If you enjoyed Well Met, you will love this one as well! We are back in the world of the Ren Faire, and the same characters plus a few more! This time, we are watching Stacey fall in love. ❤️

I figured out what the twist to this one was going to be probably around chapter three. It was pretty obvious, but I kind of liked it that way! Waiting for the moment Stacey figured it out and guessing how she would react was fun. Kind of like when I read Bachelor spoilers!

I felt like the only thing I was missing here was more witty banter between all of the characters. I love those laugh out loud moments, and I really didn’t get that much.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the setting again, and the lovable characters. It was a light read, which is what I’m enjoying right now before we head into October books! Looking forward to more adventures with this crew!

Thank you to @NetGalley and @berkleypub for the advanced copy!

With everything going on in 2020, I find myself picking up more and more romance books. I have always been a sucker for a good love story- I love love. These stories aren't all rainbows and unicorns, but they generally leave me with an overwhelming sense of hope, which I can definitely use this year. Ever since reading Well Met by @jendelucawrites, I have been anxiously awaiting the next book in this series. In Well Played, we follow Stacey- fellow Faire wench who has stayed in Willow Creek to take care of her sick mom. Although she enjoys spending her summers working at the Faire, she feels like her life is at a standstill. Enter the MacLean boys- Stacey has a major crush on one of them, and the other has a major crush on her. Ruh-roh. What could possibly go wrong?! I thought this was the perfect follow up to Well Met. We even get to see what Emily and Simon are up to these days. It was cute and entertaining and funny. I don't want to givd too much away, but I am already anxious for the next book. I appreciate when an author can make me go from liking a character to wishing he'd get lost, and I love when I find myself rooting for the main characters. I think these two books would be a really fun romantic comedy film. Well Played is out on Tuesday, September 22. Thank you @berkleyromance @berkleypub @jendelucawrites @netgalley for this digital ARC.

*happy sigh* Falling in love through letter writing is a very old trope that is vastly underused in modern day storytelling. Yes, it’s been updated to stay current with emails and text messages instead of snail mail - but this trope has always been one of my absolute favourites, so I’m over the moon.

It’s really nice how DeLuca was able to tell two unique and individual stories with the same setting and cast of characters (but with different POVs). I loved them both so much, and I can’t wait for book 3!

This was charming, sweet, and just the right amount of silly. It’s also pretty perfect for its release timeframe- majority of the book takes place in summer and fall, and it definitely assisted with the excitement that comes with the transition. Stacey is a really cool character with a big heart and our main man (I won’t say his name as it’s TECHNICALLY a spoiler) is adorable and kind. If you loved Well Met, this is worth the read. If you love contemporary/new adult romance, this is worth the read. Anyways, my point is add it to your Goodreads shelves. 😉

Cute contemporary romance. Second in the "Well Met" series. I had no problems reading it on its own but because a lot of the plot includes planning the wedding of the characters from the first book it helps to read in order. Stacey loves her summer weeks where she spends her time helping with the local Renaissance Faire. To help her parents she put her life on hold for a few years and never got out of her small town life. She has a job and friends but needs a change. She has hooked up the last few summers with hot band leader Dex when he has performed at the Faire. She decides to email him and starts almost a year of sharing thoughts and emotions with him. But when the Dueling Kilts return for this summers Faire she finds she wasn't emailing who she thought she was. (In the cover description.)

It is a decent plot set up but I was a turned off by the hook-up (not descriptive) and the cat-fishing. I thought Stacey got over that too quickly. He should have been made to work for the relationship more. I liked her friends and her relationship with her mom too. Funnily, I was bothered by the fact that her "happy ever after" was essentially my worst nightmare. I have a 20-something who never misses a comic-con so I understand that people enjoy cos-play. I didn't mark the book down because Renaissance Faires aren't appealing to me. The novel acutally made me appreciate the work and enjoyment that can come from participating in them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an ARC ebook in exchange for a honest review.

I'm glad I read Well Met first. Although Well Played can certainly stand on its own, I loved having the background on the peripheral characters and getting a continuation of the original story. If you can, I recommend reading the two books in order to enhance your experience.

Stacy is stuck. She's basically living back at home with her parents at 27, working a job she doesn't want to do, in her small hometown. Her wheels are stuck in the mud and they are spinning! The highlight of her year is the annual Renaissance Festival, where she can take on another persona and step outside of her sad reality for just a little bit of time each week. When it's over for the summer though, she loses a little bit of her usual pep and sparkle. But it was at the Festival that she meets Dex, one of the traveling kilted performers, and they spark up a bit of a fling. When the Festival wraps up and our kilted friends depart for the next town, a wine fueled evening leads Stacy down the route of an ill-advised Facebook message and romance ensues....

I'll be honest, I struggled a little bit with Stacy. I wish she would've just come out and said the big bad 'D' word. Depressed! I wanted so badly for her to be more open with her friends and family about how much she was struggling and to get some dang professional help already! Overall, I liked to see Stacy's growth and it was fun to get another viewpoint into small town Maryland that we got to know in Well Met and I'm certainly eager to see where the third book takes us!

*Spoilers Below*

The romance arc was cute but the catfishing? Wildly questionable and also felt really predictable to me. I felt like I had guessed the plot line 1/4 of the way through the book. I also felt disappointed that it was a man that got Stacy out of her rut and outta town. I wish she could've done it on her own or with the help of her trusty best friends but it felt a little too romcom for me when I really wanted girl power and self actualization!

Well Played, the second book in Jen DeLuca's "Well Met" romance series takes place in the same small town in Maryland that hosts a small, but successful renaissance festival. The book takes place one year after the main events of the first novel, but instead of seeing just one Faire season as we did in the first, the story is actually bookended by two seasons!

{See the rest of my review on booktube: https://youtu.be/o6dji9C1X7k]

Romantic comedy GOLD, I tell thee! 💛
This book is the follow up to Well Met (which is amazing, go read it!) and it was such a fun and flirty sequel. Emily and Simon return, but this story is told from a new perspective -Emily’s friend, Stacey.

The thing about this book is that it’s so relatable. Not everyone works in a Renaissance Faire environment, obviously. But everyone, at least at some point in their lives, has fears of not achieving their highest potential. Some people feel lost and feel trapped by their responsibilities. It’s just part of being human, even if so many of us hide this part of ourselves away.

Essentially, this story actually revolves around hidden selves. Stacey (who only feels truly happy when she’s playing a character in the Faire) begins emailing a past hookup...but who is he really? The characters in this book are vulnerable and I really appreciated that aspect of the story. I enjoyed the front row view into their feelings.

This book was sweet with just the perfect amount of steam. Fans of the first book, Well Met, and stories like Beach Read or the Bromance Bookclub series will love this. - Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for providing me this eARC in exchange for a review. Preorder it so you can receive your copy when it hits shelves September 22nd!

4.75 Stars

ARC provided by Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

As much as I loved Well Met, I figured I would like this follow up too, I just didn't know how much. Let me say, this book was EVERYTHING I needed right know.

The first thing you need to know about me is that I LOVE the Renaissance Festival. We have a fairly local one, it's one of the huge ones with year long structures and more acts and shows than you can see in a single visit. I've been at least once every year since I was 16 (that's more than half of my life), and if I could find a way to get weekends off of work for two months every year, I'd work there too. It is my favorite place, my happy place. And this year? Much like everything else, it's been cancelled.

This book brought that shot of Renaissance festival love that I needed. It put me in my happy place and brought back all of the feelings I normally get to experience this time of year but I'm not getting. I loved it so, so much.

So yes, this book works for those of us who love the Ren faire but what about the rest of you? Don't worry, it's good something for you too.

Stacy is this ridiculously relatable character, for those of us who are past 25 and still single, or just those who feel like they never reached their full potential. Or maybe you're just not happy with where you've been planted. Following Stacy's character arc throughout this book brought so much insight into my own life. Some parts of this book felt like Jen wrote them just for me, as an "I see you, and it's going to be okay". And I think there are many people out there who will get that.

There are plenty of cute boys and smexy times to go around, don't you worry. Just like Well Met this book gets a bit steamy in the middle and it's exactly what the book needs. Wow. That love interest sure knew how to overcome a squeaky bed. Talk about being hot and bothered.

If you did read Well Met (and honestly, you should because it's fabulous but you'll make it through this okay without prior knowledge) there are some of our favorites who return to the page. Our favorite pirate and his fun-loving tavern wench, obviously, but also Emily's sister April, her niece Caitlin and the kilt-loving Mitch all make a return. And oh yeah, book three? Book three is 100% April and Mitch's book and I'm so dang excited about it I could scream.

But there's one thing we need to talk about. One negative(ish) thing. It's the catfishing. We're told in the synopsis that Stacy thinks she's messaging her summer hook up, but it turns out to be someone else, and the guy doesn't correct her. I did like the way it was handled originally but there's a plot twist that made me not feel so great about it again. I want to completely overlook it because of how much I loved this book, but I can't be someone who firmly believes that communication and honesty are key components of any relationship, and let this one slide. Fictional as the relationship may be, it's not okay to let someone think you're someone else, especially when they're being that open and deep with you.

All of that said, I did really enjoy the book. I think it ended perfectly and there was just so much for me to enjoy about the adventure. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoyed the first book, likes Renaissance Festivals, books with great smexy times, cute love stories, and heroines who speak to the loneliness inside all of us single gals over age 25.

Cover 4; Characters 5; Plot 3; Pace 5; Writing 5; Enjoyment 5.

Stacey has spent the last two years of the Renaissance Fair playing a buxom barmaid by day and hooking up with hot guy and musician Dex by night. When the month long fair ended her two good friends got engaged and Stacey felt dissatisfied with how she was living her life. So, one night after too many drinks she reaches out to Dex on his fan site and opens up about her feelings. Surprisingly he emails back and they spend the next 10 months becoming best friends and falling in love. There was a lot more to her hot hook-up than she thought! Or was there? She’s been played!

I couldn’t help but compare Well Played to Well Met, the first novel in this series. I may be doing this book a disservice because I LOVED Well Met. The setting surprised me and I loved the banter between Emily and Simon. There was a lot to like about Well Played but it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Here’s what I liked. Stacey was a plus-sized heroine, which let’s face it, most of us are and so we can easily identify with her body self image insecurities. I loved that we still had that Renaissance Fair setting. I actually do wish that more of it had been set at the fair though. I did also like the friendships in this novel. They were all there for each other and had each others backs. If you have a great pack of friends you can survive most everything!

Here’s what weighed against my rating. (I can’t say dislike!) It took too long to get to our hero and heroine being together. There was a LOT of email exchanges and texts and I just didn’t feel all of the emotions I was supposed to feel. I liked our hero, but I didn’t love him. There was one scene that just really bothered me! I can’t get into who he is or what that scene was, so this is kind of lame to even mention but that scene set him up as being weak. I just couldn’t look at him the same after it. Now that I’m putting it on paper, that was really the main issue for me.

So, I liked Well Played, but I was disappointed at the same time. Maybe this is a case of building the book up too much in my head before actually reading it. I don’t know, but my rating reflects my feelings. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest.

3.5 Stars.

I absolutely loved Stacey. In a weird way, I identified with her character more than I have any other in a long while. She just made sense to me. How she was “stuck” but not in any malicious way, should strike a chord with a lot of people.

And her insecurities and confidences were well balanced. I loved that the author didn’t harp on one thing or another to the point of annoyance. Stacey was very real and for that alone I’m glad to have read Well Played.

The first half of the book is pretty much what you’d expect, given the synopsis and storyline. So it was really the second half that intrigued me the most. Once we get back into the renaissance fair, we get more color and flair, as well as more connection with our leads.

While I enjoyed the mellow way our two leads fell in love, it was also a touch toooooo sluggish. In one way it was nice to have a falling in love story take center stage over a lust driven storyline. But there was also a spark missing. I wanted more drive and oomph.

Our male lead was okay. There were a lot of details that I liked about him but he was too passive for me to really get behind his character and cheer him on. While this left more room for Stacey to shine, I felt that the relationship build was lopsided.

I liked the ending though! I don’t want to spoil anything but it was nice to have something a little different than the typical... but I won’t explain any further.

Also, if you’re a big fan of book one (not necessary to read first, these act as standalones) you’ll get a decent helping of Simon and Emily mixed into Well Played.

Overall, this was a sweet love story that was delightful, if not particularly punchy.

I read Well Met when it was released and I liked it but didn’t love it. I do LOVE the Ren Faire setting in this series. Plus they take place in Maryland, where I live and I love to see how it is depicted. I was intrigued by the secondary characters from Well Met so I was excited to see that Stacey was getting her story told in Well Played (out 9/22). I mistakenly thought Stacey was going to be paired with Mitch, so shame on me for jumping to conclusions. Once I refreshed myself on the blurb/pairing I was all set for Ren Faire take on You’ve Got Mail (how a friend described it to me).

This book just fell so flat for me. The main setup is that Stacey is feeling a little lonely and feeling lost after her BFFs get engaged. Stacey gets drunk and messages Dex, her FWB from the Ren Faire. This is where the story started to fall apart for me. I never fully understood why Stacey was interested in Dex to become more than an occasional hookup. She didn’t say there was anything remarkable about their time together. I certainly understand that feeling lonely causes a person to do silly things and see things that might not be there and I am a forgiving reader so I just powered on.

Cover of Well Played by Jen DeLuca
Stacey and “Dex” quickly build a relationship via email letters and then texts. I am here for all the contemporary epistolary romances. Please give me more. Back to this story. They exchange emails and get medium levels of deep but I never felt a strong connection. The epistolary doesn’t last terribly long and then Stacey finds out she’s been duped. She spends like 4 minutes being upset and then immediately forgives Not-Dex. LIKE WHAT? She wants to try having a relationship with him? Why, Stacey, tell me why??? Because you’re lonely?

I highlighted this quote with a note to myself that said “but why?”

Until this moment I hadn’t been sure how I’d wanted this conversation to go. Somewhere, down in the deepest part of my primitive lizard brain, I’d known that it hadn’t been Dex that I’d been getting to know all these months, and even more importantly, I hadn’t wanted it to be. I wanted it to be XXX.

I never understood it. To me, I never felt their connection and the WHY behind their match. At this point I was so uninvested in the story and really didn’t care. It was a pretty quick read so I kept reading, and I am a sucker apparently. Anyway the male Love Interest does another “bad thing” and once again Stacey let him off SO EASY. Stacey, girl, we need to talk about this. I am all for forgiveness and moving on, especially with ones we love but friend, he lied to you. Multiple times. Be angry about that for longer than 5 minutes. Think about how to prevent this from happening again. At this point in the book, I was mad at Stacey, mad at her love interest, mad at the whole book.

I kept thinking about the movie You’ve Got Mail and what worked for me about that story and how I was willing to move on from Tom Hanks’s character lying is that you got to watch their relationship develop in two ways. Via the online chatting and in person. Even though Meg Ryan doesn’t know it’s him, you see their chemistry and how it develops and you get to see how they start to lean on each other via their letters as well. I didn’t feel that connection here. I felt zero connection, no investment in their love story and I was mad that Stacey was so forgiving, multiple times. I do think that part of my being upset was because the characters didn’t behave in the way that I wanted. But also, I wanted more from the match between Stacey and her LI. I was bummed that this didn’t work for me.

I wasn't sure how much I loved Stacey in Well Met. Dont misunderstand me, I liked her, I just wasn't craving a book about her. Throw in a catfish plot, and I was doubly unsure. But I was happy to be proven wrong. I adored this story. I loved that Stacey wasn't always the harda** she came across as in the previous story. The "secret" might have gone on a little longer than I liked, but in the end, I really enjoyed reading this one.

Overall, there is a plot point that I'm not a fan of that lasted longer than necessary, but I still love this world.

I was sad when I didn’t fall in love with Well Met when I read it. So many people were head over heels for it and it didn’t 100% work for me which happens. I get bad, but it happens. And even though it wasn’t a favorite it left me interested enough to want to see what happened in book two. Well I can happily report that Well Played ended up being beyond my expectations and a book I really loved when all is said and done.

Well Played is is the perfect companion book to Well Met. It follows Stacey, Emily’s best friend and co bar wench at the Renaissance Faire that their town Willow Creek holds for a month every year. Stacey has always loved the Ren Faire but for the first time in a while she feels restless. After a night of drinking with some friends Stacey does something crazy and messages Dex, the guy she hooks up with when the faire is in town. Pretty soon the two of them are exchanging emails and texts and secrets. But their exchange isn’t everything it seems. Stacey starts to notice that she may not actually be talking to Dex, but someone else. Now the question is why have they been pretending to be Dex and does it really matter when she thinks she may have fallen for this other guy?

What I loved about Well Played was Stacey. She was a really, really like able character. She was in a rut and didn’t know what to do. She wanted things to change and didn’t know how to do it. Instead she did what a lot of people do and made a drunk decision that changed her life. Was it what she thought it would be? No…it was better. She met her perfect match and I loved him so so much. He made some stupid decisions but he also made some really good ones like tell Stacey she could do more with her life. She could do anything she wanted. Watching their relationship bloom and blossom was such a fun part of the book and it left me wanting more and more pages.

I know this review is vague but I don’t want to give anything away. Just know you will swoon and you may even shed a tear or two (I know I did). Even if you didn’t love Well Met pick up Well Played because you will definitely like this. It had heart and romance and left me smiling and eagerly waiting for the 3rd book in the series. Get this on the TBR right now!

I have to admit that I'm not really sure how to review a romance novel. I don't read a lot of romance novels, and when I do I mostly just read them for the fun. So instead of CAWPILE-ing this one, I'm just going to write a general review.

First of all, it took me a while to get into this book. I was somewhat bored up until the 30% mark, but then it really picked up. I was unsure about the whole renaissance fair premise. It's not like they're a big thing in SA and I've never been to one, so I have no idea what they're all about. However, I ended up loving it! And now I want to actually go to one!

The romance was also really cute. It was kind of a You've Got Mail situation, and I enjoyed the texting and emails exchanged between the two characters. The characters were really cute, and I have a thing for guys named Daniel. Seriously, the Fallen series by Lauren Kate really made me wish I had a Daniel in my life.

Emily and Simon were also super cute, and I want to read their book. I also have a feeling April and Mitch will be the stars of the next book and I am all for it.

Well Played was also just the right amount of steamy, and I definitely want to read the rest of the books in this series.

4.5 Stars

This was so good! I didn't know what to expect going into it with the whole catfish plot line but I actually really enjoyed it! In this book we follow Stacey, Emily's Faire friend from Well Met, and she is facing some intense loneliness. She just found out that Simon and Emily are engaged and she feels like her life is going to waste. She's had a fling with the gorgeous Dex MacLean the past two summers but that hasn't really gone anywhere. So on one drunken filled and lonely night she sends him a facebook message not expecting him to respond. But to her surprise he does and he seems to be more into her then she thought. Months tick by and she's slowly falling for this new Dex behind the screen. But things come to a screeching halt when she finds out the person behind the screen isn't Dex at all.

I've never read a catfish plot line before so this was new territory for me. Surprisingly I didn't mind it, probably because I knew what I was getting into when I picked up the book. My only complaint is that I think Stacey might have gotten over it a little too easily. I would have made said person work for forgiveness a little harder but thats just me. But I understand Stacey as a character. She is very lonely and feels like her life has gotten away from her. She is stuck in a small town she never intended to remain in forever but she doesn't know how to get out. She looks for validation in places like social's media and always plasters a false smile on her face because people expect her to always be happy. She can never be herself. So when this guy comes along who knows her so deeply and intimately...I would probably want to keep him in my life too.

I won't spoil who it is but I really loved the love interest. I think he was the sweetest man I've ever read about. If you forget the whole catfishing thing he was perfect.

I didn't love this as much as I loved Well Met but I still really enjoyed this book! I could connect with Stacey in different ways than I connected with Emily. One critique I would give this book is that it had a lot less of the Ren Faire than Well Met did but that was understandable because of the plot. The plot of the first book revolved around Emily joining the Faire but this book revolves around Stacey's life. I think Well Played is a solid sequel but boy am I DYING for the next book because April and Mitch are probably my favorite characters in the series.

Definitely a great read. I highly recommend you check out the series if you haven't read it yet and if you have READ THIS BOOK!

Stacey has always wanted to get out of Willow Creek, but her mom's heart attack forced her to choose to stay years ago. Now she lives for the adventure of the Renaissance Festival every summer. One night after it's finished, her restlessness and a glass of wine get the better of her and she sends a message to her Renaissance fling. His email back, thoughtful and moving, surprises her and leads to a months-long romance via email and text. But there's more to the story than what's in the back and forth messages, and eventually Stacey realizes her beau isn't the man she thinks he is.

It's easy to guess who Stacey's mystery man is, but the unfolding of the romance while waiting builds up a nice level of suspense as we get to know Stacey's secret unhappiness. She puts a good face on it for everyone (or at least she thinks she does), but she isn't happy with her job, her home, and the patterns into which her life has fallen. When she eventually meets her correspondent Daniel, she finally gets to embark on the romantic adventure she deserves. It's so sweet and heartwarming, and Stacey and Daniel make an adorable couple. Super sweet and I'm looking forward to the third in the series!

If you’re looking for something quick and cute, Well Played might be the book for you.

Well Played is the sequel to Well Met, following Stacey, who decides after a night of too much wine to message her no-strings attached summer fling who has left for the year. While he’s traveling, they grow closer through emails and texts. But, when he, and the annual Ren Faire, comes back the next summer, she realizes the man she was messaging (and falling for) is not who she thought.

This series really makes me want to go to a Ren Faire. I love how Jen DeLuca describes it. It adds such a fun and magical layer to this cute read. However, the faire itself definitely plays less of a role in this book than it does in the first. Around half the book takes place before the faire, in normal small-town life.

I think the lack of faire in this book might be one of the reasons I didn't love it quite as much as Well Met. The faire almost feels like a character in this series, and I really missed it.

This book takes place over the course of a year, following the relationship between Stacey and the guy she was messaging. Their relationship was adorable, but it is based on lies and catfishing, so if that’s something that bothers you in a romance, be warned.

If you can look past that (which I was able to fairly easily), the pacing of Well Played is fast and the story is easy to jump into. I was hooked from the start and never wanted to put it down!

I really enjoyed Stacey’s growth over the course of this book. Just like Well Met, there was a lot of depth in the main character, and their growth felt just as important (sometimes more) than the romance plot. But that doesn’t mean the romance plot wasn’t there, because it was, and it was adorable.

The love interest was really sweet, and while I do feel like Stacey moved past some of the bad things he did a little too quickly, I still loved him.

I also love the side characters in this series. Especially Mitch. I can’t tell you how excited I am for his and April’s book!

My one main complaint with the characters in this book is the lack of diversity. There weren’t any POC that I can remember, and any LGBTQ+ characters were only included for a second. Hopefully the third book, Well Matched, will be more diverse.

Well Played is a lighthearted read with good depth. It isn't perfect, but I’m glad I read it, and I'm really looking forward to the third book!

The romance and chemistry wasn't nearly as passionate as Well Met, but I enjoyed Stacey's story and growth. She was an engaging and interesting character, though I wish Daniel was a little more developed. The writing was good and even when the romance wasn't front and center, I was drawn into Stacey's overall story.