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 … 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.
more
Fun, quirky, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, romantic comedy
Emily Parker is 25 years old and currently at loose ends, after being summarily dumped by a callous live-in lover on whose behalf she had dropped out of college to spend five grueling years working two jobs to help put him through law school. When, soon after this debacle, she gets a call from her 37-year-old, divorced sister, April, to help take care of her during her recovery from a bad car accident, Emily is more than willing to temporarily relocate for the summer to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland. Emily likes to be useful, and she is very fond of her sister and her 14-year-old niece, Cait.
Emily initially has no interest in getting involved in the small, tight-knit community of Willow Creek, but Cait desperately wants to volunteer for the local Renaissance Faire, and she cannot participate unless a parent or adult caretaker volunteers with her. Out of a combination of curiosity about the faire and deep love for her niece, Emily hesitantly agrees to act as a stand-in for April.
On the sign-up day for faire volunteers, Emily encounters the main person in charge, Simon Graham, a handsome, 27-year-old, high-school, English teacher. His older brother, Sean, started the Renaissance Faire from scratch 10 years ago with major help from a local woman, Chris Donovan, who owns a small, indie bookstore and plays the Queen of the faire. But ever since Sean tragically died of cancer three years before when he was only 27 years old, Simon has been carrying on with the faire as much as a burden as a pleasure. It is an enormous responsibility.
Emily is surprised and angered by Simon’s rudeness to her, which she believes is based in an insulting assumption that she is a flake who isn’t committed enough to the success of the faire to be worthy to participate in it. But this inauspicious start to their relationship soon takes a surprising turn. On the grounds of the faire, where Simon dresses and acts the part of a hot pirate named Captain Ian Blackthorne, and Emily is in character as a brassy tavern wench named Emma, Simon/Ian initiates a surprisingly thrilling flirtation with Emily/Emma. Gorgeous Captain Ian is impossible to resist, but while hot-blooded Emma willingly succumbs to his sexy blandishments, cool-headed Emily can’t help wondering—is any of this real? Or are the Captain’s sexy quips and burning kisses an entirely fabricated connection that only exists between their uninhibited alter egos?
Over the years I have only read one or two romance novels with a backdrop of a Renaissance faire, but that particular setting seems well suited to romantic comedy. I enjoyed the colorful events of the faire in this story and appreciated all the quirky subcharacters who take part in the faire. Willow Creek is a cute little town which is filled with an entertaining cast of eccentric locals.
This story is written with two main plots. First, there is a chick-lit style main plot of Emily as a woman scorned who is on a journey to get a backbone and become the star in her own personal drama rather than always being a sidekick and unpaid servant to an ungrateful man.
Second, there is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance plot between Emily and sexy, cranky Simon. For me, personally, this romance runs into a bit of trouble for over half of the book due, in large part, to the author’s telling her story entirely from Emily’s first-person point of view (POV). That artistic choice is typical of chick lit but not at all usual in adult romance novels, which almost always offer the dual POV of the heroine and hero. In this novel, first-person inevitably creates reader alienation from Simon for most of the book, because he comes off as an uptight jerk since that’s Emily’s opinion of him. Fortunately, when the tide finally begins to turn toward romance instead of enmity between these two, and Emily stops wallowing in resentment toward him, we are at last allowed to begin to experience the real Simon, who is a sensitive, compassionate guy. At that point I began to like him very much and truly enjoy the romance.
For those who prefer G-rated romances, this one is more PG. There is only one sex scene in the novel that goes into any detail, but it is not particularly graphic, and Simon is both sensual and tender toward Emily.
I greatly appreciated that this novel retains its lighthearted tone throughout, never bringing down the comedic tone into jarring darkness by swerving into melodrama, as far too often authors of supposed romantic comedy tend to do.
All in all, this is a fun read, and I rate this novel as follows:
Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Renaissance Faire plot: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 3 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars
I was in the middle of two other books when i started the audiobook of this. This book had everything i was looking for. Enemies to lovers with an adorable plot. I didn’t want to stop reading it. I loved all the Renaissance fair talk and loved Simon and his standoffishness right from the start. Emily was so sweet, it was hard to not like her. Her life had always been helping others before herself. Their story was adorable. I loved everything about these two and the writing was so good. This was just what I needed to believe that amazing romcoms were still out there. Simon is a new book boyfriend. I was only 30% in to this book and had already bought the paperback for my shelf! Loooved!
Funny and heartwarming, a lovely read.
Well Met is a satisfyingly enjoyable debut from author Jen DeLuca. DeLuca creates a compelling “enemies to lovers” tale with the unique backdrop of a local Renaissance Faire. Emily has recently relocated to the small town of Willow Creek to help her sister, who was in a car accident. She’s thrown into volunteering for the Ren Faire, and immediately clashes with Simon, the man in charge of it all. And, as the story progresses, we see that there’s often a thin line between hate and love.
Well Met is quirky, surprisingly heart-felt, and infused with a lot of humor. The character exposition is better than it has to be, which creates an even richer, more enjoyable experience. I was (minimally) worried that this novel wouldn’t live up to its hype, but am happy to report that it exceeded my expectations. This is a novel you’ll want to read in one sitting, because the story is just that good. [And it gets bonus points for putting one of its secondary characters in a kilt, which typically isn’t my thing, but I wasn’t mad about it.]
Really cute romance very well written
you know I was so excited for this book
1. new plot(I mean I haven’t read about people falling in love in a Faire)
2. a character who’s not the same as the other guys in NA (super hot, a manwhore, etc.)
But it turns out to be a bit meh, I mean, this is a romance book, Simon and Emily interact(short interactions btw) like 3/4 times in the first 30% of the book, and then after that everything happens so fast, that book went from 0% to 100% to 0% again,they were kissing and then nothing was happening and I was so frustrated
but even if Im disappointed and I didn’t like the book as much as I would like to, I liked Simon and Emily they were cute when they weren’t fighting without apparent reason lol, I loved Emily’s family and I absolutely liked some of their interactions in Faire, they were funny
My heart is so full of joy right now.
This very quickly became a new favourite romcom. It was so funny, really sweet, full of heart, and a complete delight.
I never would have thought the world needed a romcom set at a ren faire, but it turns out the world did need it, and Well Met delivered and then some.
Emily was a fantastic narrator. Considering how badly she’s been burned in the past, all of her self-doubt and hesitations felt so realistic and my heart broke for her. Watching her grow over those couple months and figuring out how to set down roots for herself was a beautiful experience. I loved the relationship between her and Simon. I really enjoyed that how they grew together.
A stunning debut. I will be recommending this to my contemporary loving friends, and will likely reread it myself every summer.
Wow! What a great surprise this new release by brand spanking new author Jen DrLuca turned ou to be! I love a good Rom Com, but one based in a Renaissance Faire? score!
Absolutely fell in love with the Emily and her family dynamic. It was unique. Simon was a surprise I didn’t see coming and what a great surprise indeed. I won’t bore you with all the details, the cover does a good job of that, but read this fun story!
Warning! It contains guys in kilts!!!
Loved this! Such a fun, lighthearted, adult romance.
Great debut by Jen DeLuca. Emily and Simon were pretty cool and I loved the Ren Faire premise.
Well Met was such a cute contemporary romance; I enjoyed it immensely. I loved the setting of the Renaissance Faire, and I loved hate-to-love romance between Emily and Simon. I even enjoyed the small-town setting, which usually is not my favorite (I am a city girl) but the author made me a convert. I fell in love with Willow Creek and it’s inhabitants. I hope we will get more books set in this town and featuring characters we already encountered in Well Met. Overall, I had a great reading experience and would recommend this book to all romance readers.
“Well Met” by Jen DeLuca was a cute, sweet story with a unique setting behind the scenes of a Renaissance Faire in small-town Maryland. I really enjoyed learning more about the inner workings of such events and the people who participate in them. (Spoiler alert: they’re not all quite as nerdy as you’d think they are!) The characters were all quite endearing, and I appreciated the book’s focus on the importance of family and how our relatives can have such a profound influence on the paths we take in life.
The one thing that might have improved this book for me is getting Simon’s perspective on events, which wasn’t really possible given the first-person narration by Emily. At times, I found myself to be frustrated by Simon because he seemed to have such a hot-and-cold attitude towards Emily, and I didn’t understand why. It would have been nice to know more of what was going on inside his head because it would have helped me warm up to him as Emily’s potential love interest earlier in the book. That said, Emily and Simon’s mutual enmity did give the book something of an “enemies-to-lovers” vibe, which I always enjoy, and also led to some fun banter between them as they got to know each other.
At any rate, I really liked this book and hope that Ms. DeLuca plans to write more stories set in the town of Willow Creek. I would especially love to see Emily’s sister, April, get her own HEA. It seems like she’s been through a lot over the years, and while I’m sure that her daughter Caitlin brings her much joy, April deserves to have something more than just work and her daughter in her life.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Confession time: I’ve never been to a Renaissance faire. I know. I’m ashamed to even admit it. Especially since there’s a great one in Maryland, not all that far from me. It’s even referenced in Well Met a couple times! Well while reading this book, all I wanted to do was run off and join the ren faire. Or at the very least visit one. The world Jen built was that engaging and intriguing. So were the characters. I’ll admit to a little initial side-eying of grumpy Simon, but I do love me a good grumpy hero, so I held out hope he would win me over. And boy did he ever. Emily was no slouch either. I loved her. We should totally be friends.
I loved a million little things about Well Met. The characters and they fact they didn’t have it all together, even as adults. The little details about the ren faire that made me feel like I was right there beside Emily (Emma) in a tavern wench costume serving beer. Emily and Simon’s enemies to friends to lovers romance. The wooing! Simon’s grief and how easy it was to relate to him. Emily’s desire to find her place and her people after being totally wrecked by a bad relationship. The family aspect and watching Emily rebuild and strengthen her relationship with her sister, as well as the bond she formed with her niece as they volunteered at the fire together.
Well Met was a wonderful book. It’s pretty rare these days that I find one-sitting reads. You know the ones. The books that once you crack them open, you literally cannot and will not do anything until you finish. That’s exactly what this book was for me. I’m not lying when I say I cheesy-grinned, giggled and swooned my way through almost this entire book. When I wasn’t grinning, giggling or swooning, I was feeling all the feels. I can’t wait to see what Jen gives us next!
Favorite Quotes:
I didn’t choose the wench life. The wench life chose me.
Emma the Tavern Wench was turned on by Captain Blackthorne, Pirate. This could be a problem.
“If we were wed, when night fell I would take you back to my ship, give the men a week of shore leave, and show you my appreciation very thoroughly, and in private.”
Simon kissed like a pirate. His lips were soft yet demanding, but his tongue… plundered. There was no other word for it.
Emily Parker’s life is in turmoil since her boyfriend dumped her after she put him through law school. So with no where to live Emily decided to move to Willow Creek, Maryland from Boston, MA to help take care of her sister April and niece Caitlyn while April is recovering from a bad car accident. While Emily doesn’t mind being the cook and chauffeur, she didn’t expect to get dragged into volunteering to be in the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire that runs the entire summer, but since Catilyn really wants to do it she agrees.
At auditions Emily meets Stacey Lindholm and together they volunteer to be the bar wenches. She also meets Mitch Malone, the good looking gym teacher, Christine Donovan, a local book store owner and Simon Graham, the grouchy and stiff English teacher who is organizing the faire.
Emily and Simon do not hit it off at first but Emily slowly sees sides to Simon that intrigue her. Whenever he is in his pirate costume he is a sexy, flirty person that Emily enjoys being around. As these two spend more time together their attraction to each other is fun to watch. Both of these two have issues from their pasts that is making it harder to move forward in their lives. Just when it looks like Emily and Simon are going to get their happy ending, the past comes back to haunt them. Some really tough decisions need to be made by both of these two if they ever want to get their happy ever after!
I really enjoyed this story. Emily is such a strong woman but at the same time she has such low self esteem when it comes to relationships. Simon is the perfect catch on paper but he has some demons in his past that he needs to overcome before he can ever find his happy ending. Together they balanced each other well and I just adored their happy ending that they did finally get.
I also really loved the supporting cast…especially Mitch….he brought some fun humor to the story. Overall this was a great story with wonderful characters and I would highly recommend it!
This was a great debut book from Jen DeLuca. I knew from the cover and the blurb for Well Met I was going to love it and I wasn’t wrong. This book had me smiling a lot and turning the pages as fast as I could. I have never been to a Renaissance Faire and now I want to go.
Emily moved to help her sisters after she was in an accident. Her niece decides she wants to be part of the Renaissance faire her aunt gets her there but didn’t expect she would have to participate. Simon is now in charge of running the faire. Simon and Emily’s banter and their attraction were off the charts. Emily has to decide what she wants to do with her life after her sister doesn’t need her help anymore.
I loved this book so much. If you are looking for a funny fast paced read that will grab your attention this is it. Must read!
There are sooooooo many things I want to say about Well Met….to begin, I’m just going to say….GRAB THIS BOOK NOW!!!!
I absolutely loved Emily’s character; we all have been in her shoes in some way or another…..she rose above everything and became such an inspiration!!!! Simon….oh Simon….he is welcome to woo me anytime!!!! The supporting characters had so much depth to them….they certainly added to my joy of reading!! I was texting my girlfriend and told her how I loved “Emma” and “Ian”’s connection
I am blown away at how this could be Ms. DeLuca’s first novel!!! I just want to read more of her words!!!
Annnnndddddd……I want to attend the Renn Faire now!!!!
I’m going to end with a few of my fav quotes:
“Above you are the stars and below you is the earth”
“When I woo you, you’ll know it”
“But then you came along, Emily, and you weren’t a should. You were a want.”
Swwwwwwoooooonnnnnnnnn
Reviewed by: Dana D.
Loved this amazing debut! I absolutely 100% love diving into the words of a debut author. You never know what you’re gonna get and there is always the overriding hope that you will strike gold (thank you Helen Hoang in 2018). And once again I got it right here. For the most part, the setting for this romance is at a Renaissance Faire that takes place in a fictional small town in Maryland. Our heroine is Emily who has moved here temporarily to help her sister who is recovering from a car accident. In order for her 14-year-old niece to be able to participate in the town’s Faire, Emily must also volunteer to take part. And Emma the tavern’s serving wench is born. Simon is our hero who is the local high school English teacher and Faire organizer extraordinaire. Emily suggests a few changes to improve the Faire and Simon is having none of it. These two begin to butt heads right away. And so begins the enemies to lovers dance with lots of humor and heart. I was completely connected and invested into how things would turn out for these two. Secondary characters were perfect… from Emily’s sister, April to Mitch ( who doesn’t love a hottie in a kilt no matter what’s underneath?) to Chris ( Your Majesty and lover of vanilla lattes) and other various actors of the Faire. I have never read a romance that takes place under the umbrella of a Renaissance Faire which I found refreshingly different from everything else out there. Emily and Simon’s love story was full of humor ( Shakespearean conspiracies anyone?) along with some heartfelt emotion as Emily and Simon navigate through some past baggage-born hurtles to their HEA. I was thoroughly charmed by this book. Five massive stars from this reader! Well Met indeed….
Reviewed by: Jamie B.
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, in part because I knew the hero was inspired by Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time. It’s a gem of a debut from Jen DeLuca and I haven’t stopped swooning with love for it.
Emily is in a major transition period of her life. She was summarily dumped by the man she thought she was going to marry after years of putting her own life on hold to support his schooling and future career. She heads to her sister’s small town to take over as caregiver while her sister recovers from a car accident. Part of her responsibilities include volunteering for the summer Run Faire so her teen niece can participate. Emily is grateful for the chance to reconnect with her family while she figures out her next steps, even if she didn’t anticipate becoming a tavern wench in the process.
There’s a lot to love about Emily. It was refreshing to read about a character who dropped out of college and hear how she feels about the decision now and whether she really wants to go back to school. I also loved how she felt about the town and its people, the way she’d been looking for a place to call her own and stumbled right into it. This really resonated with me. Her character arc was so strong as she took ownership of her life and figured out how to move forward after having put her own needs on hold for so long.
Then there’s her antagonistic relationship with Simon, who’s in charge of the faire.
Simon is basically my dream man. He’s a high school English teacher by schoolyear, Ren Faire pirate by summer. More than that, he’s a cinnamon roll disguised as an uptight grump. (If you don’t picture Simon as Captain Hook/Colin O’Donoghue while you’re reading, you’re doing it wrong.) Of course, Simon has Reasons for being such a grump. Simon’s arc is a moving exploration of grief and how grief can evolve as the years progress. He has to figure out who he is apart from his loss and how to integrate it into his future.
And then there’s Emily and Simon together. I get weak in the knees for their banter. It’s such a simmering slow burn between them and when they finally give into their attraction: fireworks! I loved every part of their relationship. There were so many swoon-worthy moments: piles of roses delivered at the faire! He makes her breakfast! He sets out to woo her! Gah, be still my heart.
But they also have to figure out how they are together in real life, versus how they are as their Ren Faire characters. There’s some great exploration about identity, expectations, and the masks we wear. Simon, particularly, feels free to let loose at the Faire in ways he never does in his normal day to day. Who is he really: the pirate Captain Blackthorne or Simon the English teacher? He needs to figure out how to accept both sides of himself and figure out what he really wants.
The side characters are just as amazing as the main couple: sister April, niece Caitlin, Chris, Stacey, the bookstore-owning Queen. I loved all the people who featured into this story. And I especially loved Read It And Weep, where Emily starts working. I would like to go there immediately.
This book made me so happy! There’s so much humor and heart. It also made me want to go to a ren faire asap. Whenever it happens, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for a Simon of my own.
I do want to note this is a very white book. Not only is there nary a person of color in town (at least, depicted on the page), April decided to move there so her daughter wouldn’t have to attend Baltimore schools. There can be all kinds of valid reasons people don’t want to live in cities but she didn’t say why, which made me think of the implications of Baltimore’s reputation and how white people might react to that. It stood out to me as a white reader and I can’t help but wonder how POC readers might feel.
CW: past death of a sibling due to non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, grief, car accident
Disclosure: I received an ARC from Berkley in exchange for an honest review.
When Emily moves home to care for her older sister, April, who was badly injured in a car accident, she reluctantly volunteers at the local Renaissance Faire at the request of her 14 year old niece, Caitlyn. Much to her surprise, she enjoys the atmosphere including Mitch, a hot man in a kilt! But, alas, there is also oh-so-serious Simon who organizes the Faire and continually irritates Emily with his gruffness and oh-so-many rules. Will he ruin her time at the Faire?
Oh my goodness; this debut was the sweetest… but also the steamiest! It was romantic, flirty, and fun with a whole lot of heart. And bonus, Emily works at a bookstore! I’d definitely recommend this humorous, contemporary romance for fans of Shakespeare, books by Christina Lauren …. and/or love. Lastly, I look forward to more from this debut author and would love to revisit these characters in a sequel about April! Hint hint.
“‘Well met’… can be a simple ‘nice to meet you,’ but it can also mean you’re particularly pleased to see that particular person at that particular time.”
“Someday, I wanted someone who would love me. Not for what I could do for them, but for who I was to them.” – Emily
Location: Willow Creek, Maryland
I won an advance copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. All opinions are my own.
Emily has moved in with her sister to help take care of her after a car accident. Her niece Caitlin is interested in the Ren Fair and in order for her niece to participate, Emily needs to volunteer. There she meets Simon and from the moment they meet, he’s giving off “stay away” vibes. What follows is a funny and romantic love story.
From the first line of the story, where I laughed out loud, I was hooked. Emily is completely relatable. She’s strong and assertive and she always speaks her mind. Once Emily and Simon had a serious conversation, their chemistry drew you in. I loved these two together. While it wouldn’t interest me to participate in a Renaissance Fair, DeLuca made it seem like it would be a lot of fun to attend.
The storyline was a blast and the characters were fantastic. Once you started reading, you didn’t want to put it down. I would love to see more of them in future books. The book goes from funny to sexy and back again, a perfect romantic comedy.