TEST
Well Played – the second in Jen De Luca’s series of renaissance faire-centered romances – is a bit of a step down from the excellent Well Met. While the story itself is charming, and the heroine is wonderful, there are several rather frankly icky plot points that keep this one from a higher grade.
Renaissance fair actress by summer weekends and dental office secretary by weekdays and offseason, Stacey Lindholm is stuck in a holding pattern. The world seems to move around her, sweeping away her best friends into happy, fruitful lives, but Stacey is still in her parent’s home at Willow Creek, anxiously watching over her sick mother, prevented from staying out of town and pursuing her dreams of being a fashion designer.
The engagement of her friends and fellow actors at the Faire – Simon and Emily (hero and heroine of Well Met) – jolts her back to reality, the one in which she’s twenty-seven and not getting any younger. It’s time for her to get on with her life, and in light of that she vows to herself that she’ll have her life together by the time next year’s ren faire rolls around the following spring.
She’s also looking to resurrect her moribund love life. Stacey has feelings for her yearly faire hookup – handsome, muscular musician Dex MacLean, member of the Dueling Kilts. But Dex has also slept with almost every single woman who works at the fair, and seems not to be interested in commitment. Thus when Dex responds positively to an impulsive, drunken get-to-know-me-or-I’m-gone email, a correspondence begins, and Stacey is soon over the moon for him.
A year passes along as the Dealing Kilts travel and Stacey grapples with adulthood without major progress, although she gains a sense of hope thanks to her correspondence with Dex. But sign-ups for the faire bring a revelation into view when a repeated phrase in an email clues Stacey in to a startling fact – it’s not Dex with whom she’s been building a relationship over the past few months but his cousin and the manager of his band – quiet, geeky Daniel MacLean. Will she ever be able to forgive him?
The biggest problem I have with Well Played is its central conceit. Daniel is Cyrano-ing it up here, has been lying to Stacey for an entire year about who he is, and had no intention of telling her the truth – until he slips up. This is catfishing, and lasts for the first half of the book. How many pages does it take Stacey to forgive Daniel after she finally confronts him? Only thirty. He does apologize but she seems all too eager to shrug and adjust her expectations, and I desperately needed him to face some harsher consequences. Daniel is a beta hero and I love beta heroes, but he seemed to be setting himself up for a lifetime of passive victimhood.
Speaking of passive, the book tells me that Stacey’s true passion is fashion, but she doesn’t spend much time honing her designing or sewing skills. I wanted more of her doing that, wanted to understand who she was before her mom got sick, but the book’s breezy page length means we don’t get to linger.
Daniel uses Dex’s identity to get into Stacey’s pants, but he and his cousin do not really fight over this, nor does Dex put up much of a fight over his cousin (and business partner) falling in love with the woman he’s been having an annual fling with for years. That felt highly unrealistic in a lot of ways.
And yet Daniel and Stacey aren’t bad people – they’re just being manipulated by the plot in a way that’s uncomfortable. Stacey is the kind of heroine whom anyone could relate to, and Daniel is a nice guy who has been taught that approaching women will lead to bitter embarrassment every time. They’re understandable in spite of the plot’s creaky contrivance. When they’re being themselves, the romance is charming.
As always, De Luca does a beautiful job with the setting. Her take on renaissance faires and small town life is inspired and beautifully handled. All the quiet details of Daniel and Stacey’s relationship, too, are sweet and lovely to read. We get a lot of build up for Simon and Emily’s ensuing wedding, reminding us all of why we fell in love with De Luca’s work in the first place.
Well Played is weaker than the first entry in the series, but it’s not unreadable, and that means it’s worth a look, though not a top priority one.
Note to the cover artist: for the love of Mike, if the book tells us the heroine is plus-sized, please draw her that way!
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 30/09/20
Publication Date: 09/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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Hi Lisa, like you I loved Well Met and was really looking forward to this book. I agree with you that unfortunately it was a let down. It had much less about the Faire but I could accept that as there was so much in the first book that maybe the author didn’t want to retread old territory. My favorite part was Stacey and Daniel’s e-mails and texts in the year in between Faires – they opened up to each other, built a connection, and it was charming. What I didn’t like is that it was always Stacey forgiving Daniel and fighting for their relationship. Daniel just gave up too easily for my taste. I also agree with you that much was made of Stacey giving up her career dreams and in the end it felt like she just followed Daniel’s path rather than forging her own and there being some compromise in the relationship. Based on the strength of Well Met, I will read the 3rd book in the series. Luckily for me, my library purchases a lot of romance e-books so I didn’t have to pay for Well Played!
Thank you, Manjari!
The worst part about Stacey and Daniel getting that intimate – at least for me – was that all of that character development and bonding was happening under false pretenses. It was all wonderful and sweet, but the whole time she thinks he’s Dex, so it’s not even really Daniel in her head she’s falling in love with.
And God yes – Stacey talks so much about dreaming about the fashion industry, but she does NOTHING to forward her dream and then decides to run around the country helping Daniel with the band! I would’ve and could’ve accepted them taking the time to do long distance under their real names while she moved to a bigger city and created a costume shop or a dress shop or what have you, but the book is far too anxious to force me to forgive Daniel for his indiscretions, which I cannot do.
I’m wondering at the price of books these days. At this moment, this book is $9.99 on Kindle. It’s just over 300 pages, and if it’s like the first book, it’s a very fast read. I don’t begrudge artists/writers getting paid for their work, but pricing on books is all over the map. I’m assuming that it depends on who sets the prices? I liked the first book but not enough to pay $10 for this one.
“I’m assuming that it depends on who sets the prices?”
You’ve got it. Mainstream/Big 5 publishers are still stuck in the mindset that e-books should cost only slightly less than paperbacks and hardcover books, even though the production costs are way lower (or so I’ve heard). Also, they might have to price it higher than KDP because there are more people to pay in a publishing house, including the author, than a self-publisher or print on demand publisher who can cut out all or most of the middle men.
Joe Biel, the small press owner who wrote The People’s Guide to Publishing, is no fan of Amazon because he says it’s been a race to the bottom for book prices. He argues that before Amazon set a policy that e-books priced at $2.99 could earn authors up to 70% royalties, nobody expected to purchase a 50,000+ word novel- that may have taken more than a year to write- that cheaply. Now, the lower price has become the standard.
While I understand Mr. Biel’s concerns and annoyances as a competing small publisher up against Amazon, KDP’s lower e-book prices and removal of publishing barriers has been a boon to many. 70% royalties are unheard of for authors in other venues. So, on a $2.99 e-book, a KDP author earns about $2.07 per sale in major markets (it varies by pennies based on “delivery charges”). That’s a pretty big chunk. But, of course, the author is on her own- no editors, no cover designers, no advertising, etc. So there’s definitely advantages and disadvantages to both.
I refer to the big publishers as the price-fixing publishers. The practice got started about a decade ago when Jobs at Apple encouraged the price-fixing. Since I refuse to pay $10 or more for any ebook, I have almost 300 titles on a price watch list (using https://www.ereaderiq.com/track/). Since I have thousands of books tbr already, I am willing to wait years for prices I’m willing to pay. It hurts the authors, but I simply will not support the greed of those publishers.
I notice prices when I’m uploading reviews to the site as I’ve always got the relevant Amz page open, and my mind boggles at some of them. The Olivia Dade book I’ve mentioned here is $10.99 I think, and I seem to recall a fairly recent discussion here about a contemporary romance that had a price tag or around $13-14 – maybe someone can remember what it was. I’ve also noticed a price increase in romances with cartoon covers, which are pretty much all selling for more than the $7.99 price point that seems to be the norm for other romance titles with non-illustrated covers. Historical mysteries are priced way higher than historical romance – which may be a reason so many HR authors end up moving into that genre. With the pound not all that strong, UK prices are not generally that much lower (that said, the Dade is £5.99 here and has a different cover) and sometimes I’ve found titles priced at £1.99 here that are $$$ in the US.
I would certainly baulk at paying ten quid for a novel of any kind. I’m lucky that most of the time I don’t have to, but if I did, no way could I afford to read as much as I do.
So yeah, publishers set the prices but sometimes I have to wonder if they pick them at random!
“I seem to recall a fairly recent discussion here about a contemporary romance that had a price tag around $13-14- maybe someone can remember what it was.”
Found it! (I think): https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/love-her-or-lose-her-by-tessa-bailey/
The e-book in question was $10.99, but we had a big discussion about it in the comments section. The AAR power search helped me skim through the illustrated covers from 2020 to find the right link to reply to your post, so yay!
It wasn’t that one – I’m pretty sure it was a less well-known author and the book was more expensive, but it’s obviously a discussion we’ve had several times! If I remember it, I’ll come back!
Oof! Well, I didn’t get the right link, but at least it was a similar discussion. Now, I’ll go slink away in shame for having such poor detective skills. ;)
Nah, don’t worry about it. I didn’t exactly give many clues in my original comment!
Ah – yes, I had a feeling it was a début as well – To Have and to Hoax by Martha Walters was the one I was thinking of. Not exactly the same discussion, but $11.99 for a first novel is pretty steep! (and it’s £2.99 in the UK!) Sarah Hogle’s You Deserve Each Other was another $11.99 book that came out around the same time (£4.99 on my side of the pond).
The forthcoming Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas is also $11.99. Can people really afford those sorts of prices? I certainly can’t.
“Can people really afford those sorts of prices?” Even if they could, I would question paying that much for an e-book, or even a pulpy paperback for that matter. When you consider libraries have to pay sometimes in excess of $40-50 per e-book copy- which may expire after X amount of time or Y amount of borrows if the publisher is doubly-jerky- it’s ridiculous!
Look, I realize publishers, authors, and everyone else involved has to make money, but these steep price tags and barriers to library access- especially for debut writers- are just driving away customers. Outside of books that I need for my job, I don’t buy them. Period. If the library doesn’t have a book I want, I either request it through the system, get an interlibrary loan, or- worst case scenario- read something else. I have a feeling a lot of readers are the same way, only using the library and/or subscription services like KU.
In short, publishers need to find more innovative ways to encourage sales than gouging customers with prices way above market levels. Movie studios better think of something too, because who wants to pay $20+ to see a movie in the theater? Honestly, 25 cent movie tickets are still within living memory of many seniors. Even adjusted for inflation, that means about $3 to see a movie in today’s money, not $20.
I’ve said around here somewhere that libraries aren’t really much of an option for me – most of the stuff I read is ebook only and as you say, costs for libraries are probititive, plus quite a few of my favourite authors self-publish so their stuff won’t be in the library anyway. Like DDD, my limit is probably around the “7” mark (£ in my case) but it would have to be something pretty special to get me to go there. I dip in and out of KU; if I’ve got a lot of review books coming up, I’ll cancel my membership as I know I won’t use it, then I pick it up again when I’ve got a bit more time. As I said, I’m lucky because I get to read so many review books; I just totalled up the prices of my last five reads, and it comes to around £30. Given I normally read 3-4 books a week, that’s not something I could ever do if I had to buy them all.
And speaking of exorbitant book prices – I’ve just reviewed Murder at Queen’s Landing by Andrea Penrose – an historical mystery set in Regency London, and it’s selling for (wait for it) £15.19 FOR THE KINDLE EDITION. It’s almost the same price as the hardback (which is £15.99) (Kindle ed. is $12.99 in the US). I know authors have to make a living, but as Mark says,it sticks in my craw when so much of the retail price is probably going to pay the shareholders at the big publishers.
Part of my problem is that I have a set budget, so I look for the best deals I can. When the library was easy to access, I would never buy a book I could borrow, even if I had to wait in line for it. Right now it means keeping lists of books I want to read but won’t pay the Kindle price for. It means finding alternative authors/books. Sometimes I can find one series by an author on Kindle Unlimited to try even if it’s not the one that was recommended. I’m careful even with $1 books, since they can add up. I don’t mind, though. It makes me think about what I’m purchasing–really asking myself if this is a book I’m dying to read or just curious about. This is why I have a to-read-maybe shelf on Goodreads! :-)
THE LAST WOLF by Maria Vale was on Kindle Unlimited fora time. I read it and loved it! I told my husband, but by that time it was off of KU and cost $6.15. While I still think it’s an amazing book, we’ll keep watching and hope it goes on special again before buying. In the mean time there are many books worth reading that are cheaper or on KU. My husband is a little more lax, but I rarely pay more than $3 or $4 for an ebook.
The worst example I can think of is a publishing house charging $30 for a digital/Kindle copy of a novel, which is how much a hardcover book can go for these days.
My absolute top-out point for ebooks is $7, and I really dislike paying that much, but will do so for an eagerly-awaited book from a favorite author (but I would never pay that much for a new-to-me author or for a book that I wasn’t highly anticipating). Most new ebooks I buy cost between $2.99 and $4.99, which is acceptable within my monthly book budget, but I generally won’t buy a book before I first check my library (for a hardcopy or an ebook on Overdrive, Cloud Library, etc.) and then KU. Because books come and go on KU (as I’ve learned to my chagrin), I’ll try to check out desired books immediately when they’re available. I have occasionally purchased an ebook for my “virtual keeper shelf” because I liked it so much after reading it on KU. Like Mark, I keep a list of books that I’ll only buy on sale (which, to me, is less than $2.99)—but my list is handwritten and kept in a three-ring binder because I’m old skool and that’s how I roll.
I’m slowly going through and clearing out my to-read shelf on Goodreads because many of the books are there from years ago. I’d like to whittle it down to mainly books I’m waiting for the price to drop on or books I can get from the library. I’m starting to realize I need to read books on KU right away when possible, too. If I get to love an author and series on KU, I will then start preordering the new releases if they are not too expensive–up to $5 like you. One such author is Annette Marie’s group of interwoven Guild Codex series.
Ugh with the plus-size thing! I just finished a book where the heroine talks about her large breasts and thicker thighs and then she goes dress shopping and we find out she’s a size four. You can’t have it both ways Authors!
A four? The only place that would work at Chico’s which uses an utterly different sizing scale. Under that, a 4 would be a US size 20.
Huh? Over here the smallest size you can usually buy in a shop is a 6, and they’re not that common. Is that a US 8? I just read Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert (for review) – the heroine is plus sized and the cover shows her that way, but I’ve come across plenty of examples where that isn’t the case.
US sizes in most stores go from a 2 (0s are hard to find) to a 12. This is nuts because the average woman in the US is a 16. Big retailers–Walmart, Target–have larger sizes in their stores.
16 is, I think the average here – although I think US sizes are different? A US 18 is a UK 16 or something? Mind you, that said, sizes vary so vastly these days, not just from shop to shop but range or item depending on where they’re made, that it’s impossible to say there’s any such thing as a standard size.
In the US you can buy size 0, 2, 4, 6, etc. I have a daughter who is 5 feet tall and about 115 lbs. She wears a 2 or 4 in shorts/jeans depending on the brand.
In this case it’s not the author’s fault at all, it’s one of those artist-did-not-read-blurb-info-correctly things.
I would say it’s not the artists fault either because surely he/she would have been briefed as to what was required. Whoever wrote that brief didn’t do their homework and then didn’t spot the error in the artwork. That would be my take, anyway.
There you go – a spanner was in the works somewhere down the line.