I really enjoyed it - I kind of wish I hadn't known it was Daniel not Dex from the beginning but Stacey was still so relatable and Jen has a way of making the world very believable and fun and does such good characters! It was a real treat to read and I devoured it in a way I've been able to get into very few books since mid-March!

Another great book from Jen Deluca! I loved getting back into the faire life and all the characters we loved from Well Met. Added bonus getting to experience Emily and Simons wedding. *Swoon.* This book definitely had a different feel to it. I loved all the back and forth, the longing, it made you root for the characters even when they made mistakes. Don’t mind me, I’ll be rereading this one until Well Matched is released!

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

If you liked <i>Well Met</i>, then I think you'll like this second, charming installment.

This time we follow Stacey, in the throes of a quarter life crisis, worrying about turning 30 and living in the same small town (she's 27, truly a baby). The bright spot of her year is the town's ren faire, and one night in a fit of loneliness and wine, she messages her faire fling, a kilted ren fest musician, beginning an almost year-long series of emails and texts before the next faire.

This book was very cute - as in <i>Well Met</i>, the faire and small town settings are fun. I will say, however, that it took a looooong time for our protagonists to be in the same, well, field at the faire. If you are a person who likes a more drawn out romance, though, this will be perfect for you! I also did identify with Stacey's feelings of stuck-ness, especially during this pandemic. Overall a fun contemporary, and we get to see Emily and Simon's wedding - Yay!

I couldn’t be happier to turn back to Willow Creek for second tango for the Renaissance Fair! So when I got my ARC and after a few screams, unsuccessful handspring trials (which ended with hitting my right foot against the wall and limping like Kaiser Soze throughout the day), sipping mimosas, having the longest brunch party (me, dogs, husband who secretly empties his plate filled with my homemade Eggs Benedict into flower pots –yes, my flowers looked like famous flower at the Little Shop of Horrors after that experiment-) later, I excitedly gets it into my hands and started devouring it.

Good thing about the book is: we have another sweetest, charming, romantic, shy, a little insecure hero: Daniel Mac Lean (redhead Irish: combination of younger Damian Lewis and James McAvoy) we may easily adore. And we have also likable heroine Stacey (Anastasia is her real name but thankfully she doesn’t use that name and it didn’t ruin the book for me with FSOG vibes. Amen to that!) stuck in a town, bored with her job, watching her friends settle down, chasing their dreamy jobs and getting married as she lost her dream career about fashion by choosing her family and taking care of sick mother.

But now only good thing she likes about her life is Renaissance Fair and her hookup with Dex Mac Lean: leading singer of Dueling Kits, looking like Chris Hemsworth’s Irish version ( yes, dynamitic combination! As soon as you visualize you can’t help your hyperventilation!) But Stacey just bored to have friends with benefits relationship. She’s looking for something real. And now Simon and Emily’s engagement makes her more worried. She is happy for them but she feels lonelier, feeling like losing another friend who is about to get settled.

After facing her realties and too much drink later, she makes a brave also silly move and writes a drunk email to Dex. She wasn’t truly into him but she needs something concrete for her life, right? And surprise, surpsie: he answers back: they start to write emails, texts each other sharing their intimate secrets for 11 months and when the fair reopens Stacey realized: somebody reenacted Cyrano Bergerac game! She wasn’t writing to Dex all the time. She was connecting with his cousin Daniel.

She had her suspicions because the guy who was writing to her gentle, chivalry, sweet and friendly and he can pour his feelings into the writing. He is not an egotistical manwhore like Dex! She was falling in love to the wrong guy from the beginning. So will she give him a second chance? Could be Daniel the one?

I think I enjoyed both characters and their sweet love story: Cyrano Bergerac theme but the reality about Stacey’s hookup with Dex and her admiration about him at the beginning irritated me. Maybe I’m a little old school and this is not a real love triangle because two guys don’t fight for a girl but I still feel bad for Daniel, even though he lied to Stacey at the beginning.

The second fact that we welcomed back Emily and Simon again but as far as I see: they are so many parts about them in the story and I thought they’re not the supporting characters, they are still main characters and it seemed like a short novella about their marriage inserted into this novel which gives us less chapters about Daniel and Stacey. Till the second half of the book: Stacey still didn’t know who she was communicating with and their relationship parts evolved so fast. I wish we may spend more time with them.

Overall: I still enjoyed the writing, the entertaining Renaissance theme, soft, sweet romance but I didn’t enjoy this second installment as much as I liked the first one. I went back and forth between 3 and 4 stars and I finally decided 3.5 stars and rounded them up to 4 because of lovely, mud pie hero!

A kind request to the author; I’m begging you dear Jen DeLuca, please give us Mitch’s book! Thanks a lot!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this sweet, entertaining ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

I LOVED returning to the Willow Creek Ren Faire with Jen DeLuca’s amazing characters. Reading Well Met was one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I’ve ever had, so when I revived the e-ARC for Well Played (thank you, Berkley Romance & NetGalley), I immediately dove in and read it in a day.

Well Played is the story of Stacey (Emily & Simon’s friend in Well Met) and a man she’s rapidly falling in love with...he just may not be the man she thinks he is. This story was so fun and sweet and I loved seeing more of Emily & Simon. I can’t wait to read what JenDeLuca writes next!