Well Met

By: Jen DeLuca

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

All's faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author Jen DeLuca.

Emily knew there would be strings attached when she relocated to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident, but who could anticipate getting roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece? Or that the irritating and inscrutable schoolteacher in charge of the volunteers would be so annoying that she finds it impossible to stop thinking about him?

The faire is Simon's family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn't have time for Emily's lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she's in her revealing wench's costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they're portraying?

This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can't seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek.

©2019 Jen DeLuca (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“What a delight! This is enemies to lovers at its absolute finest, folks. DeLuca proves to be a master of creating characters you believe in and a storyline to keep you totally engrossed. Well Met is a hilarious, swoony, and captivating romance - hands down our new favorite feel-good novel of the year.” (New York Times best-selling author Christina Lauren)

“Jen DeLuca had me laughing out loud from the opening line. Well Met is fresh, fun, and the story I never knew I needed. I so wish I could grab a corset and live the wench life with Emily!” (Alexa Martin, author of Fumbled)

"I dare you not to want to travel to your nearest Renaissance Faire after reading the sweet, sexy, and smart Well Met...the kind of book that you want to live inside. Jen DeLuca is poised to become one of the freshest voices writing contemporary romance today." (Kate Clayborn, author of Best of Luck)

Fun story

Well this was everything I needed in a book. I fell in love with Emily, April, Chris, and Simon. The back drop of the Ren Faire was so fun and unique. I think the epilogue was a little cliche and there was a few moments that felt... Odd for the characters behavior, but even still I had so much reading this book.

Welcome to Willow Creek

I really enjoyed this story about a wench and a pirate aka Emily and Simon and one summer at the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire. I smiled and laughed from the beginning as Emily describes how “the wench life chose me.” This is a great start to new series that I have to read more of. The next books in the series on my list.

Entertaining

This book was very entertaining and did a great job of bringing the reader into its world.

Wishing I could be at the Ren Faire right now!

This book is fantastic. I’d already read it before I got the audiobook, but since I like to multitask I wanted it on here as well to be able to reread it while doing other stuff. I love the story, I just wish there were more because all of the characters are so fun I just want to spend more time with them all. I can’t wait for Well Played to come out. Overall this is a sweet read that will make you long for a summer day at the Renaissance faire and is a wonderful reprieve from the chaos in the world right now.

wonderfully captivating story

I have both read and listened to this book multiple times over. DeLuca does such a wonderful job of creating a beautifully majestic story. From the small town, to great character development, to scenes that truly made me laugh out loud - this is a great romcom story. Emily and Simon are such great characters and DeLuca flushes our other “background” characters to really paint a beautiful picture with words. The narrator is also easy to listen to, clear, and gives such a good voice to DeLuca’s words. 100% recommend.

Good story

I wanted to read/listen this book for a while now since I’ve seen it promoted a lot on IG especially. I enjoyed it quite a lot.
The heroine annoyed me at times as well as the hero but overall they are good characters and a good story that I’ll probably read again in the future.

extremely solid first novel

This is such a fantastic listen. Truly a triumph of a debut rom com novel. It has a few wobbles, but absolutely nothing that ruins the story for me at all. It's a unique setting and all the characters feel developed and real. I really empathized with the main character and thought she was written realistically. The will they/won't they felt earned and not contrived. It was cute, it was sweet, and just a little bit spicy. Well-written sex scenes that felt unique to the characters. Loved it. And the best news? The follow-up novels only get better.

The audible narration is great except for one tiny complaint that all the men sound the same. She does unique and interesting voices for the women characters, but the men all kinda get the same voice. Not a bad voice, but it was noticeable. Didn't ruin anything. Eagerly awaiting the next installment!

Banger

Had me tee heeing and kicking my feet the whole time. Def recommend if you also want to giggle in your workplace

4 perfectly sweet Well Met stars

Oh my gosh was this story so adorably sweet.

In my hometown we have a little renaissance faire called the Olde English Fair and I could just picture walking around the park with these characters playing their parts and being amongst them.

Enemies to lovers tropes is one of my favorites to add to the unlikelihood that they are meant to end up together you meet the hot sword fighting kilt wearing hunk first before you meet the nerdy Shakespeare loving English teacher and the reader is just positive the kilt hunk is where it’s at until one too many Shakespeare arguments happen and he just starts pulling at all the right heartstrings.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ story
🔥🔥 Heat

What a rousing romp through the Faire!

I was delighted by Jen DeLuca's debut novel. I don't normally pick up romance novels, but I read about this one in my "Book Nerd" group and I couldn't wait to check it out. Now I know what I've been missing!

I thought Simon and Emily were very relatable. I've noticed some other reviews where the reviewer felt that Emily backslid from the strong, sassy character she was in the beginning. That tells me that those reviewers don't have a good handle on how anxiety and grief work -- how anxiety sneaks in and takes over just when you're starting to feel like you might finally have your poop in a group. Same goes for how Simon's grief dictated his behavior and emotions.

I alternated between the Kindle version and the Audible version, as I "read" this while traveling. Brittany Pressley knocked it out of the jousting arena with her audio production! I'll definitely look for her narration in future.

So, while I don't read rom-coms too often, I'm a fanatical consumer of Hallmark movies. I couldn't help myself, but as I read, I was writing a screenplay and casting the movie with all of my favorite Hallmark hunks and honeys. Then I got to the steamy parts. I decided to shelve my screenplay, because if the Hallmark execs ever checked out the source material, their chaste and proper eyes might pop out! Oh, well.

I'll definitely look for more from Jen DeLuca in future. I wish her great success. Thanks for a fabulous, fun read!

Well met, Jen. Well met.