Gather Maggie Finds Her Muse Engineered By Dee Ernst Accessible In File
to write the last book in a trilogy, Maggie heads to Paris hoping to find inspiration! Luckily for her, she finds plenty: a lovely apartment, an attentive housekeeper/excellent cook, her grown daughter, Nicole, who lives there, the city and all its accompanying sights, sounds, and tastes.
. . and perhaps even a sexy Frenchman or maybe even her exhusband, Alan, Who or what will help Maggie find her writing groove
"She is there to find her muse and get to work, not be shown around.
"
This story gripped me from the very first pages, I would have devoured it in one sitting if I'd had the time, It was fun, sweet, and sometimes laugh out loud funny, It held my attention throughout and brought me joy,
Location: Paris, France
I received an advance copy of this book, All opinions are my own, Maggie Finds Her Muse was exactly the book I needed to read right now!
Not only did it give my wanderlust wishing heart the travel that it needed, to one of my FAVORITE places to read about, but it also had a story that I just adored.
What I loved most about this story was that Maggie is not a millennial traveling with an unlimited budget, but an experienced woman who is writing a book, looking for inspiration in one of the most beautiful place in the world.
It was so refreshing to read something so different amp relatable, I LOVED Dees writing style amp cannot wait to read more from her in the future.
The romance was charming and just enough, highly recommend picking up with this book!
Hosted this title with loveARCtually amp we were honored to get to chat with Dee about her wonderful book thanks NetGalley St.
Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my personal review! Maggie Finds Her Muse is a cute story about an author with writers block that goes to Paris to find inspiration.
She is staying at a friends apartment alone until one day she finds an attractive man in her bathroom, Her newly single exhusband is on a solo trip to Paris visiting their daughter, Maggie finds inspiration but also has to choose between these two men, She also has to decide if she wants to be with either of them, There is drama and a love triangle and many laughs, Maggie brings her daughter into her lies, I really enjoyed Maggie Finds Her Muse, This book was very entertaining and had a cute romance, Maggie rediscovers her confidence in Paris and has to decide what she wants, I recommend Maggie Finds Her Muse for fans of cute romances,
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Gillian Vance and enjoyed the narration, She was the perfect voice for Maggie and talked with emotion, Vance pulled me into Maggies story,
Thank you St, Martins Press and Macmillan Audio for Maggie Finds Her Muse,
Full : sitelink wordpress. com Highlights: Paris setting, mature heroes, love triangle, writer's block,
Maggie Finds Her Muse is a witty tale of a romance author suffering from writer's block who goes to Paris to find inspiration to write her latest book.
When not writing, Maggie spends time exploring Paris, eating delicious food, and meeting new people, including a charming Frenchman, Max.
Maggie's exhusband, Alan, is also in Paris, visiting their adult daughter, who lives in France, It appears Alan wants to rekindle their relationship, so Maggie is torn between the two men,
I adored this book, I loved that Maggie was a mature heroine in her late forties, I loved the Paris setting, and Maggie's "American tourist" faux pas made me laugh out loud, I also adored all the romance publishing and bookish references, We get a bit of "book within a book" following Maggie's writing process and getting to know her characters, I had this book on my TBR for a long time, and I am glad I finally read it,
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley This review includes mild spoilers,
I'm sorry to say I didn't find much to like in Maggie Finds Her Muse, Maggie, the titular romance novelist searching for inspiration in the City of Love, isand long divorced, recently split from her selfish boyfriend, and, honestly, pretty annoying.
Her romantic prospects, the dashing French banker Max and her gently nerdy exhusband Alan, provide her with little in the way of chemistry we're supposed to read this as a love triangle, but Alan is never a likely option, and the romance falls flat on all sides.
The big conflict near the end of the book comes from an incredibly silly, shallow misunderstanding, . . and then Maggie, ever the romance novelist, tells us "Oh, this is a Great Misunderstanding," defines that trope, and tells us she would never write something so lazy! And yet here it is!
There's also the matter of Maggie's relationship with her daughter, Nicole, who lives in France, a relationship that was even less appealing to read about than the flat romances with Max or Alan.
We are told early in the book that Nicole always had "social problems" and was diagnosed with Asperger's as a high school junior despite Asperger's syndrome having been removed from the DSM init would be more accurate to say Nicole is on the autism spectrum.
Maggie spends plenty of page time reminding us, and the other characters around her, that while she and Nicole love one another and, indeed, their relationship as it actually plays out in this book seems perfectly fine and affectionate, Maggie just doesn't get her daughter.
You know, because Nicole doesn't care what other people think of her clothes unlike Maggie, doesn't wax poetic over every meal unlike Maggie, and has a strong social conscience and believes in activism unlike Maggie.
Apparently these are all symptoms of how Nicole's mind is "like a strange and distant country" to Maggie, who finds it "exhausting" to have to "reset" her mind to see things from the point of view of Nicole, who, we're told several times by her mother, can't handle social situations.
Mind you, what we actually see from Nicole on the page is, . . a lot of hanging out in social situations and crowds of strangers, partying and having a perfectly good time, Not that that would make the way her mother talks about her okay, because even if she did exhibit more stress in social situations on the page, the focus shouldn't be just on Maggie's "exhaustion" in understanding her daughter, who clearly puts up with a lot from her mom.
And yet Maggie briefly wonders why Nicole seems so much happier in France a continent away from her parents, Truly, it's a mystery. The only real onpage moment in which Nicole's autism is relevant, not just Maggie telling us how she can't figure out her daughter, is when Nicole spills the beans on her mother's lie as part of the aforementioned Great Misunderstanding, because she's not good at reading facial expressions.
Never mind that her mother set up the lie in the first place, or that there isn't much in the scene for her to 'read' the lie has already been revealed the problem here is her elaboration on it, a slip literally anyone might have made without realizing it'd be a problem.
In fact, another character who has just arrived on the scene and should have NO idea what's going on, berates Nicole for not adequately reading the expression.
Which makes far less sense than the goofy web of lies in the first place, Honestly, JusticeNicole.
Ableist rhetoric aside, it's also worth pointing out that there's a touch of casual racism thrown in just for good measure namely, in the bookswithinbooks that Maggie has written and is writing.
At one point, she mentions one of her older books, a historical romance, featuring a Confederate soldier as the romantic hero.
Cool. And her current trilogy, the final book of which is the source of her writer's block that drives the plot, appears to be a militaristic, imperialistic white savior story set in a fictional country that smushes together every third world stereotype, with details like a "Middle Easterninspired" "tribal" cover design.
Cool.
It isn't like a decent story, interesting characters, or appealing romance would make up for ableism or racism, but Maggie Finds Her Muse doesn't even have these, so there's no need to try.
I received an early digital copy from NetGalley and St, Martin's Griffin in exchange for an honest review, As a thirtythree year old woman, I've resigned myself to the fact that I am now older than most of the heroines I read about in novels.
That's why it was so refreshing to read about Maggie, a novelist in her late's, This is anotherromance that surprised me and absolutely blew me away!
Maggie is writing the third novel in her highly popular fantasy romance series reason number two this book was so fun! and is due to hand in her manuscript just
before her second book releases.
This insider look into the writing and publishing worlds was a really fun addition to the book, as was the Parisian setting that Maggie is whisked away to.
You see, Maggie is in a slump and her agent takes her on a trip to Paris for a change of scenery.
And that, my friends, is where Maggie finds her muse, Again, incredibly refreshing to read about a love interest in his mid's and Max was definitely swoonworthy!!
Paris is also where we meet Maggie's daughter, Nicole, and I really loved the Asperger's representation here.
I would have loved to go deeper into Maggie and Nicole's relationship, as it does seem strained at times and I would have liked a bit of backstory as to why.
All in all this was a delightful story and I am grateful to St, Martin's for providing me with an advanced copy to read and review, Maggie Finds Her Muse is out now! Maggie Finds Her Muse by Dee Ernst, Thanks to goodreads and stmartinsgriffin for the gifted Arc
Maggie is a wellknown romance author, but she has writers block and an upcoming major deadline.
She takes a trip to Paris for inspiration to write, She finds inspiration for sure, in a handsome French roommate AND her exhusband who happens to be in the city as well.
Im not sure how to describe this book besides refreshing, I feel like I had a nice relaxing, romantic trip to Paris myself! I absolutely loved that this book featured a woman in her forties finding romance.
I even love more that there were some steamy scenes with adults outside of theirs ands, Yes, we may have some graying hair and a few wrinkles, . . but we love sex too! There were some amazing food descriptions, which we all know I love in books, It was very atmospheric with Paris as the background, Theres also a flatulent French bulldog, for those that love the breed,
“Last night I had been in a fog of lust and absinthe, but here, in the clear and sober light of day, I knew Id been waiting my whole life for the taste of his lips.
”
“I had found my muse in Paris after all, and he had the bluest eyes Id ever seen.
”
Maggie Finds Her Muse comes out/, Trigger warnings: Sex somewhat detailed descriptions, mentions of a teacherstudent relationshipyearold college junior and her professor, divorce, mentions of parental death car accident, mention of cancer, ableist language
Maggie Finds Her Muse focuses on fortyeightyearold author Maggie Bliss as she struggles to write the third and final book in her bestselling trilogy.
When her agent suggests that she travel to Paris with him and his partner she takes him up on the offer in the hopes that she'll be able to finally get started on her book.
While in Paris she not only finds her muse, but she finds it in the handsome Frenchman, Max,
The premise of Maggie Finds Her Muse drew me to the book right away, I absolutely adore Paris well what I know of it as I have never been and since quarantine has the travel bug in me itching even more than usual, I thought that this book would be a great escape.
While I found the book to be easy to read and follow with good descriptive writing, it fell a bit flat to me.
I found myself getting a bit annoyed with Maggie throughout much of the book, While I understand that she's feeling just a little bit lost, especially when it comes to her book, and looking for something to spark her creativity I found her to be a bit childish.
In fact, I felt like she came off as someone in their latesearlys and not a woman in her lates.
I found her to be a bit flaky and aloof, This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, it made me get a little annoyed with her,
I also felt that she made some very questionable choices, While this happened in the past, it made me very uncomfortable that her first husband she met when she was a junior in college and he was her professor.
They in fact began a relationship when she was still in school and were married shortly after she had finished school.
Her ex, Alan, is a very nice man and respectful and clearly still cares about her as she does for him but the origin of their relationship, even though she was, made me uncomfortable.
She also had a lot of communication issues and it bothered me, In fact, she talks about how in her books she doesn't like to use the Big Miscommunication trope, but that's exactly what she does in her own life.
I kind of just wanted to shake her and say "Maggie, if you used your words this wouldn't be an issue"
While yes, you know right away that there's a spark between her and Max, I wasn't very invested in them.
I found myself thinking, "alright, when are they going to get together" but when it happened I didn't feel too strongly about it.
I thought "finally", but not in the 'YES I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS" kind of way, but in the "well we knew that was going to happen it just took forever"
For me, the side characters were the best characters.
In fact, I think my favorite character was Maggie and Alan's daughter Nicole, Nicole lives in France, has good relationships with both of her parents, has a great boyfriend whom she clearly adores, and is portrayed as a confident, intelligent, and kind person.
We find out in the book that she has trouble in some social situations and Maggie tells us that in her junior year of high school they found out that Nicole has Aspergers.
Now, I'm not a parent, but I think that waiting until your child's junior year in high school is a bit neglectful especially if the entire reason why you had them go to a psychologist is because of how much trouble they were having socially.
They were definitely having that trouble before then, so why would you wait that long Really though my issue was that sometimes Maggie would say things about her daughter that would rub me the wrong way.
Part of Nicole's personality is that she just straight up tells it like it is, She's not rude or brash, she simply says what she's thinking and moves on, She doesn't ever intend to upset someone, There's one point where she's teasing her mom because, as Maggie has said herself, she's not great with directions and Maggie says not to her, something along the lines of "I love my daughter but sometimes she can be a real bitch.
" I found that so odd, I can state for a fact that even if I was being a bitch to my mother, she would never say that about me.
That sounded like someone talking about their 'tellitlikeitis' best friend and not their daughter, There was also some ableist language that just bothered me, Sometimes Maggie made it seem like she had to try so hard to make sure that she was looking at things through her daughter's eyes and how difficult that could be for her, but not acknowledging how things could be difficult for Nicole.
Furthermore, I don't think Maggie would've actually owned up to some of her actions if it weren't for Nicole, and when it backfired for Maggie, Nicole felt like she had done something wrong when in fact, she'd gone out of her way to support her mother.
Overall Maggie Finds Her Muse is fine, Really therd star is because the book had an easytofollow writing style and I read it all in one sitting.
.