Well Matched

 

Well Matched (Ran Faire #3)- Jen DeLuca

Berkley/Penguin Group

Release Date: October 19, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell. 

Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire—a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she'll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what's real and what's been just for show. But when the weekend ends, so must their fake relationship. 

As summer begins, Faire returns to Willow Creek, and April volunteers for the first time. When Mitch's family shows up unexpectedly, April pretends to be Mitch's girlfriend again...and it doesn't feel so fake anymore. Despite their obvious connection, April insists they’ve just been putting on an act. But when there’s the chance for something real, she has to decide whether to change her plans—and open her heart—for the kilt-wearing hunk who might just be the love of her life.

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Another year, another Faire, and perhaps the pairing that Jen DeLuca fans have all been waiting for. Emily's (Well Met) sister April is getting her house ready to sell and their friend Mitch offers to help. Best known as a popular gym teacher and kilted Scotsman during Ren Faire, Mitch is easy-going and the life of every party. He and April have always been more frenemies than friends, but they discover they can help each other out: she needs another set of hands for home renovations, he needs a pretend girlfriend for a family dinner to get his family to take him more seriously. One stained deck turns into multiple projects, one family dinner turns into a family weekend. April and Mitch discover things about each other, the most important being how well they work together. But April has been hurt badly before and is used to doing everything for herself and not letting her walls down for anyone. Can the Faire do its magic and match Mitch and April?

You can virtually guarantee that when two people who don't really like each other are forced to spend time together, they discover a completely different person beneath that annoying surface facade.  Mitch's facade has been the happy-go-lucky jock since day one, the player who's dated every woman in town. Readers have guessed there's more to him than that, and we've all been waiting to see it. Well Matched takes its time peeling back his layers since we see him from April's point of view but even if this is your first book in the series you know instantly that Mitch has more going on than he lets us see. What I liked was that so does April, and Deluca does a skillful job of showing April and Mitch mirror each other's insecurities. The difference is that we seen April having her internal meltdowns while looking (mostly) calm on the outside, we can only guess at the mental dialogue going on in Mitch's brain. They are both the swan looking calm while paddling madly below the water line and hoping nobody sees.  

I loved April and really related to her. She's a loner, perhaps by personality, definitely helped by the emotional and psychological blows dealt to her by her husband divorcing her while she was pregnant.  She panics around people or when she becomes the center of attention, and pretty much just wants to move to a city because there you are almost expected to be anonymous.  That has always been her plan so why change now? She's always defined herself as a mom and never thought about what would make her happy for herself. Now that Mitch is making her question her plans and comfort zones, April has to decide if happiness is worth facing her fears. 

Well Matched contains some lovely scenes between April and Caitlin as Caitlin reaches graduation that would make any parent tear up (I did and I'm not even a parent!); some delightfully sizzling encounters between April and Mitch; wonderful girl time with April, Stacey, and Emily; Ren Faire magic; and hot guys in kilts. Something for everyone to enjoy! Jen DeLuca once again entrances with a lovely romance story readers won't be able to put down. Huzzah!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review