Score: 4.5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Level: 🍆🍆🍆

A huge thank you to Berkley for gifting me a review copy of Well Matched by Jen DeLuca. I was nervous about reading this book because while I absolutely adored the first one in the Well Met series, I was luke-warm on the second (I just didn’t vibe with the characters). But by the first chapter of this book I was completely hooked and tore through it with abandon, not able to get enough.

I mean who doesn’t love a smokin’ hot ray of sunshine in a kilt?! This story had friends-to-lovers, fake dating, forced proximity...and so much delicious, swoony tension between the two main characters.

April Parker has been planning to get out of much-too-small Willow Creek for the last twelve years. She was just waiting until her daughter went off to college. But then her casual acquaintance, Mitch Malone, ropes her into being his fake girlfriend for a family event. Never mind they’re just friends, or there is a nine-year age gap between them, the more time they spend together the more they start to catch real feelings for each other.

The tension and build-up between the two was perfect. And I loved that they really cared about each other on a friendship level, and stood up for the other when needed. We also got to see a little more from the Ren Faire towards the end of the book, which was just what I needed.

I gave this one three eggplants out of five on my steam scale—it is open door but also not super graphic. You know it’s going down and it’s super steamy, but you’re not quite getting a full play-by-play. Most of what I’ve read lately has either been completely closed door or you’re hearing exactly what is where and precisely what it’s doing and how—so I thought this was really good balance.

Anyway, I loved this book and it was such a fun, delicious read...I’m off to find more books about strapping lads in kilts now. 😉

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... something that 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.

An accidentally in-love rom-com filled with Renaissance Faire flower crowns, kilts, corsets, and sword fights.