Well Played by Jen DeLuca

Well Played (Well Met, #2)

by Jen DeLuca

A laugh-out-loud romantic comedy featuring kilted musicians, Renaissance Faire tavern wenches, and an unlikely love story.

LibraryReads Pick
 
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.

Reviewed by Berls on

4 of 5 stars

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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!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 20 January, 2023: Finished reading
  • 20 January, 2023: Reviewed