#well met

[amnestria-the-elf]

Never thought I'd be so happy to hear Wyll say these two silly words

[Wyll: Well met.]

Talindra is pretty happy about it too

[bookishfreedom]

I’ve been burning my way through this series on audio, and I’m OBSESSED ✨

[bruiselikeviolets]

read in 2023: well met by jen deluca

As your hands are bound together now, so your lives and spirits are joined in a union of love and trust. Above you are the stars and below you is the earth. Like the stars, your love should be a constant source of light, and like the earth, a firm foundation from which to grow.

[nainainomi]

Am I dead. Like the crew I am very shocked by Luffy's greetings.

[evermorelore]

Wanted to try and make an alternative cover for one of my favorite book series. I’m not sure if this feels finished but I really like the stage it’s at nevertheless.

[naivesilver]

Hey friend i got this question. Have you ever read pinocchio: vampire slayer and watched pinocchio 3000 k? Both of them are really good😁 and i love them💖💖💖

Hi! I've read PVS a couple years ago and I liked it IMMENSELY - even bought myself a physical copy so I could support the authors 💞 Pinocchio 3000 is still in my to watch list, though. I think I need the right amount of courage to watch it LMAO

[high-quality-tiktoks]

I cant believe i forgot to include one of the two series’ that gave me this idea in the first place📚

[booksbeyondimagining]

I've been getting into nail polish a lot lately thanks to my suddenly breaking a nail biting habit of 20+ years (yup) and I couldn't help but notice how well this shade matches the cover of Well Met by Jen DeLuca.

(Nail polish is Pound the Pave-mint from Sally Hansen X-treme Wear)

[princessofbookaholics]

7 BOOKS IN 7 DAYS: DAY 1

rules: every day, I will post the cover of a book that I love and nominate someone new to start the challenge.

tagged by: @yourneighborhoodbibliophile

tagging: @appleinducedsleep 💚

[jheanelashlee]

“I mean it in the way that resonates

For me,

I mean it in the way that

I feel love knowing

That there is a God who loved us all so much

That they put a little piece of themselves into

Creation.

or maybe this is the sort of

Chicken and egg situation.

Is God all of us sitting in the Mandelbrot in meditation.

All of us a fractal of the experience?

All of us thinking and feeling ourselves in meditation

Piecing the All together ?

While our hearts beat and beat and beat

Moving through each feeling .

Each lesson?

If I were to give an apology it would be like this:

You are enough.

Will forever be enough.

Any attempt to subtract from you

still results in you being wholly and fully and completely enough.

When things are added to you.

It emphasizes how infinite you are.

Because nothing can affect the whole

That you are.

What’s taken

what’s added

is an illusion of other

Yet still it comes from you

And also

Resides in you

When someone

or

something tries to trick you

that somehow they can degrade you

Your enough-ness, your wholeness…

The one sitting in meditation says

“It is a false belief system that

Got programmed into you.

imposed upon you….

But also I see the value in a lesson”

Because again.

You are,

the manifestation of God

in a human body.

Each and every one and thing of us.

God’s creation

in meditation

An acknowledgement that

you are.

And thus, forever will be

infinitely

Whole.

I see God in you

And I hate fighting

I’m disconnected enough -

Can we continue loving each other now?”

-Jheanel Brown

[stardustandrockets]

Books to read by the pool

Or during summer in general...

Here are some of my favorite summer reads. Some are actually set in the summer, some give me summer vibes, and others remind me of the summer because that's when I originally read them.

Slide 2:

• Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky (adult)

• The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (adult)

• Well Met (and the rest of the Willow Creek Ren Faire series) by Jen DeLuca (adult)

Slide 3

• A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy (young adult)

• Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

• Bookish and the Beast (and the rest of the Once Upon a Con series) by Ashley Poston (young adult)

Slide 4

• Beach Read by Emily Henry (adult)

• A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard (young adult)

• Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills (young adult)

What's your favorite summertime read?

[magic-multicolored-miracle]

I started reading Well Met by Jen DeLuca last night, and only got a few chapters in. But fuck me, it has me in a vice grip of emotions.

I don't even care that much about the romance (although finding love at a ren faire is the dream tbh) because of everything else I'm feeling. In many ways, Emily Parker is me:

a somewhat strained by time/distance relationship with her older sister, but Emily is still willing to drop absolutely everything for her in a time of crisis

Putting her family's needs and wants above her own

a teenaged niece and a relationship with her that, because of an age difference of only about 10 years, is an odd cross between friend and "Adult in Charge"

Finding friendship that feels like family and a place that feels like Home in the faire that she joined on a whim (or rather because said niece wanted to do it and needed an adult to join with her)

And it is quickly obvious that the author, like the show runners of "American Princess" and very unlike many 'renaissance faire episodes' of shows, has not only been to faires but has worked and lived them. The behind the scenes culture of and propensity for half-garbing and faire names is Spot On.

[mantra4ia]

Brilliantly Explained! 🔥 #palestine #israel #usa #uk #politics #congress...

"If you don't want Hamas to take the center of the field, then you take the center of the field" on behalf of Palestinians

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Must be a Sugondese joke.

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Content Warning: Sexual content, Grief, Death, Car Accident, Cancer, Toxic relationship         

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.

*Opinions*

After reading and enjoying Well-Played I decided to go back and start with the first novel in the companion series. I remembered all the buzz around this when it first came out and all the love around it, so I figured I would have a good time. What I didn’t expect was the feeling of this novel to be so much different than that of Well-Played. I can see why some people have been a little disappointed with the books that followed this one because I was obsessed with it. 

Well-Met follows Emily Parker, who has moved in with her older sister and niece after a car accident shattered her sister’s leg. As Emily has recently been dumped by her long-time boyfriend and is practically homeless, she plans on spending the summer helping her family and attempting to figure out what to do next with her life. When her commitment to her family means she has to join the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire so that her niece can participate. This brings her face to face with Simon Graham, a man who seems to take an instant dislike to Emily, especially when he thinks that she isn’t taking the Faire seriously enough. Even with Simon’s grumpy personality, Emily starts to make friends in Willow Creek and dreads the end of the summer more and more. Then, Simon’s Faire persona starts flirting with Emily’s, things get very complicated and the lines between real and pretend get blurred. As the summer continues Emily isn’t sure what she is supposed to do or where she is supposed to be. 

I think Deluca did a good job of forming the atmosphere in this novel in regards to the Faire itself, but also all the work that goes into putting one on, even a smaller one. I would have liked to see more of Willow Creek, but the point of this story is the romance, which mostly takes place at the Faire, so it makes sense. As for the plot of this novel, it is all character work and around the romance so I really don’t have much to say about it. I do appreciate that it isn’t just about Emily and Simon, but she is made a well-rounded character with her anxieties with her past relationship, feeling set adrift, and a love of connecting with her sister and niece. 

I really liked Emily as a character and I saw a lot of myself in her, which added to my enjoyment of the story. She has been screwed over by her ex-boyfriend and now feels as if people only care about her when she can do something for them, not for who she is, which is very relatable to a lot of people. She also wants to do what’s best for her older sister, that she is just starting to have a relationship with, and her niece. The inner anxieties that we see Emily have, especially in regards to Simon and her place in his life, were ones I have had myself, but after a while, I got a little annoyed with her not saying anything to anyone. I understand how we get to the third-act breakup, but it also seemed a little ridiculous. I know it had everything to do with Emily’s insecurities, but it was a huge blow-up for a rather small issue, in my opinion. 

We get a lot less about Simon, which makes sense as it is all from Emily’s point of view. He is a man who is still struggling with grief and expectations that there have been all his life. While I enjoyed the bits of his personality that we did get to see, he is still a bit of an enigma by the end of the novel. Yet, it makes perfect sense that a younger brother living in his brother’s shadow is unsure how to manage now that there is no one casting the shadow any longer. Still, when he and Emily are on the page together I enjoy their chemistry a lot and I feel like they are a couple that you see staying together after the novel is over (and not just because I have read the next novel). I just wish I got more of her personality on the page. 

I have read some reviews that the characters and romance fell flat, but I really enjoyed both. I think that Emily and Simon have great chemistry, even when they are at odds with one another, and the steamy scenes were well-written. The one hiccup for me was the huge displays of affection, so when he pulled her up during the pub sing I felt as anxious as Emily. While she ended up enjoying it, I would have not been as amused. Still, I like Simon and Emily as a couple, especially when they are being vulnerable with one another.

Overall, this is a fun and fast romance. There is also something in this novel that wasn’t translated to Well-Played. This is a 4.5 read for me, with small squabbles rounding it down to a 4-star. It almost make me really want to do go to a Renaissance Faire finally. 

[chloesimaginationthings]

How William Afton got his wife in FNAF