Lucy was the general manager of a successful hotel in New York City when the man she loved ran away with all of her money, as well as the retirement funds of everyone that worked with and for him, and left her to pick up the pieces. After two years of wallowing, and figuring to regain her good name, Lucy accepts a new job at a boutique hotel in Rennes, France. She rushes to France, only to learn that she will have to work to practically rebuild the hotel from the ground up. All while figuring out how to regain the sense of self that her lying, cheating boyfriend stole along with her life savings.

I'm not honestly sure how I felt about this one just yet. I started it thinking it would be about a younger main character, and it's possible that the cover for that into my head. But the main character is 50, and the main love interest is older as well. This is not me being down on any older woman as a main character, but rather that I felt a little like I got misled, similarly to Lucy herself at the start.

It took me a couple of tries to really start the book, and a while to really get into it. It seemed that there was a lot of "one step forward, two steps back" movement, with everything just a disaster that kept on being a disaster rather than letting her catch a break. I think I only really started to enjoy myself in the last couple of chapters, which was disappointing.

I liked the love interest character from the start, and liked most of the tertiary characters, though the secondary ones left a little to be desired.

I'm sure those is the right book for someone out there. I think it just wasn't for me. Not every book can be a winner for every reader, and that's okay too. I hope someone finds this book and loves it.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Lucia Giannetti has worked in hotels her whole career. That comes to a crashing halt when her fiance and the hotel owner skips out of town with millions of dollars. No one, especially the FBI believes that as hotel manager and lover, she had no idea this was coming. Two years later, after a huge investigation, she is proved innocent, unemployed and broke. (Lawyers aren't cheap.) When offered the manager's position to Hotel Paradis in Rennes, France she jumps at the chance. But it turns out that the hotel will need more than a little work to turn it into a bustling tourist attraction.

Why I started this book: Description and cover promised a lighthearted romp thru southern France with romance and second chances.

Why I finished it: This book was disappointing to me solely because of the marketing expectations. A rom-com focuses on the couple and the humor. A chick-lit focuses on the woman and the romance is secondary. This is a delightful chick-lit book, and I would have enjoyed it so much more if the cover and description better matched the story. Lucy is 49, and starting over. She's described with salt and pepper hair... and she grows so much throughout the story. She also drinks so much. (To be fair, I'm not French or a drinker, so I don't know if this is normal... but it felt excessive.). Overall a fun story.

Lucy is a disgraced middle aged hotel manager who cannot get hired in the US after her former boyfriend/hotel owner swindled millions of dollars away from people (unbeknownst to Lucy) and left her holding the bag. After years of hard work, her reputation is now mud . The only job she can get is across an ocean in Rennes France, where she has to help restore a run down hotel to its former glory.

This book is listed as a romantic comedy but there is almost no romance, Maybe one chapter is worth considering as romance. I would not classify this book as a Romance, or a romantic comedy. It is more a second coming of age story. . The author does a great job of being descriptive about the hotel Lucy is helping to restore and all of the diy stuff, but this book wasn't for me. I was expecting a romance but I didn't see it develop it just sort of happens and that’s it.

What I did love about this book is that Lucy is in her 50s and shows that no matter your age, you can always create the life that you want and not to let others opinions of you stop you from achieving that dream. It shows that life may kick you down but you can always get back up.

Lucy Checks In is light quick read but just don’t go in expecting a full on romance. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC

While this book was enjoyable and had diy elements, this book did not feel like a romance to me. Overall I liked the book, but it should not be marketed as a romance, more like a second coming to age/finding oneself.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I was able to read this for free thanks to Net Galley, although that does not affect my opinion of the actual book. If there’s mentions of refurbishing, redecorating, or rebuilding, I am automatically interested in reading more. This book is about Lucy, a woman who is in need of renovation, as is the hotel that she just began working at. For the most part, I could picture this book as a movie in my head. There were definitely some moments throughout the book where it felt like Lucy forgot that she was in fact forty nine, as she acted a bit high schoolish. Ultimately, I just didn’t really connect well with the story like I was hoping I would.

Lucy Checks In
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 (Rounded up to 4 ⭐️)
Genre: Romance
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 8/16/22
Author: Dee Ernst
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 288
Goodreads Rating: 3.67

TW ⚠️: Alcoholism and death of a loved one

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital advanced readers copy of the book for me to read for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Lucia Giannetti needs a fresh start was once the hotel manager of a glamorous NYC hotel. Two years later, forty-nine years old and unemployed, Lucy takes a job in Rennes, France to manage the Hotel Paradis. Lucy is now in charge of turning the run-down, but charming hotel into a bustling tourist attraction. Between painting rooms, building a website, and getting to know Bing, the irritatingly attractive artist, Lucy finds an unexpected home. But can she succeed in bringing the Hotel Paradis to its former glory?

Thoughts: The book is a slower burn type book. This book has been classified as a romance but feel it is more contemporary fiction or women’s literary fiction as the romance is sprinkled in here and there. It was more about Lucy’s journey. I wish more time had been spent with the couple’s courtship, that would of upgraded the book to the next level. The author does a great job of describing this small city in France, it makes you feel as if you are transported there, with this journey with Lucy. The characters are well developed, however, the depth is only explored to the surface and the chemistry is lacking. The ending feels a little rushed. Overall, a good read and I would read other books by this author.

This book really only has a touch of romance for a book marketed as a romantic comedy. This book was a light, fun read and I enjoyed the cast of characters we got to know.

Netgalley has this listed a Romance but out of the entire book, there is maaaaybe one chapter worth of romance. I would not classify this book as a Romance. It is more a second coming of age story. Those stories aren’t really for me - hence the 3 ⭐️ review. The author does a great job of being descriptive about the hotel that our main character, Lucy, is working at but none of that interests me. There were too many side characters for me to keep straight in my mind and we never saw her relationship with her love interest develop. It just sort of happens and that’s it.

What I did love about this book is that Lucy is in her 50s and shows that no matter your age, you can always create the life that YOU want. It shows that life may kick you down but you can always get back up.

Lucy Checks In is worth the quick read but just don’t go in expecting a full on romance.

This book really gave me Emily in Paris vibes at first but I was truly disappointed. The pacing of the book was so slow, for me there was no real chemistry between both love interests. Really thought we were going to get more romance but sadly that was not the case. I do believe this might have just not been a right book for me mostly because of the age gape between me and Lucy. But I encourage everyone to pick this book up and give it a try!

Thank you St. Martin Press and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

So this was a lovely read, I appreciated a mature MC but did think that the romance wasn’t the biggest part of this story. I’d have categorized this as womens fiction, or maybe just a story about falling in love with yourself or finding yourself again?

There’s a delightful cast of supporting characters who are well fleshed out, and I could almost see the hotel in my mind.

I enjoyed this one, it did get a bit bogged down towards the middle and I will say a death in the family, family drama, amid running from scandal felt like a lot packed in the plot but it somehow worked!

A very cute one. Lucy is a great character and I love it when main characters are not run of the mill 20 year olds.

I won't be finishing this book. I'm 25% in and it's a whiny privileged mid-life crisis with odd pacing and a romantic interest that is woefully lacking. Not for me.

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

A lovely story featuring an older MC who gets a fresh start at 50 running a boutique hotel in France.

Lucy was running an amazing hotel in New York City but things went awry and she is jobless and living with her parents for a couple years. But now, she’s in Rennes, France updating/renovating/running a hotel that hasn’t been used since before the war. Lucy is working through struggles in her personal life while trying to get this hotel back to its former glory.

There was one mention of how she will never lose weight because of all the cheese and bread in France and it was completely unnecessary.

CW: Addiction, Death

This book is categorized as romance, but the romance elements are actually pretty sparse. That said, Lucy Checks In is a charming story about a middle aged woman forced to rebuild her life after a professional catastrophe outside of her control. Formerly the manager of an elite upscale hotel in NYC, Lucia "Lucy" Gianetti winds up renovating and rehabilitating a French hotel that had last been open in the 1930's with the help of a charming cast of characters. Along the way, Lucy heals some old wounds, reconnects with her sense of self, and finds love in a slow-burn romance with one of the hotel's resident-investors. A charming, easy read, this will make you want to pack your bags and high tail it to France yourself.

A 49 year old heroine who starts over in a job in France that defies her expectations. Along the way she finds herself again and gains a new family. This novel is filled with secondary characters that bring the hotel,to life. I enjoyed this one immensely.

If you're looking for a light read with characters who aren't the standard 20-something's, this is the one for you. I really enjoyed this book, and it was fun to read about characters in their 50's. Their life experiences really added to the story, I thought. It's not a typical romance book, I would say its more of a chick-lit rather than romance. Nothing too spicy, only one scene.

I also love the setting of the book. The Hotel Paridis is somewhere I'd love to spend some time. I loved the cast of characters who all lived there together.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a little slow going. I expected more of a romance but it read more like a lit fic with some romance sprinkled in. I typically read non romances a lot slower so the pacing felt off for me. The scenery/environment desrciption was really amazing. I could perfectly see the town that Lucy was in and it felt beautiful. Very ideallic and perfect for a "finding yourself mid-life crisis" sort of thing. I do wish there was a bit less focus on tasks she was doing and it was a bit more relationship driven but that is more of a personal preference.

Overall the book was ok, I think my expectations just didn't match what the book was and thats ok!

I adored this book! I was a little skeptical when I started because the plot sounded so overused - a woman moves to a new city, hates it, makes friends, and falls in love with the city. But this book was funny, and romantic and kept you wondering what would happen next.

First off, I absolutely fell in love with the idea of this hotel and its strange cast of characters. I wanted so desperately for Lucy and Bing to get together that I was practically screaming at the book. The author did a great job keeping you waiting for the good moments to make you want to binge the entire book. Lucy Checks In had the ability to make you want to get up and travel and start a project. It was inspiring and I loved that it wasn't your typical 20s-early 30s woman who was lost and found her way.

Easily this book got a 4-star rating and I was speed reading the last half to see what was going to happen. I will say the beginning had me a little bored but this was quickly overcome with the cast of characters that Dee introduced. Highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good chick-lit read and would enjoy a more slow-paced love story.

This was a light, sweet & fun read. I especially enjoyed descriptions of France, its culture and the food, it made me hungry !

First off, I would not consider this book to be a romance. While it contains bits and pieces of a spice free, slow burn romance, it’s more of a women’s fiction novel about a women rebuilding her life and forming new friendships.

I usually do not read women’s fiction, however this book was incredibly charming. I loved that the protagonist was approaching 50 instead of her late twenties or early 30s (some much needed age representation in women’s fiction). The French setting was incredibly well done and very immersive. (After I put the book down, I had to remind myself that I was actually not in France.) I loved the way some of the more serious aspects of the book were handled and the slow burn between Lucy and Bing was a wonderful addition, as well.

All in all, this is a wonderful summer read that has me dying to go on a European vacation.