Well Played by Jen DeLuca Book Review

Well Played by Jen DeLuca. Photo: Amazon UK

Cute and easy read, but it could have done with a less irritating female lead and more realistic character interactions

This is the second title in Jen DeLuca's new series, I've previously reviewed Well Met and I rated it 5 stars because it was utterly adorable and I loved both the idea of the story and the main love interest (Simon) was just delicious as a pirate. So when I saw that DeLuca had a new follow up title based in the same world, I jumped at the chance to read it! Overall, Well Played had cute parts and I enjoyed being back at the Renaissance Faire in Willow Creek, but it just didn't live up to my expectations that were set high from the first novel.

Well Played focuses on Stacey, Emily's best friend from Well Met. Stacey has had a summer fling with Dex, a sexy musician in one of live acts who play every year at the faire. This summer she gets a tad wine drunk and sends a mushy/cringe message to Dex, but it turns out she messaged the general band's account (mortifying). But she received a message back from Dex that sets them off on a whirlwind electronic romance comprised of emails and texts. Little does Stacey know, she's not messaging the person she thinks she is. This may be a bit of a spoiler, but it's extremely obvious and alluded to in the book's synopsis on Amazon soooo, it's Daniel - Dex's cousin and the man who manages the band. After a year of getting to know each other electronically - they soon meet face-to-face and Stacey is in for a major shock when she finds out who she's been digitally falling for. 

I found Stacey to be a slightly annoying main character. I didn't mesh with her as well as I did with Emily. There were a couple of instances when Stacey reacted very strangely and just broke my reading rhythm - like once Emily said something completely normal and Stacey went ballistic in her head saying things like 'Oh she thinks I'm stupid and ditzy because I have blonde hair and I like to smile a lot.' Then another time she almost had a freak-out over April and Emily saying that she needed a larger dress size - freaking out on them in her head like they had just called her a fat whale or something (when they legit said nothing of the sort). I didn't really enjoy Stacey's inner monologue - in fact I did find her a bit dumb and she worried about being a 'basic' bitch - when it seemed that's exactly what she was. I know this story was about change - but Stacey did an awful lot of whining and mentally attacking people before she could admit that she was the problem. 

On to the love story aspect, I thought the fact that most of it played out over texts and emails was frustrating - there wasn't enough face-to-face interaction for my taste. I mean it is a modern story and I know that many people can grow close from just messaging online - after all I did have to do 7 months of a long distance relationship - so I know firsthand how those messages can go. But I think the added catfish element was another layer in the love story. I personally think that Stacey forgave him far too easily - it was weak of Daniel to let it go on for a year - constantly lying about who he was and then even when Stacey confronts him - he lies. I don't know - that's a bit too much lying for me. 

As with the first novel from DeLuca - a lot of the drama/tension in this novel could have been simply resolved if the characters acted like the adults that they are and communicated properly with each other instead of assuming and hiding their true feelings. It was incredibly frustrating to read and at some points I wanted to give the characters a good shake so that common sense would return to them. I didn't enjoy cheap drama that could be settled by using your words like grown ups. 

It did have a cute ending and I did like Daniel despite the fact that he is an easy liar, he did have a confused and dopey feel about himself (I'm not sure if this is exactly what DeLuca was going for - but those are the vibes that I got), it helped me forgive him easier but still Stacey should have made him work for it. I know that women don't need to be chased - but with all the shit that Daniel put Stacey through - I was expecting (as was she) that he would have some big romantic gesture to make it all up to her, but instead she had to be the one to chase him down. Nothing like a grown man hanging his head in defeat when he didn't even fight for the person he said was 'The One' - I think that Daniel is a bit weak. He can say all that stuff online, but saying anything genuine to Stacey's face seemed too big a task for him. 

All in all - I finished this extremely easy read in one day, but it certainly wasn't as good as the first in the series. I look forward to Well Matched which is currently set to publish in the Fall of 2021. This story felt like I bit of a let down - but to be fair I didn't like Stacey as a character that much in the first novel either. I again have high hopes for DeLuca's next novel. Well Played is a quick, cute story that could have had used some more realistic character interactions and it suffered from an irritating female lead. 

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Buy Well Played here.