A review by relright
Well Met by Jen DeLuca

4.0

I actually really enjoyed this romance - the first in a series all set around a small town’s renaissance festival. Emily moves to Willow Creek Maryland after a breakup to help her sister who is recovering from a bad car accident. She gets roped into helping with the town’s fundraiser renaissance festival after her teenage niece volunteers and requires an adult chaperone to participate. Emily agrees to be a tavern wench slinging drinks and has her eye on the kilt wearing gym coach as a distraction from her current feelings like her life is derailed. However once faire starts the previously uptight micromanaging cofounder of the fair Simon is now running around the faire in pirate garb as Captain Blackthorne with a new swarthy accent, leather pants, eyeliner, and a flirty attitude. Emily finds herself drawn to this new carefree attitude and can’t figure out whether their interactions are all pretend or if there is something real growing in there. I really liked how grounded this romance felt in terms of feeling like a believable turn of feelings after bad first impressions. I also felt that this book included some romance tropes I don’t enjoy but also showed characters stopping run away misunderstandings to have conversations to talk through their feelings instead of just dragging the reader through tons of miscommunications like some romances do. I really liked this and feel like it is helping me get into the mood for fall since our state’s fair is in fall, despite this book being set largely in the summer. I have already started the next installment of the series.