It was fun returning to Willow Creek, I read Well Met when it came out and was looking forward to reading the sequel (it can be read as a standalone, but Well Met is pretty much spoiled then).
Well Played is an entertaining romance with an intriguing romance. Old and new readers of the Well Met series will enjoy this latest installment.

so cute and I love it so much it was so cute and I wish I read the series earlier love it! Jen deluxe doesn't disappoint

The best word to describe DeLuca's books: CUTE! I love the small town vibes, friendships, and sweetness of this series. If you enjoyed Emily and Simon's book you'll like their appearances in this one.

I love this series so much. I had never known anything about the world of Ren Faires before and they are the perfect canvas for playing on popular romantic tropes while infusing something completely new into the genre.


Not since Olivia Dade has a contemporary romance writer won me so quickly with steamy, snarky, comic and vulnerable prowess. I truly love this series.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I didn’t enjoy Well Played as much as Well Met and I think that may be because I had higher expectations this time around. I found it really hard not having Daniel’s POV and don’t really feel like I ever understood him. Especially since we don’t get to see any previous interactions that he and Stacey had. I could take the first chapter as their initial meeting, but I guess they’ve known each other for years? Well enough that “deep down she always wanted Daniel?” I think she ended up being too accepting of the cat fishing. I didn’t like how the final conflict played out either. Stacey’s own journey was incredibly relatable and I felt everything she did, all her anxiety, hope, and crushed dreams.

I did fall even more in love with Simon and Emily and can’t wait for the third book. (Although I feel no tension between April and Mitch right now. Please let them sleep together first.)

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the chance to review.

I was looking forward to this book having loved Well Met, but the characters in this story didn't have the chemistry that was happening in book one. Stacey seemed to whine a lot and just didn't fit with Daniel. I'm hoping for more from the third book.

If you haven’t read the first book in Jen DeLuca’s series, Well Met, you can still enjoy the sequel! I absolutely loved the first book though so I highly recommend reading both if you are interested. In fact, Well Met is probably one of my favorite contemporary romance books I’ve read.

I remember initially being unsure about the Renaissance Faire setting, but that is honestly one of the best parts of the series. The Faire is a bit campy, a lot of fun, and has that great throw back to bodice ripper romance novels while being funny and modern.

The second book follows Stacey, who is a fellow wench with Emily from the first book at the Ren Faire. Stacey is in a bit of a funk as Well Played opens. She has been stuck in Willow Creek and her enjoyment mainly comes from flirting each summer at the Renaissance Faire. She decides that maybe one of her summer flings could be something a bit more when she gets an email during the off season from hunky Dex, a member of the Dueling Kilts.

To Stacey’s surpise, the email is quite sweet, and the two begin corresponding. It doesn’t feel like the Dex she knew, but maybe he has grown up a bit or truly fallen for her. Stacey feels lonely now that she’s seen Emily and Simon find love, so she leans into her blooming relationship with Dex. But after months of intimate correspondence, Stacey realizes that all along she wasn’t to Dex, she was writing to his cousin Daniel.

Daniel is sweet, a bit shy, and nothing like the rogueish Dex. Daniel lacks the huge ego of Dex, but he also lied to her. In real life this would have red flags written all over it, but in the context of a fiction book it doesn’t read that way at all. In fact it is clear that Daniel is the type of man Stacey needs.

I found this sweet, entertaining, and a fast read. It didn’t quite live up to the first one, but that would have been nearly impossible to do. It still had the great setting, fantastic writing, signature humor, and charm as the first book. A bingeable follow up to DeLuca’s first hit!

I adored Well Met, the first in a romance series by Jen DeLuca, and so was looking forward to reading Well Played. Now seemed like the perfect time since my family and I had just been to a Renaissance Faire, and I was very much in the mood to maintain that Ren Faire ambience. It didn't take me long to settle in with the book, and the next thing I knew, I was done!

While a portion of the novel takes place off season, much of it is set during the summer in small town Willow Creek. Stacey lives for the faire and looks forward to being a part of it each year. Her dreams of a career and her own life fell away years before after her mother got sick, Stacey has accepted that she's stuck in her current life. She tries to pretend she's happy, but that façade cracks a little when her best friend Emily and Simon get engaged. After drinking too much one night, Stacey leaves a comment on the Dueling Kilts band fan page of her sometimes Ren Faire fling, which leads to a year of e-mail correspondence and later texts. She pours her heart out to him and him to her. Or so she thinks. If you are getting a Cyrano de Bergerac vibe, you wouldn't be far off. Or catfishing for the less romantic take on it. But this is a romance so let's go with with the Cyrano vibe . . .

Although Well Met was magic for me in every way, I was a little less enamored with Well Played. I did enjoy it though. It was funny and charming, not to mention the setting. I found Stacey relatable (and it's always nice to come across a plus sized heroine). On the outside, she's confident and flirty, which we see some of in the first book in the series where she is a secondary character. But in this book, with her front and center, we get to see a more complex character, as the layers fall away. It was great to see some of the repeat characters from the earlier book--Emily, Simon, April and Mitch (whose turn it will be in Well Matched, which I look forward to reading).

I admit to not knowing much about faire life, but one aspect I really appreciated about this novel was how it gives readers a glimpse behind the curtain of a Ren Faire and some of it's moving parts--from the local volunteers to the vendors and entertainers who spend their life on the road traveling from faire to faire, as well as the rehearsals, costumes, and some of the behind the scenes action.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free Advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My rating will be 3.5 stars
It was a fun read with romance and just wonderful to read. Loved the characters, had to read the first one as I wanted to read more of Jen's work!

Stacey has been living the same life for the past few years and the only time she feels alive is the weeks during the local ren faire. When another season ends, Stacey feels like it’s time to make a change, and part of that includes messaging her ren faire “booty call” and seeing if there can be something more…

It’s funny because I was so excited to read this book when it came out and then covid messed with my reading mojo and I didn’t want to read anything. This book was a casualty of that. Now I’m trying to read the backlog of Netgalley arcs that have been waiting and this was the oldest. While I felt this book was easy to read, I didn’t care for the story. I’m all for a play on the Cyrano angle, but I felt like the two main characters just fell in love really quickly for me and I didn’t feel that connection between the two of them. And I don’t entirely love a passive romance hero, I kept feeling like he could fight harder or show more. And he didn’t. I’ll definitely read the other books in the series, this one just wasn’t as good as the first.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free Advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars

While my favorites in this series are Well Met and Well Matched, I think that Well Played was extremely fun and definitely resonated in some ways. The character Stacey is someone I can relate to in terms of... what am I doing with my life? Will I ever stop being anxious about it? But the romance left me wanting more. I felt that the deception was hard to accept by the end, but that does not mean that it wasn't cute when they finally resolved everything. It just did not have the same charm as the other books, but still a solid entry in the Ren Faire series.

Thank you, Berkley Books, for the gifted copy of Well Played {partner}

Genre: Romance
Star Rating: ☆☆

I think this book had A LOT of promise but it ultimately fell very flat for me as I didn't find the chemistry between the two characters to be that believable. Maybe it was the way their relationship started? I really don't know but the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way.

Also, I really struggled with the pacing of Well Played. Before the 50% mark of the book, I really didn't feel like much happened? There was a lot of back and forth between the two characters (again with the lacking chemistry), but that was it.

I ultimately decided to not finish reading the books as I wasn't invested enough to spend more time with the characters. Maybe the next book will be a hit for me!

Saw the supposed mile twist before it even set it up, but generally harmless and not an otherwise bad read.

This series may be one of my favorites to recommend. The retellings are so much fun, and the author's skill in bringing characters to life really makes the original, often daunting, stories more approachable and understandable.

3 stars

Stacey has been living the same life for the past few years and the only time she feels alive is the weeks during the local ren faire. When another season ends, Stacey feels like it’s time to make a change and part of that includes messaging her ren faire “booty call” and seeing if there can be something more…

It’s funny because I was so excited to read this book when it came out and then covid messed with my reading mojo and I didn’t want to read anything. This book was a casualty of that. Now I’m trying to read the backlog of Netgalley arcs that have been waiting and this was the oldest. While I felt this book was easy to read, I didn’t care for the story. I’m all for a play on the Cyrano angle, but I felt like the two main characters just fell in love really quickly for me and I didn’t feel that connection between the two of them. And I don’t entirely love a passive romance hero, I kept feeling like he could fight harder or show more. And he didn’t. I’ll definitely read the other books in the series, this one just wasn’t as good as the first.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Well Played was a delightful rom-com that was a joy to read. Jen DeLuca put together a beautiful story.

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. It didn't seem fair for me to review a book that I didn't finish.

such an amazing book. Jen DeLuca has been a fave since Well Met and she has not disappointed since then! Can't wait for more

This is a sweet contemporary romance perfect for mood readers as the warmer months are coming back around. It is a part of inter-connected standalones that center on the Rennaisance Fair life. It is a sweet story with just the right amount of spice for a romance.