This one was really cute! I may have to go back and read the others in the series now. We have a single mom finding love at 40. It has always just been April and her daughter Caitlin. April agrees to be a pretend girlfriend to Mitch when he has to go to a family get together. April's daughter is about to graduate high school and April cannot wait to sell her house and get the heck out of that small town, but then she starts realizing how great the town really is. And how great Mitch is. She's been doing everything on her own for a long time so it is hard for her to allow a man to help her out. I got teary eyed at the end. I liked that April was not this perfect mom.

"Who wanted an antisocial walking panic attack for a wife?"

"Is there a word for dread yet proud yet worried?
"Probably one of those really long German words."

OMG This book!!!! I loved it as I hoped I would when I finished the last book and could see who was getting together. I love Mitch and April. Yes, she may be a bit of a hard ass but who wouldn't after what she went through. And that ending! I UGLY cried and cried. This book is soooooo freaking good.

THIS IS BEST ONE OUT OF ALL THREE!!! It’s so so so good!! I absolutely loved April and Mitch’s story. I laughed and teared up a little. Highly recommend reading this book, well all 3 books but this one for sure!!

Well Matched is the third installment of Jen DeLuca's Well Met series and it follows April and Mitch. Each book can be read as a standalone, but I think you'd miss out on the background.

I was excited for Mitch to get his own book, I knew there had to be more to this shirtless kilt-wearing man than others thought. As we find out he has his own insecurities that he hides with his self-confidence and honestly it made him feel more human. April wasn't my favorite, I just couldn't understand some of her motivations. This might be due to her being in a different mindset than me. I do think that I grew to like her more, especially once we got to the RenFaire.

As an avid home renovation tv show fanatic, I enjoyed hearing about April's improvements. This was an enjoyable and believable fake-dating, age-gap romance. I enjoyed seeing what was going on with the characters outside of the RenFaire, I also loved seeing more of Emily and Stacey from the first two books. The growth in Emily and April's relationship was heartening.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I received a gifted galley of WELL MATCHED by Jen DeLuca for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

WELL MATCHED is the third book in Jen DeLuca’s Well Met series which revolves around a small town and the renaissance fair that springs up there every summer. April is a single mother who is facing the end of her daughter’s high school career. When her daughter leaves for college, she’s free to sell her house and move back to the city as she’s always planned. First, she needs to fix up her house.

Enter Mitch, ren faire performer, gym teacher and ladies man. Mitch has a family function coming up and he wants to show his family he’s not just a goof off. He asks April to step in as his “girl friend” to impress the family. April agrees to help her friend in exchange for some help around the house!

After the rest of the books in the series, I was surprised how little we saw of the ren faire in this installment early in the book. Given that April considers herself someone who doesn’t join things, it makes sense though that her character isn’t first in line to sign up to volunteer at the faire. These books do only give the female POV, so while Mitch is more involved in the faire’s planning, we mostly hear about that as distant background.

All that said, I did really enjoy the book and the friendship between Mitch and April. This relies on several romance tropes along the way, all done well in my opinion. I liked how this explored the age difference between the characters and the family issues that both are dealing with.

This is a fun addition to the Well Met series and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! WELL MATCHED is out now!

There were parts of this story I really liked - Mitch. The throwback to Simon as sexy pirate. Mitch in a kilt. Ok mostly just Mitch. What a great character. (But not as great as Simon...I know there has been debate and I am firmly team Pirate ;)

But I was kind of disappointed in April because I really wanted someone fabulous for Mitch....I didn't super buy into their romance. Maybe it's because I can't imagine myself dating someone 10 years younger than me, so I wasn't sure what was going on in April's head? And April really harped on her age (40) a lot for someone who acted like a commitment-phobic 20 year old when it came to love. And they never really addressed her age concerns except that Mitch says it doesn't matter. Maybe this is just my issue and I ought to get over it.

The picture into April and Caitlin's relationship was interesting too, but I wanted more! I am a decade older than Caitlin, but a decade younger than April, so I found their situations to be areas I don't often think or read about because they're just not my time of life.

Anyway, still read it for Mitch in a kilt.

Thank you to Netgalley, Berkley and the author for the eARC in exchange for my review.

I've been dying to read this ever since Cait mentioned it in a video. Full review will be up on pop-culturalist.com before the end of October. April is a single mother and Mitch is known for being the life of the party. I adored this opposites attract novel!

Y'all, DeLuca just won me over. I've said before that books 1 and 2 were misses for me. I know fans love the stories but they fell flat for me. However, when I heard "Well Matched" was about April and Mitch, I knew I'd give her another shot. AND SHE DID ME PROUD!

Single-mom April is planning the next phase of her life once her daughter goes off to college. Much younger Mitch is the local coach and gym teacher, living his best bachelor life. When a family event requires Mitch to play the part of mature son, grandson and cousin, April volunteers as the dutiful girlfriend in trade of using Mitch for some home improvement projects.

What unfolds is a faux romance mixed with growth for both Mitch and April. I was pleasantly surprise at the older, more sophisticated vibe this storyline. As an older reader, I really appreciate the mature characters and story.

Such a good one - a much better story than book 2! This one was on par with the first book - swoony and cute. Not as steamy but I really enjoyed. A great rom-com with heart and depth.

I really enjoyed this! I loved the characters and the story was great. I honestly can't think of a bad thing to say about this book so I definitely recommend giving it a read. Also, I didn't realize this was a part of a series until I came to write this review! I will say this can be easily read as a stand alone if needed but I will definitely be going to check out the other books now!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy to review!

This was soooo cute. I loved learning more about these less-prominent characters from DeLuca's earlier books, and I found this one terribly sweet. I loved the slow build of that pre-existing attraction slowly rising, I loved the emotional baggage that they sort of helped each other unpack, and overall I found this to be another excellent addition to the Renaissance Faire series.

Up until the third act of Well Matched, I was somewhat enjoying the book—in the same way that the first two were readable, so was this one. In fact, really, any issues I had with this book and series more generally, was down to the characters ultimately.

There are primarily two reasons I couldn’t say I enjoyed this one in the end. The first is the lack of a POV for Mitch. Now, I like single POV romances as much as the next person, when the love interest is sufficiently developed as a character on page. Here, Mitch was not. He seemed to entirely boil down to muscles and kilt. There was no real sense of who he was, except the occasional hint about his family (which seemed to be rapidly dropped after being brought up the one time and never confronted again). Sorry to him, but it was boring.

The second, and bigger, problem was April. Now. I do get having a character who’ll freak out at the idea of her carefully laid plan being derailed, sure. And equally, one who eschews commitment. Both of those are believable. What is truly tiring, however, is the fact that April, at 40 years old, does not know how to sit down with Mitch and communicate with him any concerns she has, instead of panicking and saying things she cannot take back. She’s gone and successfully brought up a daughter as a young single mum. And I’m supposed to believe that none of that, at any point, required learning to communicate? A skill she could transfer to her romantic relationships? Pull the other one.

And that’s why, in the end, I couldn’t enjoy this book. The fact that this conflict happened in the last 10%, leaving me no time to be shown that April and Mitch could grow from this, could learn to communicate, and be a successful couple. That was just the cherry on the not very tasty cake.

Contemporary romances with the fake dating trope have really been working for me lately, and this was no exception. I think this may be my favorite of DeLuca's novels set in Willow Creek, Maryland, a small town with a big Ren Faire. I like the first two a lot as well, but there was something about the third one, featuring characters I'd gotten to know pretty well in the first two books, that I found really satisfying. April is a single mother whose daughter, Caitlin, is about to go off to college. Mitch is her friend, about 9 years her junior, the town flirt, and the local high school gym teacher/coach as well as a major player in the local Ren Faire scene. April needs some help getting her house ready to sell and Mitch needs a fake girlfriend so his family will take him more seriously, so a fake relationship is born. Of course, this is a contemporary romance so the fake stuff becomes a little more real and things get complicated. One of the things I liked about this is that the conflict that is keeping them from being together for real (a staple of the genre) actually feels like a real obstacle rather than just a contrivance to complicate the plot. I read this in basically one sitting and I hope that DeLuca has a new series planned!

I was SO excited to get this third book and go back to the Faire. This one was so much fun. I really enjoyed it a lot. The characters were wonderful, as always and it was great to revisit our old friends in a new romance!

I loved Well Met. Well Played was fine. Well Matched was exactly what I needed as a third book. Not only is it comforting to see women in my stage of life in romance, but it brings the story to life in a completely different way. I loved watching April move through her beginning phases of empty nesting and watching her grow and change and discover who she is and what she wants along with her changing teen. Mitch has been a great character from book 1, but bringing him and his depth to life in this book just made their story sweeter. I flew through this book while my high schooler was at a school dance and it was just the best amount of emotional connection and fun to keep me up well past my bedtime.

An enormous thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and of course, Jen DeLuca for providing me with an eARC of this book. I am voluntarily leaving a review, all opinions are my own.

I have to say, while I really enjoyed the story of this one, it just didn't quite live up to the level as the others. I loved April and Mitch so much, but I grew so frustrated with April and her... not even indecisiveness, but wishy-washy attitude in this book.

I also was sad that so little of the book took place at the Faire, so I think that's another reason that this book hasn't quite lived up to the others. I always adore the scenes that take place at the Faire and that wasn't any different in this book, but so much of that was glossed over, I was disappointed.

I did absolutely love the chemistry between April and Mitch and definitely enjoyed their story.

I really love this series by Jen DeLuca so was very excited to have a chance to read this book.

April is a soon-to-be empty nester when he daughter goes off to college and she has long since believed that she will then move out of Willow Creek. Things get complicated though when she agrees to fake date Mitch for a family party and things get a little too real.

Although April is not old by any means it was great to read a Romance book with a main character who was in such a different stage of life and I really like her and Mitch's relationship. Although they did have the classic miscommunication problems most of their trouble was stemming from April feeling like there wasn't a point in starting anything new when she had no desire to stay in this small town, and that includes getting involved in the Renaissance Faire.

This was a very enjoyable, quick read, that I really enjoyed.

I found myself smiling while reading this book more than once. I've loved this series so much from the beginning, and rounding it out with April and Mitch's story was fantastic. April and Mitch have great banter, and April's struggle to let Mitch in, to reconcile with their age difference as well as what connecting with someone in Willow Creek means just as she was hoping to leave, was understandable and made for authentic conflict in the book. Plus, after so much Ren Faire enthusiasm from previous characters, April is interesting as someone who doesn't totally get it, but respects her friends and family's passion. Mitch, I know, has been a fan favorite since this series started and it's so good to see him get his time to shine in this book. Thank you, Jen DeLuca, for giving the readers so much good stuff with this book!

Adorable. This is part of a series, but I just dived right in having never read any of the other books in series. I was still able to follow, but it made me want to go back and read the others in the series.

If you are a fan of this series, then you'll remember April Parker, Emily's sister from book one. She's a relatively quiet life in Willow Creek, focusing on her job, her book clubs, and raising her daughter, Caitlin.

With Caitlin preparing to leave for college, April wants out of the small-time life where everyone is in her business. As an introvert, she isn't like her outgoing sister, and likes to limit drama and surprises. However, for some reason, she agrees to be a fake date for the local flirt, Mitch Malone.

Desperate to keep his nagging family off his back, he convinces April to be his date for a family get-together. In exchange, he would help her with house repairs as she looks to put her house on the market and leave the small town behind. Seems like a simple enough plan. That is until the family get-together expands to a full weekend and the two are forced to share a bed.

At some point in the story, things start to morph from a fake relationship to a friend’s-with-benefits one, and then into something bigger. Only April doesn't seem to notice, or is ignoring the obvious, her feelings for Mitch. Given her personality, I'm not surprised how she screwed things up, it takes a lot of effort for an introvert to commit to love when it hasn't been part of their life for over 20 years. And I felt bad for Mitch, who was just about perfect for the majority of the book, which I didn't expect from the former player.

While there is some minor drama as April gets her head on straight, the majority of this book was light and a joy to read. Another great addition to the series. Not sure if there will be more books, but I'd love it if Lulu, Mitch's sister, got a book.