ARC Review: Well Traveled

Well Traveled by Jen Deluca
Book 4 in the Well Met Series
Publication date: 06 December 2022

Jen Deluca knows how to fill my soul. That’s my eight-word review of the fourth installment of her Well Met series. But maybe you’re looking for something longer and more detailed in a review…

I’ve just come off reading a string of books that either were really good but covered some seriously weighty topics, or were just ok for me. What I needed was a breath of fresh, fun, summery, sunshine-filled air. Oh, and a guy in a kilt. Seriously, I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. 😆 And, as usual Jen Deluca has delivered. First of all, I think many of us were under the impression that this series was going to be a trilogy that ended with Well Matched. But no, we have an extra treat with this fourth book, and all of the swoony, panty-dropping, kilt-wearing sexiness that is Dex MacLean, who we met briefly in book two, Well Played. Dex is still doing his bad boy thing, bed-hopping his way through the Renaissance Faire circuit while playing with his family band, the Dueling Kilts. But then he meets Louisa, Lulu to her family, an attorney who has just quit her job with a high-powered law firm in spectacular fashion. Lulu’s cousin Mitch (yes, that Mitch) basically tells her that she should run away and join the Ren Faire while she sorts out her future, and he even has some traveling companions in mind for her – the Dueling Kilts crew. Yes, you know where this is going. But can Dex give up his bad boy ways and commit to just one woman? And can Lulu find herself again after years of selling her soul to corporate law?

I will say that this is one book in which I wish there had been a dual POV. I was really craving seeing more of Dex’s personal journey both within himself and with his relationship to his family members, who have always set the bar pretty low for Dex. I think that would be hard to accomplish without spending some time inside Dex’s brain. But I did thoroughly enjoy watching Lulu come into her own, and realize that there is more to her than the expectations of her parents and her former boss. Major props for the female empowerment running through this whole book.

Well Traveled could technically be read as a standalone, but I promise you will get so much additional enjoyment out of it if you start the series at the beginning with Well Met. We get to see all of our favorite characters from the earlier books as we are on the road with Dex and Lulu.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Berkley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.