I LOVED Well Met and with Well Played Jen DeLuca just planted herself firmly on my "will read anything by this author" list. She writes relationships and characters so well. Plus the Ren Faire setting just makes it all a bit more fun.

Stacey feels stuck in her humdrum life. She can't leave town since her mother's health problems from ten years ago may start back up again, she has a boring job, and everyone around her seems to have gotten a life while she was standing around waiting for one. The only thing she has to look forward to is the Willow Springs Renaissance Fair, and that's only for a month every summer. One drunken evening she decides to message her sometimes hookup Dex MacLean of the Dueling Kilts who plays at the Faire every summer and try to turn him into something more than just a few night stand. When she wakes up the next morning and the embarrassment settles in, she assumes she'll never hear from him. So when he messages back and then they never STOP messaging, she's elated and feels like she finally has a little bit of a life.

The countdown until next year's Faire is on and the anticipation to see each other in person builds. Stacey is shocked that the man of very few words but many bedroom moves has turned out to be a verbose, sweet man who pours his feelings out in every message. It's hard but exciting to reconcile the two...which makes sense since it turns out they aren't the same person. Could she still be falling in love with the real author of these heartfelt notes?

This story isn't a new one - mistaken identity is a common romance trope, but it's very well done in Well Played. Even through the lies, it's easy enough to find Daniel - the real write - to be a sympathetic character. And it's rewarding to see Stacey break away from the excuses and open up to the life that's been waiting for her. I look forward to Jen DeLuca's next book and high-key hope it's Mitch and April's story...

I enjoyed Well Met and immediately added Well Played to my TBR. After a few months, the wait was over and I was able to snatch an early copy of it. (Thank you Forever!!!).

For those who read Well Read, our heroine became good friends with Emily, the heroine of book 1. I liked her in Well Met. I thought she was straight forward and good support for Emily.

What I learned in this story is that Stacey never wanted to stay in a small town. She had dreams of leaving it and doing something else with her life. She stayed because her mother was sick. She was scared her mother will get sick again so it felt safer not to dream big.

The one thing Stacey looks forward to every year is when the Renaissance Faire comes to Willow Creek. She likes to wear her Faire costume, enjoys the men in kilts, the fake fights and the people, especially Dex Mac Lean, the singer of the Dueling Kilts.


After having a little too much to drink, she decides to comment on Dex's social media. Emily has decided she wants more than a yearly hookup. A Cyrano de Bergerac situation entails and another Mac Lean might end up stealing her heart.

I didn't love Well Played as much as I loved Well Met. I liked both main characters, Stacey and Daniel but I thought Daniel gave up too easily a couple of times instead of fighting for what he wanted.

One of my favorite parts of Well Played was to catch glimpses of Emily and Simon's love story and their wedding.

Will I read Well Matched when it comes out? ABSOLUTELY. I really can't wait for April and Mitch.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

I do enjoy epistolary novels, so the email and text aspects of this book were fun. However, I never really felt that there was ENOUGH going on in the rest of the book. D never explained what motivated him to lie quite to my satisfaction, but the disconnect between what we seen in the book and what Stacey says about her life was the bigger problem for me: she complains that people treat her as a ditz because of her blonde hair, but we don't see that. She talks about this urge to leave her town and travel and to utilize her fashion training, but she doesn't spend much time thinking about those supposedly major dissatisfactions with her current life or doing anything to feed those urges while staying in her town.

A playful, banter-filled romp with just enough renaissance faire flavor to delight nerdy readers. While the twists and tropes are pretty predictable, it’s a comforting familiarity and exactly what I was looking for when I picked up this series.

Readers of Well Met will squeal at Emily and Simon’s appearances in this installment, but Well Played can be read as a stand-alone. This one is a slow burn with lots of emotional buildup, perfect for fans of Red White and Royal Blue.

One notable detail is Stacey’s self esteem issues. Living in her tiny hometown and stalled in her career, Stacey craves positive feedback from social media and disparages her figure. It’s hard to tell if she is actually plus size or just has skewed body image, but either way DeLuca does a good job of writing the other characters to be supportive of Stacey exactly the way she is. Her body image and self esteem issues are literally all in her head, and it’s something she works past privately as she learns to love herself as much as her friends and love interest do.

Definitely recommended.

Just finished up my Advanced Readers Copy @netgalley Of Well Played a sequel to one of my favorite romance reads Well Met by Jen Deluca. The sequel follows Stacey, friends with Emily and Simon, who’s 27 and feels like her life isn’t going anywhere. She decides to tell her summer fling how she really feels about him and was shocked to hear that he feels the same. Will their connection through email and text remain the same in person this summer at the renaissance fair ?! I liked this one but it wasn’t as magical as the original. I didn’t think they had the same connection as Emily and Simon in the original 🤷🏼‍♀️it was a good romance but not fantastic ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

I loved the first book in the series, Well Met, so I was extremely excited to get my hands on the sequel! I was a little concerned about the premise, why would someone lie about who they are? But I loved Daniel's character and the reason why he lied about his identity actually made sense! I really felt for Stacey, although sometimes it annoyed me how she was so upset about things but wouldn't talk to Emily about them or anyone else. I loved her and April's relationship development too. I enjoyed the little snip bits of April and Mitch, I can't wait to read their story next!

A down to earth romance about a girl finding love, but also finding the right life for her. The really stand out thing about this one for me was how the H/h's relationship grew through texts and DMs, so they became more and more a part of each other's lives and really got to know each other before the physical or looks was ever part of the equation. For that reason, it reads a little like Jane Austen, with the modern epistolary style. I also really loved that he was a genuinely nice guy (okay, a little subterfuge never hurt anyone) instead of another swaggering alpha. Loved seeing them become friends first!

I recently read the first book in the series and loved it, so I was thrilled to get my hands on this and it lived up to my expectations. It has all the fun characters I got to know, and it’s a romance that somehow manages to avoid feeling formulaic, despite the fact that the twist wasn’t that shocking and you know everything will be okay in the end. I’m looking forward to the third book in the series.

5/5 Stars

Thank you to the publisher for the egalley!

I went in with high expectations, Well Met is definitely my favorite romance book I have ever read. Well Played definitely lived up to the expectation!

In Well Played we follow Stacey (aka Beatrice) as she finds love. Since she is best friends with Emily (aka Emma) we get to see where Emily's romance leads. We also get some faire time, although not quite as much which was a little unfortunate. The romance between Stacey and her new man has quite a few bumps but it's very believable and cute. And I am so happy with the ending of her book!

Highly recommend both of these books!

This was just as cute as the first in the series! I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, plot and read it in one sitting. I can't wait to read more from this series and author,

Just as charming as the first! Loved seeing all the characters again, and the plot moved well. Stacey is super relatable and I loved seeing her story. Excited for the third one!

Fun sequel to Well Met full of missed signals and long distance. A modern look at Cyrano de Bergenec And how we often assume the truth we want. Also examines the guilt children of sick parents can feel when faced with opportunities to flee the nest. I really enjoyed this one.

I really liked "Well Met," so I couldn't wait to read this. But...SIGH...it doesn't quite make it.
I mean, I liked Stacey's back story, but my brain had a hard time getting into the buildup because we all knew the set up (Stacey's not talking with Dex; she's talking with Daniel) and it annoyed me. Also, it made Stacey appear stupid thinking Dex suddenly had some hidden depths, when anyone of us who has talked to a himbo for more than 30 seconds would've realized there wasn't nor would there ever be any depths. So a lot of time was wasted not creating that tension that we look forward to before a couple finally gets together. Another twist comes later on that only made me madder at Daniel. I thought Stacy was a little too forgiving. I think April and Mitch are he focus of the third book? I hope that turns out better.

All of our favorites are back for this years fair! It ends with a surprise though, Emily and Simon are engaged! Everyone just knows they have to have the wedding at the fair next year! While being a bridesmaid in the wedding of two of her best friends, Stacy realizes how lost and alone she is feeling. She has one glass too many and sends a message to her summer fling Dex. Surprisingly he replies and thus begins their year of emailing and texting almost daily. When the fair comes around again, Stacy cant wait to see him…but is everything as it seems?

So Well Played was one of those books that I won in a giveaway and was like eh I don’t know if its for me. But I hit a slump and gave it a shot and I loved it!! So I knew I needed to read this one as soon as I saw it available on netgalley! It did not disappoint! All of my favorite characters are back, Emily and Simon are more in love than ever, and its finally Stacy’s turn! I did figure out the situation pretty much immediately but it didn’t take away from the story at all! If you loved Well Met, you do not want to miss out on this sequel!

So excited to be back in the world of Ren Faire, this time following Stacey’s story. Stacey is a bubbly personality and veteran to the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire, and her feelings of wanting more from life, I felt for her and related so much. She puts up a front and only opens up when she thinks she’s having an earnest conversation with Dex, her Ren Faire hook-up when it isn’t.
It was a new take on the masked identity from her last novel, Well Met, which I loved the parts featuring Emily and Simon. Though in this instalment it took a little bit of warming up to the idea, the cat-fish troupe wouldn’t be my top favourite.
I love Jen Deluca’s writing and I’m a huge fan, can’t wait for the release and more from her and this Ren Faire world and it’s Shakespeare references.

3.5/5 stars

Well Played was a cute sequel to Well Met, which I loved, but lacked just a little something from making it a 5 star read. I think there was a tad too much of Emily and Simon in this one, where the focus should have been more heavily on Stacey and Daniel. I also think having half of the book's romance take place over emails and texts messages hurt it a little, and made the chemistry between the two feel a little lacking when they did finally meet back up at faire. All in all, despite the whole catfishing angle which could turn some people off, this was a sweet follow up to Well Met and I look forward to book 3, which is going to focus on April and Mitch and hopefully return this series to 5 stars.

Well Played is a fantastic follow up to Jen DeLuca's Well Met. The characters are well developed, the plot takes you on a wonderfully emotional journey as Stacey discovers where she wants to be in life, and who she wants to be with.

Book Review 📚
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Thank you so much @berkleypub @berkleyromance for my free copy via @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
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This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I was so excited to get an advanced ebook from the publisher. I absolutely fell in love with Well Met last year and was so excited to jump back into the renaissance faire world!
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I didn’t love this one quite as much as I did Well Met. A good portion of the book didn’t take place at the Renaissance faire and that was one of the things I loved so much in the first book. The faire setting gives these books their charm, so I didn’t really like this one mostly took place in the real world.
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The second half of the book definitely redeemed itself. I didn’t feel much of the main characters chemistry until the second half of the book. But boy, do they get some chemistry going.
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This was a cute contemporary romance and a perfect summer read. I definitely recommend these books for a great escape read. I can’t wait for the third book to come out. Well Played releases on 9/22!
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This was a great addition to the Well Met series! Loved catching up with characters from the previous book and getting to read Stacey's story. Can't wait for Mitch and April next!

I absolutely adored Jen DeLuca's Well Met. Just LOVED it. I was super eager to get into Well Played, but it was obvious right off the bat that the spark from the first novel was missing. Stacey and her problems didn't exactly pop off the page for me, and the first 40% of the novel is a slog of e-mails and text messages between Stacey and what she believes to be Dex, a regular musician on the faire circuit she's had some sexy times with when he's in town. This takes up the majority of a year that crawls by until it's finally revealed to Stacey what we all know going in: she hasn't been talking to Dex at all. She's been talking to his cousin, Daniel.

The book tries to call this a Cyrano de Bergerac situation, but when Stacey confronts Daniel it turns out this isn't the case. It's just straight up catfishing. At midway through, I'd say this is the book's crisis point. It's a doozy. Stacey bends over backward insisting that she a) did not know AT ALL that she wasn't talking to Dex and b) somehow, deep down, wanted it to be Daniel despite her not thinking about him AT ALL for the first 40% of the book but c) is extremely hurt by Daniel's actions because WHO WOULDN'T BE? and d) hopes he'll simply apologize and she can kiss him and all will be well! I mean, you can tell right here that everyone who had a hand in writing and editing this book knew the premise was a problem and tried VERY HARD to downplay the creep factor. I won't deny someone can both be hurt and hope to wish it all away but COME ON. This is a romance. I want to root for these people, not gasp at them like they're a real life Reddit drama.

Stacey is a pretty basic girl--love of pumpkin spice, fairy lights, few hobbies that don't involve Instagram. Daniel seems like a pretty basic guy--he wears black a lot and likes Guinness. Both wish they could change their lives up--do something different than what they're doing or being. That's really all we know about them at the halfway mark, despite all the soul-touching e-mails. I wasn't really that interested in either of them enough to plow past Daniel's betrayal of Stacey's trust.

So, I can't continue. I'm just closing this book down at 50% and I hate that I have to do that, but the premise is just too much of a quagmire for me. Had it been a true misunderstanding and at the halfway mark they discovered they were talking to each other simultaneously, that would have made for cute rom-com moments and kept me on board despite my lack of interest in the characters. Unfortunately it's just too creepy for me to want to watch Stacey stumble all over herself to forgive a man who doesn't really seem to deserve it.

I'm still totally looking forward to Jen's third faire book, though. Give me more faire. Just not Stacey and Daniel. Whatever their fate is, please let them ride off into the sunset and never return.