Book Review: Well Matched by Jen DeLuca

 

Genre: Contemporary Romance

*Digital ARC of this book provided for review through NetGalley

Well Matched is the third book in Jen DeLuca's Renaissance Faire romance series and is a book that I have been excited to get my hands on since I finished book two last fall. I found Jen DeLuca through The Wicked Wallflowers Club podcast and the second I heard she had written a Ren Faire romance, I was in. I devoured Well Met (book one) and read Well Played (book two) the second it came out. I found them to be fun and sweet: a soothing balm to my unending stress during 2020. These books are light and fluffy while delivering on well-rounded characters, satisfying relationships, and steamy sex scenes. 

Summary

April Parker is a single mom who is getting ready to send her daughter off to college. Facing having an empty nest and more time to herself, she'd getting ready to move away from the small town she'd settled in years earlier for her daughter's benefit. She finds herself agreeing to pretend to be her sort-of-friend, Mitch Malone's, girlfriend for a family gathering in exchange for him helping her ready her house to be put on the market, and the series of events that follows challenge everything she thought she knew about who she is and what she wants.

This book is full of delicious tropes that romance fans like myself adore: fake dating, only one bed, grumpy one/sunshine one, and age gap. These are all tropes that I personally love a lot so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. April is about 10 years older than Mitch and is set in her grumpy and private ways. Mitch is a literal ray of sunshine who worships the ground she walks on. What's not to love?

Now I have to be honest, I don't think that this book is my favorite in the series. Well Met, the story between Emily (April's younger sister) and Simon, still holds the number one spot, but Well Matched was still a delight. I read it in about a day and I had a good time. Jen DeLuca's writing is straight forward and feels very real, especially since all these books are written in first person from the heroine's POV only. If you're looking for a light, feel good read, this book fits the bill, although I do recommend starting the series at the beginning. They work as standalone stories, I just think it's more fun to read them in order.

4/5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"It was a nice room, all things considered. Except that I was going to be sharing a rose-petal-covered bed with Mitch Malone for the next two nights."

Buy Well Matched: B&N | Book Depository | Kobo