As someone who loved Well Met I had high hopes for Deluca's follow up. Sadly for me, it did not deliver. I wasn't the biggest fan of Stacey, she comes off 2 dimensional and a little shallow. Her relationship with the Hero begins through email and it just never feels like there is much of a spark between them and even their emails are a little awkward and stilted. I would have liked to get to know Daniel better but it feels like we don't even see much of him. There are a couple of cute lines and he seems nice enough, but is nice enough how we want our Hero's?

I will say Jen's writing is easy enough to read and because of how much I liked Well Met I still plan on reading book 3.

Well Played by Jen DeLuca is a really cute contemporary romance. I thought the first book in this series, Well Met was very sweet as well. I love the idea of a romance taking place at a renaissance festival.

The few issues I had with this book were easily overlooked. Some of the progress that should have occurred in the characters didn't really turn into anything. It seemed the story might be leading up to some realizations that typically occur in most HAE's, but these never followed through. I also wish the book took place more in the festival like the previous book. This books spans about a year, so most of it takes place leading up to the Ren Fest.

All in all it's a fun and quick read. I highly encourage those who enjoyed the last book in the series to pick this one up.

I love reading a Jen DeLuca book! They bring me so much joy and Well Played is no different. If you're looking for a special, quirky, cinnamon roll romance, Well Played is for you!

This was a cute follow up to Well Met. I read them back to back so I have a great feel for a comparison. I liked the storyline in Well Played much more, even though it was pretty predictable. There was a meaningful plot with drama that I was interested in. However, I missed all the renaissance scenes that were in the first book. I enjoyed the role plays in the faire environment and didn’t really get much of that in this book. The big ending was awesome because it took place at the Maryland Renaissance Festival! It’s one of the biggest in the country, in my state, and I attend every year, so that was awesome to read!

Well Played comes out 9/22.

“My online life was much more exciting than my real one. I needed to do something about that.”

I loved Well Met so much. It was one of my favorite books of all time. So, I wanted to love Well Played. I was looking forward to this book so much. While, Well Played was ok, it didn't live up to my standards.

Well Played is like watching an episode of Catfish. You know it is going to be a mess, but watch it to see how it ends. Stacey thinks she is talking to her past hook up for a very long time on text. She takes a leap of faith and try to make a relationship out of lust. To her surprise, Dex answers her texts and seems to want the same things she does, The only problem is she is stuck in Willow Creek, working a job she hates and helping her sick mom. Dex is on the renaissance circuit and won't be back to see Stacey for a year. So, they are forced to text and email.

Don't get me wrong, I liked this book. I just did not love it like I did Well Met.

I’m giving it a 3 to be generous. Ugh this book was a total miss IMO there was 0 chemistry between the 2 MC which made it impossible to connect to this story. I feel like this book is very YA but they’re in their late 20s! I would expect more maturity from the heroine but no she acted like an 18 year old and it drove me crazy. I wanted to love this but blahhhhh

I was SUCH fan of Well Met and loved Stacey as a side character. I was so excited when I found out she was getting her own book. I really enjoyed the plot of this one and being back in the faire life.

Stacey is so relatable in feeling like you’re just stuck in life, not moving forward. She’s bubbly, funny, and such a great friend. Daniel was the guy Stacey never gave a second thought since she was more focused on his cousin. That made me sad in the beginning because I could tell he was obviously attracted to her. While Daniel did make me a little mad, I still could see their big relationship struggle coming. Though it was kind of frustrating I did still enjoy it because he is such a sweet character that made a bad judgement call.

One of my favorite things about this book is the dragonfly necklace that Stacey bought for herself and how Jen DeLuca kept drawing back to what that dragonfly symbolized. I think it was perfect for Stacey and how her character changed throughout the book.

I’m really looking forward to her next book featuring April because she definitely deserves her own love story,

Thank you to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing, and Jen DeLuca for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. Well Played is out 8/22.

Well Played is a companion novel to Well Met. While I don’t think you have to read Well Met before reading Well Played, I’d recommend reading them in publication order as that makes the wedding that takes place in this novel more enjoyable.

Well Played follows Emily’s fellow tavern wench, Stacy. Stacy feels trapped in her small town, spending her days waiting for the next Ren Faire. One drunken night she messages Dex, her non-committal Ren Faire fling, telling him she misses him. This leads to an email/text correspondence between the two, though Dex appears a lot more sensitive and well-spoken through messaging than he ever did in person…

This review contains "spoilers" (quotation marks used as any spoilers mentioned are in the official synopsis)

I made the mistake of not bothering to read the synopsis before going into Well Played, and in retrospect I wish I had as doing so would have allowed me to properly adjust my expectations. My expectations would have lowered had I known Well Played has two elements I don't enjoy in my romances, falling in love through letters/texts/emails and catfishing. I tend to be very picky when it comes to these two tropes, and I thought the catfishing in particular was poorly executed. I think catfishing tends to go over a lot better when given the perspective of the catfisher, as that usually allow readers to feel more empathetic towards the catfisher, but in this instance we're only in Stacy's perspective and that makes it a lot harder to sympathize with her love interest, Daniel. Had he come clean about the scenario a lot sooner and in a way that was more honest I would have been more open to the situation, but for me personally, Daniel didn't redeem himself enough that I was able to overlook it completely.

In terms of writing, I really enjoy Deluca’s writing style and find it easy to digest. I also think she does a great job at painting the image of Ren Faire, and she well utilizes her setting to reflect the mood of the story. Unfortunately, I think this novel suffers a bit from telling and not showing in that Stacy is often telling us what a great connection she has with Daniel, whereas I don’t think we got quite enough development that I really believed it. I also had a bit of trouble judging the pacing of the novel because I think the first half is meant to feel slow in order to give the sense of how mundane Stacy’s life is, but at the same time a lot of time passes in very few pages. I can't say I enjoyed this narrative choice because it had the overall effect of creating a romance that progressed at a natural pace time wise, but felt rushed narrative wise.

As for the romance, I need to be invested in both sides of a relationship to properly enjoy a romance novel and unfortunately that was not the case here. While I was sympathetic to Stacy's situation I had a hard time connecting to her character. I didn't enjoy the fact that she put on a front for everyone and was unable to show her true feelings, at times that made me feel she was being disingenuous. As for Daniel, I thought him extremely cowardly, and often felt he wasn't making the effort to meet Stacy halfway (or further). It really bothered me that I felt she was the only one really fighting for their relationship, especially since Daniel was the one who ultimately started their conflict. We also, for the most part, got to know Daniel through the messages he sent to Stacy, but unfortunately I found those messages lacking in personality. As well, I felt the chemistry between Stacy and Daniel relied too heavily on the notion that Daniel understood Stacy more profoundly than those around her, that was a tough sell for me as I felt Stacy was really holding back with everyone else.

While this wasn’t my favourite romance ever, I did really enjoy getting to see Emily and Simon get married, and I really appreciated that the friendship between Emily, Stacy, and April felt important to the story, and I’m looking forward to the next instalment in the series.

I absolutely LOVED Well Met, so it pains me to say that I was very disappointed with this installment of the series. I was happy to be back in the Renaissance Faire setting once again and I did love the character of Stacey. I thought her sadness over feeling stuck in her life and not really knowing what to do next was very relatable.

The problem I had was that I just didn't care for the romance aspect of the story. Stacey spent a year being catfishes . . . A YEAR! And then when she finds out the truth, she is pissed off for all of five minutes. Then she's fine with it. Not only that, but she is suddenly okay with dating the guy behind the words, despite the fact that she had not shown any interest in him at all. Then their relationship was just skimmed over. I never really felt their chemistry and since the guy had been pretending to be someone else while emailing Stacey, I never really felt their emotional connection either. I won't give away any spoilers, but it frustrated me that Stacey ALWAYS had to go chasing after him. Did he ever make a grand gesture? No. He acted like a coward and decided to just give up, but it was Stacey's responsibility to make everything happen. Also, I never really got a sense of who Stacey's romantic lead was or what moved him. I also never really understood what Stacey actually wanted to do besides travel and I just thought the ending was too contrived and it fell flat.

I really wanted to love this one, but I was bored throughout most of it and I actually skimmed some of the last chapter. I am still excited to read the third book though. I have been waiting for April and Mitch's book since I love both characters.

4/5 Stars

I'm going to stay this is closer to a low four-star book. While I did enjoy the book, I found that I didn't love the romance as much. It just felt like it was lacking the angst and tension that was in the first book. I still loved the writing and ate this book up like candy. I would just recommend maybe going in with slightly lower expectations. That all being said I'm still going to be picking up anything else Jen DeLuca writes because I adore Jen's writing.

Well Played! It has been ages since I’ve found myself sucked into an epistolary style romance and I found it delightful and refreshing. Be warned, this is a “catfishing” romance and I know that sounds sketchy. But it worked for me. Cute and fun and just the break from reality I needed.

Synopsis: Stacey has hooked up with sexy, kilt-wearing Dex at Renfaire for the last two summers. And she’s thinking…maybe she wants more. One night, a little bit drunk, she sends him a message. The reply she receives reveals that Dex has a side she never knew about…or does he?

*Spoiler alert: he doesn’t, because it’s actually Dex’s cousin, Daniel.*

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read and advanced copy. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Posted to Goodreads: Stacey's world is rocked when her best friend gets engaged and in a moment of desperation and drunkenness she reaches out to Dex, her sometimes fling, to declare her feelings for him. Stacey is shocked when Dex returns her email with a flirty message. The two embark on a relationship through emails and texts which causes Stacey's feelings to deepen. The only problem is what if it's not Dex she's writing to.

Oh, this book! I thought it was going to be great but instead, I got something that just wasn't great. Stacey wasn't a great main character. In the world of modern-day romance books, I expect strong female characters but Stacey came off as a little spoiled. Aso, Daniel had the potential to be a good male lead but I couldn't get over how much he was lying. I don't see the romance in a relationship built on lies in which one of the people keeps lying. Some people may enjoy this book but it wasn't for me.

I read 'Well Played' immediately after 'Well Met," full of excitement at the continuation of my favorite characters' story lines. It was fun to see Emily and Simon's wedding play out and to see the blooming of Mitch and April's relationship. It was nice that Stacey and Daniel were portrayed as your average, typical people, which was much of the appeal of to me of Simon and Emily in "Well Met." Yet I didn't really find myself as invested in this one because of the entire 'catfishing' plot. I never understood why Stacey had Dex's number from their previous hook-ups, yet Daniel had the same phone number this entire time? Maybe I missed something there and need to revisit that section. Stacey was just a little too easy to forgive and I was surprised that she trusted Dax over Daniel during the ice machine 'incident' when it was clear that each of their personal character would support Daniel's honest intentions over Dax's sleezy ones. Really? I was happy for Stacey, but would have liked to have seen her mom hinting a little more throughout that she was ready for her to go. I feel like this is just a 'bridge' book I had to get through to get to April & MItch's story. I've got big hopes for that one!
Oh, and why no info on where Simon took Emily for their honeymoon? Couldn't a line have been tossed in at Book Club? Throw us a bone!

Stacey feels a bit trapped in her home town of Willow Creek. The only thing she looks forward to is the Renaissance Fair each summer. When there Stacey can be Beatrice the tavern wench, spend time with her friends, and ogle her summertime fling Dex MacLean, frontman of the Dueling Kilts. When Stacey sends Dex a drunken message on social media, she is shocked when his response is much more vulnerable and heartfelt — after all, Dex‘s appeal is much more his Hemsworth-like body than his communication skills. Over the course of a year, the two exchange messages and texts, and Stacey cannot wait to reunite at the fair, that is until Stacey learns she hasn’t actually been messaging Dex this whole time...

While I loved returning to Willow Creek and seeing familiar faces like Emily, Simon, and Mitch, this book didn’t really do much else for me. The details of the fair itself took a serious backseat in this story, and instead we spend most of the time with Stacey listening to her sulk. I found the Catfish plot line much less forgivable than Stacey did. Perhaps if we’d gotten more of Daniel’s perspective throughout, I would have been more sympathetic, but in the end I wasn’t so much rooting for Stacey and Daniel as I was rooting for Stacey to get out of her rut, which was really the focal point of the novel. Not my cup of tea, but I think I’ll still give the third book a try.

I was so excited to read the follow up to Well Met. I absolutely loved that book and I knew I had to continue with this series. I honestly went into this book blind. I didn't read the blurb, just knew it was part of a series I loved. At first I was thrown off by Stacey and her communication with Dex, the player. At the beginning of the book you never feel that connection with the two of them, it mostly felt that Stacey was just lonely.
After going back and reading the blurb, it is clear that she wasn't communicating with Dex, but someone else close to the band. There were clues the whole time that she wasn't talking to her once upon a time hookup buddy, but to someone that felt more for her. Someone who has been watching her and falling in love with her from the sidelines, just waiting to be noticed. I don't want to give too much away in the review, but it is pretty easy to figure out from the beginning of the book. By 50% in, it is revealed so she doesn't go the whole book in the dark.
There is a bit of catfishing going on, but I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would. The issue I had is that she forgave him so quickly and just acted like nothing happened. Both times he messed up, he basically walked away defeated and didn't FIGHT for her. Stacey had to do all of the fighting. At the end, I am glad that the nice guy won out and there was a HEA that was swoonworthy.

3.5 stars

After reading and loving Well Met, I was beyond excited to get to this one. And while I did enjoy it, it wasn’t quite the same.

I liked Stacey well enough. She’s settled when she doesn’t want to be and it was easy to relate to her itch for something more. Daniel was interesting and seemed nice. I did love seeing Emily and Simon get more of their HEA and of course Mitch and April were fun.

Plot wise, it was okay. I liked the conversations via text and email, but it felt more like being told there was a connection between them. For me, the chemistry didn’t quite show up the way I wanted once they actually met again in person. They had so much potential together and it fell flat.

Overall, it was a fun story with characters who were easy to root for, yet at the same time, I found it easy to set down without knowing the resolution. And yes yes, I know it sounds like I didn’t enjoy the story...I did, but wanted a bit more. I’ll definitely be reading the next book.

**Huge thanks to Berkley for providing the arc free of charge**

Well Played shows us different perspectives of technology and what we might find out behind our screens through the perspective of Stacey and her love story.

Well Played, the second installment of the Well Met series continues off with our loveable friend Stacey, a curvy blond-haired, hardworking woman who has taken a pause in her life in order to be closer to her mother. It’s not until her friends Emily and Simon are getting married where she realizes she wants to find “The One”.

I gave Well Played four stars, enjoying Stacey’s story and her discovery of the man who she has been texting, who she originally thought was he summer fling, Dex MacLean. I loved that she was not afraid to do things her own way even though she’s had to put her life on hold. When she finally discovered who the man was behind the texts and emails, they both talked it out and while there were a few complications, that didn’t stop them from talking it ou.

I liked their communication and their discovery for each other even though it started out a little rocky because of Stacey discovering that it wasn’t actually her summertime fling, Dex. I loved that she understood where he came from and why he did what he had to do when it came to here realizing that Dex was not the one sending her messages and perhaps that made her and the mystery man so much more connected afterward.

I think the main reason I gave this four stars rather than five stars like I did book one was that while Stacey and mystery man were well connected and you could definitely see sparks fly, there wasn’t as strong of a chemistry between them like I felt when reading book one. They were definitely cute and well matched for each other, but the tension, the chemistry, the heat between them was lacking while I was reading this.

But this doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book, I actually quite enjoyed reading this and would recommend you read this amazing series!

Thank you again to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, even though I was able to guess the first twist of the book. I'm torn on whether or not that's a negative against the story, but it was still a fun read. Lots of Faire fun from the point of view of a character that was interesting in DeLuca's first book, but didn't really get to shine.

Can I just say that having a Renaissance Faire as the backdrop for a series is just so, so fun? With the way Jen DeLuca writes it, it's so easy to picture the costumes and props, and I can almost hear in my head how they have to speak. After reading Well Met, I knew I'd be reading the companion novels and here we are! We met Stacey in the first book, as she was one of the first people Emily befriended, but now we get her story. Her life has been at a standstill ever since she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her mother years ago. When Simon and Emily get engaged, it's the push she needs to figure out what her next steps are and her goal is to make some changes by the time they get married at the Faire next summer. When she reaches out to her one-time summer Faire fling, Dex MacLean, on a drunken whim she never expected to receive a thoughtful and sweet email in return. But she does and it's the start of many messages between the two. So funny story. I had no idea what the book was about going into it and when we reached that part of the plot, it felt really obvious and predictable. Afterwards, I looked at the synopsis and it turns out, it was laid out pretty clearly: the guy she was exchanging messages with isn't Dex, but someone else entirely. To be honest, I felt like a lot of conflict was contrived and not done in a way that made it particularly stand out. It was the faire, the individual characters and the dynamics between them plus the sweet romance that kept me interested.

Do I recommend? I definitely enjoyed the first book more, particularly because I connected with Emily more strongly and I thought the plot was better written. That said, this was still a fun and sweet book that I would recommend if you are interested in this series.

My thoughts on this book are sort of all over the place. I liked parts of it a lot and parts of this book just didn't work so well for me. I remain excited about April and Mitch's book though so at least I didn't become uninterested in the series. Anyway, let's review what this book is about:

Stacey has been a part of the local Faire since she was in high school and despite her one time dream of pursuing fashion merchandising in NYC, she's stayed in her small town for good reasons, but she also feels very trapped. During the Faire summers, she's been hooking up with a guy in a band, Dex. Dex is the type that has a woman in every town though so it's not serious. But for some reason Stacey drunk facebook messages him like she's trying to make it more than what it is. They wind up having these really great conversations, but it's pretttty obvious, Stacey's not corresponding with Dex.

So, the conflict is well set up because we've got a clear case of catfishing happening. There's also a years worth of time to kill and correspondence to handle so this catfishing situation takes up literally half the book. Meanwhile, when it hits Fall, Stacey starts this challenge with her friends to guess how many pumpkin spice lattes she'll have throughout the season and inexplicably the number FOURTEEN is deemed a lot. That's like one a week!! I was outraged, tbh.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything beyond that, just wanted to set your expectations since this is a one-perspective romance. Ultimately, though, I just felt like the way these conflicts were handled were... weird. It seemed like Stacey would get so upset (deservedly) and then it was like a balloon would be pricked and she's good again. So. I kind of struggled with that. I also really felt like Stacey's ARC needed to be something... different? The way the end worked out just didn't work for me at all, but that doesn't mean it won't for you. It's also really challenging to talk about this book without spoilers.

But now that I've told you the things I didn't like, let's talk about what I did like. I think Stacey is a really relatable heroine in her late 20s. She's 27 and a little too addicted to her phone and social media. She seems all of her friends getting married or having kids and she wants that for herself, but feels like it's not going to happen. She's working a job she doesn't like, but doesn't know how to get what she does want. She's also a little self-conscious at times because she's plus size (which is another issue of mine because the Stacey on the cover of this dang book is NOT plus size). Her cat is precious in every way. She joined two book clubs, one with depressing books and one that's more fun. I really like Stacey and April and Mitch and Emily and Simon. I just don't know that our hero actually made sense for her because I really don't feel like he ever did anything to make up for his mistakes and Stacey kept chasing him. Imo. So. YMMV but I hope if you pick it up, you enjoy it!

Thanks so much to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book early!