I flew through this Renaissance Faire enemies-to-lovers novel; it's so absolutely charming and engrossing that you won't put it down. I'm in love with these two English scholars turned tavern wench and dastardly pirate and I would willingly read about their encounters forever.

Great characters with good development and chemistry. I loved the unique setting of a Renaissance Fair.

I loved this book! It was so cute and funny! I especially love that the main character was named Emily and worked in a bookstore because that means we're *basically* the same person.

This book was cute. It is a lighthearted and easy read. If you love Shakespeare then this is for you! Both of the main characters wax poetic about all of his works. The story is set against a Renaissance Faire. I so appreciated the insight into all the planning that takes place to execute a faire now, where I have only ever attended as a patron. There is a lot of wooing and even a handfasting and I loved the romance that came naturally in this setting.

Absolutely adorable! Characters felt real and relatable. Plot was fun. The setting was fresh and I can't think why more romances aren't done with this as a backdrop. Who needs weird time-travel plot devices when you can just unlace your bodice and drive home in your air conditioned vehicle at the end of the day? Honestly, I wasn't really feeling the chemistry until the faire started and the love interest got into character, and then it went from meh to YEAH. Or, should I say aye? Anyway, it makes me want to go back to the Ren Faire and make out with a pirate.

I love this book. It's a perfect and sweet contemporary romance.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43189874-well-met

I didn't know I needed a Renaissance Faire romance, but Jen DeLuca sure did. If you had asked me if I would have enjoyed a romance set in the very niche world of Ren Faires, I would have chuckled in your face and pretended I don't have a secret passion for medieval sport and turkey legs, but Well Met let my true nerd come out and I loved every second of it.

The romance between Emily and Simon is perfection. A slow-burn enemies-to-lovers story is my jam and this fit the bill. It's ingenious really - allowing these characters to hate each other in real life while flirting and charming each other as their medieval alter-egos.

Well Met is refreshing, funny, and Shakespeare lovers will be tickled by many references to the immortal bard scattered throughout the book. The romance was hot and I can already tell this is a book I will be returning to time and time again. I might even hit up a Renaissance Faire this summer...

Emily, after moving in with her sister April and niece Caitlin to help out after her sister's terrible car accident, gets swept into volunteering to help with the local Renaissance Faire. She's a little wary of all the huzzah-ing and bodice, but she's especially of the guy in charge, Simon, who is all frowns and Making Sure Everything Is the Same as Last Year. But, that changes after she meets his Faire person, a pirate captain full of swagger.... Of course, there's Miscommunication near the end to wrap it all up, but the epilogue adds a nice, full-circle touch that usually is too rushed in romances.

Well Met is a fun, quick read with a modern female protagonist, like if Jennifer Cruisie's Temptation setting were mixed with Jasmine Guillory's 21st century female protagonists' sensibilities.

If you’re looking for a book so cute and so sweet that you can’t put it down and end up reading it in one sitting, then this is the book for you! OMG, what a wonderful, funny, lovely novel. This was EVERYTHING.

I have never been to a Renaissance Faire, but I’ve always loved hearing about them and would love to attend one someday. Well Met only further enforced that want. Emily has recently moved to Willow Creek to stay with her older sister and niece for the summer while her sister recovers from a bad car accident. After taking her niece Caitlin to sign up to be a cast member for the Ren Faire, Emily gets roped into working it as well and meet Simon, the Faire’s organizer. They do noooot get along at first, clashing and bantering in the best way. But once the Faire begins and their characters end up in what can only be called a “showmance,” Emily realizes that maybe her first impression of Simon was completely wrong, and there’s so much more underneath his grumpy and serious façade.

I loved everything about this book. The small-town setting, the summer Ren Faire, the wonderful cast of characters, seriously just EVERYTHING. The romance developed so nicely, the steamy scenes were hot, the banter was on point, I adored it all. I loved their interactions as Simon and Emily, but also when they were playing their Ren Faire characters…ugh, just so good!

I cannot wait for whatever Jen writes next, whether it still be set in this Willow Creek universe (because there were plenty of support characters who could have their own story) or something completely different, I will read it in a heartbeat, probably also in one sitting.

*Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

When Emily Parker moved to Willow Creek to help her sister and niece after an accident, getting roped into being a tavern wench during the summer Renaissance Faire under the disapproving eye of a buttoned-up, uptight Simon Graham—the local high school literature teacher and also the surly man in charge—wasn't the turn she expected her life to take.

But the Faire—the make-believe and physical transformation and the layers of identities that the characters took on—and its supposed Elizabethan magic could work wonders. The friction between Emily and Simon turned into something other than constant arguing…with a slow-burn that proved to be quite rewarding by the time the sparks turn to fire, because the feisty tavern wench and the swaggering pirate can play at something in all their interactions, even if their real life personas are more riddled with confusion about the mutual attraction.

In fact, seeing Simon’s layers coming apart was perhaps, the best parts of the book.

In all, ‘Well Met’ is cute and light-hearted and honestly, thoroughly enjoyable, more so because it was an easy read that handled the sniping and the humour with quite a bit of panache with a cast of characters that were in their own ways, memorable. The heavier themes like grief, emotional healing and moving on were handled with the knowledge that these are more complicated than we always make them out to be without weighing the entire story down with angst. The only thing that I couldn’t entirely get on with was Emily’s insecurity about not being the priority in people’s lives—a point that she rued often and made it a bigger issue with Simon than it should have been—as it felt like amplified conflict when it didn’t have to be.

Still, I had loads of fun to the point where this ended up being one of the rare stories where I alternated between dreading finishing it and wanting to savour the swoon-worthy chemistry between Simon and Emily as much as I could (which mean turning the pages at a furious pace just to see how it would develop). For those who love everything about Shakespeare and his time? This book’s yours to hug close.

I loved this book! When I wasn't reading, I wanted to get back to it. It was a fun and easy read. It kept my attention throughout and had great pacing.

I really liked the characters. Emily was definitely my favorite. She was so selfless; moving to a new town where she didn't know anyone to take care of her sister and niece after an accident. All that after she was dumped for working two jobs just to pay the bills and put her scummy ex through law school. I loved that Simon and the gang drew her in, and welcomed her as part of the group in this town. My only squabble actually is a high point toward the character development. Emily didn't have a degree (that's why her ex broke up with her) and because of that she always looked down on herself and thought others did too. She didn't truly see her worth until the end of the novel. I thought this book was great, had some good representation, and I will definitely be reading more from Jen DeLuca in the future!

I was in a mini slump and the adorable romance WELL MET pulled me out of it! Debut Author Jen DeLuca wrote a lovely, heart-warming love story about love at a Renaissance Faire!
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Emily moves to Willow Creek after her sister April is in a serious driving accident. Hanging out with her sister and niece isn’t so bad - it’s an especially good distraction since she was recently dumped by her law school student boyfriend who she helped support financially. But when Emily is required to sign up for the Renaissance Faire so her 14 year old niece can also take part, things take an interesting turn. Kilts! English teacher turned pirate! Turkey legs! I mean need I say more?! This book is perfect for all us book nerds, especially Shakespeare fans. Thank you to @netgalley for the eArc!

This book was so much fun! Jen DeLuca's debut novel takes place in a small town in Maryland where the Renaissance Faire takes over each summer, and the heroine, Emily Parker, comes to town in a bit of a...transitional period in her life. Her boyfriend has dumped her, she's a college dropout, and she's between jobs, but she decides to spend the summer taking care of her sister April, who is recovering from a car accident, and her niece Caitlin, who has signed up to be a part of the local Renaissance Faire. Emily finds herself roped into joining as well, and she volunteers to become Emma, the tavern wench for six weekends that summer. The only issue is that the coordinator of the Faire, local high school English teacher and grump, Simon Graham, is uptight, annoyingly chronistic, and not Emma's biggest fan. But when he transforms into his role as a pirate for the Faire, he doesn't seem so indifferent to Emily at all. Emily has to figure out which is the real Simon, as well as what her place and future are.
As someone who loves Renaissance fests, this was so much fun to read. DeLuca, who writes in her afterword about volunteering herself, gives a great peek at what it's like to be a part of a summer Renaissance festival. The other main setting, the local bookstore, made me wish that it existed in real life. As a reader, it was so fun to go along Emily's adventure with her as she navigated overcoming the fallout from leaving her old life behind, making a new life in a small town, and how to appropriately wear period garb (bodices sound like a nightmare!). The writing is laugh out loud funny, and DeLuca does a great job of introducing levity amongst heavier topics like grief and emotional burnout. I certainly will never look at a Renaissance festival the same way :)
I'd recommend this for fans of historical fiction, and also for readers who are enjoying this surge of great contemporary romance, like Helen Hoang, Christina Lauren, Rainbow Rowell, and Casey McQuiston.

Absolutely in love with this book.

As a Shakespeare fan (walked down the aisle to Much Ado About Nothing's "Benedick the Married Man") and Renaissance Faire enthusiast, the knowledge of this book's existence had me squealing. Now when people ask me "Why do you look forward to faire all year?" I can hand them this book. And I can share it with SCA friends. And Texas Renaissance Faire friends. And buy copies for my library. I have a lot of love to give for this Renaissance Faire themed hate-to-love romance.

This is an enjoyable book even for non-faire junkies. Steamy romance, a compassionate heroine who knows how to get the job done, and wonderful side characters. Also, it's been a while since I've read a romance novel that's passed the Bechdel Test, so that was incredibly refreshing.

If Jen DeLuca were to write a series of Ren Faire romances... I can't even finish that sentence. It's too great a wish.

I LOVED this book! The aspect of the Renaissance Fair took me a little bit to get into, but once I did I was HOOKED. I loved Simon and Emily's relationship and this just reinforced the fact that I love Berkley books!

Ugh where to start! I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down. It was such an good-flowing, well written, and funny book. Emily was such a dream character, and I can't begin to describe how much I love a good enemies-to-lovers book. This one did not disappoint. Simon was such a good character that definitely grows on you as you read. I loved the small-town feel of Willow Creek. It felt like a better version of a Kristan Higgans novel. Less drama, and more fun and better characters. Jen DeLuca really nailed her first book!!