Lucy Checks In was not what I expected, but once I got over that, it was a very touching story of having to start over.

Lucy was the manager of a very fancy hotel in New York City, at least until her former boss and lover stole millions when he left, and she he very nearly took the fall. While she managed to avoid that, her entire reputation was ruined, leaving her with no career opportunities. When she sees the chance to be the manager of a boutique in Rennes, France, she jumps. And then learns that the hotel is... exactly as reported: it needs to be renovated from the wallboard studs out. Lucy thought it would be much easier to get the hotel open and ready for online bookings in a much shorter time. Except, she has to do everything, including setting up a website.

The hotel also has several permanent residences, some of whom help more than others with the renovations. Claudine is very willing to break laws to get her hotel ready, even when Lucy isn't willing to. There's a very serious subplot to the book, involving Lucy's alcoholic brother, which does come to a head. I was very worried about the ending, after <spoiler>her brother dies in a accident while driving drunk, leaving her as the guardian of his two children</spoiler>, but I really enjoyed how Ernst played that out. Excellent character development.

All in all, Lucy Checks In is an excellent study in character development and learning to fight for what you want.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free eARC.

This is a really delightful story. It has great bohemian characters who are fun and witty. Lucy is at the lowest point in her life when she takes a job in France. It turns out to be nothing she expected but everything she needed. There is an eclectic cast of characters including Bing who becomes her best friend and lover. The story is about dreaming big when everything seems unattainable. The author does a wonderful job of exploring the emotional depths of the characters and the various relationships that tie them together. It is also about later in life romance and how much sweeter it can be. Bing and Lucy form a relationship and a family that is untraditional but lovely.

"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."

LUCY CHECKS IN is a story of reinvention with a little bit of romance thrown in. At almost 50, Lucy's life has fallen apart and her second chance takes her to Rennes, France where she's been hired to rehab an old hotel filled with quirky residents. The setting is fantastic and the characters are fun but I never found myself invested. Lucy has a fraught history with her family that's never quite explained and the majority of the book is spent detailing the renovations on the hotel which I suppose were supposed to mirror the changes happening to her as well but none of it was very compelling. And then there's Bing, Lucy's love interest (who apparently tosses his head back every time he laughs - I counted at least eight instances of that description). They circle each other for the majority of the book and then boom - insta-love. I was happy they found each other but wanted to care more when they did.

I was excited to read a book with a middle aged heroine (even if the cover makes a woman who describes herself as having greying curly hair and a thickening middle look like a svelte 20-something with new highlights!) but I wish her second act had given more reason to check out LUCY CHECKS IN.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the copy to review.

Lucy accepts a position as manager of a small hotel in France sight unseen. When she arrives and sees what shape the hotel is in, with residents in some of the rooms, she hesitates. She is expected to renovate and put the hotel in order to receive guests. The residents will help.

Give it up and relax with this tale of 49 year old Lucy whose life exploded when her partner and love Tony absconded, just ahead of the FBI, with millions stolen from the employees, Lucy, and the hotel they ran in New York. Now living in her parents house, she found a job in Rennes, France renovating the Hotel Paradis- except , as she discovers, the Hotel has not been a hotel since before WWII. This is very much an it takes a village sort of story, with the residents of the hotel (especially the dishy children's book author Bing) pitching in to make it an actual place to stay. There's a certain dislocation for Lucy, who wasn't expecting to paint walls herself but she's game and, to be honest, she doesn't have any other offers. This is filed with vibrant characters - Karl who gardens, Marie Claude, Stavros, and so on- who are as committed to each other as they are to the hotel. Claudine, who owns it, is a hoot. There's some darkness in the background but that's what gives this a bit of the unexpected. Yes, it's a tad trope-y, the romance is muted (I liked that about it) and at times Lucy seems remarkably naive, but I really enjoyed it. I also really want to holiday in France and sit in a cafe and drink wine. Thanks to netgalley for the ArC. A very good read.

I did not know what to expect from this book. The excerpt pulled me in because I love a good story where a woman pulls herself back up. I love the setting and that Lucy was an older woman.
The book was so well written and descriptive. I felt like I was in the town of Rennes. The characters were fully realized and they were so much fun to get to know.
This book was a must read! Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and Dee Ernst for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun, light hearted book. It follows Lucia who was a hotel manager for a big hotel in NYC when things took a turn. She needed a fresh start at age 49, so she took an opportunity to work as a manager at Hotel Paradis in Rennes, France.
What she was thought was going to be an easy job turned out to be a lot tougher than she imagined. It was really nice to see Lucia grow throughout the story and find herself. She generally had to redo the entire hotel. Luckily she had the help of some friends that live at the hotel. They had to do everything from painting, to planting flowers to decorating everything before opening. The visual was very easy to picture. It would make anyone want to vacation at Hotel Paradis.
It was really great to see everyone that lived at the hotel being so nice and helpful to Lucia. Seeing them become such a close knit family that came together and made a great team was so inspiring to see. In the end everyone had the same dream of wanting to see to see the hotel succeed.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for an eARC.

Lucy Checks In is a charming read, from the description of Rennes and the hotel itself, with its vivid history, to its quirky cast of characters and the different talents and obstacles they each bring with them.

I really appreciated having a more mature woman as the lead, particularly once Lucy gets a chance to explore romance as well as professional redemption. Her love interest, a sexy American painter and children’s book author, is supportive, kind, and encouraging, and seeing them together really reinforces that love stories, romance, and a healthy sex life are not just for people in their 20s and 30s.

I would have liked to get to know the supporting cast a little more -- the various residents of the hotel are introduced, often with thumbnail backstories, but we don’t get to know most of them very well beyond the basics. That’s a shame, because many are funny or eccentric, and I would have liked to know more about how they ended up at the Hotel Paradis and how they live their lives.

Overall, Lucy Checks In is a sweet, non-demanding read, with a bit of an armchair travel element to it (yes, I do want to go hang out at the hotel, explore Rennes, and eat all that amazing food). I was moved by Lucy’s story arc, including some unexpected twists concerning her family back home in the US, and was very happy to see her finding her way toward happiness and new beginnings.

An enjoyable women's fiction story set in idyllic France. I would call it more women's fiction than romantic comedy, honestly. A touch of romance builds throughout the story but it's not until the last quarter of the story that you really see that play a major role in Lucy's life. The trajectory of Lucy's life will resonate with so many women and I think her story supplies inspiration for anyone in need of healing and forgiveness. It was an interesting, sweet, and charming book.

Saving/creating a new vision for an old French boutique hotel is a solid book plot. I liked this book overall, but didn't fall in love with it.

What I liked the most were the characters since they were all very different, but felt like family. I liked how they all lived on property and had their own specialty like gardening, repair work, cooking, etc.

I felt like Lucy's backstory wasn't as strong or developed as it could be. It is made very clear how her old job went wrong, but maybe more detail during her renovations could have brought out her past more. I just wanted a bit more instead of it feeling like house flipping, hotel style.

Enjoyable characters and scene with a light plot.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

Lucy Checks In by Dee Ernst

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
SPICE: 1/5
REVIEW:
This book (coming out August 16!) is set in Rennes, France and made me want to hop a plane to Europe!

A sweet story about Lucy struggling with a pretty major midlife crisis but finding more of who she is and the life she wants to live.

Lucy Checks In is a story of finding family and love in an unexpected place.

I enjoyed this book a fair amount. It's not my typical type of book but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. By the end of this book, I wanted to be waking up in France eating a pastry on a balcony!

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