I was really excited for this book because Mitch is such a magnetic character, I was really excited for his story. While I loved the fake-dating element obviously, it's really barely present and doesn't play a large part. I did think Mitch and April had solid chemistry- it wasn't explosive but it was there. Unfortunately, as the story progresses, April just started to annoy me more and more. I just was constantly frustrated but her choices and reactions. But April finding a place she feels settled was nice and the Ren Faire setting was once again fun.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Excellent addition to the series and glad to see April and Mitch being included as part of the longer story. I loved the mentions of Emily and Simon and Stacey and Daniel. The ending was a little rough, thinking that April took a couple of weeks to paint and prep so much before talking to Mitch seems odd, but still a great and cute story.

I had a little bit of trouble getting into it at first as Mitch seemed a little obnoxious (even though I loved him in the previous books), but as the pages flew by, I started to see myself in April when it comes to the anxious mess I can be and fell in love with those two. And the "fake partner" trope is always a hoot. Always very predictable, but always a hoot.

And Mitch.. I mean.. She really burrowed his way into my heart in the end there.

All in all, Jen really never disappoints. This is definitely one of my all time favorite series' and I can't wait to reread all of them! Y'all are in for a treat when this comes out in a month :)

This one was just OK for me. I'm finding more frequently that when a romance is only from one POV that it feels very 2-dimensional, and I think that was the case for this one.

April has appeared in the previous Well Met books as Emily's sister and mother of Caitlin, and she's paired with Mitch, the kilt-wearing, fun-loving coach/Simon's duel partner. April is in her early 40s and is staring down an empty nest as Caitlin heads off to college after the Ren Faire, and she's determined to get back to the life she thought she would have before she became a single mother. She agrees to be Mitch's fake girlfriend for a weekend in return for his assistance in updating her house to put on the market. The arrangement ends up being dragged out as things keep popping up, and April finds herself the topic of neighborhood gossip as Mitch's truck is spotted frequently at her place, which does NOT go over well with her following her painful divorce.

It's hard for me to write this because I liked the other books, but I wonder if it was because April was so adamant about not letting go and just enjoying herself in all aspects of her life that I didn't enjoy it. I get it, she's got some damage, but her character arc was difficult to get through for me. I still don't particularly see what chemistry she and Mitch had. I loved Mitch's character, but even with trying to demonstrate all the things he does for his community, he felt very 2-dimensional. I don't know what was going through Mitch's head at all with this other than that he was mad she kept trying to hide their relationship. I found myself super skimming so I could move on to my next ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my thoughts.

I...tried. I really did. I desperately wanted to recapture my initial enjoyment of 'Well Met' with all it's Renn Faire fun, and cutesy romance. This one did not do it for me. I just did <i>not</i> like April, and Mitch was such a flat character, that not even a wrestling match in a kilt, with a pirate could save him (it's a thing). Another character, Caitlin (April's teen daughter), was also just used as an excuse for everything. Caitlin hovered on the periphery, only summoned when we needed a reason for April being stubborn or to justify what she said/did/thought. I know she's not the MC, but I would have liked to see a little more personality from this teen daughter that you are centering your life around (though apparently, you later don't really care what she thinks/sees/hears).

I also missed banter between the characters. There was nothing. No teasing, no snark, no chemistry... There were such bland interactions that I don't think I would have cared if they didn't end up together at the end (is that a spoiler? It's a rom com novel...I don't think it is).

NetGalley kindly gave me an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.

Well Matched was a rom-com with a fake relationship trope. I enjoyed April’s character and how she was the hesitant one in moving forward rather than Mitch. April is a soon to be empty nester and a single mom looking to start her life. She didn’t expect to find it in the small town of Willow Creek.

Well Matched is the third book in the Well Met standalone series by Jen DeLuca. This series is set in a small town where they hold a Renaissance Faire every year. For eighteen years, April has put her daughter first, ignoring her own wants and needs. Now that her daughter is graduating from high school, she plans on hightailing it out of the small town where they live. She has never liked the small town life and it's the perfect time to sell her house and relocate to the city. When her friend, Mitch, asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for a family function, she agrees on the condition that he help her fix up her house to put on the market. Their fake relationship begins a slide across those friendship lines even though April knows that their relationship can't go anywhere because she is leaving town.

I LOVE age-gap romances, especially one where the woman is older than the man. April is nearly ten years older than Mitch and although she thinks that's a big deal, Mitch doesn't even think twice about it. Just like everything else in his life, he does what he wants and what feels right to him, not thinking about what other people think. April, on the other hand, has a difficult time with opening herself up and worries about others judging her for dating Mitch.

April and Mitch have undeniable chemistry. They are like yin and yang. She is a reserved and thinks of herself as mundane. He is a fun-loving, charming, and easy going man. I love the ease with which he interacts with April, even in those moments when she is spiraling. He is just what she needs - someone who is optimistic, positive, and pushes her to follow her heart. Mitch s patient with April, knowing that she hasn't had much dating experience since she divorced her ex-husband. The ease and comfort they found with one another warmed my heart.

I can't write this review without mentioning Mitch's role in the Ren Faire. A hot man in a kilt, speaking in a Scottish accent and wielding a sword. YUM!!!

This was a quick, heartwarming, and a bit of a steamy read that I really enjoyed. It's my favorite of the series!

Steam level: 🔥🔥½-🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: anxiety

Oh my - I loved this book SO MUCH. I'm a fan of the entire Well Met series, but WELL MATCHED is my favorite. I don't think I stopped smiling the entire time except, perhaps, when I was choked up. Mitch and April were absolutely ADORABLE together and I had the best time watching them pretend to date while falling in love for real. April is incredibly relatable as a 40-year-old single mother who has kept to herself for close to two decades and finding herself wanting to get out there and belong somewhere but fearing it's too late. The sexual tension was done beautifully and the payoff was so worth it. I loved revisiting the characters from the earlier books, the scene at the Malone's BBQ, really all of it. WELL MATCHED was fun, heartwarming, and a true delight. (There was one scene where April asks her sister to help her with a certain makeover and I got such Grease vibes only without the ick factor of Sandy's makeover!)

Thank you to the publisher for the early copy via netgalley!

I am not usually one for the fake dating trope, but it was done so well in this one and was so much more believable. This was definitely the story April and Mitch deserved. Plus it did have one of my other favorite tropes, there's only one bed.

All the Well Met books have been so good so far and this one was no different. And I love that we get snippets of the characters from the previous books in each individual standalone.

The most lightly-plotted of the Well Met romance trilogy, Well Matched is April and Mitch's story.

April Parker is the older sister of Emily (the main character of the first book). She's a single mom to high school senior Caitlin with whom she was in a car accident a few years prior (the catalyst for Emily moving into town in the first book). She's become friends with Mitch Malone by way of her Renaissance Faire-volunteering sister since Mitch is a volunteer there. Every year he dons his famous (or is it infamous?) kilt and assumes a Scottish accent, participating in mock fight scenes for attendees of the Faire and making the crowds drool over his physique (perhaps book 3.5 in the series could be called Well Built? teehee).

April and Mitch have a bit of a connection prior to the events of this book (as evidenced by the end of book 2), but they both seem to be under the impression that the other person would never go for them.

April is around a decade older than Mitch and is done having kids. She also has serious walls built up around her heart since her daughter's father, her ex-husband, walked out on them before they even had a chance to be a family. She was kind of like Lorelai Gilmore coming to this small Maryland town when her daughter was little - April is beautiful, smart, funny, and with a daughter that the town loves, but she's infinitely more guarded than bubbly Lorelai. Meanwhile Mitch is the town stud and practically oozes confidence, but it turns out he's far less sure of himself than he seems.

So when Mitch proposes the idea to April that she pose as his girlfriend at a family function so that he'll seem stable and put-together, it seems like their romance could only ever be for show. But as time goes on and the two spend more time together, the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred.

I was primed to enjoy this one because of how much I loved the first two books in the series, but I have to admit this series got progressively weaker as it went along, plot-wise. This one's story was pretty hum-drum and I ended up reading about more home improvement projects than I ever needed to in a book.

But what Jen DeLuca does well (heh) in these books is character development. April and Mitch are two fully-realized people with complicated backstories and authentic reactions to things that remind them of past hurts. They are who they are, but they want to grow, and actually show growth. I loved them both so much, I was willing to read about the most boring, yet painful home improvement project on the planet: painting. (I painted my husband's office earlier this year and I'm still not over the trauma.)

If you've loved the series this far - if you love Mitch and April and want the satisfaction of seeing them get their happily ever after - you'll want to read this. To anyone new to this series, I'd say you're good sticking with the first book then moving on to greener pastures.

I can't even say how much I love this series. Every time another one comes out, it brings me so much joy. This one was now exception, and I enjoyed re-visiting the ren faire through it.

Readers of Jen DeLuca's two previous Ren Faire novels have been waiting to see how things turn out for Mitch Malone, the dreamboat buddy of both her previous heroines. As a big fan of those big-hearted stories, I was a little afraid going in, thinking, how's she going to pull off a happy ending that reads true here, but I shouldn't have worried. If DeLuca hadn't already been on my auto-buy list before this, she sure would be now. All that said, new readers of DeLuca's work will find it easy to get comfortable in her small town setting of Willow Creek, MD.

Woohoo, we finally get April & Mitch's book! I'm a sucker for a grump/sunshine trope, and especially when the heroine is the grump & the hero is the sunshine, and I think this was further enhanced by having the heroine being ~10 years older than the hero. This is a lot about April transitioning from one season of her life to another, and how her preconceptions about Mitch are colored more by her own hang ups than who he actually is. It also has some interesting conversation about kids in a HEA. Overall, this was a book that had a lot of flipping of tropes or character conflicts traditionally associated with the other gender, and I think that took the book to the next level for me.

This was a fun romcom for anyone who is looking for a fun and quick read. There are fan favourite tropes riddled into plot (fake dating, age gap) which made it entertaining.

This is book 3 out of Jen DeLuca’s “Well Met” series, and can be read as a stand-alone, however I would recommend the precious ones be read prior to this to really appreciate the characters and the world she has created.

Well Matched is the third book in Jen DeLuca's Renaissance Faire romance series and is a book that I have been excited to get my hands on since I finished book two last fall. I found Jen DeLuca through The Wicked Wallflowers Club podcast and the second I heard she had written a Ren Faire romance, I was in. I devoured Well Met (book one) and read Well Played (book two) the second it came out. I found them to be fun and sweet: a soothing balm to my unending stress during 2020. These books are light and fluffy while delivering on well-rounded characters, satisfying relationships, and steamy sex scenes.

Summary
April Parker is a single mom who is getting ready to send her daughter off to college. Facing having an empty nest and more time to herself, she'd getting ready to move away from the small town she'd settled in years earlier for her daughter's benefit. She finds herself agreeing to pretend to be her sort-of-friend, Mitch Malone's, girlfriend for a family gathering in exchange for him helping her ready her house to be put on the market, and the series of events that follows challenge everything she thought she knew about who she is and what she wants.

This book is full of delicious tropes that romance fans like myself adore: fake dating, only one bed, grumpy one/sunshine one, and age gap. These are all tropes that I personally love a lot so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. April is about 10 years older than Mitch and is set in her grumpy and private ways. Mitch is a literal ray of sunshine who worships the ground she walks on. What's not to love?

Now I have to be honest, I don't think that this book is my favorite in the series. Well Met, the story between Emily (April's younger sister) and Simon, still holds the number one spot, but Well Matched was still a delight. I read it in about a day and I had a good time. Jen DeLuca's writing is straight forward and feels very real, especially since all these books are written in first person from the heroine's POV only. If you're looking for a light, feel good read, this book fits the bill, although I do recommend starting the series at the beginning. They work as standalone stories, I just think it's more fun to read them in order.

Well Matched by Jen DeLuca is the 3rd book in her Well Met series. This story continues to revolve around the town of Willow Creek, and the Renaissance Faire that comes every year. We have anxiously awaited Mitch and April’s story, and am happy to say I loved it.

April, our heroine, who just recovered from a bad accident, knows that her daughter Caitlyn will be leaving at the end of the summer for college. Even though she is close to her sister, Emily (previous book heroine), and her best friend Stacey (another previous book heroine), April is determined to fix up her house to sell it. April has over the years, kept herself guarded and closed, only allowing her sister, Simon and Stacey to spend time with.

Mitch, our hero, is a hot sexy hunk, who is also the towns gym teacher, as well as his participation in the annual Renaissance Faire, wearing only a kilt. He does have a reputation of being a ladies man, with many flings, as all the girls love him. April asks Mitch, who she considers simply a friend to help her with the renovations, and he in turn will ask April to pretend to be his fake girlfriend at the family dinner, since they always pick on him. I loved Mitch, as he was so great with April, and secretly has had a crush on her. April doesn’t think much about pretending to be his fake girlfriend, since she knows nothing real could happen between them, since he is 10 years younger than her. Best laid plans. 😊


It was fun to watch them both falling for each other, and they made a great couple, and I really liked them together, as they had great chemistry. What follows is a fun, sweet romance between Mitch and April, and we rooted hard for them to find a way to stay together; especially since April is still planning to sell her home, and move closer to her job, after Caitlyn leaves for college. Will April leave Mitch, Emily and Stacey?

I loved seeing the main characters from the earlier books, who played major parts in this one, as well as the fun of the faire, and residents of Willow Creek. Well Matched was a fun, enjoyable, sweet and sexy story, and an amazing couple in Mitch and April. Jen DeLuca did a wonderful job writing this wonderful romantic story that that had a lot of humor and charm. I suggest you read Well Matched, as it was a fun enjoyable read.

Jen DeLuca does it again with the third installment in this series! The first book, Well Met, I was initially skeptical about reading because I was not a Ren Faire girl. But then I went to a Ren Faire and it was so fun! So of course then I had to read her book and it was fantastic! Instant fan.

Well Matched follows April, a 40 something single mother who’s daughter is about to head off to college, and April wants to move out of their small town and start the life she put on hold to raise her daughter. Those plans are thwarted when Mitch Malone, town heartthrob and high school gym teacher, asks April to be his fake girlfriend to a family function. With that being said, need I say more?

Fans of fake relationships, this is a book for you! If you read the other books in the series, then you don’t want to miss this one! Steam level is mild, I was actually hoping for more, but it was perfect for these two characters.

I really hope there will a fourth book in this series!

April is not a joiner. She has lived in the same small town for years, and while her sister and daughter have become integrated into the local community, April has stayed on the sidelines. So much so that now that her daughter Caitlin is graduating and headed off to college, April is planning to leave said small town for a small apartment in the city. That is, until Mitch, the local gym teacher and kilted star of the local Renaissance Faire, asks for a favor : be his fake girlfriend for a family reunion weekend. What starts as innocent play-acting soon becomes so much more, leaving April to question just how “fake” this all is, and whether she will be able to leave her town after all.

My oh my, how I love this series! It has been just the perfect vibe for this summer. In this third installment, we finally get to see Mitch in all his glory. I am so glad that he got his chance to shine, and for us as readers to see more into his inner personality. We have seen glimpses before that he has more depth than he shows at Jackson’s, and that was really explored in this book.

And breaking down April’s character and why she was so closed off in earlier books really endeared me to her. It was nice to be able to understand her on a more personal level. I really appreciated the honesty surrounding April’s anxiety about socializing, and her struggles with allowing people to get close to her.

I will admit, one of the things I love most about this series as a whole is the summery, Renaissance Faire vibe, and I felt that was a bit missing from this book. We saw more of the two characters in their homes and pre-Faire season, and I wish there had been more Faire scenes. It did of course make an appearance though, so no worries there! There was no way this book was not going show Mitch in his kilt.

Fake dating turns into real passion very quickly in this latest installment of the Well Met series by Jen DeLuca. April and Mitch are long time friends who hang out regularly in their small town. April thinks Mitch is a ladies' man and is afraid of commitment to someone who could break her heart like her ex- husband did in the past. Mitch however soon proves to April that she is his only priority and sparks fly even though April is hesitant. I enjoyed the fun Renaissance Faire scenes, April's role as a mother to a teen daughter, their 10 year age gap, and Mitch's growth towards his family. A steamy + tender rom com to add to your TBR with plenty of cameos from previous characters in the series!

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing + Netgalley for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, but not nearly as much as Well Met and Well Played. I was really looking forward to this installment because I really liked both Mitch and April in the other books. Also, there was quite a bit of foreshadowing for this pairing, and I think my expectations were a little high because there was already so much potential there. As a result, the fake-dating trope didn't quite hit the mark (seemed a bit forced and unnatural) and their chemistry seemed uncharacteristically off in the beginning. However, their relationship seemed much more natural in the end---I just think it could've developed in a better way.

I liked getting to know April more as a character. As a self-imposed outsider in both her town and with the Ren Faire, she's always seemed aloof in the previous installments. I found her relatable in this one---her insecurities, motivations, and relationship with her daughter were well-developed. I wanted a bit more Ren Faire just because it was so central in the rest of the series, but it's understandable that there was less of it in this book given our protagonist. I appreciated getting to know Mitch, too, and getting some insight about him through his family.

Overall, while I enjoyed the book and really liked getting to spend more time in this town with these characters (loved all the parts with Emily and Stacey!) and at the Ren Faire once more, I just wanted a little bit more.