and I loved watching him and Chelsea become friends and then fall in love.

I think that this romance was really fun, and it would have been rated a bit higher if the plot had been a bit more unique and less predictable.  I did really enjoy Jenn McKinlay's writing in this book, and again, the characters that she created were all really well thought out and developed. I think this is a really fun and easy summer romance!

Thanks for reading!
Caden

I truly enjoy reading anything written by Jenn Mckinlay. She is a master at writing stories that bring you right into the story. This one did not disappoint. Not only did I get to travel to Ireland, Paris, and Italy, but I got a chance to fall in love along with them. It was a great escape for me and while this book is a stand-alone, I hope that Ms. Mckinlay writes more of these.

Seven years ago, Chelsea’s European adventure was cut short by a phone call the her mom is dying of cancer. She ditches the rest of her trip to be at her moms side. Since her moms passing, she is a full blown workaholic. She doesn’t date, and spends all her energy on raising money for the American Cancer Coalition. But when he father announces he is marrying his girlfriend of two weeks, Chelsea is not ok with it. At the urge of her sister, Chelsea decides to go back and relive the last time she felt truly happy…her European adventure. Will work find a way to get in the way again?

This book was so damn adorable. It was the perfect rom com to dive into during a really hectic time for me. My heart broke for everything Chelsea had been through, I just wanted to reach through the book and hug her. Obviously we all know where the story is going from pretty much the beginning, but I loved seeing Chelsea grow and realize that The person she was looking to be was there all along. And of course reading about travels through Ireland, Paris, and a vineyard in Italy just made my travel bug jump for joy, and of course sadness since I won’t be headed to any of these amazing places anytime soon. I loved the situations with all her old flings. They added a wonderful comedic edge this fantastic read!

Quite readable. I did enjoy the various location settings used in the book. I was just looking for something... more to push this up another star in rating.

Sweet read! I loved and felt for Chelsea, the poor lamb. She was so easy to relate to. Loved the writer's style and how the story flowed. This is a great summer beach read.

A fun romantic comedy, marred for me only by the sex scene at the end (just an FYI; a reader can always skip the steamy stuff). I love McKinlay's cozy mysteries, and this was very similar except there was no mystery to solve. A light, enjoyable read.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

A charming and fun enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance. The characters were well-developed and the dialogue was interesting and well written.

“This. This was the last time I’d been truly happy. My year abroad. It hit me then that I no longer knew the young woman who had fallen in love with Colin and Jean Claude and Marcelino. I couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be topsy-turvy, dizzy from a smile, ass-over-tea-kettle crushing on someone.”

Getting older can be wonderful. You are your own person, independent, and the whole world is waiting for you. But it can be scary, too. You graduate from school, start college. and get a job. All the responsibility is hitting you at once and you feel yourself adapt to your new life, change.

As Audrey Hepburn once said, “Paris is always a good idea” and so is this book. It is a nice and fun summer read which will hit you emotionally while taking you on a trip to some of the most beautiful places in Europe. In her latest novel, author Jenn McKinlay takes you on a trip through Europe in a "Eat, Pray, Love" kind of way.

Sometimes you need a change of scenery to get yourself together and to understand that things might not be as bad as you thought and that the solutions were in front of you the whole time.

“Was I even capable of those feelings anymore? I didn’t know. But there was only one way to find out. I had to see them again.”

Chelsea is an independent, successful thirty-year-old who feels stuck in her life. She misses her twenty-two-year-old self, who was carefree and full of laughter, the person she was before her mother died of cancer. She started a career as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Coalition so that no one must go through what she had to. While she buries her pain in work, her sister and father carried on with their lives. Getting married, remarried, basically never stopped to love, and never closed themselves up for others.

Chelsea is desperate to feel that way again and to fill the heart with love and to be capable to accept love again. Her solution? Wander the path of her gap year and visiting her former three boyfriends she had during that time. Colin in Ireland, Jean Claude in France, and Marcelino in Italy. If someone can help her find back to her former self, it must have to be one of these guys.

What started as a self-finding trip soon gets hijacked by her coworker Jason and the favour he is calling in to get an outstanding deal signed, but that does not mean that she will not get the answers she is looking for.

McKinley describes the feelings and doubts of her protagonist in a way that woman can identify with her. A longing for what has been good in the past, the want in holding it once again and never letting it go while want to find yourself in the world.

At first, I was not pleased with the fact that a woman thinks that she can only find her former self through her ex-boyfriends, but it turned out to be the opposite because my girl Chelsea had her doubts sooner than I expected which makes me proud of her. Do not forget that if you have changes over the years, then everyone else might as well.

The story became more interesting when Chelsea’s coworker, Jason, followed her to Europe to convince her to help him and the organisation to sign one of the biggest deals ever with an investor. From that point on, it was quite obvious how the story would continue, but it sure got funnier the moment Jason was in the story because said exactly what I was thinking about Chelsea’s decisions.

Personally, I liked the setting and the characters as I was able to connect with the story from the first page, especially being around the same age as Chelsea as well as being through some of the same things.

I think it is great and love when a book speaks to its reader. I salute every author and at the moment, I salute Jenn McKinlay!

This was such an enjoying read!
I loved how it was mostly a romance read but also dealt a lot with grief as well.
It had a hate to love romance which I loved and I also loved how much character growth Chelsea had.
The travel aspect was fun as well.
I would pitch this as a fun, romantic read with a ton of character growth and also deals with grief.

Chelsea Martin is on a quest to find herself after 7 years of grieving the death of her mother. The last time she was really happy was when she fell in love with three different men in three different countries during her gap year in Europe. What better way to figure out who she is today, than to re-trace her steps and rekindle her old relationships?

Paris is Always a Good Idea is like reading the book version of your favorite instagram travel blogger. It's an escape, makes you dream of visiting far off places and it's full of beautiful people.

The underlying love story is one you'll see coming from a mile away but that allows you, as the reader, to cheer Chelsea on as you beg for her to open her eyes -and heart- to what's right in front of her.

I first read an excerpt of this book in the Romance Buzz Books 2020 sampler, and this book had me hooked in the first chapter! I love a snarky and intelligent female main character and I thought Chelsea Martin was a very well written character. She had foibles, she had growth, she had snarky one liners.... I loved it!

Thank you to the publisher for a free netgalley!
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❤️- The overall plot was enjoyable. I very much love stories of people redeeming/finding themselves. The tour through Europe gave my traveling heart some nostalgia of my own travels!
🤷🏻‍♀️- Though our character had a major loss, for someone who was higher up in a major corporation she was immature. Very “I know you are but what am I” type. And sometimes the writing in the book was off from the characters. Our uptight main character once said “I cut that schizzle off”. Umm what?
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Overall, a cute, fast read that is good for those who like romances on the predictable side or like to travel!

First off, let me say that I loved this book. This was more than a romance. It was about finding yourself, accepting yourself, re-finding your happiness, travelling, and grief. I adored the dynamic between Jason and Chelsea - they were so fun to watch as their relationship grew and changed. I have so much respect for Chelsea for taking that leave of absence from work and travelling to the places that made her so happy in the past and finding herself (it kinda inspires me to go on my own quest/travel adventure).

Thank you so much Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for sending me a copy of this book.

Paris Is Always a Good Idea is a wonderful story about finding oneself! Filled with McKinlay's wonderful writing ability, this is a book that many readers will relate to. I found this to be charming, filled with emotion, and extremely exciting! What a mix, but that's exactly what this book is!

Delightfully escapist. A great addition to collections where light women's fiction and contemporary romance are popular.

I am always down for a book to transport me to Paris - especially during self-quarantining! The beginning was a little tough for me to get through but I’m a reviewer so I kept reading. I found the main character a little bit... narcissistic. Like really, Chelsea. Can’t you just be happy for your dad? Super immature attitude for a 30 year old. However, it did get much better as the book went on and her flame from each country was introduced. A solid 3 stars!

Ireland, Paris, Italy....sign me up! I loved everything about this book. The struggles Chelsea goes through and overcomes was inspiring. Seeing the friendship build to becoming lovers was great. I will definitely recommend this book to friends.

“Paris is Always a Good Idea“ by Jenn McKinlay Is an absolute delight! It is absolutely the perfect read right now while so many are sheltering at home. McKinlay’s novel is a well written romance and full of all the right elements, including, travel, laughter, love, and loss that keep things real and the reader invested in how the story unfolds. Thank you!!!

I was conflicted about how I felt while reading this book. It was very predictable and the beginning felt completely unrealistic.

Chelsea, the main character, is very closed off and a bit of a workaholic. Ever since her mother died she has seemed to stop living her own life, and when her father wants to get remarried she gets upset. This is understandable, however I struggled with the inconsistencies in her character. After one quick conversation with her sister she has decided she agrees she hasn’t lived or laughed or loved in 7 years and the last place she did was galavanting through Europe after college graduation so it is perfectly realistic that this stubborn, closed off, strong woman would give everything at work up to travel the world again in some reliving of her past to visit old flames... it just doesn’t fit her character. She didn’t fight it, she wasn’t stubborn enough, her character needed more to get from the beginning of the book to her being in Ireland. It just didn’t fit for me.

After I got over that I loved the book. It was beautiful reading about Ireland and making new friends while opening up. There is of course the rival back home at work who she hates but randomly FaceTimes every night of her trip that totally makes sense? But it is sweet especially when he shows up in the city of love, Paris for a work meeting with Chelsea and a potential donor. As they travel and woo a client, they begin to open up about their losses and woo eachother. It’s romantic, it’s sweet, and it’s wonderful traveling the world from my couch!

I think this romance has a few plot holes and inconsistencies but was sweet and so enjoyable to read! I loved how Chelsea realizes she can’t become who she was before loss and she can’t shove her emotions down. She is beautiful as she is, stronger for what she has lost and she shouldn’t try to change that. It reminds me of that picture of a bowl with cracks and they fill the cracks with gold to make the imperfections the focus of beauty in the bowl. That’s what loss and trauma do to people and yes it is ugly and difficult and horrible, but it shapes who you are as a person and makes you stronger.

My six word review:
Full of lessons and European men