Since I'm familiar with Jen DeLuca's Renaissance Faire series, I went into "Well Traveled" blind, without reading the synopsis. This is partially because I trust DeLuca, and partially because even though romances are pretty predictable, I wanted to discover as I went along instead of anticipating. I sometimes do this with movies, avoiding the trailer. Hell, I didn't even look at the cover of the book before reading!

That meant that I was pleasantly surprised with how Louise "Lulu" Malone (cousin to Mitch in "Well Matched") completely self-destructs while attending the Ren Faire and quits her job as a lawyer, mid-conversation with her boss on the phone. For anyone frustrated with their job, it's a thoroughly satisfying fantasy to play out.

Of course, that means while Lulu is regrouping, she runs away with the Ren Faire, traveling along with the band the Dueling Kilts for a while until landing back at Willow Creek. And yes, if that name is familiar, it's because we saw Stacey and Daniel's love story in "Well Played" earlier in the series, in which Daniel has a bit of a Cyrano moment as the band's manager.

So here's where it gets weird. Fairly early on, we're introduced to the various Dueling Kilts musicians, all of whom are good-looking dudes from the same family. What's odd is that it takes so long for it to become apparent who Lulu is supposed to match with. To be clear, as readers by process of elimination we can figure out it's Faire Casanova Dex MacLean because Lulu has the strongest attraction to him. And eventually it's revealed that all the other men are paired up with others. But the slow burn of this attraction is so subtle, so seemingly one-sided that I didn't feel much tension at all. For a good chunk of the novel, we're just following Lulu doing a lot of Ren Faire stuff, which includes learning that's she's good at collecting tips and organizing the tarot card readers' appointments.

Anyhow, I found that I really didn't mind that at all. DeLuca makes up for that very low and slow simmer in a rather explosive and satisfying narrative way. But I can see how that pacing may feel off for some people because we don't get as much of the anticipatory "dance." But we do get for more Faire than usual, lots of behind the scenes, more of the rhythm of the day-to-day, a better feel for the different groups. I really liked seeing more of the fortune tellers, and like Lulu, I'm a skeptic, so it was approached in a way that I found sympathetic.

I felt that I didn't get to know Dex MacLean as a protagonist that well. We know that he's underestimated and relegated to just being the pretty boy lover boy with a heart of gold, but I still had difficulty getting a handle on him. It ultimately made it more difficult to understand the chemistry between him and Lulu. I took it on faith, and I liked Lulu enough to keep reading, but he seems more conceptual than real to me.

There is an air of maturity and bittersweetness to their romance, each having gone through quite a bit in their lives and suddenly realizing they needed to change. I didn't need to read the acknowledgments (although I always do) to know this was written during the pandemic. A few rom-com authors I'm familiar with released books during the pandemic, and while a couple of them were disappointments, not quite living up to the levels of depth or humor as they had previously, one author dug deep and delivered a devastatingly heartbreaking yet beautiful romance.

This is not quite to that level, but it does tap into a bit of the feeling of the past few years, the wistfulness, discarding old habits and toxicity, the recalibration of what's important, gravitating toward something new despite fears. This installment in the series is the one that will probably stick with me the longest.

(Review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley and Berkley)