All’s faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author, Jen DeLuca.
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?
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GENRE:
New Adult, Romance
PAGES:
336 pages
PART OF A SERIES?:
First in a Planned Series
RELEASE DATE:
September 3rd 2019
PUBLISHER:
Berkeley
SOURCE:
Library E-Book
YOU CAN PURCHASE THE BOOK AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE/LIBRARY OR THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
All’s faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author, Jen DeLuca.
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.
MY REVIEW
I’ve been in the worst book slump that I’ve probably ever been in. I have said this in this past but genuinely I think this is 100% true right now. I’m just struggling to read anything. I was scrolling on Facebook, as I’ve been known to do lately, and I saw a recommendation for this book on my friend Mina’s blog My Fangirl Chronicle‘s Facebook page and I thought, well, that looks cute and I’m SO sad that Ren Faire is canceled this year so let’s give it a shot. This was before the stimulus check hit, so I couldn’t afford to buy it but luckily my online library had it and I checked it out immediately.
I am so glad I did!
This book was just…it was so sweet and so fun. Its exactly what I look for when I read new adult/adult romance. I am not into overly sexual books – not that I’m a baby about it haha, its fine, I just tend to like ROMANCE more than sexy times. I like the slight touches, the gazes from across the room, the slow build – I live for that. That’s EXACTLY what this is and it takes place at a setting so familiar to me and it made me think of all the great times I’ve had at Ren Faire with my own pirate…um, boyfriend, and it definitely helped me with missing out on this year. The story between Emily and Simon is just sweet and genuine and the build up of the two of them, not just as a couple but as individual characters, was perfect.
I also am a huge, huge fan of the enemies to lovers trope and I will read it again and again and again and again until the end of time. It just doesn’t get old. I think that the feelings of love and hate come from the same place and so its sometimes super easy to confuse the two or for one to switch to the other and so telling the stories of enemies to lovers just always works so well. Like Yvaine says in Stardust – “But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing.”
I love a build up like this because its just so fun and romantic to watch the characters discover their feelings for each other and Emily and Simon’s journey to go from enemies to pretending during Ren Faire to genuinely falling for reach other. Plus the two of them balance each other out and help each other figure out what they want in life and what direction to go in and I really liked that. It was more than just their romance – it was their direction.
Lastly, I loved all the side characters. If you’re going to write a romance series where each book is about a new couple – which are my FAVE by the way – you have to build those side characters just enough for you to CARE about them. I WANT to know what is going on with Stacey and her mystery boy. And there was just enough in the last bit of the novel to hint at April and Mitch to want to know what happens there in the third book. You care about all of them and that’s huge. Side characters can often be lost or so one dimensional in romance novels but Jen doesn’t fall victim to that at all and I adore all the characters, especially Chris, owner of a bookstore/cafe and the Queen of Ren Faire.
All in all, its such an enjoyable novel. Its fun, humorous, romantic and fills you with the appropriate amount of sighs and butterflies to make for a perfect sweet and hilarious romance. I was SO sad when I realized book two doesn’t hit shelves until September but I will be anxiously awaiting its arrival because I can’t wait for more Willow Creek, more Ren Faire and more romance!
RATING:
5 out of 5 Stars
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