This is one of my go to reccs for cozy romances or bridging the Hallmark lovers into contemporary. Recommended purchase for most libraries

Another fun installation in the series! I was so excited for Lulu to experience the life changing moments at the Renn Faire and was very curious to see how Dex would have a change as a character from renaissance one-night stand to serious love interest.

Lulu’s adventure from attorney to learning to let go was really well done and I loved the friendships she made with the band, Stacey and the other renn faire characters! I didn’t love Dex’s transformation as much; it felt too quick and I don’t think I ever got a grip on who he is fundamentally.

The happily ever after was very satisfying and I hope this isn’t the end of the adventures at the Renaissance Faire!

During the summer of 2021, I picked up Well Met on a whim after seeing a bookstagrammer rave about it. She mentioned that it fueled her love for ren faires and also spoke highly of the romance in the story. I was instantly sold, and since I hadn't heard much about the books outside of her recommendation, I was even more excited. Typically, I find myself enjoying the more underrated reads. I didn't have super high expectations, which made the joy I felt while reading that first book even more special. I needed more, and fast!

Thankfully, Well Met was the beginning of a series that already had a sequel and a third book in-process. I gobbled up Well Played and the moment Well Matched was released, I had a copy waiting for me at the library. I've been completely obsessed with these books and I don't see that obsession stopping any time soon... especially after reading (and loving) Well Traveled!

Out of all four books, this one resonated with me the very most. Emily and Simon were adorable in Well Met, but I don't typically connect with enemies-to-lovers. Stacey and Daniel were super cute in Well Played, but the "catfish" storyline made me giggle more often than it made me feel seen. April and Mitch were absolutely precious in Well Matched, but an age-gap and kids didn't exactly have me feeling like I could relate. HOWEVER, workaholic Lulu and playboy Dex were everything I never knew I needed in a romance novel.

The beginning of the book had me highlighting quotes left and right, feeling like I was reading about my own relationship with work through Lulu's eyes. Her desperation to just go off-grid and get away from the stress of her career made me believe that maybe all I should do this summer is run away with the ren faire! Watching as she navigated how she felt about a work-life balance reminded me so much of where I'm currently at in my life and I walked away feeling so inspired!

This particular installation in the series had a much heavier focus on the ren faire itself, in my opinion. From the Dueling Kilts performances to the fortune tellers, the turkey leg-slingers to the chess match, it was all so fascinating. If I already thought I wanted to go to a ren faire, this book just fueled that desire all the more. I'd love to see more of the fortune tellers (Sage, Summer, and Sasha) in the future. They were fantastic additions to the story and I really loved the way they created a comforting environment for Lulu to grow and learn more about herself!

While the romance was excellent and steamy and fun, it wasn't what grabbed my attention. However, I really appreciated seeing Dex's growth (especially after all of the chaos in Well Played) and the deep-dive into who his character actually was. Despite these characters being in their 30s, there was a heavier emphasis on their development and even a bit of a "coming-of-age" feeling that I really enjoyed. It made me realize that no matter your age or how much time you've been focusing on one career path, it's never too late for a fresh start or for you to reinvent yourself. Even seeing all of the characters from the other books come together in one way or another was comforting. It gave the reader a chance to see how far they'd come over the years, which was so much fun. I love how everyone connects to one another in some capacity!

I do find it a little funny that the book is released in December, but I guess it gives everyone the chance for a little taste of summer and romance in the middle of winter. A great escape novel, if you will! And I sure hope everyone picks this up ASAP for a heavy dose of cuteness and lots of ren faire fun!

[CW: (major) sexual content and cursing]

Jen DeLuca has created such a wonderful world and I love that we get to return to it again and again. I loved Lulu and her journey to figure out who she is. DeLuca also manages to show the transformation of Dex from shallow F-boy to thoughtful and caring partner in an organic and believable way. This is a delightful installment of the Well Met series.

Finding herself at odds with her job, Louisa impulsively quits and finds herself on the road with a traveling Renaissance fair troupe. She soon finds herself using her business skills to help out a variety of performers and really enjoying life on the road, especially since it comes with an attractive roommate in Dex. Will their encounters grow to more than a summer fling?

This was a fun wrap to the stories so far, and tied everything up nicely. I'm not sure that their relationship worked out as well as I would have liked, but this is a good example of compromise and working together.

I've really enjoyed this series and getting a glimpse of a different world. It's amazing what goes into keeping Ren fairs running and all the work the performers do, but it also is easy to see how it can be a fun life, at least for a little while.

In the 4th book of the series, Jen DeLuca takes us back to the Renaissance Festival for another costumed romance. Lulu's life is upended while she happens to be visiting a Faire and she ends up agreeing to travel with the Dueling Kilts as she takes a break from her life as an attorney. AS she unplugs from her real life and enters into a fantasy, she is forced into close proximity with the band's notorious "player," and she begins to see there is more to him than just a one-festival stand.

I love these books. They always seem to enter my life with a meaningful lesson related to whatever personal issue I'd swept under the rug at that time. On the surface, they look different, but at the heart of it all is the message: are you happy? If not, what can you do to change that? Have you stepped outside of your comfort zone?

Also, on the surface, these books look very sweet and fluffy. They certainly make me feel good, and are just lovely, but Jen's characters feel familiar. Some of the circumstances may become a bit broad, but the characters are all flawed and trying their hardest to do right by each other and allow themselves to grow. They feel like real people. I love that.

I wasn't actually expecting a fourth book in this series and it was nice to see two people who have basically functioned as side characters get their own store. Louisa/Lulu Malone is an attorney who is sticking it out in a thankless job so she doesn't disappoint her family of overachievers. While she's in North Carolina trying to take a deposition, she decides to check out a local Ren Faire to see how it compares to the one she took her grandmother to last summer In Willow Creek, MD to see her cousin Mitch (from the earlier books in the series) perform his human chess match. She comes across the Dueling Kilts, several of whom she met at the Willow Creek faire, and she makes a quick connection with Stacey, who travels with them by way of her partner, their cousin/manager. Increasingly frustrated with work calls and demands during the day, Louisa does something totally unlike herself and quits her job, throwing her phone into the laundry wenches' tub for good measure. Suddenly she finds herself traveling with the Dueling Kilts as well, getting close to Stacey and her partner but also to Dec MacLean, the heartthrob guitarist who has a reputation for having a hookup at every faire. They slowly become friends and Louisa, now Lulu, realizes there's more to him than people give him credit for, and she also focuses on making new friends and new connections and figuring out what she really wants from her life. I thought this was cute and I liked the way the romance built, but Well Matched is definitely my favorite of the series so far. Still, a solid story with a lot of focus on personal growth.

City Girl goes to the Renfaire. Honestly, as a fan of the series and the setting, this was a lovely addition.

Thank you so much PRH International for the free book - the Well Met series is one of my all time favorites and now Well Traveled has become my favorite book of the whole series! I had to stop reading at one point, not because I didn't like the book, but because I loved it so much - and had waited so long to read it - that I didn't want it to be over!

Louisa 'Lulu' Malone is an attorney, who works 24/7, waiting for a promotion she suddenly realizes she is never going to get. Her cousin Mitch introduced her to Reneissance Faires and she happens to be visiting one when she has a mini-breakdown and quits her job. Enter Stacey, one of Mitch's best friends who is touring the Faires with her boyfriend's band The Dueling Kilts - Stacey and Mitch make Lulu join the tour for the summer and take a break from her life before deciding what to do next. This turns out to be just what Lulu needed and she begins to feel like her old self again - and one of the reasons is spending time with Dex, the guitar player in the band, and a Reneissance Faire Casanova, who turns out to be something else entirely.

Just like Jen De Luca wrote in her acknowledgements getting to know Dex and Lulu has been a joy, and I loved them, too, so very much! Bonus points for the fact that there was no miscommunication the couple had to work through to get to their happily ever after but instead both Lulu and Dex were realistic but loving and kind adults who knew life and the decisions you have to make aren't always easy.

Five stars. ❤

Louisa Malone, aka Lulu finds herself on another assignment for her high demand job as a lawyer. Always working her hardest to try and finally make partner. When one day the the Renaissance Fair she realizes it's never going to happen, in the process she chucks her phone in a laundry wenches wash bin and her life is changed forever. Her cousin helps her secure a spot traveling with the Dueling Kits, a family band which stars the gorgeous Dex. A playboy with a wench at every fair who hasn't had to work very hard for anything. But as the two start to travel together Lulu becomes more herself and Dex realizes there is more to himself than just a pretty face. They must confront their growing feelings for each other while knowing that once the summer is over Lulu will go back to her former life as a lawyer.

Another brilliant and well written story from DeLuca. You can tell how much heart and emotion was put into the work. I hope this isn't the end for this latest installment in the Willow Creek Ren Faire series, because I am so in love with every character and I don't want it to be.

Really excited to be back in the Renaissance Faire universe that Jen Deluca has created. She really does a deep dive into the lifestyle and all the goings on in the Ren Faire world. Louisa “Lulu” has just changed the course of her life completely and has run away to the Ren Faire.
The book has a great pace, keeping you engaged in all things Ren Faire, experiencing it all with Lulu, but it does take a long while for any romance to begin. The setup is there and you see it, but it is put on the back burner until halfway through. Overall a great read!

I love this series and this Ren Faire world so much!!! I suspected Dex, guitarist for everybody's favorite Faire band the Dueling Kilts, and resident Lothario of Faire, was going to be a fun hero and Jen DeLuca did not let me down. It was delightful (and surprisingly sweet) to watch his relationship with Lulu develop from friendly banter to full out love.

Lulu's arc really resonated with me as someone who's had that longing to run away from life for a while, and I loved seeing her skepticism about tarot and all the other mystic arts at Faire turn into respect and even understanding.

What I loved best though was the way Dex and Lulu fit together as a couple. The best romances show how the main characters are the only ones who really see each other. And the way Lulu saw beyond Dex's f-boy persona to the considerate, thoughtful guy underneath was lovely. As was Dex's ability to see Lulu as someone who belonged in Faire life, despite her early misgivings.

As usual Jen DeLuca hit me in the feels and I liked it.

Jen Deluca’s Well Met series is a delight to read and Well Traveled is no different. Even though each book revolves around a ren faire and alternates between couples, she keeps it fresh and entertaining without letting the plots become stale. Huzzah!

Well Traveled follows Lulu, who readers were introduced to in Well Matched as Mitch’s cousin, and Dex, who readers will know as a pseudo-love interest to Stacey in Well Played. The book opens with Lulu stopping by a renaissance faire in North Carolina while there on a work trip. Even though it’s the weekend, her phone is ringing off the hook with demands from her law firm’s partner. While enjoying the festival, Lulu becomes introspective realizing no matter how hard she works, it will never be enough to be promoted to a partner position. Further, she realizes that even though she has been working tirelessly for years to achieve a promotion to partner, maybe that was not her dream and was just something she was doing to make her overachieving family proud. In a moment of clarity and just one too many calls from her law firm, Lulu quits her job and throws her phone into a laundry wench’s wash basin in epic fashion.

Stacey, who Lulu had run into at the faire quickly goes into damage control by calling Mitch who, together with Stacey, convinces Lulu to take some time off before reconnecting and working on finding a new job. Lulu dubiously agrees to join Stacey, Daniel, and The Dueling Kilts on the ren faire circuit until they end up in Willow Creek which is about two months in the future.

Lulu begins helping with the band and immediately feels sparks with The Dueling Kilts’ guitarist, Dex, who is the resident heartbreaker of the faire. While he’s known as the faire Lothario and has a girl at every stop, Lulu learns that there is more to Dex than meets the eye. As Lulu begins to reevaluate her life with the help of her new friends, a new job, a summer romance (that definitely won’t end up with her developing feelings), and even some advice from cartomancy, can she find a balance between the life she’d thought she’d lead and the one she’s creating here?

Well Traveled differs from the previous three in that it really focuses more on Lulu’s self-growth and journey than the romance between her and Dex. Jen does a fantastic job of making all of her main female characters different while still making their struggles very relatable to the reader. Lulu was particularly enjoyable to watch as she transforms from a cog in the wheel who is overworked and unhappy, to someone who’s doing a job that she may once have viewed as “beneath” her and truly enjoying every minute.

Lulu and Dex’s romance is a mix between the “no strings attached” and the “friends-to-lovers” trope. While it does not contain the banter and tension that maybe some of the others did, it is still very enjoyable, and let’s be honest we love when characters are blind to their feelings and then have a lightbulb moment.

Well Traveled really is a love letter to the readers who use books and fantasy as escapism. Who hasn’t had the thought that one day they’d love to “run away and join the circus”? And Well Traveled is very much that story. If you don’t like your future, change it and try not to be too intimidated along the way when things don’t look exactly how you imagined them.

I hope we get one more book out of this series, but if not, Well Traveled was a high note to go out on and I will forever be a Jen Deluca fan!

What a lovely romp! When Lulu can't take another minute of the pressures of her job, she runs away to join the Renn Faire circuit. Under all the corsets (and sunscreen) she finds a welcoming family and a handsome fboi who might be more than he seems. If you're like me and you love renn faires and love a good romance, you'll want to kilt up immediately for this delightful love story.

This is my fourth Jen DeLuca book and I am already ready for more! I have had so much fun reading all her books and have hard copies of the three currently released and will purchase this one when it officially comes out (thanks NetGalley for not making me wait!). Please, Jen, will there be more????

Attorney Louisa, Mitch’s cousin who had a cameo in Well Matched, is at the heart of this fourth book in the warm, sweet renaissance faire themed series by DeLuca. While on a business trip in North Carolina and stalled by lack of case discovery from her sources, she slips out to the local renaissance fair for a break, hoping to recover some of the magic from her time with her grandparents at the Willow Creek faire. She runs into Stacey and tries to focus on hard cider, men in kilts, and a lovely Saturday afternoon, but her cell phone never ceases it’s incoming messages and calls. Frustrated with a waste of five years chasing partner without promotion, her demanding boss, and her family’s expectation, she quits her job and skips her cell phone into a laundry tub prop, and kind Stacey takes Lulu into the motorhome she and Daniel McLean have been traveling in with the band he manages… the Dueling Kilts.

As Lulu tries to find her place in the faire, helping with merch and deep frying turkey legs, her cousin Mitch kindly advises her to stay off the grid, enjoy this time to rediscover herself and her wants and needs. He even promises to fend off the family. Pragmatic Lulu eventually setting herself up as the receptionist for a trio of spiritual advisors hawking their tarot reading, rune interpreting and palmistry skills, and slowly succumbs to the possibility of another lens to view life through.

Of course, there is a love interest: Dex, whose reputation for a different girl in every city precedes him. Fans of the series will remember him as Stacey’s ex, easy on the eyes, magnetic, charming, but a little tone deaf and superficial. He wastes no time turns his tiger’s eye gaze on Lulu but she scoffs at him. Unable to flirt with her, he starts to talk to her, and they forge a real connection, but while she definitely thinks he’s hot, she’s oblivious to the fact he’d rather spend a night in with her, chatting, then hooking up with a very flexible member of an acrobatics troupe, a fact her discloses while they have an argument in a thunderstorm that leads to consummating their relationship in the camper.

Seemingly at odds career-wise, with Lulu intending to return to a law practice of some kind in spite of her new-found interest in tarot, and Dex feeling like he has no skills beyond making up verses to Drunken Sailor and shredding on Whiskey in the Jar, even though he’s a darn good planner and problem-solver, they seem doomed until he finds a way to make a grand gesture and admit he’s in love with her. Given how distasteful Dex is throughout the series and even at the beginning of this book, I did find his change of heart difficult to believe; slower pacing and more demonstrations of his changing would have worked a little better for me as a reader willing to suspend my disbelief that people can pivot so quickly. Other things I appreciated: Lulu is no spring chicken at 37; she tells Stacey that her body isn’t too big, the clothes are just too small when she catches her being critical of her plus-size; a secondary character is gay and no one bats an eye (I’d LOVE to read that tale!); Caitlyn makes an appearance (when is she getting her own book?).

I loved Lulu’s journey in this book; her personality, her openness and challenging of her long-held habits and beliefs. I loved how every faire had its own personality and cast, and I loved the distinct personalities and subtle nod to maiden/mother/crone (or is it MacBeth’s witches?) who bond with Lulu while she attracts clients and books spa sessions. As in other volumes, the writing is artful and often funny; allusions abound, and the setting makes me want to lace up my bodice and hit King Richard’s Faire.

Glimpses of Simon and Emily’s wedded bliss, Mitch and April’s domesticity, and Stacey and Daniel’s steadfast partnership pay fan service to loyal readers, and the return to Willow Creek to see April on the field as a pawn in the chess match is priceless.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #WellTraveled from #NetGalley.

I am SUCH a fan of Jen Deluca's Renaissance-Faire set "Well Met" series, and I am so happy to say that this latest installment is just as delightful as the rest of them. Each book takes place in the same universe as the others, but with a new central character, each of them different from the previous with no signs of Deluca's writing getting repetitive or tired. She imbues new energy into each story, and new personality into each protagonist.

The world and cast of characters that Deluca makes me want to run away with a Renaissance Faire, no matter how irresponsible it would be!

I came into WELL TRAVELED with high expectations. I love Jen DeLuca and have thoroughly enjoyed two of the other three books in this series. And I liked Lulu in WELL MATCHED. But, this one just fell flat for me. I did not see any chemistry between Dex and Lulu and I think that was because this book wasn't a dual POV. I think Dex had so much to overcome and growth and nothing felt sincere because we didn't get to be inside his head. And I don't think that the single POV made sense for this book. We needed to see more from Dex because he went from being a playboy to being head over heels for Lulu seemingly overnight without any real interaction with Lulu. I just... was so disappointed in this book. Honestly, I could probably keep going but I just don't want to. At the end of the day, I didn't think this was a good romance and that's all I wanted out of it.

I enjoyed the book overall, but in the first half of the book, I was really missing the chemistry between the protagonists--they rarely interacted. Once they started interacting more, I could see more how they were clicking and could see that they were on similar paths. I just felt a bit of disconnect between the two halves of the story, but that may have been more down to me than the author.

I enjoy the characters both main and side that inhabit this world and hope that the series will continue.