Well Played

By: Jen DeLuca

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

©2020 Jen DeLuca (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Stacey finds her greatest joy at the Faire, looking forward to its return each year. In DeLuca’s hands, we’d have to agree - there’s endless tales and excitement to be found in this world, still one of the freshest, most engaging concepts in romance a year after she introduced us to it. A hearty huzzah for Well Played." (Entertainment Weekly, on Well Played)

Root for him!

Another trip to the Renaissance Faire in Willow Creek. I’ve been waiting for the 2nd book and it was quite adorable. It’s truly a fun, fluffy, and light type of read. Nevertheless, I am into the 1st book a lot more than this one and it’s hard not to compare the 2 couples. Even if Emily and Simon is still #1 couple for me, I still rooted for Stacey and Daniel. It’s a 3.5 for the story plot. Great development of characters and written nicely. I can’t wait for April and Mitch’s story...I got suck in the end about them 2, giving a glimpse of their cutest banter.

Story: ❤️❤️❤️💔
Audio Narrator: Brittany Pressley ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Steamy: 🔥🔥🔥
Overall: ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Angry review full of SPOILERS

SPOILERS AHEAD, BEWARE

This book infuriated me so much that I don’t even want to listen to the third one anymore. I loved the first book, but a big part of that was the male love interest taking responsibility for his own 🐂💩. That does not happen in this book. He lies, he’s forgiven. He says no more lies. He’s caught in yet more lies, what he does is despicable, and his excuse is I was in love with you for years and you only noticed my cousin. What in the incel hell? She does not owe him anything, not her attention, not her time. Absolutely cannot with this book, returning it immediately.

I actually liked more than the first

I expected to like this less than well met because of the reviews on goodreads. Although I can see why some people may not like it as much because the male leads are times….let’s say makes questionable judgment calls when it come to the female lead- I still liked him. He seemed more like an idiot than a manipulator.

Wonderful!

I loooved this story. I related to Stacey so much and couldn’t get enough of her story.

Back to Willow Creek

I enjoyed Stacy’s story as time moves on in Willow Creek. Stacy wants more out of life as she sees Simon and Emily move on with their lives. Over the next year, she connects with someone who understands her and finds out what really makes her happy and how she wants to live her life. She falls in love with the right guy for her, not Dex McLean but a McLean who’s better for her.

I enjoyed this one and got to go back to Willow Creek to see what Emily, Simon, Mitch, and April are up to.

29 Year Old Straight Man Reacts to Romance Novels

I’m a fan of Jen DeLuca. I find her character work to be charming and the small town setting of her novels? Love it. I really enjoyed Well Met and was so excited to hear that my favorite character, Stacey, would be getting her own love story in Well Played. Unfortunately, I really didn’t find anything to like about Deluca’s second novel. A love story built on catfishing and manipulation by an incredibly insecure guy to get the girl, it left me feeling sad for Stacey’s future more than anything else. Her dreams and life plans set aside for her mother’s health, Stacey is now in her late 20s stuck in her parents house with no real goals in place. She’s lost her confidence but she’s still such a bright character, it’s so hard to see her fall for a guy who would trick her for so long. “But he loves her and she loves him!” Sure but the way he went about it was incredibly disturbing and if a friend did this to someone or I had a friend that this happened to, I’d be furious for them. I wish Stacey could get another shot, we see a brief peek at her getting out of her funk in the epilogue but it doesn’t feel earned. It came from being with the man who manipulated her. Just a real bummer.

Not as good as the first book

Spoilers!


Not a huge fan of Daniel.
I just felt like he didn't have much depth to him and was very insecure. at one point he says he isnt insecure but he wouldn't have acted the way he did if he wasnt insecure. Also, he never fought to keep her. She did all the work! Liked the narrator though! I felt her voice matched how I pictured Stacey when I read the first book.

Cute but not as good as the first

It was cute, but the story wasn’t as engrossing as the first in the series. I liked the idea of the relationship developing via text, and it was nice getting so much character development of Stacy and everyone else in this cute town… but the plot was a bit slow moving and dull. Not too boring too finish, but not captivating my full attention (good while multi tasking, I never felt like I missed anything important).

Romance at the Ren fair

Another adorable romance that left me happy and feeling good. Perfect summer/beach read. Can't wait for the next one!

This is adorable

This is the second book oh my god I’m in extra love! This is much more drama filled than the last book and I can’t wait for the third book

cute, but not as good as the 1st

This was a bit less enjoyable of a listen than "Well Met". i didnt enjoy Stacey as a character as much as i enjoyed following Emily's story in the 1st book in this series.

i will say that it was well written and in an easy to read/listen style and i enjoyed the faire aspects of it again. The twist towards the end of the story however still shocked me and i was quite intrigued by it. Hence the 3 stars. i just wished the character of Stacey could have been a bit more interesting and less 'woah as me, im dependent on having a man'.

Really bad

(This review contains some spoilers.) I really didn't enjoy this book, which was disappointing as I thought Well Met was great.

Stacey says she wants a life of her own, but she just folds herself completely into the life of a man - a man who starts their relationship by lying to her for months on end about who he is! Stacey talks about how sincere he is, yet he rather comes across as cowardly and dishonest.

Ok but didn’t live up to expectations

I thought it was nice, but it didn’t live up to expectations. I found the relationship between the main couple to be rushed and a bit lacking. I loved revisiting the world of this series and the characters from Well Met.