Fun sequel to Well Met full of missed signals and long distance. A modern look at Cyrano de Bergenec And how we often assume the truth we want. Also examines the guilt children of sick parents can feel when faced with opportunities to flee the nest. I really enjoyed this one.

I really liked "Well Met," so I couldn't wait to read this. But...SIGH...it doesn't quite make it.
I mean, I liked Stacey's back story, but my brain had a hard time getting into the buildup because we all knew the set up (Stacey's not talking with Dex; she's talking with Daniel) and it annoyed me. Also, it made Stacey appear stupid thinking Dex suddenly had some hidden depths, when anyone of us who has talked to a himbo for more than 30 seconds would've realized there wasn't nor would there ever be any depths. So a lot of time was wasted not creating that tension that we look forward to before a couple finally gets together. Another twist comes later on that only made me madder at Daniel. I thought Stacy was a little too forgiving. I think April and Mitch are he focus of the third book? I hope that turns out better.

All of our favorites are back for this years fair! It ends with a surprise though, Emily and Simon are engaged! Everyone just knows they have to have the wedding at the fair next year! While being a bridesmaid in the wedding of two of her best friends, Stacy realizes how lost and alone she is feeling. She has one glass too many and sends a message to her summer fling Dex. Surprisingly he replies and thus begins their year of emailing and texting almost daily. When the fair comes around again, Stacy cant wait to see him…but is everything as it seems?

So Well Played was one of those books that I won in a giveaway and was like eh I don’t know if its for me. But I hit a slump and gave it a shot and I loved it!! So I knew I needed to read this one as soon as I saw it available on netgalley! It did not disappoint! All of my favorite characters are back, Emily and Simon are more in love than ever, and its finally Stacy’s turn! I did figure out the situation pretty much immediately but it didn’t take away from the story at all! If you loved Well Met, you do not want to miss out on this sequel!

I was so excited when I got approved to read Well Played, Jen Delucas second book in her renaissance trilogy. I loved Well Met, so I was really looking forward to getting back to Willow Creek for another round of fun! I really connected with the main character Stacey in this book & I feel like many 20somethings will; she was always comparing herself and her life to others her age and posting on social media trying to be the happy-go-lucky person she pretended to be. Meanwhile, she was bored, working a dead end job in her small hometown feeling like everyone else in her life was moving on and settling down while she remained at a stand still. Luckily, by the end of this book, Stacey found what truly made her happy, she cared less about social media and people’s perceptions and more about what really made her feel full. Daniel MacLean was the sweet & shy guy who ends up changing Stacey’s life for the better. Their story wasn’t conventional, but I loved every second of it! I cannot wait for the third and final book to arrive!

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[4.5/5stars]

I love Jen DeLuca's romance books. Though I loved Well Met a bit more, I still really enjoyed this one. In this book we are following Emily's best friend, Stacey, and her romance with a member of a band, the band being one of the acts that plays at their faire. I love Stacey as a main character and really connected to her in certain regards. She is such a kind person, putting others above herself and putting on a positive facade as to not bring others down. She also stayed home after college to take care of her mother after heart surgery, again placing others before herself. She is the kind of friend you can always rely on, but the kind of person that needs to learn to put herself and her feelings first once in a while. And she begins to learn how to open up about her feelings when she begins emailing and bonding with the love interest.

The reasons I couldn't give it a full 5 stars was that (1) the conflicts in this book felt too easily resolved, (2) I wish we had gotten to know the male love interest more, and (3) I wish there was a bit more of the faire elements like the last book (but there were still some!). Also, it didn't matter too much to me, but the summary kind of spoils a plot point. So, it's not technically a spoiler, but the love interest that she has been emailing actually turns out to be his cousin...even the cover spoils it, but this isn't revealed until halfway through. I feel that it would have been more intriguing to be a surprise in my opinion (so don't read the summary if you want to be surprised!)

But overall it is just such a fun romance and I love Stacey a lot. I also really love the other characters, such as the couple from the first book Emily and Simon, and enjoyed the bits we got to see of them again! I am extremely excited about the third book in this series, and the couple that it follows!!

So excited to be back in the world of Ren Faire, this time following Stacey’s story. Stacey is a bubbly personality and veteran to the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire, and her feelings of wanting more from life, I felt for her and related so much. She puts up a front and only opens up when she thinks she’s having an earnest conversation with Dex, her Ren Faire hook-up when it isn’t.
It was a new take on the masked identity from her last novel, Well Met, which I loved the parts featuring Emily and Simon. Though in this instalment it took a little bit of warming up to the idea, the cat-fish troupe wouldn’t be my top favourite.
I love Jen Deluca’s writing and I’m a huge fan, can’t wait for the release and more from her and this Ren Faire world and it’s Shakespeare references.

3.5/5 stars

Well Played was a cute sequel to Well Met, which I loved, but lacked just a little something from making it a 5 star read. I think there was a tad too much of Emily and Simon in this one, where the focus should have been more heavily on Stacey and Daniel. I also think having half of the book's romance take place over emails and texts messages hurt it a little, and made the chemistry between the two feel a little lacking when they did finally meet back up at faire. All in all, despite the whole catfishing angle which could turn some people off, this was a sweet follow up to Well Met and I look forward to book 3, which is going to focus on April and Mitch and hopefully return this series to 5 stars.

Well Played is a fantastic follow up to Jen DeLuca's Well Met. The characters are well developed, the plot takes you on a wonderfully emotional journey as Stacey discovers where she wants to be in life, and who she wants to be with.

Book Review 📚
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Thank you so much @berkleypub @berkleyromance for my free copy via @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
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This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I was so excited to get an advanced ebook from the publisher. I absolutely fell in love with Well Met last year and was so excited to jump back into the renaissance faire world!
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I didn’t love this one quite as much as I did Well Met. A good portion of the book didn’t take place at the Renaissance faire and that was one of the things I loved so much in the first book. The faire setting gives these books their charm, so I didn’t really like this one mostly took place in the real world.
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The second half of the book definitely redeemed itself. I didn’t feel much of the main characters chemistry until the second half of the book. But boy, do they get some chemistry going.
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This was a cute contemporary romance and a perfect summer read. I definitely recommend these books for a great escape read. I can’t wait for the third book to come out. Well Played releases on 9/22!
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This was a great addition to the Well Met series! Loved catching up with characters from the previous book and getting to read Stacey's story. Can't wait for Mitch and April next!

I absolutely adored Jen DeLuca's Well Met. Just LOVED it. I was super eager to get into Well Played, but it was obvious right off the bat that the spark from the first novel was missing. Stacey and her problems didn't exactly pop off the page for me, and the first 40% of the novel is a slog of e-mails and text messages between Stacey and what she believes to be Dex, a regular musician on the faire circuit she's had some sexy times with when he's in town. This takes up the majority of a year that crawls by until it's finally revealed to Stacey what we all know going in: she hasn't been talking to Dex at all. She's been talking to his cousin, Daniel.

The book tries to call this a Cyrano de Bergerac situation, but when Stacey confronts Daniel it turns out this isn't the case. It's just straight up catfishing. At midway through, I'd say this is the book's crisis point. It's a doozy. Stacey bends over backward insisting that she a) did not know AT ALL that she wasn't talking to Dex and b) somehow, deep down, wanted it to be Daniel despite her not thinking about him AT ALL for the first 40% of the book but c) is extremely hurt by Daniel's actions because WHO WOULDN'T BE? and d) hopes he'll simply apologize and she can kiss him and all will be well! I mean, you can tell right here that everyone who had a hand in writing and editing this book knew the premise was a problem and tried VERY HARD to downplay the creep factor. I won't deny someone can both be hurt and hope to wish it all away but COME ON. This is a romance. I want to root for these people, not gasp at them like they're a real life Reddit drama.

Stacey is a pretty basic girl--love of pumpkin spice, fairy lights, few hobbies that don't involve Instagram. Daniel seems like a pretty basic guy--he wears black a lot and likes Guinness. Both wish they could change their lives up--do something different than what they're doing or being. That's really all we know about them at the halfway mark, despite all the soul-touching e-mails. I wasn't really that interested in either of them enough to plow past Daniel's betrayal of Stacey's trust.

So, I can't continue. I'm just closing this book down at 50% and I hate that I have to do that, but the premise is just too much of a quagmire for me. Had it been a true misunderstanding and at the halfway mark they discovered they were talking to each other simultaneously, that would have made for cute rom-com moments and kept me on board despite my lack of interest in the characters. Unfortunately it's just too creepy for me to want to watch Stacey stumble all over herself to forgive a man who doesn't really seem to deserve it.

I'm still totally looking forward to Jen's third faire book, though. Give me more faire. Just not Stacey and Daniel. Whatever their fate is, please let them ride off into the sunset and never return.

This is Jen DeLuca’s second book in the 'Well Met' series, following the women of Willow Creek and their romances at the local Renaissance Faire. 'Well Played' features Stacey as she comes to terms with her life as a small town office receptionist and part-time tavern wench. She’s spent the past two summers hooking up with Dex MacLean, practically a Hemsworth and the guitarist for the popular Ren Faire act, the Dueling Kilts. After a night of wine and loneliness, Stacey decides to message him on Facebook. She gets a reply and spends the next eleven months pouring her heart out to him in emails and text messages. But what if the MacLean behind the messages isn’t Dex?

'Well Met,' the first book in this series, was one of my top reads in 2019 and perhaps my favorite contemporary romance novel ever, so I came to 'Well Played' with high expectations. I loved the Ren Faire setting, the silly, sexy banter, and the characters DeLuca drew – including Stacey, a.k.a. Beatrice the tavern wench. A confident, funny, plus-sized woman who likes to have fun at the Faire, she was the perfect protagonist for DeLuca’s next book. My copy of 'Well Met' came with a preview of Stacey’s story and, while a sizzling romp with Dex sounded like a lot of fun, I was excited and intrigued by Dex’s cousin Daniel.

While I was happy to return to Willow Creek and see what Emily, Simon, and the Ren Faire family were up to, I have to say this book fell a bit flat for me. The story started out in a positive direction, but quickly became bogged down in an extended catfishing sequence with lots of earnest messages about small towns and Guinness beer. I’m all for a slow burn, but there was no burn here. And the reveal, when it came, amounted to not much at all. I wanted to root for Stacey and Daniel but just couldn’t make myself care. I love a good HEA (Happily Ever After), but I wish I was more invested in this one. That said, I will happily linger in the Willow Creek universe and plan to pick up the third book in the series, 'Well Matched,' when it comes out. Huzzah for more Ren Faire romances!

One of my most anticipated reads of the year and it did not disappoint!

I was so excited to get my hands on this one after LOVING Well Met last year. This one follows Stacey, Emily's friend from Well Met, and I really don't know if I've related to a book character as much as I related to Stacey in a long time. Stacey's love story was so sweet and very steamy. Overall just a wonderful read - I flew through this one.

There are some small details and nitpicky things that I didn't love, but it wasn't too major of an issue to ruin the book. Also, I felt like some of the smaller conflicts got resolved a little too easily but oh well.

Overall - SUCH a delightful read 4.75/5

So excited for Well Matched!!

Well Played is a sweet and romantic follow up to Well Met, Jen DeLuca's previous book in this series. In this book we follow Stacey, who was introduced in Well Met.

Much of the main relationship of the book happens over the internet, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any spark. DeLuca handles the online aspect of the characters getting to know each other with sweetness mixed with some excitement.

The main heroine in this book, Stacey, does show some self-deprecating habits, but DeLuca goes out of her way to show that Stacey is smarter and more capable that she thinks of herself. It's always wonderful to see an author treat a character so well.

I hope to see more in this series from DeLuca.

Stacey, a renaissance fair enthusiast, looks forward to the faire (and hooking up with Hemsworth-handsome, but dull,n Dex) every summer. But this year, when the faire leaves town, she and Dex begin emailing and texting back and forth every day, opening up and learning more about themselves and each other.

Yet, when the next summer comes around, she discovers that it wasn't Dex that she was really communicating with.

DeLuca does a surprisingly heartwarming job of creating a meet-cute centered around catfishing that somehow manages not to be manipulative, and is actually rather sweet.

Overall, a cute story about opening up and embracing change.

Jen DeLuca graciously invites readers back to the ren faire - and then some - in "Well Played," the follow up to "Well Met." In "Well Played," we follow Stacey (fellow tavern wench to the first book's protagonist Emily) as she navigates the lurking feeling that she's meant for more than the modest small town life she's found herself stuck in, as well as trying to let go of last summer's faire fling, the handsome and kilted musician Dex. After an impulsive DM goes awry, Stacey and Dex begin building a relationship over the off-season via text, email, and messenger, a modern-day arrangement of pining through letters and poetry of days gone by. But it feels too good to be true. So is Dex playing her for laughs, or is there something else he's hiding?

DeLuca's sweet, sassy prose and small town ren faire vibes are like a comforting welcome home hug (followed by an intense gossip session!) with a close friend from back home. This book primarily takes place during the off-season so it's slightly less "ren faire" than the first book but it didn't bother me. Stacey is a wonderful lovely supportive clever girl who deserves all the joy in the world, even when she's talked herself out of it time after time. This romance is delightful, fun, heartfelt and clever at every turn. All the characters are becoming so beloved to me and I seriously LOVE Willow Creek and I wish I could visit their faire!!!!

I was so happy to be back at the Renaissance Fair. This year, as her friends from Well Met get engaged, tavern wench Stacey takes stock of her life and sees where she’d rather be instead. She reaches out to her summer Faire fling partner Dex to see if they can develop a deeper connection. To her surprise, a tender and deep online relationship is forged between her and Dex... or does it? The Renaissance Faire comes around again and brings some startling realizations.

Cute story but fell a bit short for me. Heard good things about Well Met so I might have to give that one a go.

I want to like Jen's books I really do. They have such interesting premises and she's a fun follow on social, but I've yet to feel more than small enjoyment for one of her stories. This book could have more enjoyable for me if the curvy heroine was written in a more authentic way. This definitely read to me like the author didn't fully grasp how or why Stacey would feel the way she did about her body. Instead we're giving the same tired lines and scenes that have been used over and over. I think Jen should take a lesson from Rebekah Weatherspoon or Olivia Dade on how to write authentic curvy women.

DeLuca is new on the scene, but sure to be on many auto-read lists from here on! Her characters are lively and relatable and her writing is thoughtful and clear.