By Jen DeLuca
The second installment of the Well Met series picks up about a year after the first. Will this Renaissance Faire filled with kilts, wenches, and lonely hearts keep me laughing? Will Well Played charm and enchant me as much as my first visit to the faire? Let’s find out.
Read if you like: cute and fun contemporary romance, mistaken identity, sweet and unassuming guys, a spunky and kind leading lady.
Stacey has been a part of the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire for most of her life. And while she loves being a part of such a great community, she can’t help but feel that something is missing. Something that goes far beyond the end of faire season. She yearns for change, but how can anything change while she’s so stuck. On the verge of striking out on her own, Stacey had to move back home to help with a family crisis. And even though that was five years ago, nothing has changed since. Even the totally droolworthy, kilt-wearing, travelling faire musician Dex is losing his summer fling appeal. But maybe, it’s not too late for a change. After a self-pep talk and a late-night, tipsy, Facebook message to Dex, she finds herself in over her head with a new romantic pen pal. Dex could be this deep under the kilt and muscles, right? Right?
*I guess a spoiler warning, but I mean, he’s on the cover, so really? *
Dex has a wench at every faire compliments of his good looks, guitar playing, and kilt. (Get ready for a lot of talk about kilts.) Daniel, the musically ‘untalented’ cousin, is the band manager. Both look forward to the Willow Creek Ren Faire, for the same girl and different reasons. Unknown to Stacey, the sweet and supportive messages she finds herself eagerly anticipating each day are from Daniel. Because Dex is about as sweet as he is hot. And he’s really hot. Apparently.
This book was cute and sweet and that’s about it. I found myself eagerly anticipating, not Daniel, but tidbits of Emily and Simon together. I just wanted more. More depth. More romance. More interaction instead of introspection. Stacy and Daniel are both stuck and it seems that realizing they aren’t alone in feeling this way is all they need to get their lives in order. But even that was slow and predictable. The romance was also funny, sweet, and just a little spicy (one drawn-out ‘3 pepper’ scene). Stacey’s friends saved the ending, as much as the original couple kept me interested in the middle. Well Played was fun, but it felt like more of a ‘let’s give a side character a story’ bridge to get us to book 3 than a sweep-you-off-your-feet romance. Now book 3… I’m excited to see how that story plays out.
Check it out with Well Matched.
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