my favorite small town romance of all time.

MY FAVORITE SMALL TOWN ROMANCE OF ALL TIME.

Tarah somehow managed to include a lengthy list of tropes, and to subvert at least half of them. So, not only was she honoring her readership, she was also delighting and surprising them.

This was hilarious and tender, swoony and subtle.

In the acknowledgement, Tarah said something about making this book hard on herself by obsessing over every line.

Babe, it shows. This book is a magnum opus.

DNF - I really wanted to like this as the premise sounded good but I thought it just fell flat. I
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC

Fisher and Sage, a duo that's just irresistibly adorable. Fisher's grumpy pirate vibe perfectly complements Sage's absolute joy for the little things in life.
This book had a bit of everything; romance, humor, grief, family relationships, and amazing characters!! Everything fit together so well and this story was so well written and lovely! I would also love to see another book in this world with the other characters!!

I love the small town and the antics that come with it. This story has so many interesting characters and dynamics I would love to see more of. I loved reading about Indy, I wanted to see more & more of her character but I loved how Fisher and Indy's relationship grew and blossomed anew.

This book was so freaking cute, I absolutely loved it. It has a Gilmore Girls-esque cast of townies, a goose in love, a three-legged cat, a chef…. literally everything.

The characters were well developed and flushed out. You can’t help but to fall in love with each of them, just like the small town. Additionally, the MC’s make a great couple, and even make healthy choices from start to end.

I loved this book, so much that I’ll be going back and reading Tara’s backlog!

Savor It was my first Tarah DeWitt book and I can guarantee you it won't be my last! I loved both Sage and Fisher so much! Their relationship is one of my favorite ones I've read about this year. They were just so real to me. I seriously did not want to put this book down!

3.5 stars. This had promise but lacked depth. Local farm girl Sage and disgraced chef Fisher have hot chemistry but their individual and collective growth happens mostly off-page. Even though Fisher is supposedly having an identity crisis in his career, we hardly see him cooking or struggling to. Weirdly, most of the detailed food scenes were from Sage’s POV, so we never see what’s going on in Fisher’s head when he’s inspired.

Dewitt sets her book in a fictional town on the Oregon coast (where I also happen to live—on the coast, not in the fictional town that I could never figure out what it was supposed to represent), but she makes the odd choice to slightly disguise real place names (Coos Bay becomes Yoos Bay (??) and Bandon is Gandon), but doesn’t give them much of an identity in the story, so the name change feels jarring and unnecessary.

The bare bones of Fisher’s humiliation, in which he yells at a critic who once lauded and then eviscerated him for becoming boring and predictable, feel very similar to the movie Chef. The book and the movie go in very different directions, but I couldn’t tell if it was a coincidence, an homage, or a borrowing of that plot point. (I believe they both even serve beef cheeks, but I’m not going to go verify that so don’t quote me.)

I also had issues with some of the outdated and potentially problematic language used. More than once someone is described as "on the warpath" and Fisher refers repeatedly to his new town and its people as "sheisty". I expect better from a contemporary author in 2024.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely love the heck out of this book!

It got off to a slower start than what I typically like, but once I was into it, I was fully engulfed. Fisher and Sage have my heart. They compliment each other so much it's insane. I loved them individually and together. They're a couple that will stay with me for a very long time.

Tarah's writing keeps getting better and better. Savor It is my new favorite Tarah book by a mile. I can't wait to see what she does next with Spunes. I can see a reread of this book in the very near future!

Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for sending me an e-ARC!

3 stars! This was a heartwarming read. I have read two other books from Tarah DeWitt. While I LOVED Funny Feelings and enjoyed The Co-op a lot less, it didn't give the same satisfying feeling as Funny Feelings.

The story is told in dual pov in Spunes, Oregon. We follow Sage, the town's beloved HS teacher who recently underwent a breakup with the town’s golden boy, and Fisher, a Michelin-starred chef who became a guardian to his niece, Indy after his sister's passing. Fisher and Indy stay in a summer rental across Sage's home where Fisher finds his life's purpose of once again becoming a passionate chef and Indy attends summer school to make up for the lost time while she was (and still is) grieving the loss of her mother. After a misunderstanding during their first night in their rental, they meet Sage and the story then evolves from there.

Funnily enough, this had a couple of Twilight references that I was not expecting especially when our MMC points out the irony in staying in Spunes, Oregon. It was corny but every small-town romance is so I got past this. Sage is super quirky but her fashion sense left a sour taste in my mouth because it wasn’t entirely necessary. Though it explains why, I didn’t find it contributing to the storyline much. I do, however, love how the relationship between Fisher and Indy was portrayed. It was more realistic and it was refreshing to see a rocky relationship compared to other happy and overly cheesy guardian/child relationships we see in many of these types of books. Let’s not forget about the interactions between our two protagonists. So much tension, you can’t help but giggle.

As we see a rise in small-town romances with one of the main characters being from out of town, this captures this essence in a more realistic approach with its real-life problems. If you are a fan of the Chesnut Springs series by Elsie Silvers or The Edens series by Devney Perry, you’ll enjoy this!

I hope this is one of an interconnected series because this introduces characters that have a potential storyline of their own and I would happily read them.

This was such a sweet and refreshing read. Sage meets Fisher Lange and his niece when they move to the small town of Spunes for the summer. While Fisher learns how to be a parent to a grieving teenager, Sage learns to embrace her true authentic self.

Everything Tarah DeWitt writes is magic. She has a way of making the ordinary seem magical, and many of her books are such an ode to small towns. I thought it was hard for her to top “Funny Feelings,” but I think she might’ve with Sage, Fisher, and Spunes, OR.

“Savor It” is an applicable name for this book, because I wanted to savor every word and sentence. I have far too many highlights from this to include in my review, but I’ll leave it with something us “too much” girls need to hear: “You once told me you thought you were a lot of nots… I want you to know that to me, you’re everything.”

Savor It is sweet and charming and angsty and sexy and just everything I want in a romance read. In a coastal town, Sage Byrd needs a win and the Festival of Spunes seems like the perfect opportunity for her, if only she could find a partner. Fisher Lange was a hotshot chef in NYC who needs a reset after becoming responsible for his late sister’s daughter Indy and ends up in Spunes. Together, these two strike a deal: Fisher will be her partner if Sage helps him to win over the townspeople before he leaves when the summer ends. The writing sparkles in this book. It’s the perfect summer read, and it really has everything. It’s funny and quirky with big small town charm and characters. The characters are so real, filled with grief and love and honest anxieties and they just really feel real and relatable. Sage is beautiful and strong. She has so much love, and Fisher is so charming and endearing. I like his kind of shy charm. I do wish there was more to incorporate Indy—as a major player in the story, she felt really deep in the background. But honestly that’s my only complaint. The story is stunning. It has all the angst and love and my heart was so full with how these two loved and supported each other. What a beautiful small town summer romance!!

Let me start off by saying I absolutely loved Funny Feelings and The Co-Op by Tarah! I couldn’t put them down and still recommend them often. I was looking forward to this one since I saw its announcement so I’m bummed to say I didn’t super love it. From the get go I kinda struggled to get into it but thought maybe I wasn’t in the mood. But after taking a few days off and coming back I still struggled to really get into it. I like Tarah’s writing and I always like her characters so it’s hard for me to really pinpoint why this one didn’t work for me? But by the 60% mark I still found myself questioning how we got this far and it feels like nothing has really happened? I liked both characters separately but felt nothing for them together and that continued on for quite some time. It just felt like they did a lot of internal processing but not a lot of communicating. When they did communicate it felt that they were really mature and I enjoyed that. But for me, there was no spark and the story just felt too bogged down by other stuff to enjoy the romance. Regardless, I’m excited to read the new version of the Co-Op and for Tarah’s future work!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy!

This was a cute read. It has a small town vibe with a quirky main character who adopts oddball animals and loves making the most of life, despite how much she has endured.

Sage is a bit eccentric but extremely lovable. She has a collection of ‘punny’ robes and clothing as well as a farm full of ‘unwanted’ animals that she has taken in.

Fisher is a big shot NY chef that has messed up and lost his job. His sister died in a car accident and her teenage daughter is now in his care. Hoping to earn back his job, he finds himself spending the summer in a small town with Sage as his neighbour.

This was flirty, funny, heartwarming and inspiring. The characters are flawed but endearing and you really want them to get it all.

Cute small town romance between a disgraced big city chef and a small town girl. Small town romances aren't my favorite, and this didn't overcome my ambivalence towards them. The pacing wasn't great and I felt like it dragged at the same time the romance seemed to happen really fast. There were other characters that had really interesting back stories that I wish we had gotten resolution on (a future book?). This was just okay for me.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I love love love this book! Fisher and Sage complimented each other perfectly and I loved reading about them fall in love!!

I love books with fake dating (especially when it benefits both of them) but my favourite part is when they realize that it isn't fake anymore

This is the second book I've read by this author and I cannot wait to read whatever she publishes in the future!

4.5 star

This book follows Sage and Fisher. Sage is the small town woman who loves beating to her own drum. She is recently single after her ex of 5 years leaves her for an old friend. Fisher comes into a town with his teenage niece he is now a guardian of. Fisher has gone through his own recent tragedy along with losing his job.
I kept putting this book off for others and I'm kicking myself for doing it. I really did love it.
My only complaint is it took me a minute to get into it but it was like a snowball effect, it just kept getting better as it went. When it was all done I was sad it was over. I’m hoping there’s more books coming from the side characters.

This book is a slow burn. The spice is open door.
Takes places in Spunes, Oregon

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me an ARC copy of this book.

I rated this 4 stars, due to me struggling a bit in the beginning and the third act breakup, personally not a fan of those. Definitely worth a read! This is my first Tarah DeWitt book, and it did not disappoint.

What you can expect, small town romance, opposites attract, friends with benefits, summer romance, Dual POV, flirty and playful banter. Definitely a great summer read!

This book follows Sage and Fisher. Sage is a beautifully written character, the way she cares for those around her, her humor and personality. A very well rounded FMC. Fisher brooding man, struggling with his past and caring for his niece. We saw him grow throughout the book.

They are my kind of match. Because the real world isn't filled with perfect people, it is filled with REAL people and this couple felt real to me.

As a couple they were great, working well with each other and really SEEING each other. They communicated so well and open with the other, as a communicator myself I really loved that. I cackled through many of their bantering moment. Couples grow and I loved how these two grew together, finding peace in each other (so to speak).

This was a phenomenal book! Great job Tarah!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Tarah DeWitt for the opportunity to read and review the eARC of Savor It.

Before I start gushing on how much I absolutely adored this book, I want to say how much I appreciate the author including a list of warnings in the beginning of the book as well as the playlist suggestions. These two additions may go overlooked by many, but for some they make all the difference.

Tarah DeWitt is becoming one of those authors for me; you know, the kind that make you fall in love with a story both emotionally and physically? When I say physically, I mean I got actual butterflies and cried actual tears while I was on this journey with Sage, Fisher, and Indy.

Sage is an expert on grief. She's lived with it for a long time, and it shows. Her wisdom and approach to grief is so relatable; I admired the way she spoke about it to Fisher and how she used her experience with it to grow her relationship with Indy. It was refreshing. There are so many things I love about Sage, but I suppose what I love the most is that Tarah describes her inner turmoil and triggers in such a way that just makes you really empathetic to what she's going through. Even if I didn't feel the exact same way about a lot of things (thank you, past men in my life) I would have an idea of how it feels based on this incredible writing.

Fisher - yeesh. This man. Speaking of refreshing, how amazing was it to read about a man who starts seeing a therapist after realizing what a complete ass he's been and actually puts in the work to better himself? And does!? He's an imperfect guy who learns from his mistakes and wants to be better for himself, but also for the women in his life because they mean everything to him.

I can't say enough about how amazing this book is - please do yourself a favor and check it out. There's banter, there's hot peppers, there's tropes everywhere! On a final note, I implore the author to at least make this a duology because I was left wanting with Wren and Ellis. I can't help thinking their story is not finished (and I would not hesitate to take another journey to Spunes)!

I kind of put this at 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 here. I'm grateful to have had an opportunity to read this book (thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher) but it definitely just wasn't for me. It wasn't *terrible* but it wasn't good. The pacing was totally off (this book was WAY longer than it needed to be), there was a lot of telling instead of showing, the chemistry was totally nonexistent. I basically forced myself to finish it. The epilogue was cute but honestly that and the relationship between Fisher and Indy was the best part. I also could not get a read on anyone's physical appearance throughout the whole book, which was just irritating. There were too many characters to follow, and I kept feeling like there were whole other books about Sage's brothers that would have had added backstory to this one?? Maybe Dewitt plans to do that but unfortunately this one did not hit for me.

3.75 stars
while I initially was really enjoying this, I felt like the ending got drawn out a little bit and it lost me a little. Nonetheless Fisher and Sage’s love story was super sweet. we get neighbours, he’s a chef, she’s a teacher with a menagerie of animals. there’s such real and raw emotion throughout the book that makes it so relatable. I really enjoyed how the two of them complimented one another and the story overall was beautifully written!
Thank you so much NetGalley, and Tarah Dewitt for an arc of this book! Get your copy on May 21, 2024