Well Met by Jen DeLuca is thoroughly charming. It's quirky. It's original. A delightful debut.

The Renaissance fair backdrop of this story is so much fun. Pirates and wenches. Sword fights and Queen Elizabeth herself...again, just delightful.

Personal preference here but I might have enjoyed this story more if the POV was third person instead of first. I would have liked to have been inside Simon's head sometimes.

The relationship between Emily and Simon is definitely a slow burning one. They dislike each other at first, which is a romance thing I LOVE but I did start to wish the story would move a little faster. Once they finally kiss though I was very much all in.

The nerd-charm of this book is off the charts and I look forward to reading more from Jen DeLuca.

Well Met is scheduled to release September 3rd. Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 plus stars for Well Met! One of the most delightful and endearing books I’ve read in 2019! I never thought I would enjoy a book set at a Renaissance Faire so much but this book was really something special.

Emily has come to help her sister out following a car accident and inadvertently ends up signing up for the Faire so that her teenage niece, Caitlin, can participate. Emily meets Simon at rehearsal, the grouch of a man running the Faire, and in true enemies to lovers fashion, sparks fly.

There is so much more to these characters than what originally meets the eye and these details are so well fleshed our which is what elevates this book beyond most of the contemporary romances/rom coms I’ve read this year and the build up creates excellent tension, with sizzling pay off. Highly recommend Well Met as either a current BOTM choice or a purchase when it releases wider 9/3.

This was a sweet and fun read—I finished it in one sitting. If you’re looking for a light-hearted romance to escape to, with plenty of Shakespeare, then this is the story for you!

It takes place at a fair and the story revolves around two people who don’t like each other at first. But when the festival starts and they are in costume, they see a whole new side of each other that threatens their mutual dislike. The banter and angst was entertaining as was spending time in the festival.

This was the sweetest and most delightful romance! I'm a sucker for a good enemies to lovers story. Add in the fact that this takes place at a Renaissance Faire and I was sold. Just seeing the cover and reading the blurb, I knew I would love this book, and I was 100% right.

Emily isn't much of a small town girl, but when her sister gets in an accident and needs help with her teenage niece, Emily moves to Willow Creek to be there for them. When her niece wants to join the Renn Faire for the summer, Emily is fine with being her ride. What she's not anticipating is having to volunteer herself. But she does it. For her niece. She commits to being a tavern wench for every weekend in the summer. It wouldn't be so bad, except that the guy running the show seems to have it out for her.

Simon's brother used to run Faire, but now it's left to him. Everything has to go perfectly. He's rather particular about the details. As soon as the Faire starts, Simon- the uptight English teacher becomes Captain Blackthorne, the fun loving pirate who Emily- or Emma the tavern wench, loves to banter with. I loved the back and forth these two had. Their sexual tension was off the charts.

As Emily gets to know Simon, she understand why he is the way he is. And she starts to fall for him. Not only Captain Blackthorne, but Simon the person. No one is more surprised about this than her.

As Emily decides what to do with her life, whether she'll stay in Willow Creek once her sister gets better, or move on, Simon factors into that choice. I adored both Simon and Emily. Simon is my favorite kind of character. He was a bit high strung and Type A, but he has his reasons. I loved that Emily got to the root of who he truly was and loved him for it.

Well Met is a fantastic debut novel. I seriously will be reading anything and everything else this author writes. I hope we get some more from this world... maybe a Mitch book? The writing was great, the banter between the two characters- perfect, and the ending was swoony. This charming read was a gem of a book and I highly recommend it to all lovers of romance.

I just could not get into this book. I tried a couple of times for the sake of this review, but have finally admitted defeat. I didn't find the characters at all engaging and couldn't bring myself to be interested in their arc (together or separately).

In Well Met,

Emily had just been through a bad breakup and then when her sister is in a serious car accident. I guess when it rains it pours when it comes to Emily. So she decides to move from Boston to a small town in Maryland to help her recover as well as watch her niece. The niece, Caitlin, wants to volunteer in the town's Renaissance Faire, but the catch is she needs an adult to join the fair. Emily agrees and at the fair she butts heads with Simon, who runs the fair and teaches English at the local high school.

Emily struggles with fitting in in a place where everyone else has a long history together and gossip spreads. Emily's prior relationship was really bad, and she's still working through some of her insecurities. It was kind of stressful. I overall though the book was sweet but I couldn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted too. I felt like there was something off with them, or I just felt like they didn't click well together.

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS 

I received an ARC from Berkley Romance in exchange for a honest review. 

Guys, this book was so stinkin cute and adorable. It was so close to being a 5/5 stars if it had an extra UMPH towards the end but regardless, this enemies to lovers romance will get you pump and excited. 

This book featured Emily, who is running away from her problems. Her boyfriend who recently became a lawyer, dumped her after he got himself a well paying job and decided a college dropout wouldn't make him look too good in front of the partners. Feeling betrayed as she dropped out of college to support and pay for his schooling, she returns to her sister's small town to lick her wounds and take her mind off things by taking care of her after she and her daughter survived a car crash. Emily then gets roped into volunteering for the town's annual fair where she dresses up as a wrench and has to deal with the head organizer, Simon. 

Clearly, Emily has some issues. She's self-conscious of her background and lack of education but Simon has bigger ones. Simon has to deal with the aftermath of grief over a loved one. He's clearly working himself down to the bone to make sure his family's legacy is being carried on in the same matter year over year. It might be a bit crazy but he's going to do it even if it kills him. It doesn't help that Emily comes, distracts him, and starts challenging him for every move he does. OKAY. 

So they hate each other.

But I loved watching them fight their attraction in the most over-the-top and intense ways! I loved how dramatic everything was and when Emily got to know Simon a lot better and realize all his pained stares he threw at her, it wasn't done on purpose. Anyways, they were adorable and I loved seeing them together.

The only reason why I took a star off was because these two people clearly had issues and really needed professional help. Don't even try to DENY it people. Love can't solve everything and I felt it was cheap to have these two people fall in love and suddenly get over them. 

MY RECOMMENDATION 

So cute. Definitely read this one.

Well Met by Jen DeLuca

When Emily heads to rural Maryland to help her sister recover from an accident, it’s only supposed to be a temporary. She’ll help her sister and figure out her own life. What she doesn’t expect is getting roped into participating in her niece Caitlin’s summer Renaissance Faire as a volunteer.

Simon, the English teacher in charge of the production, is mostly cranky and unpleasant until they get to the faire site and he becomes clever, witty and flirtatious.

Emily and Simon need to overcome the challenges of both their pasts to see if love can help all end well.
This Shakespeare themed summer romance is light and fun. Emily was a sympathetic and likable character but Simon was quite abrasive. The story took so long to unfold that Simon was quite a mystery and that made it hard to cheer for a romance between the H/h. The pacing was a bit slow and the hot and cold attraction between the characters made the story feel even longer.

Well Met was a cute idea with some fun elements but some character and pacing issues made for a so-so read. Shakespeare enthusiasts will enjoy the Bard banter and in jokes. 3 stars.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super sweet small town romance set at a Renaissance faire. I really enjoyed it and will be recommending widely.

Reviewed for Shelf Awareness for Readers:

First impressions lead to weeks of tension in Well Met, a debut slow-burn romance from Jen DeLuca. English teacher, Renaissance faire organizer and part-time pirate Simon has devoted his life to maintaining his late brother’s legacy. When Emily arrives in town, adrift after a bad breakup and staying for the summer to help her sister recover from a car accident, Simon thinks her jokes mean she isn’t taking the Faire seriously. Scowls and snappish comments abound, with two good-hearted adults assuming the worst of each other.
As the Faire itself progresses, Emily becomes Emma, a flirty tavern wench, and Simon takes the role of swoony pirate Blackthorne. Through the pretense, their stage-flirting becomes something more real and more confusing. But despite the misunderstandings, these two characters are doing their best, trying to balance familial duty with personal goals. The resolution to all this mess is a happy ending for each of them as individuals and as a couple, satisfying in its completeness without relying on clichés.
Well Met will especially appeal to readers who like bookstores, Renaissance faire shenanigans and nerdy English teachers wearing vests. DeLuca will have readers laughing all the way to the turkey leg vendor.--Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

Discover: For fans of enemies-to-lovers romance, Shakespeare-spouting pirates and Renaissance faires, Well Met is a charming debut.

Lots of fun! Emily is helping her older sister who got into a car accident and finds herself immersed in a Maryland Renaissance Faire. She encounters Simon, an old hand at the Faire who gets on her nerves for some reason. This is a great rom com with a great setting and endearing characters.

In Well Met, Emily has just gone through a bad breakup; when her sister is in a serious car accident she picks up and moves from Boston to a small town in Maryland to help her recover as well as watch her niece. The niece, Caitlin, wants to volunteer in the town's Renaissance Faire, but the catch is she needs an adult to join the fair as a chaperone. Emily reluctantly agrees and becomes a tavern wench. At the fair she butts heads with Simon, who runs the fair and teaches English at the local high school. I really liked the Renaissance Faire setting - it was really fun! I also liked the small town's inhabitants - they, too, were fun; I especially liked buff gym teacher Mitch and Emily's bubbly friend Stacey. I thought they were super welcoming, but Emily struggles with fitting in in a place where everyone else has a long history together and gossip spreads rapidly. Emily's prior relationship was really bad, and she's still working through insecurity; she does a LOT of emotional labor for other people in this book. It was kind of stressful. And I really wasn't sure why she was into Simon. This is an enemies-to-lovers book, so they don't get along at all at first, but I couldn't figure out why Emily started to like Simon. He's just pretty mean to her until suddenly he's not. Ultimately I didn't think he was a bad guy, but I just didn't think their relationship was well developed enough for me to be convinced. There were also a lot of public speeches that were (for me) a little cringeworthy. Overall this one was fun and I enjoyed the various characters as well as Emily's arc about finding her place in the community, but I didn't buy the romance.

Emily is trying her hardest. After a breakup that left her homeless, she goes home to tend to her sister and niece who were in a car accident. While there she decides to volunteer for the Renaissance Faire so that her underage niece can be part of it. Then she meets the man in charge, Simon, who doesn't leave a great impression but then she starts learning more about him.
I couldn't warm up to Simon. He was too hot and cold. Considering that Emily was still dealing with emotional fallout from her last relationship, she didn't need his uncertain ways. I've never cheered so much for a third act break up before.

This was cute as hell! Our protagonist, Emily, is staying with her sister after both their lives get upended and she gets roped into volunteering at the local renaissance faire with her niece. Cue an enemies to lovers situation with the uptight faire director, a theater-kid-esque sense of camaraderie among Emily and her new faire friends, plus a good sprinkling of Shakespeare jokes and you’ve got a rom com formula to keep me up past my bedtime. I thought Simon and Emily had excellent chemistry and the way the author handles the heavier personal issues they each have going on is respectful and character-revealing without weighing down the overall lighthearted tone of the story.

When Emily moves to small town American to help take care of her sister and niece, she's up for a change. What she didn't expect was to get recruited to volunteer for the annual summer Renaissance Faire or to work in the local bookstore. This is a fun summer read for fans of books, medieval festivals, or Shakespeare (although do note that Shakespeare is not permitted at the actual faire...it's a thing.) A cute romance but also a thoughtful look at family obligations and responsibilities for finding our own happiness.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free ARC of this novel. Regardless of the way I acquired the novel, the thoughts, opinions, and views stated in this review are completely unbiased and one hundred percent my own.

I am a sucker for anything historical, so the fact that a majority of this story takes place during a Renaissance Faire had me hook, line, and sinker.

I really liked how much this novel focused on the challenges of starting over, and creating a space for yourself in a new place. Our main character, Emily, deals with a pretty nasty, possibly traumatic, breakup that leads her back to her sister and niece, who live in a very small town. After being persuaded into joining the Renaissance Faire, our MC finally begins to integrate herself into a community she can call her own. The insecurities she’s left with after the break up rear their head periodically throughout the novel, making Emily’s journey way harder than it ever needed to be. But I’m sure we’ve all been there at one time or another.

I loved so much about the setting and the characters of this book. When we weren’t interacting with wenches, pirates, or men in kilts at the Faire, we were setting up a bookshop and taking book orders from the local English teacher. I swear, all of these things are so on brand for me I could have written this novel myself (but I’m very thankful to Jen for writing it for me to devour instead!). I thought the romance was paced incredibly well, and the chemistry was off the charts!

I did find myself getting frustrated with how naive and damaged Emily was, which I admit isn’t fair at all. Things seemed very obvious to me the reader, but those same things would take Emily hearing the explanation from another character before she could catch up to what was actually going on. I’m not sure if that was an intentional character trait or not, but it felt like Emily was really emotionally underdeveloped for her age. Her trust and abandonment issues, while initially annoying, were spot on for the trauma Emily had experienced from her ex leaving her. While I found that quality annoying, I had to concede that it was an accurate representation of someone trying to form new relationships post trauma.

Overall, this was an incredibly fun book. I laughed out loud reading this more than I have reading anything in a very long time. It was so adorable, and left me incredibly nostalgic for the Renaissance Faire I missed out on last year in my own home town. I’ll definitely be going this year, and who knows. Maybe I’ll find my own pirate this time.

What a gem! I'm not sure what I expected when I opted to pick up this book from NetGalley, but it exceeded my expectations!

After her sister and niece are involved in a serious car accident that leaves her sister unable to walk, Emily moves in to be of help. When her niece desperately wants to take part in the town's annual Renaissance Faire, Emily is drafted right along with her. She is immediately swept up into the Faire mania that grips the town and she befriends several other cast members including kilt-wearing Mitch. There is one person she can't stand, and that's Faire organizer Simon, whose persnickety attitude rubs her the wrong way from day one.

This book had everything: an adorable romance, a sisterly bond, a small town bookstore, and most of all - a Renaissance Faire which sounded so amazing that I am going to have to check out my local Faire this year.

I tend to not purchase a lot of books - I mostly utilize my local library - given the number of books I read, but I will be purchasing this one. Especially since I haven't been able to put it down.

Emily has moved to Willow Creek, Maryland, to take care of her sister and niece who were in a major car accident. She could do this because her life took a bad turn when the fiance she quit college for to put him through law school has decided that an up-and-coming lawyer doesn't need to be hooked up with a college dropout. Emily is feeling both betrayed and adrift since all of her plans for the future were derailed.

Emily is between the ages of her fourteen-year-old niece and her thirty-eight year old sister at just coming up on twenty-five. She really doesn't know her sister very well because of the large age difference but she is eager to help. That's her personality. She sees a problem and wants to fix it.

When her niece wants to be part of the summer Renaissance Faire in her town, she needs an adult to volunteer with her. Emily volunteers and finds herself filling the role of a wench at the only tavern in the faire. Besides her niece's need, Emily is intrigued by Mitch who is well-muscled and spends the faire in a kilt. She is less than intrigued with Simon who is one of the organizers of the faire. She finds him rigid and humorless.

It takes the whole summer and quite a few misunderstandings before she finds the right guy and the right future for herself. I loved the banter between the characters. I loved the Renaissance Faire setting. The romance was slow-building but heated up nicely.

"I didn't choose the wench life. The wench life chose me."

Emily Parker's life got up-ended at probably the best/worst possible time. Leaving behind heartbreak and dead-ends in the city, Emily moved to Willow Creek, Maryland, to take care of her sister and niece after a horrific car accident. When Caitlin wants to participate in the town's annual fundraiser, a Renaissance Faire, Emily thinks she'll just be continuing her role as chauffeur to her niece. Nope, she's now a part of the Faire Life, too. The promise of a hot guy in a kilt every weekend may have had something to do with that...

The only real downside is that Emily has to deal with Simon, the Faire's organizer and high school English teacher. He micromanages, grits his teeth at the thought of change, and butts heads with Emily. But the more she becomes involved in the Faire, the more she gets to know him and why the Faire is so important to him. Even then, it still comes as a shock when the first day of Faire arrives and instead of serious Simon, she meets Captain Blackthorne, who flirts and teases and is incredibly charming. And don't get her started on the leather pants. (One word: "Huzzah!")

Soon, Emily's summer is going in a completely different direction than she thought it would be. But what about her heart?

"Well Met" is a fantastic first novel from Jen DeLuca, and definitely not the "summer romance" book that comes to mind but definitely one to enjoy whether you like to spend your summers at the beach, at a Ren Faire, on the couch, or anywhere in the world. If you enjoy nerdy discussions about Shakespeare (even when they teeter on the border of conspiracy theory talk), thoughts of men in kilts and leather pants (and the men wearing these items dueling each other in physical combat), snark, and feel good stories, "Well Met" is for you! I'm eager to see what DeLuca will write next, and perhaps hopefully see a return to Willow Creek to see more of the fantastic cast of characters.

Well Met is a surprisingly emotional romance set in the world of a small-town renaissance fair. I was completely blindsided by how attached I became to the characters.