Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Steam rating: 🍆 /5

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and St Martin’s Griffin for gifting me review copies of Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernst.

Maggie is a 48-year-old novelist, and she’s really behind on her latest manuscript. Like really, really behind. In a last-ditch effort to find inspiration, she goes to Paris with some friends. I mean, how could you not be inspired in the city of lights, with its chic Parisiennes, swoon-worthy pastries, and culture that practically radiates from every surface. And then there are the French men…

Maggie finds her inspiration, but in a different form than she had envisioned.

I really enjoyed reading about a heroine that wasn’t in her twenties, who had some life experience and knew more about herself and what she does and doesn’t want. I also really enjoyed the male lead, who while not traditionally handsome really grows on both Maggie and the reader as the story progressed.

Plus, you simply can’t go wrong with a book set in Paris. We had a big trip planned, which of course was canceled due to Covid, so I lived vicariously through this book.

I read this one as part of a buddy read with the LoveARCtually Book Club and we got to chat with the author. We heard all about the research she did for the book, how many kouign-amanns she actually ate every day (for research of course), and how she modeled Maggie’s daughter, in part, on her own daughter.

The audiobook is a quick 7 hours and 18 minutes and is wonderfully narrated by Gillian Vance

If you’re in need of a delightful escape, then I definitely recommend you pick this one up. It’s perfect as a summer read with a champagne-based cocktail and some yummy pastries. You can grab the physical book here, or click the button below for the audiobook.

Synopsis:

A sparkling romantic comedy starring a bestselling author who goes to Paris to overcome writer's block and rediscovers family, independence, and love along the way.

All Maggie Bliss needs to do is write. Forty-eight years old and newly single (again!), she ventures to Paris in a last-ditch effort to finish her manuscript. With a marvelous apartment at her fingertips and an elegant housekeeper to meet her every need, a finished book—and her dream of finally taking her career over the top—is surely within her grasp. After all, how could she find anything except inspiration in Paris, with its sophistication, food, and romance in the air?

But the clock is running out, and between her charming ex-husband arriving in France for vacation and a handsome Frenchman appearing one morning in her bathtub, Maggie’s previously undisturbed peace goes by the wayside. Charming and heartfelt, Dee Ernst's Maggie Finds Her Muse is a delightful and feel-good novel about finding love, confidence, and inspiration in all the best places.