Name: Well Played
Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)

After loving Well Met, I was really excited for the continuation and Stacey's story in Well Played. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I'm really glad I was able to join in reading it with Brandee (4 stars), Lillian (4 stars) and Lenore (3.5 stars).

I already liked Stacey from Well Met, but I didn't know her full story -- all I had seen was this incredibly sweet, but a bit flighty young woman who loved Renaissance Faire and seemed to have a secret relationship going on. So I was curious to know more. Her story is deeper than I expected, but also had the potential to go a lot deeper. She's sacrificed for her family, but also allowed it to freeze her in time, living in an apartment over her parent's garage and giving up on her ambitions. I enjoyed watching her work her way out. My main complaints in her journey were that she could have gone further, she needed an awful lot of hand holding to get there, and it was a fairly predictable end. I'm not so bothered by the predictability... that's part of what I love in my romance, that I can count on it to go certain ways.

From the very get-go, I was sucked into this story, though. So much of the romance is told through emails and text-messages, which I always really enjoy. Lillian and I talked about how it reminded us of You've Got Mail, which I just adored. Watching her fall in love through the thoughtful, funny, kind, sweet words of emails/texts all the while making predictions for when they would see each other again in person 1 year later was exciting. And once they do... oh I wish I could say without spoiling. But it was both exactly as I anticipated and yet better in many ways.

I listened to Well Played and Brittany Pressley once again delivered a flawless performance. She really has grown to be one of my favorite narrators over the past year. She consistently brings characters personalities to life through her voices and I love that I can easily listen at my normal 2x speed. I look forward to listening to the third book very soon!

Well Played is another fun day at the Faire. I wanted to dress up and be part of the fun.

Stacey Lindholm couldn’t be happier that her friends Simon and Emily are getting married or her BFF from college just had a baby. Except Stacey’s life has been going, well, nowhere. Really. No. Where. Nowhere for the last few years actually. When her mother had a heart attack a few years ago, Stacey walked away from the internship of her dreams in the fashion district in New York City, and by the time she was recovered, it was simply too late — all Stacey’s prospects and connections had dried up. But things could be worse than a ho-hum job in the tiny town of Willow Creek, where she’s lived forever, right? And she loves helping out at the Renaissance Faire that benefits the school each summer. But is that really enough to make a woman happy?

That could be what prompted that drunk Facebook message to Dex MacLean, her hook up for the past two summers from the Celtic band, The Dueling Kilts. Dex is super hot and they had a good time together. I mean, they didn’t go out or anything or really have much conversation, but he did call her again to hook up again so that should mean something. Maybe? Stacey is actually surprised and delighted when he responds to her, especially since they didn’t really spend much talking during their hook ups. Stacey and Dex correspond and get to know each other pretty well over the next several months. Yet as summer approaches and it is almost time for the Faire to begin again, Stacey is wondering if there can be more to their relationship when Dex travels 10 months of the year and she’s just a small town girl along his yearly travel schedule.

Except wondering if there can be more between herself and Dex might not be the right question to ask once Stacey begins to think she hasn’t been speaking with Dex at all this whole time, and if the man she has been pouring her heart out to isn’t Dex, who is he?

There are two reasons I enjoyed this story so much. First, I really like the backdrop of the Renaissance Faire. I enjoy going most years when it comes around our area. Especially this year, since there was no Ren Faire because of the pandemic but I could relive the shows, the fun and the costumes through the story. I almost felt like I should dress up while I was reading.

I also enjoy the plot of getting to know someone through correspondence, whether by letter, text or email. It gives the characters a chance to connect on a deeper level than just physical attraction. Now this isn’t really sight unseen, since they know each other, but still they are getting to know each other better without the physical distraction. I am not much for love at first sight or insta-love stories. That always comes down to a simply physical attraction and not much basis for a long-term HEA.

Since it is part of the book description, I am not giving anything away by saying Stacey is not corresponding with Dex but his cousin, Daniel. The big question is why and is this some sort of Cyrano de Bergerac mix up? Is Daniel responding for Dex or is he responding for himself?

There are two things that did bother me although they are not significant but they annoyed me nonetheless. First, we are told several times that Stacey graduated as a fashion major. She knew by looking at Emily what her wedding dress should look like and that her sister’s bridesmaid dress would look perfect on her. But when Stacey walks into the dressing room with her dress, which obviously looks different than the other bridesmaid, we suddenly learn that Stacey is plus-sized and suddenly she has body issues looking at the dress, and she is self-conscious trying on this generic sized bridesmaid dress that doesn’t zip all the way on her. First of all, this is the first hear about Stacey being plus-sized. Obviously, it is unimportant to the series so far since Stacey’s weight was never brought up until now. We know she looks great in her serving wench dress at the faire. She obviously dresses herself in clothes that accentuate her assets (see fashion major) or else she wouldn’t have been so attractive to Dex and Daniel. She obviously had no problems getting naked in front of super hot Dex, many, many times and he’s a man who has a woman at every town. So Dex can crook his finger at any woman, and he crooked it at Stacey. She also had no issue getting naked later in the story so why the sudden issue of how she would look in a bridesmaid dress when she was consulting with the bride about dresses and posting on Emily’s Pinterest page. Really WTF? Stacey is presented as a confident woman, regardless of body type, who obviously is very attractive. It bothered me as it was suddenly out of character for Stacey and unnecessary to the story.

When later in the story, Daniel texts Stacey to meet him at his hotel room. Stacey is saddened that maybe Daniel just wants her to hop into bed with him as a hook up like Dex. Well, let’s put aside the fact that they were getting to know each other for nearly a year in emails and texts and she should be able to come right out and discuss her concerns with him. But, if he believed that a year of getting to know each other would equate to an escalation of physical affection since he would only be in town for four weeks, especially after she hopped into bed with his cousin several times with no strings and barely any conversation, I couldn’t really blame him.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the series so far as a whole.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Berls

Written on Jan 20, 2023

EBookObsessed

Written on Sep 10, 2020

Sam@WLABB

Written on Sep 1, 2020

Rating: 4.5 Stars

When I read that last line, I let out an "awww" and a smile spread across my face. It was wonderful to be back in the world, and I am crossing my fingers that we got a little peek at the next love match.

Full review to follow

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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edafoe

Written on Jul 22, 2020

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 Wel Matched!!

Well Played: The addictive and feel-good Willow Creek TikTok romance (Well Met, #2)

by Jen DeLuca