Reviews for Paris is always a good idea

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Chelsea Martin can’t remember the last time she truly was happy. For the last seven years, she has been emotionally sleepwalking through life, devoting all her time and pouring all her energy into her job as a corporate fundraiser for the American Cancer Coalition. Now, after hearing that her widowed father plans on marrying a woman he has known for only two weeks, Chelsea realizes that not only is she unhappy with her own life, she can’t even fake being happy for her father. In a desperate attempt to remember what joy feels like, she takes a sabbatical from her job and heads to Europe to revisit the three places—Ireland, France, and Italy—where she was last truly happy and maybe even in love. Cozy-mystery maven and contemporary romance star McKinlay proves she is also a master at romantic women’s fiction with this dazzling novel that delivers everything McKinlay’s fans expect—deliciously acerbic wit, delightfully relatable characters, and deeply funny dialogue—all deftly poured into a plot that also thoughtfully examines what true happiness really means.


Publishers Weekly
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Love takes a trip over the Atlantic Ocean and finds its way back home again in this vibrant romance from McKinlay (The Good Ones). When Chelsea Martin’s mother died seven years ago, her life changed completely. No longer the free spirit she once was, the now 30-year-old Chelsea is addicted to structure and afraid of new experiences. She hasn’t even been on a date since a series of flings on a trip abroad before her mother’s death. She’s snapped out of her funk by her father’s announcement that he is engaged to a woman he’s only known for two weeks. In an effort to remember that kind of wild, reckless love, Chelsea decides to retake her European trip and revisit the men she dated in Ireland, France, and Italy. But while she’s overseas, Jason Knightley, her work rival, needs her help on the largest project of either of their careers, and she agrees to give him some of her time. She never could have anticipated that their video calls would lead to romance. Chelsea’s European adventure leads to some uproarious mishaps and, though they’re worlds away from each other, readers will have no trouble investing in Chelsea and Jason’s enemies-to-lovers romance. Their witty banter and complimentary personalities make them an easy couple to root for. This flawless rom-com is sure to delight. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July)


Library Journal
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Award-winning Métis author Dimaline makes her debut with an American publisher, Empire of Wild, the edgy story of Joan, heard fighting vituperatively with her now missing husband, who believes she spots him posing as a charismatic preacher in a battered revival tent (75,000-copy first printing). The youngest winner ever of Italy's prestigious Premio Strega, Giordano (The Solitude of Prime Numbers) returns with Heaven and Earth to limn the enduring bonds linking Teresa to three young men she meets one summer in Puglia, her father's childhood home. From debuter Mackenzie, a Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner, One Year of Ugly (60,000-copy first printing) takes a humorous approach to recount the travails of a Venezuelan family living illegally in Trinidad. A best-selling author in mass market, McKinlay moves into trade paperback original with Paris Is Always a Good Idea, the story.` of a young woman who revisits her gap year in Ireland, France, and Italy, looking for lost loves but finding something different. In the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Macomber's A Walk Along the Beach, shy Willa—especially close to sister Harper after their mother's death—is ready to follow Harper's advice about risking love until tragedy befalls Harper. Martin returns after his high-flying debut, Early Work, with the story collection Cool for America about the gap between what people want and what they achieve. Winner of the Terry Southern Prize, Nugent shows us all the stumbling antics of near-adults in Fraternity. In Poeppel's Musical Chairs, Bridget and Will hatch a plan to lure shining-star violinist Gavin Glantz back to their Forsyth Trio, which they founded together as Juilliard students, even as Bridget wrestles with multiple family complications (40,000-copy first printing).

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