“You sound happy, she texted me.
Maybe I am, I texted back. Or maybe I’m too tired to be sad.”
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warning: Mentions alcoholism, parent death, and cheating.
“Lucy Checks In” follows Lucia Giannetti, a shunned hotel manager, as she moves to the other side of the world, from New Jersey to France, in order to help renovate Hotel Paradis, a boutique hotel in Rennes, a small historical town. As soon as she arrives, she notices she’s way in over her head, but after a scandal left her unemployed and unemployable in the United States, she has nothing left to do but try.
I don’t even know where to begin. How can I describe a book that’s well written but not particularly captivating to me, personally? Basically I wasn’t a fan of the hotel remodel theme, but I liked a few of the characters and it was definitely catchy, I read it almost entirely through a 5-hour airplane flight.
Also, not to sound age-ist, but it seemed weird to me how Lucy was described as a 49-year-old with grey hair, yet the girl in the cover looks like anything but that, in my opinion. Misleading covers are one of my pet peeves.
This book was a slow-burn romance that drove me insane, and I am sad to say that the fire was not worth the wait. And not to mention that the nickname “Bing” was a bit of a turnoff for me, but for each their own, I guess. Actually, I wouldn’t even classify this as romance per se, more like Women’s Fiction or just Fiction would be fine. It deals with a lot more than just romance and the romance parts aren’t even the most important if you ask me.
This is would be a very cool read for anyone who likes DIYing and remodeling and fixer upper shows. “Lucy Checks In” is a colorful romance with a plethora of whimsical characters and an enemies-to-lovers and Grump-meets-Sunshine trope that’s quite cute. I would highly recommend this read, especially if you’re looking for a mild romance with not a lot of sexual descriptions.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: August 16, 2022
“She said, ‘But if you loved me, you’d stay.’ He said, ‘But if you loved me, you’d go.’ ”
andrea's galley 