When in Dublin by Tracy Avery
Synopsis: “Jessie Dunhour has a checklist for her life and a plan for everything. At almost twenty-eight, she’s mostly on track: her dream promotion within reach, a house under contract, and the chance to finally prove that hard work and staying the course pay off. Sure, her relationship timeline hasn’t unfolded the way she expected, but that’s something she’ll figure out once her career is firmly in place.

There’s just one complication. The path to promotion comes with a year-long relocation to Dublin, Ireland. Jessie doesn’t even have a passport, let alone a desire to upend her carefully curated life.

Thrown into a world of brightly coloured Georgian doors, relentless rain, and co-workers who actually take lunch breaks, Jessie struggles to find her footing—until she meets Aidan. Confident, spontaneous and well-travelled, he is everything she isn’t. As her time-abroad ticks away, he pulls her further from her comfort zone and into a life she never imagined—one filled with adventure and a future that doesn’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet.

At the end of her work assignment, Jessie must make the most important choice of her life: return to the path she always planned, or take a chance on the one she never saw coming?”

My Review

I really enjoyed this contemporary debut novel that I found as a ‘read now’ on NetGalley recently. I was initially drawn to it because of the cover, and because it was set in Dublin.

The story is told from Jessie’s point of view, as she gets sent to Dublin by her employer in Florida. It follows her as she navigates work and socialising, which is very different to what she’s used to back in the US.

I liked Jessie, but found her quite frustrating, as she was quite fixed in what she wanted out of life. She had a plan of where she wanted to be workwise and relationship wise by a certain time in her life, which makes me cringe just thinking about it now. I’m totally the opposite, so you can probably understand why I was a little frustrated with her. However, I loved reading about her adjustment to a new country and culture, and how she had to decide if she wanted to plant new roots in Ireland or go back to her old life in Florida.

I really enjoyed watching her character develop throughout the book with all the twists and turns that she navigated, especially whilst she was with Aidan, and having fun with her new work colleagues.

There was a big plot development in the second half of the book that I wasn’t expecting, and I was a bit disappointed, but then it made a lot of sense, because this is not a romance novel, but a book about self discovery.

Highly recommended if you enjoy contemporary novels about reinvention and self discovery.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for my digital copy. ‘When in Dublin’ by Tracy Avery is published on 20 May 2026.