BOOK REVIEWS: WELL MET AND WELL PLAYED By: Jen DeLuca

Well Met (Well Met #1)

Emily knew there would be strings attached when she relocated to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident, but who could anticipate getting roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece? Or that the irritating and inscrutable schoolteacher in charge of the volunteers would be so annoying that she finds it impossible to stop thinking about him? The faire is Simon's family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn't have time for Emily's lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she's in her revealing wench's costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they're portraying? This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can't seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon, or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek. 

Wow. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. I got it specifically because of all the hype and it's been on my Kindle for a while. Since I got the ARC for the sequel, I figure I should finally read this one. Ha. It was AMAZING!! I absolutely loved the characters and the Renaissance Faire setting made want to go to one in the worst way. I was so engrossed in the writing and the setting. Emily is in Willow Creek for a temporary time to help out with her sister and niece after her sister had been in a very bad car accident that left her immobile for a while. She is recovering from a bad breakup with a jerk who dumped her once he graduated from law school and she had ceased to be useful to him. Ugh. Simon is straight laced and an English teacher and a Shakespeare nerd and he was AWESOME. I thought he would be boring and predictable at first, but it turned out that he had a lot more swagger than I thought. I thought the chemistry between these two characters was so steamy and their banter and slow burn romance left me swooning. I did not want this book to end. I can't wait to read the sequel with one of the many awesome supporting characters!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Well Played (Well Met #2)

Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it's been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she'll even find The One. When Stacey imagined "The One," it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she's not sure what to make of it. Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey's shock, it isn't Dex—she's been falling in love with a man she barely knows.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely LOVED Well Met, so it pains me to say that I was very disappointed with this installment of the series. I was happy to be back in the Renaissance Faire setting once again and I did love the character of Stacey. I thought her sadness over feeling stuck in her life and not really knowing what to do next was very relatable. 

The problem I had was that I just didn't care for the romance aspect of the story. Stacey spent a year being catfishes . . . A YEAR! And then when she finds out the truth, she is pissed off for all of five minutes. Then she's fine with it. Not only that, but she is suddenly okay with dating the guy behind the words, despite the fact that she had not shown any interest in him at all. Then their relationship was just skimmed over. I never really felt their chemistry and since the guy had been pretending to be someone else while emailing Stacey, I never really felt their emotional connection either. I won't give away any spoilers, but it frustrated me that Stacey ALWAYS had to go chasing after him. Did he ever make a grand gesture? No. He acted like a coward and decided to just give up, but it was Stacey's responsibility to make everything happen. Also, I never really got a sense of who Stacey's romantic lead was or what moved him. I also never really understood what Stacey actually wanted to do besides travel and I just thought the ending was too contrived and it fell flat.

I really wanted to love this one, but I was bored throughout most of it and I actually skimmed some of the last chapter. I am still excited to read the third book though. I have been waiting for April and Mitch's book since I love both characters. 

Rating: ⭐⭐

ARC REVIEW: The White Coat Diaries by Madi Sinha

Having spent the last twenty-something years with her nose in a textbook, brilliant and driven Norah Kapadia has just landed the medical residency of her dreams. But after a disastrous first day, she's ready to quit. Disgruntled patients, sleep deprivation, and her duty to be the "perfect Indian daughter" have her questioning her future as a doctor. Enter chief resident Ethan Cantor. He's everything Norah aspires to be: respected by the attendings, calm during emergencies, and charismatic with the patients. As he morphs from Norah’s mentor to something more, it seems her luck is finally changing. When a fatal medical mistake is made, pulling Norah into a cover-up, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the secret. What if “doing no harm” means risking her career and the future for which she’s worked so hard?

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I went back and forth with my rating on this one. I was very intrigued for a large part of the story. I thought the author did such a great job with the day to day life of an intern: the crazy patients, the attending who thought they were God, the lack of sleep and junk food, the lack of a social life, etc. It was all very interesting. I was confused because the premise made it seem as though it was more of a romance. The romance played second fiddle to Norah's life as an intern though. Don't get me wrong, I was fine with that. But if you are looking for a romance, you should look elsewhere. I was also disappointed because the main part of the plot didn't occur until about 70% of the way through the book and when it did, it was skimmed over and seemed to resolve itself more quickly than I would like. 

I thought that the author did a very good job with the character of Norah and with the changes that she went through during the course of her internship. She started out very naive and very much a sort of doormat with people, especially with her mother. I loved the parts that revolved around Norah's family. Yes, the dynamics were extremely frustrating. Between her mother's grief and her mother's desire to see her married instead of a doctor to her brother and sister-in-law's wish that she would give up on her dreams to make things easier on them, it was all a bit much. But those dynamics helped explain why Norah was the way that she was. 

Besides the fact that it took a while to get to the main events of the plot, I did have a few issues with Norah's choices at the end of the book. I thought she was more assertive and that was fantastic, and I thought that the choices she made were understandable. However, I didn't really think where she ended up fit with her goals or the rest of the story. That part didn't really make sense to me. Also, she had done a few things that were questionable and suggested that she was going down the same path as her mother, but that part was never addressed. It seemed like the author forgot about that part and maybe Norah just ended those things on her own.

This book was pretty good in certain areas and definitely an interesting look at the life of an intern, but I still had a few issues with the pacing in certain areas and Norah's character arc.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐