by Jen DeLuca
Series: Well Met #2
Published on September 22, 2020 by Berkley Books
ISBN: 9781984805409
Format: Paperback
Pages: 313
Genres: Adult, Romance, Contemporary Romance
Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it's been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she'll even find The One.
When Stacey imagined "The One," it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she's not sure what to make of it.
Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey's shock, it isn't Dex—she's been falling in love with a man she barely knows.
Another laugh-out-loud romantic comedy featuring kilted musicians, Renaissance Faire tavern wenches, and an unlikely love story.
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I’m not saying Well Played had second book syndrome, but I definitely didn’t love it nearly as much as the first book, Well Met.
To be fair, I went into this book knowing I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much but hopeful that I’d be wrong. When it came to the first book, Well Met, one of the biggest draws for me was that it was a Ren Faire rom-com. While the Faire still comes up in Well Played, it isn’t as prominent and I feel like a lot of the charm the Ren Faire held in the first book was lost and we’re left with… a motel and an apartment.
Stacey appeared in Well Met and becomes the star of Well Played as she attempts to escape her so-called boring life. The only thing is that she not only had a boring life that played out on page as such, but as a character she was pretty dull too. I felt like she had so much personality in the first book but this time around it was just… meh. I wasn’t engaged with her story or interested in the outcome, especially with how this romance went down.
A good chunk of this book is a catfishing scenario and I was not here for it. If the truth had come out sooner? Okay, I might have bought into it a bit more. But their conversations lasted a year and then Stacey gets over the fact that it wasn’t Dex (the guy she thought it was) so fast. Like, she was angry but then it was fine and she was moving forward. It all struck me as unrealistic to the point that I couldn’t suspend belief anymore.
And where was the humor? Not only does the synopsis promise a “laugh-out-loud romantic comedy,” but I was expecting it too based on the previous book. I didn’t find it, though. Well Played was lacking that spark, that hook, to draw me in. Faced with reading about a character that wasn’t actually interested in changing her life (only talking about how boring it was) and a relationship that made catfishing out to be acceptable, I struggled to push through to the end. I wish this book had gone deeper into Stacey’s character because it read like a side character who was suddenly the protagonist and couldn’t keep up.
Well Played put a bad taste in my mouth but my love of Well Met means I’ll likely pick up the next book in the hopes this one was a one-off. And if it isn’t clear, I highly recommend Well Met. I just can’t say the same for the sequel.
About Austine
I'm a 20-something research proposal developer with a background in the life sciences and education. Reviewer of books since 2011, amateur photographer by day, and aspiring author by night. I believe animals (and books) are better than people.
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