In Lucy Checks In, Dee Ernst delivers a delightfully eccentric, mid-life reinvention story.
Broke and single,
heartbroken and childless, Lucia “Lucy” Gianetti feels kicked to the curb by
fate and her own bad choices. The once-ambitious and successful,
49-year-old--former hospitality manager of an upscale, New York City
hotel--mixed business with pleasure to overwhelming detriment. Her boss and
beau swindled millions and pinned the blame on Lucy, forcing her into
unemployment and living back home with her parents while trying to clear her
good name. Two years later, downtrodden Lucy is offered a job to manage the
historic Hotel Paradis in Rennes, France. She jumps at the chance to ditch the
detritus of her woeful life, picturing posh, passionate Francophile glories to
rescue her. However, when she arrives, she’s confronted with a run-down,
centuries-old hotel in as dire need of a rehabilitative make-over as she is.
Faced with the Herculean task of transforming the haunted, family-owned Paradis
into a charming tourist attraction in six months, Lucy dives into the
challenge—fraught by quirky, exasperating contractors, hotel staff and long-term
residents, including a handsome--and self-important--artist who is as willful
as she is. Can he make her believe in love again?
Witty, snarky
romantic comedies set in France--fast-paced stories that feature strong female
protagonists steeped in the throes of midlife--have become Ernst’s (Maggie
Finds Her Muse) specialty. In Lucy
Checks In, she takes readers on another exciting, ‘it’s never too late
to start again’ heartwarming adventure.
Lucy
Checks In: A Novel by
Dee Ernst
St. Martin’s
Griffin (MacMillan), $16.99 paperback, 288 pages, 9781250844583
Publication Date: August
16, 2022
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NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being
posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (August 19, 2022), link HERE