Get ready to dive back into another small-town ren-fair-obsessed rom-com with Well Matched by Jen DeLuca. DeLuca's third book in the Well Met series brings you two fan favorites, the assured April and magnanimous Mitch.

April's daughter is a senior now, and as her time at the high school comes to a close, so does April's time in Willow Creek. With an empty nest, she had planned to move out of her home and into the city, but first, she has to fix the place up and she has just the guy in mind to help her out. Mitch has always been an iconic confident, kilt-waring, gym teacher who everyone can't help but like. When April asks for help, of course, he says yes... As long as she can pretend to be his girlfriend at a family gathering. He needs to be seen as respectable and settled and April's confidence will surely help him at the latest family gathering. Between home-reno and fake dating, a pretend relationship might just develop into something with roots.

Let me just say I am a big fan of the trilogy as a whole. DeLuca always places her characters at realistic turning points in their lives. New towns, new jobs, and new stages of life all come with different challenges. In a Romance, we can walk through these issues with our characters and the people around them, knowing they will work their way through the problem. It is as reassuring as the romantic plot that comes with it. You know your characters will end up together and their problems will mostly work out. April and Mitch are no exception.

April's struggle with determining her place in town as an outsider is both heartbreaking and anxiety-producing. After retreating from town life as a result of particularly damaging gossip following her divorce, April obviously feels distant from the community. Joining a book club and small gatherings are fine, but she begins to reimagine her place in her community throughout the book. It helps that she has such a wonderful support structure to back her up. While she doesn't need Mitch to fix her problems, he gives her a bit more support and her protective instincts allow her to go out on a limb for him instead of herself.

Mitch needs a bit of support himself as the odd duck in the family who hasn't gotten married or become a lawyer or finance bro. He needs April to help him embrace the confidence he pretends to have. I guarantee you too will be a big fan of an epic verbal takedown to come. He does have a cinnamon roll, himbo energy and I will protect him at all costs.

The banter is funny, the fake-dating trope is wonderful, and, most impressively, the book got me interested in an empty-nester side plot. As someone with neither children nor a home that is quite the feat. If you are already a fan of DeLuca you cannot say no to book three.
As an aside, it is particularly impressive to write not one but two books that focus on public gatherings during the year of our lord 2020. Nevertheless, the renaissance fair continues to be a joy.

Well Matched by Jen DeLuca is set to release on October 19th, 2021, just in time to take out some mulled wine and crack open the rom-com. Thank you, Berkley via NetGalley for providing the eARC of Well Matched by Jen DeLuca in exchange for my honest review.

I skipped book two in this series because I wasn't all that hyped up to read about a guy I hadn't met before. But knowing this story was about Mitch and April had me jumping at the chance to read it. Mitch was everything I knew he would be. The life of the party, but he also had a more serious side that I loved to see. I didn't love April, but with her harsh personality that was to be expected I think. She just came across as brash and unlikable. It was fun to see Simon and Emily again and I loved spending some time at the Ren Faire. Another great book from Jen DeLuca.

Caitlin is getting ready to head off to college, which means it’s finally time for April to move on. When Mitch needs a fake girlfriend to join him at a family event, April trades him helping get her house ready to go on the market for being his date. Need I say more?

So I have talked on here before that I never expected to enjoy this series. Renaissance faires are just not my style. So who would have thought that I would wish there was more of the faire in this one? Either way though, this book had all the love and charm we saw in Well met and Well Played! I just adored seeing our single momma make time for herself and realize how wonderful she is! I always love a fake dating trope and this one did not disappoint!

I have been anxiously awaiting Well Matched. Every interaction I saw with Mitch and April had me SOOOOOOO excited. That being said, I think this was my least favorite of the 3. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it and I loved (loved!!) going back to Willow Creek and experiencing the Ren Faire again, I loved seeing the previous couples (the friendship vibes in these books are phenomenal and just wreck me......Simon being a supportive brother in law? I would read a whole book about that alone). Mitch was most definitely my favorite hero, he was actually genuinely kind of the best. I would die for Mitch, to be completely honest. He is patient, understanding, and swoon worthy. I wish we could have seen his family grow to appreciate him more. I appreciated but was extremely frustrated by April. I really enjoyed the way that her anxiety was depicted (that's a weird sentence....but it felt authentic), but there were times that I found her to be judgmental and borderline unkind. I was still rooting for them, and obviously enjoyed the novel as a whole. It is important to stress that while I found myself annoyed at April at times, I really enjoyed this book. I love the world that DeLuca has built and wish we could return for more Ren Faire adventures.

Thank you to DeLuca, Berkley Romance & Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A super cute rom-com that has me desperately waiting for ren faire season to start here. I'm so glad we finally got to see more of April and Mitch; their dynamic was really sweet and it felt like a natural progression to me. I loved returning to Willow Creek and seeing Mitch's other side. Here's hoping there's more to the series!

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book and I absolutely adored it!! It was so nice to delve deeper into both the characters of the serious and straight laced single mom April and the fun loving, boisterous and seemingly endlessly confident gym teach Mitch and what really lay behind the curtain. It was so endearing to watch April tackle single motherhood transitioning to empty nester and to see Mitch reveal more than he ever let on. Seeing the struggles and growth, all with the backdrop of the Faire and our favorite other series characters make cameos, it was such a lovely story and I fell in love with it all! Plus who doesn’t love a fake relationship story—and this certainly did it very well! Highly recommend!

I have really enjoyed this series so I was excited to read this one and it didn't disappoint. Have I ever been to a ren faire? No. Do I love these books? Oh yes.

Single mom April is getting ready for her daughter to leave for college and this means she can finally live her dream- selling her house and getting out of Willow Creek. Gym teacher and ren faire's resident kilty hunk Mitch needs a favor- his family doesn't take him seriously and he thinks pretending to be in a relationship with mature, has-her-life-together April will get them off his case. Fake dating ensues. But what happens when fake dating turns to real feelings? For April it's not so easy to navigate- the last person she loved left her when he found out she was pregnant 18 years ago.

This was a fun, slightly angsty, ultimately super sweet romance featuring some of my favorite tropes- fake dating, only one bed- and a great cast of characters that I hope we get to see more of!

This series just makes me happy.

April is a rock star human and I love that she’s portrayed no only as a mom but as an individual with her own desires and needs. I love that she is older than Mitch and it’s not made into a huge…thing. 40s is hardly an old crone.

Mitch is swoon-worthy. I just adore him. So much chemistry and love.

The Well Met series can do no wrong! It's the perfect summer read (but also is cozy and makes me excited for Fall) and makes me want to run away to a Ren Faire and fall in love and never leave. I love April and Mitch and how each book in this series gives us different tropes and things to love! Obsessed. Will continue to buy these books forever.

This is my favorite installment of the Well Met Renaissance Faire romance series.

We follow April, a 40 year-old single mom who is about to be an empty nester. She never really got involved in her small town life, so as soon as her daughter is off to college, she is going to sell her house and move to the city. She needs to prepare her house in order to sell it, so she could use some help. Enter in Mitch, a 31 year-old gym teacher who is known as the Kilt man in the local summer renaissance faire. He certainly is capable to help out, but he needs a favor in exchange; his annual family reunion is coming up and his family has been pressuring him to settle down. He needs a girlfriend to bring with. April agrees, as she's known Mitch for awhile since her sister is a large organizer of the renaissance faire, and really, Mitch isn't a sight for sore eyes.

I just incredibly related to April as a protagonist. She cares too much about what people think, and dating the local hunk who's about 10 years her junior is not something she wants people to gossip about. She also has a hard time admitting her feelings, and it takes a long time for her to come into her own. Readers might be frustrated with this aspect, as it can feel like it is dragged out. But as someone with pretty bad social anxiety, I thought this book was executed perfectly. April was also relatable to me in that she was a homebody and never really got involved in her area. She somehow avoided the renaissance faire every year she's lived there, despite he daughter performing in it for the past 2 years. I like to think I would get involved in a local renaissance faire if we had one (I am a big ren faire nerd), but I'm also a homebody.

The fake dating troupe was cute here, and there were several instances where the fake dating had to come back into play. If you don't like that troupe, you'll grow tired of it here, I'm sure. I also enjoyed getting Mitch's story since his character was pretty well fleshed out in the previous two installments. He's a fun and nice fella. I also think this is one reason I enjoyed this book more, as both April and Mitch were a lot more prevalent in the previous two books. The previous book, Well Played, only followed Stacy; the male lead was a new character tossed into the mix.

Unrelated to anything in regards to an opinion of the book, but I was so impressed by April fixing up her house in order to sell it. My partner and I are in the market to purchase our first home and we get frustrated over all these owners who don't take care of their houses. If only April existed in real life! I'd buy her house-- it has a kitchen island! Anyway, the slight direct life correlation also just had me all for this book,

I recommend if you like the fake dating troupe, small town romances, and/or read previous books of this series and enjoyed those. If you're in it just for the Ren Faire, fair warning that the Ren Faire doesn't occur until the last 1/3 of the book or so, but honestly it was my favorite part and so worth it. :)

I recieved a free eARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let me get this out of the way… I LOVE MITCH SO MUCH!

April Parker is a single mom, soon-to-be an empty nester. Which means, that after years of living in Willow Creek raising her daughter, she’s ready to sell her house and get back to her own life. She just has to get through one last Faire and one last summer, and not let anyone distract her from her goal - not even hunky kilt-wearing gym teacher and football coach extraordinaire, Mitch Malone.

Mitch is down-to-earth and easy, but he has something to prove to his family. And April Parker can help him prove that he’s more than just muscles and a pretty face, so in exchange for helping her remodel her house before putting it up for sale, he convinces April to pretend to be his girlfriend at his family reunion.

But as they pretend to be in love, real feelings develop. Will April be able to let go of her fears and learn to trust what’s real?

After being disappointed by Well Played, this was a delightful return to the world of Willow Creek. Mitch was steadfast, sweet solid, and oh-so-sexy. April had a lot of issues to deal with, but for the most part, they were understandable. It was a great return to the characters we know and love, and I would really love to go to a Ren Faire now!! 🎟 I just wish we’d gotten to know Mitch a little more!

Thank you so much to @NetGalley and @berkleypub for this ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Barkley publishing for the ARC of Well Matched by Jen DeLuca.
I’m so in love with this series! This is my third one in the last four days all part of the Well series.
April is a single mom who lives in Willow Creek with her daughter Caitlin. After her very short marriage fell apart because he didn’t want kids she packs Willow up and moves to a small town. Small towns just are not April’s thing. She’s laser focused on getting her daughter to 18 and off to college. She plans to sell her house and move to an apartment in the city. April has never been one for crowds, going out or socializing. But after her sister Emily moved to town and gets married to Simon, April’s world expand a little bit. She’s joined two book clubs and enjoys a night out once in a while at Jackson’s, the local bar. As a graduation for Caitlin gets closer and closer she meets with a realtor to see what should be done about listing her house for her move. The real estate agent tells her that she needs to spruce some things up. She needs more neutral paint colors, the carpet needs to be changed and the deck needs to be stained. She asked her friend Mitch for some help with the home improvements.
Mitch is a single guy who teaches PE, coaches football and baseball at the local high school. He also spends six weeks of his summer helping with that local Renaissance fair a fundraiser for the school. Mitch spent his time at the fair as a kilt wearing Scotsman. Being the nice guy agrees to help April out with her home improvement projects but he needs something in return from April. All of his cousins are highly successful people. He isn’t a doctor, lawyer or a stockbroker like his cousins are. Every time he goes home for a family event they gave him a hard time about his life. So he asked April to pretend to be his girlfriend at a family dinner. He’s hoping this will show his family then he has a good life. Well a simple family dinner turns into a whole family weekend two nights and three days at his grandparents house. But as soon as the weekend is over so is there a fake relationship, or is it?

If you have read the earlier books in the series, then you understand why Mitch is the man of my dreams. That hot man in a kilt! But as we get to know him better in this book, we also get to know the insecurities he hides under his brash self-confidence. I fell for him more than ever.

I have to admit April is not my favorite main character. It took me a while to understand some of the choices she made. But by the midpoint of the book, I wanted a happy ever after for her as much as Mitch. They are indeed well matched.

This book has fake dating, age gap, and some bits from my other favorite romance tropes. I love all of the scenes where she April works on home renovations, and I am inspired by them. Most fun of all, this book returns to the magical world of the Renaissance Faire (huzzah!).

This book and the whole series just make me incredibly happy. The author's note acknowledged how tough it was to write this kind of rom com in the midst of the pandemic and provided information on how to support some Renaissance Faire players who have lost their incomes during lockdowns. I really appreciated that and hope for more books celebrating this world.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

4.5 stars rounded up

I literally SCREAMED when I was approved for this book. Jen DeLuca's books are just delectable and this one was no different. Arguably it was even more unputdownable because we're *finally* getting April and Mitch's story. Personally I've been craving this one since I finished Book 1! But the wait was definitely worth it, as the book is full of April's journey towards commitment and oh so much steam. Plus we've got fake dating and the good ole "one bed" trope, so you're in for a good time.

*Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Jen DeLuca is literally my fave. Her books in this series continue to get better and better. I absolutely love this cast of characters, because between the banter and the setting, it's just truly such a fun and enjoyable read.

I could not read "Well Matched," the third in Jen DeLuca's Ren Faire series, fast enough. While I loved the first two, I have to say that this is by far the best one yet. If you love a sweet, fast-paced romance and small-town vibes (and of course, Rennaissance Faires), I highly recommend these books.

While I'm a sucker for all things Ren Faire, and of course I love a book with fake dating in it, it was the main characters in this one that really give it top billing. Mitch and April are sweet baby angels and I would die for them. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I related to both of them so much in different ways.

April is so cranky all the time which frankly I found delightful. She has good reason to be--her jerk husband left her alone with their baby when she was a young early 20s mom, and she's been raisins her daughter alone in Willow Creek ever since. Since then, she's held on to her dream of moving back to the city once her daughter is off to college, so her real life can begin. But as that time draws closely, she realizes maybe she's let some important milestones pass her by, and now she worries that she won't be accepted by her community even if she wanted to. I really felt so much for her the entire book and just wanted to give her a hug!

Mitch is the kind of guy who appears comfortable in his skin (or his kilt--- Rarrr) 24/7. He's a confident, good looking guy who outwardly appears to not have a care in the world. But the truth is, he too worries that he won't be accepted for who he is by his own family. He's a loyal guy who would give you the shirt off his back (please Mitch--give me the shirt off your back?) and would do anything for the people he loves. I wish for us all to have a Mitch Malone in our corners.

I also really enjoyed getting to see more of Caitlin in this book and I hope that future installments we get her story too. I have been entertaining myself with trying to predict the title of Ren Faire #4 (Well Fought? Well Said? Well Seasoned?) Whatever it is, I'll be reading it.

Thank you Berkley Romance and Netgalley for the free book.

Well Matched is the third book in the Well Met series (books can be read as standalones) and it was a delight! I really enjoyed book one, Well Met, when it came out a couple years ago. I passed over Well Played last year, but I was happy to return to the town of Willow Grove and the Renaissance Faire with this book.

Well Matched didn’t start super strong for me, but I’m glad I kept with it because I ended up really enjoying it. I flew through this and would have read it in one sitting had I not started it so late at night!

Mitch is such a lovable character and I appreciated that he had much more dimension in this book. April has a big guard up around her heart and I wanted to give her a hug and a pep talk as she tried to work through the issues holding her back.

Mitch. Freaking. Malone. It’s been a while since I fell this hard for a hero. I didn’t think that I was going to love Matched more than Met, but here we are. Mitch is the cinnamon roll hero that we all love, but **better.** I loved him in Met, right from the very start. I mean, who can resists a man in a kilt with a really big sword?

I loved April since Met, and was so happy to see the hints of April and Mitch’s relationship in Played. There is something so sweet about their friendship turned romance. I felt like this book, as much as it was a rom-com, also embodied the traits of a women’s fiction, in that April grew as a character so much in this book.

As she prepared to send Cait off to college, and thought she had the next chapter of her life planned out, she has to come to realize that letting someone in might not be as bad as she thinks it would be.

Honestly, this book hit it out of the park for me. It’s got all of my favourite tropes, rolled right into one incredibly sweet book. I mean take a look at these tropes:

- Fake Dating
- Only One Bed
- It’s totally just a hookup
- Single Parent
- Age gap
- Renaissance Faire shenanigans
- Kitchen counter sex

I loved this book. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I’m obsessed. This book was perfect. Just so wonderful. Jen DeLuca, I love you for this book.

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book and think it's a nice return to form after the second book in this series, although Well Met is still my favourite. The couple did indeed feel well matched here, and I liked how they slowly realized that through a series of regular life events — the realism is a nice addition when the bulk of the book takes place at a slightly ridiculous (but entertaining!) Renaissance Faire. In fact, I might have enjoyed slightly more Ren Faire experiences, but overall this is a solid fake relationship romance with appealing characters.

When I say I've been dying for Mitch's book for years, I'm not exaggerating. I quickly pegged him and April as a perfect pairing while reading Well Met and I couldn't have been more excited to learn that was the plan. Then I waited... (No offense to Stacey and Daniel because I adored them in Well Played.) But, THIS was the book I wanted. The good news is it was 1000% worth the wait. When I say I read it in one sitting, I mean that quite literally. I refused to do another thing until I read it cover to cover. I regret nothing. It was a fantastic mashup of friends first and fake it till you make it. Mitch is everything I wanted him to be and more and I also really liked getting to know April better. And as is often the case with series like this, I enjoyed seeing all of my faves from earlier books (Emily and Simon, especially!) again and watching as they helped move things along with Mitch and April. What a fun and swoony book!