Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca is the 4th book in the Well-Met series, and honestly, this is my favorite out of them all. Even though this book is part of a series, it can definitely be read as a stand-alone. Well Traveled follows Lulu, who is Mitch’s cousin from Well Matched and Dex from Well Played.

I am all for stories about finding yourself and finding love along the way. This story was sweet, and I loved the character development for Lulu as she navigates a new life path full of unknowns, something that she is not used to. I hope this series continues for a while because I enjoy reading about these characters.

P.S. I have plans to attend my first Renaissance Fair this year.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my e-copy! All opinions are my own.

I always pick these up because I love Renaissance Faires, so a romance novel taking place over the summer during a Faire always sounds fun.

I only pick up maybe a couple romance books a year, but what I seem to like about them is when the couple has good chemistry or support for each other, or if it’s a more dramatic book, good tension or angst. I didn’t get any of that here. Our lead, Lulu, has a career crisis and gives up trying to make partner at her law firm, quitting and running away to join the Renaissance Faire for the summer as a break. Dex is a member of the Dueling Kilts band and known as quite the womanizer. He’s even been mentioned in past installments of this series with that reputation. With creating a romance with him in it, I wanted to know more about Dex. What is his actual personality? Or what draws him to Lulu to give up other girls? There’s nothing really explored there– it’s just that they pair up together over the summer and want to make it exclusive. They also don’t really talk about anything substantial or show how their feelings for each other develop. It didn’t really sell the relationship, so it made it hard to enjoy as a romance novel.

It does somewhat focus on Lulu’s life as she finds herself without her demanding job. This can make a strong character-focused storyline, but this wasn’t really well developed either. It was actually pretty repetitive. I mean I guess it’s life working at a Faire that can get repetitive, but it was wake up, work at Faire, talk a lot to the tarot card ladies (like a lot of tarot card talking!), and then go to bed and do it all over. The other books have a lot of either banter between the couple that happens during the Faire, or there are events that take place during the Faire that are interesting and give the characters stuff to do and interact with. I really got sick of the tarot card people– there’s more to a Faire than them!

Lastly, there was a section of the book where the character from the second book, Stacey, was talking about how she met her significant other. If you weren’t aware, the plot ended up revolving around catfishing. Stacey was explaining why the catfishing wasn’t a big deal. The 2nd book of this series isn’t as well liked because of the catfishing aspect, and this insert felt like the author was telling readers to suck it up. It really didn’t fit or flow into this book, so it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I really enjoyed the first and third book of this series, with the 3rd being my favorite. If another comes out I’m sure I’ll still end up picking it up, but I’m wondering if ideas revolving around Renaissance Faire romances are drying up for the author. Again, there wasn’t much chemistry between the couple, and it felt like there weren't any ideas on what the characters could do in this one.

Unfortunately, this has been my least favorite in this series. It's not bad, per say, but it's just solidly meh. I think it might be time to move on from the Ren Faire life, for both me and Jen DeLuca. I felt no desire for Lousia and Dex to get together or stay together, and although I can appreciate a woman taking what she wants and making the career she wants, it all just felt a little lackluster.

If you've read the rest of the series, you may want to come back to this world, but maybe don't get your hopes too high.

I feel like every book in this series that comes out somehow manages to be better than the last, and each one is my new favorite. Well Traveled is certainly no exception to that trend, and I fell hard and fast for this book. I was in a pretty big reading slump, but then ended up devouring this book all in one sitting!

I really love Louisa (aka Lulu), and can identify with her frustration with her career and being sort of lost as to what her path should be. After all, don't we all want to run away to join the circus (or Renaissance Faire) at some point in our lives? I know I sure do! (...Frequently.) The slow building of the friendship between Lulu and Dex is just lovely, and I love getting to go along for the ride as Lulu learns so much about herself and opens herself up to new experiences. This book also made me start back up with my daily tarot reading practice, haha!

This is the fourth book in the Well Met series, and can be read as a standalone. That being said, I do recommend reading the second book, Well Played, before reading Well Traveled, as Stacy and boys of The Dueling Kilts are main characters in that one and very prominent side characters in book four, and there are some spoilers for book two in this one. Though for real, all four books are AMAZING so you should really just read the whole series. ;)

First five star book of 2023! I absolutely devoured this from the Well Met series. I'm not sure what spell Jen DeLuca has cast over me, but I have been obsessed with every single book in this series. She has made me fall in love with Ren Faires and the community of characters in these books. Which is a feat for someone who has never been to a Ren Faire or had much interest in one. Though you can read these books as a stand-alone, I'm not sure why you would! And I think one of the best parts of this series is the development of the side characters and the Ren Faire community.

Though this book departs the faire originally introduced in Willow Creek, Maryland, it still has all the elements I have come to love. I absolutely loved Lulu as the heroine in this book. Who hasn't wanted to quit their job and run away to join the faire?? Even more so if there are men in kilts. And Dex was an oh so dreamy bad boy with a hidden sweet side -- my favorite. I loved the elements of forced proximity in this book and the tension between Lulu and Dex. If you haven't read this, please pick it up immediately! I cannot recommend it enough!

The Renaissance Faire is on the move, and Lulu and Dex are along for the ride, in the next utterly charming rom-com from Jen DeLuca.

A high-powered attorney from a success-oriented family, Louisa "Lulu" Malone lives to work, and everything seems to be going right, until the day she realizes it’s all wrong. Lulu’s cousin Mitch introduced her to the world of Renaissance Faires, and when she spies one at a time just when she needs an escape, she leaps into the welcoming environment of turkey legs, taverns, and tarot readers. The only drawback? Dex MacLean: a guitarist with a killer smile, the Casanova of the Faire… and her traveling companion for the summer.

Dex has never had to work for much in his life, and why should he? Touring with his brothers as The Dueling Kilts is going great, and he always finds a woman at every Faire. But when Lulu proves indifferent to his many plaid charms and a shake-up threatens the fate of the band, Dex must confront something he never has before: his future.

Forced to spend days and nights together on the road, Lulu’s interest in the kilted bad boy grows as he shows her a side of himself no one else has seen. The stresses of her old lifestyle fade away as she learns to trust her intuition and follow her heart instead of her head. But when her time on the road is over, will Lulu go with her gut, or are she and Dex destined for separate paths?

This is my first by the author and I enjoyed this unique road trip story. I will have to check other books in the series.

Lulu is an attorney who being a woman isn't getting up the rank at work and is frustrated by the lifestyle. To escape that she goes to the Renaissance Faire and travels with the Dueling Kilts and more so with Dex.

Dex is a guitarist at the Renaissance Faire who plays with his brothers and had nothing to worry about. The entrance of Lulu makes him feel and think things he never has before.

I liked how the author shows the growth and self discovery of Lulu. This slow burn story is funny with opposites attract done at its best. The casting is wonderful and great. It shows choosing your path and something you enjoy is important and how we act how others expect.

This was cute just needed bit more romance. It was pleasant to read. I recommend this close proximity, friends to lovers, fun fair story to everyone.

Another great installment in this series! I had a lot of fun and I think DeLuca does a really great job creating interesting characters, compelling plot, and all around fun vibe you’d want from a romance novel set at a Ren Faire.

Ah, the continuation of the Well Met series. I'm very passionate about this series, and I did enjoy this next installment. I loved Lulu, and her growth, and how she finally came to figure out what she wanted. I was less impressed with Dex. It felt like most of what I know about Dex at the end of this book was told to me as Lulu's opinions, and not based on what we actually see, if that makes any sense? It meant that at the end of it all, I wasn't yearning for them to beat the odds and find a way to make it work. I was just sort of like, mildly pleased when they found their way back to each other. Worth a read if you've read the other books, but not what I would consider a standalone.

I absolutely adore Jen DeLuca's stories. The Renaissance Fairs as a setting makes me feel warm inside. I felt more drawn to this book than others in the series, though, because the workaholic unplugging for a few months sounds like a dream - especially with a dreamy love interest by my side.

Another great addition to the Well Met series! This time, we followed Mitch's cousin Lulu who finds herself at her wit's end with her job at a law firm. After a spur-of-the-moment reaction, she finds herself jobless and feeling lost... so why wouldn't she spend the summer touring Renaissance Faires with a group of sexy men in kilts?

I really liked the progression of Lulu's character, and how she must revisit everything she thought she knew about her future and carve a new path for herself. It was also nice to get more action of the actual Ren Faire, which has been lacking in some of the last couple of books. I do wish we had gotten a little more of the progression of the romance between Dex and Lulu, rather than just a lust-at-first-sight turned to love. Overall, another solid contribution from Jen DeLuca!

Mitch’s cousin Louisa, a high-powered attorney, has had enough. After getting passed up for the latest partner position at her law firm, she quits her job. And what better place to spontaneously quit your job than at the local Renaissance faire, where you happened to know some people. When Stacey and The Dueling Kilts invite Louisa along to travel with them for the summer, Louisa decides that for once she’s going to do something wild. Louisa knows that the lead singer of The Dueling Kilts, Dex MacLean is bad news. As she tags along with the group, she begins to see a whole now side of Dex, a side that Dex himself may not even be aware of.

I think I just love the Malone family the most. First Mitch, now Louisa (Lulu), they are just the best characters. While Mitch was all sunshine, Lulu is a woman with plan. She’s spent her life climbing the corporate ladder, and it made me giddy to see her just straight up quit. I loved her strong personality, and the way DeLuca made her fit right into the Faire scene was my favorite part. But for being a thirty-year-old women, she didn’t seem very emotionally mature.

I’ll admit, I thought Dex would have more bad boy traits than he actually did. Which I suppose made me like him just a bit more, however I still feel as if we don’t actually know Dex. I could have used more insight into his perspective, and while we come to find out how much he’ll do for family, he just didn’t seem realistic.

The romance between Dex and Lulu also wasn’t as magnetic as Mitch/April’s, or Emily/Simon’s from books 1 & 3. I felt there was quite a bit of build up without a ton of payoff and the magic just wasn’t.

Overall, I enjoyed the newest installment in the Well Met series and if another comes out, I’ll definitely be picking it up. However, Well Met and Well Matched are still my favorite of the series.

Well Traveled is out now. Huge thank you to Berkley Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

I love Jen DeLuca’s Well Met series! I love taking a trip to a Renaissance Faire through her stories, seeing the little skits and shows, the costumes, and the fun booths where people sell things. I never wanted to visit one of these faires until I started reading these books. What a dream it would be to see one in real life! Especially if there’s as many opportunities to fall in love as this series makes it seem! Well Traveled is the 4th (and final) book in this series, and while it does stand on its own I recommend reading the other books because characters from the earlier books show up in this one. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Lulu comes onto the scene in a previous book for just a little bit, but she made an impression and I was so excited to find out she was going to get her own story in this series! Lulu is Mitch’s cousin, and if you’ve read the other books in this series you’ll remember Mitch as the kilted life of the party, who plays a role in the human chess match at every Faire. She’s an attorney, has a bit of a crisis, and runs off to the Faire where she meets a group of brothers who spend their summers traveling from Faire to Faire playing their music. Lulu goes through a lot of personal growth in this book, more so than we saw with the leading ladies in DeLuca’s other stories. She grapples with work/life balance, figuring out what she wants out of life, and letting loose a little in order to find her happiness. She tosses her phone into a wash bin, hands off her laptop to a friend for safekeeping, and goes off the grid in order to reset. That takes bravery and determination, and I loved this journey for her.

2. Dex, swoony member of the band The Dueling Kilts, is just… *dreamy sigh*. He’s a rake, who seems to be ready to find someone to settle down with. He just doesn’t know it yet. And he surprises himself when he starts realizing that the idea of having one someone to love is appealing after all. The way he looks at Lulu and the things he thinks about her had me swooning. I love it when the bad boy starts to soften because he starts thinking about the big picture instead of only living in the moment.

3. The romance between Lulu and Dex blooms at a very slow and tender rate. It was so nice to luxuriate in all their little moments together. I just feel like these two are going to make it. They went from relatively indifferent to one another, to friends, to more and it felt so genuine and authentic. There’s some steamy scenes (hello RV moment, I’m looking at you), which haven’t been too prominent in DeLuca’s other books. That being said, this almost felt more women’s fiction than romance for the bulk of the book. Which is FINE. I would have liked a little more banter and flirting between our two leads, though. The romance takes a bit of a backseat to the growth Lulu goes through until later on in the book. But I didn’t mind!

4. The secondary characters were wonderful. Lulu finds a group of card readers and develops a friendship that helps her along her way. I liked that friendship aspect. I also loved the friendships she formed with the other members of the band/team.

5. There’s SO much Renn Faire in this, and I loved it. I loved all the descriptions of the Faire, what life is like when you travel from one to the next, etc. It was so much fun.

6. I loved catching up with the couples and characters from the previous books, and seeing where their lives have taken them. I’m going to miss everyone!

7. Jen’s writing is so good. Her descriptions, the things she has her characters say to each other, and the small moments that add up to such a wonderful story are all perfection.

What a wonderful conclusion to this series. I’ve been saying for quite some time that Well Played is my favorite book in this series, but Well Traveled might have taken its place now. I highly recommend Jen DeLuca’s books, and can’t wait to see what she does next!

I’m getting so much better at staying on top of series! I recently finished Well Traveled, the fourth book in the Well Met series by @jendelucawrites and it might just be the best one yet!

Louisa is a very busy and successful attorney who is burnt out. She goes slightly nutty and decides to take a page from her cousin Mitch’s book and join the Ren Faire!! A first she’s trying to figure out her place and works the turkey leg stand. Soon she becomes close with a group of women who read tarot cards and Louisa helps them build their business into better efficient time management and more marketing. She travels to different areas with them as the Ren Faire is touring the United States.

She meets Dex, the lead guitarist of the Dueling Kilts and she is immediately drawn to him. But so is every other woman in a local radius and Dex has quite the reputation for showing women his kilt. But Lulu (as she’s known at the Ren Faire) is beguiling to Dex and he starts to this maybe there’s a more to life than sleeping around.

This was such a fun book; originally we need Dex back in book 2 and he’s kind of a jerk. He redeems himself here and it’s fun to watch Lulu let her hair down with Dex. At heart Lulu is a lawyer and this was just a temporary break from normal life, but I like that they make it work. I also like that after listening to the tarot card readers, Lulu tries it out herself!

A fun addition to the Well Met universe, this time focusing on overworked lawyer Lulu and badboy Dex. While this story didn't have quite as much pop as the previous three, I still enjoyed returning to the world of Renn Faire and Willow Creek. DeLuca always draws likable characters and avoids some of the major pitfalls of modern romance. I hope the series continues!

This is the fourth book in the Well-Met world surrounding small-town renaissance fairs. Everyone one of these books makes me want to run away to join the nearest ren fair near me.

Though I did like this book, I wouldn't consider it a romance and I wouldn't say it is necessary for this series. I can barely remember anything about the romance as it is not really even a factor in any of the character's decisions. It is a reformed playboy romance but I didn't see him in love with Lulu at all. He was such a blip in this story.

This was mostly Lulu's story of rediscovery and while I did enjoy a lot of that, I wanted a romance.

I'm going to start by saying I was a little worried about this story after the slander Dex has gone through in the other books. But honestly Lulu was the perfect fit for him because she never took anyone else words and applied them to him! I also really enjoyed the slow burn element to this book, it almost got to the point where I was wondering if Dex was actually the hero. I really enjoyed the story and have loved this universe Jen Deluca has put together. I look forward to more from her in the future.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Super cute sequel to the series! I went into to this book with somewhat low expectations because I just did not believe DeLuca could convince me to like Dex, but I was pleasantly surprised! She did a great job of writing out his character in a believable way. It was also fun to follow a side character from the previous book. I continue to really like how DeLuca writes and the dramatic, but not melodramatic, romance with sweetness and some funniness.

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for a copy to read and review

After a life altering decision, Louisa “Lulu” Malone decides to cut out technology and start focusing on herself, and that starts with traveling with the Dueling Kilts, a group of handsome men in kilts as they play at Renaissance Faires and win hearts. But, along the way, Lulu meets Dex, a key member of the Dueling Kilts and simply can’t fight off her attraction for him. Who doesn’t like a man in kilts, especially with the talent that Dex has, Lulu realizes that there is something about Dex that makes her intrigued.

I gave Well Traveled four stars, really enjoying the aspect of the Renaissance Faire and how Lulu was able to find herself without the restrictions of technology and the pressures of her old job. Now that Lulu went through some life altering changes, the Renaissance Fair has the people that she needs to surround herself with. I really enjoyed Dex and Lulu and found themselves really cute. I thought that Lulu’s character growth was really enjoyable and I felt that she was so easy to connect with. I had fun reading this and seeing all of these characters reappear felt really nice. When we saw Dex in book two, Well Played, I found that his character was okay and I didn’t really see his character as someone who was interesting, but, I liked his character in Well Traveled and felt that he matched Lulu really well.

Well Traveled was really cute and I found myself enjoying this book. Lulu and Dex had such a good relationship and found myself having fun and also loved the character development and found myself enjoying the way it too much, loving Lulu and Dex.

Every book in the Well Met series has been an auto-buy for me. I've adored every book — the writing, the romance and the storylines are fantastic. While Well Traveled isn't my favourite in this series (it will forever be reserved for Simon and Emily's story in Well Met), I really had a great time reading it! The renaissance faire setting is always enjoyable and I loved seeing Lulu grow as a character. I highly recommend this entire series and I can't wait for whatever Jen DeLuca releases next!

Thank you to @netgalley @berkleypub and @berkleyromance for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @prhaudio for a free download of the audiobook. And thank you to @berittalksbooks and @dg_reads for including me on this buddy read.

If you haven’t read the RenFaire series by @jendelucawrites , you are missing out. Especially with the latest addition, Well Traveled. I have to say this is my favorite so far. While all the others were cute, I related to Lulu needing to balance work and life and the need to escape it all.

Lulu chooses to visit the local RenFaire while she is out of town for business. She has the high power lawyer job her parents expect. What she doesn’t have is a life outside of that. It doesn’t take much for her to figure out that she will never make the partner position, she had been working so hard for….so she walks away. Walks away and right into the life of the Faire. It doesn’t help that Dex is around…with his eye on her. Dex, the playboy from the prior books.

5 stars

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