A review by beckyyreadss
Well Met by Jen DeLuca

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you, Michael Joseph Penguin Publishing, for sending this book to rate on the spice-o-meter and to write an honest review.  

This book is based on Emily who has moved to the small Maryland town of Willow Creek for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident. But when her teenage niece Caitlin volunteers for the local Renaissance Faire, Emily’s suddenly signing up too as a . . . tavern wench. She’s not sure how it happened, but it’s certainly to do with Simon, the infuriating and inscrutable schoolteacher running the show. The Faire is Simon’s family legacy, and he doesn’t have time for Emily’s jokey approach, her take on Shakespeare, or her suggestions to liven things up. Yet as the Faire comes together and each inhabits their costumes roles, he becomes a different person. Is irritation turning to flirtation? Soon, Emily’s asking herself: is there mutual attraction real, or just the roles they’re playing? 

Sometimes I love when you can relate to a character and other times I hate when you relate to a character. Emily is this character to me. I love the fact that she is all over the place and doesn’t know what to do with her life. She was also made to feel worthless about her ex-boyfriend and is also doubting her skills and confident and I also relate to that, and it felt like she was in my brain.  I love that Jen DeLuca managed to make a male MC with problems that are real problems like grief and pressure and the small-town problems such as only being known as someone’s brothers or someone’s best mate. The storyline was cute, and I liked the idea of the Faire and how everyone particates. I have a soft spot for enemies-to-lovers in a small town, it just makes it 1000% times better when everyone knows they have feels for it each other except them. I loved the family aspect of this book with Simon having no one and Emily having a weird and wacky relationship with her sister and niece.  

In terms of Spice-O-Meter, I thought it was spicy, you don’t get the spice until chapter 15 or 16. With this being a slow burn, I expect that, but I would have loved more spice once it finally happened. The spice that we do get I would say is a 4/10 but I enjoyed it and it fit with the storyline and these characters.  Personally, I love dual POVs which would have made this book better, I would have loved to have heard Simon’s thoughts when he was shutting Emily down in the first couple of chapters because all we saw was Emily’s POV and her opinion was that he was an asshole who was looking down at her for being a dropout.

Whilst writing this, I've noticed that there are more books in this series, so I'm excited to see how this will carry on and if Mitch doesn’t get his own book, I will riot.  
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