Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the advanced copy of #SavorIt.

I was so excited to land an arc of Savor It! I mean hotshot nyc chef x small town teacher, with lots of farm animals and a spunky teenager mixed in? Sold!

I’ve read a couple of DeWitt’s books now and her writing is so smart and full of heart. I can feel her passion for her characters shining through. She writes characters who are messy and imperfect, which makes them so relatable and easy to love.

I loved Sage and Fisher’s journey to their happily ever after. It was definitely slow burn! I love that they bonded through the support of each others passions. And I really enjoyed the peeks of Sage’s brothers throughout. I’d like books about them next!

While I felt the beginning was a bit slow, it really picked up in the second half and the ending was so dang sweet!

And can we have a moment for the cover? She is an absolutely stunner!

I am a sucker for second chance romance and the plot of this was perfect. Perfect balance of spice and plot.
This was like a hallmark movie in the best way possible, can't wait to keep reading more from this author.

Y'all, the emotions this book made me feel....

Sage Byrd is happy with her small town life with her farm and her fleet of animals! After a breakup with her long time boyfriend, she sets her sights on winning The Festival of Spunes....she just needs to find the right partner.

Fisher Lange does not love the small town life. But after the loss of his sister, his NYC chef career hangs in the balance. He is responsible for caring for his niece, Indy, and now he's being sent to the small town of Spunes to consult on a restaurant opening. His number one goal is to get back into his boss's good graces.

The small town does NOT greet Fisher with open arms. So he and Sage strike a deal. As a beloved member of society, fake dating him will boost his image. And Fisher promises to be Sage's partner in the festival. But as faking dating often does...it turns real. With summer quickly coming to an end, they try to savor every last moment.

What I liked: I loved these characters. I loved the side characters. I loved the setting. I did NOT expect to have the emotions I did at the end of this book. Thank goodness my kindle is waterproof! The feelings I had about a teenage girl and her goose were incredibly unexpected! No spoilers here - but the ending of this book was perfection!

What I didn't like: I loved it all. No notes!

I loved this book, Savor It is such a cute read! I am a self-proclaimed foodie with my own little misfit hobby farm, so I absolutely adored Fisher and Sage. Fisher, a Michelin chef, has lost his stars and his job, and is trying to figure out how to be a good guardian to his teenage niece. He takes her to the small town of Spunes, Oregon for a summer to help his boss with a new restaurant, where he hopes he can get both himself and Indy back on track. He rents the house next door to Sage and her farm. Sage is the quirky town sweetheart, and is still struggling after being broken up with the year prior, while her ex already has a fiancée. This story touches on some difficult topics, such as the loss of a parent. However it will also make you laugh out loud. I couldn’t get enough of the characters. If you enjoy competition, fake dating, close proximity, and small town fun, then you will definitely love this book! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this ARC!

in the 20 minutes since finishing, i realize more and more how much i loved this book. it was so good & sweet & heartbreaking. their love was true and deep and i just can’t get over it. i felt so seen as i saw them see each other and love everything🥹
i’m just gonna go reread all my favorite quotes and start counting down the days until i have this in my hands. here just a couple of my favorite quotes. AGHHHH🥺😭🥰


“it’s been a privilege to fall in love with you, Sage.” -Fisher


“I think it's those words he used that shred at me the most, when he said it had been a privilege. Because it was, wasn't it? Even feeling how I do now, I would do it all again for the privilege of loving him, of being loved by him. He didn't fix me, and I didn't heal him, but we loved each other wholly.” -Sage



HUGE thanks to netgalley, the publisher and author for this advanced digital copy!

You know those cozy books that you just curl up with a cup of coffee to read? This is one of them ☕️

Funny Feelings was my first read on this kindle so it was definitely exciting to get early access to Savor It. Just had me doing little leg kicks with giggles throughout because it was so damn cute.

Sage is endlessly positive but just so, where it’s not disingenuous or toxic positivity. Fisher is jaded with a chip on his shoulder. You do the math!

While the ending had me doing a little of this - 🤨, I let it go because it was overall a great read for me 💖 Thanks to @authortarahdewitt , @stmartinspress , and @netgalley for this advanced copy. Check it out on 5/21/24!

I absolutely adored this. Sage and Fisher are a top tier romance book couple. This book proves a relationship in a book can have interesting conflict between a couple without a constant need for miscommunication. That was so incredibly refreshing. Indy was a realistic and relatable teen character. I loved how the relationship between Fisher and Indy was developed throughout the book. The town and all of the minor characters were also very enjoyable. I would absolutely jump at reading more stories from this setting. I will also be running to read everything Tarah DeWitt has ever written.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Tarah Dewitt writes a fun, flirty story about a down-on-his-luck, Michelin star-winning chef and a beloved school teacher in this cute, small-town romance. Fisher is sent on an assignment in Spunes, OR where he meets his temporary neighbor, and keeper of a menagerie, Sage. There is an immediate attraction and the two instantly flirt with one another. Their chemistry doesn't leap off the page at first. I felt the romance was meant to be instant, but for me, it had to build up. By the end, I was rooting for them, though it took me 85% of the book to appreciate it. In some ways this book was a train wreck of events that made reading it clunky and off-putting. I never felt a real connection with Sage, even though her character was cute and genuine. Fisher was shallow and I felt bored of him early in the novel. I felt Indy was put on the back burner too many times, they should have played up her storyline more and left others out completely. Dewitt should have chosen between the festival, the opening of the restaurant, and Sage's brother's accident, instead of having each of them be a major event in the novel. I also felt like Wren and Ellis were dangled in front of us, but were never offered. Unless she follows up with a second-chance romance novel for them, I'm left feeling disappointed about this book as a whole.

I did get a cozy feeling reading this book, with its small-town charm reminiscent of Gilmore Girls and Good Witch. The ending of the book is sweet and happy, it just took too long to get there with too many distractions. Also, Gary the goose needs more page time.

This book was simmering hot. Fisher a down on his luck chef (cooking is sexy) moves with his niece to a small town to help build a restaurant. His neighbor is Sage, a recently broken up with local woman who helps bring both him and his niece out of their funk.

I really liked this book. I loved all the relationships and the romance. It just simmered.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I really loved the small town vibes of this book, that’s always my favorite! Sage and Fisher are so fun and cute together. I feel like their chemistry came so naturally and it was just really lovely. I loved all the animal appearances in this book too!

This book had some really adorable moments. The Gilmore Girls type of small town vibes with quirky nosy neighbours and unique town festivals. I really liked Sage and Fisher and how their love developed.

What I didn’t love was the pacing of the story. I get that it is a slow burn and their friendship needed time to grow, but the general speed of the events kind of dragged. I felt like the humour that was in the author’s previous book “Funny Feelings” was kind of missing here. There were some silly moments and some really heartfelt moments towards the end, but it felt like so much story was left until the last 25% of the book.

▪️forced proximity
▪️insta attraction
▪️summer romance
▪️small town girl x city boy

i had a bit of trouble connecting to this story- mostly the characters. i can see them being lovable, fun, and swoony they just weren’t for me.
Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for the eARC!

Perfect For….
Fans of small town romance and fake dating.

Quick Synopsis
Fisher and his niece moves to a small town for the summer to help create a menu for the new restaurant that is going to be built there. In order to improve his image to the people in town, he makes a deal with Sage to be her partner for the town’s annual summer competition. But soon things start to change in their relationship, they realize that they are going to have to savor the summer before it ends.

My Review
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. I read the whole thing in one sitting. I loved the characters and their chemistry. Their relationship was kind of like a “they’re best friends” relationship. Very fun together. The setting and the plot were good too. Sage and Fisher are literally so cute together. Sage is a ray of sunshine and very popular in the town. I thought her animal farm was so cute. Fisher is being added to my book boyfriend list. That’s all I have to say. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars was because I did not like the end part when the summer ended. That’s it. It’s not a slowburn, which I usually prefer, but this book was still good. There is the single dad trope, small town, next door neighbour, and fake dating in this story. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

(I will be publishing my review on my blog and instagram a couple of weeks before release day)

If you love fake dating and small-town romance this is the book for you!

After being breaking up with her log time boyfriend; Sage struggles with the idea of him getting married only a year after they split. Sage is a teacher on summer break and is set on enjoying all that her small town has to offer. She hopes to finally be a part the Spunes’ festival and enter the iconic canoe race. The only problem is that she’ll need a partner to enter in the canoe race.

Fisher is a chef at a New York Michelin star restaurant Marrow; he is just not feeling the joy in cooking. He has stopped taking culinary risks and is in a slump which causes him to lose one of the restaurants stars. Then to top it off he gets fired and his sister is killed in a car accident which leaves him guardian of his teenage niece Indy. now all he has to do to get back the career he lost is help his former boss at Marrow get a restaurant in the small town of Spunes, Oregon off the ground.

As luck would have it Fisher rents the property just next door to Sage. Will Sage’s wisdom and advice be just what Fisher needs to find the joy in cooking again? Or will fisher be the one who allows Sage to be a part of the town she so loves by partnering up with her?

This was such a sweet read. It started a little slow for me, but once it got going I was hooked. The last 25% of this book was fantastic. The last 10% was perfect.

I didn’t really get attached to the town race aspect of the story, but there were so many things I loved enough to make up for it. Including: the many walks between their houses where all I could picture was the scene from the book cover, the small town quirks and characters, the animals.

I love small town romances and this one was well done. I loved seeing the character growth between the two main characters and watching them try to overcome their demons.

I would absolutely love to see more from this town and its characters in the future.

Chef’s Kiss…LITERALLY!

Oh my, Fisher BROKE the mold! Absolutely loved him. Sage was so cute and understanding and ahhhh! The bird and his girl!😂 I loved this book so much! Thank you so much for the ARC!

Hold on, I have to stop crying before I can continue…

OK. DEAR GODS. Where do I even begin? Sage & Fisher. My heart will never be the same. I laughed, I cried, I laughed while crying, and I cried while laughing. The last two being very different, but equally amazing emotional states. Sage & Fisher are EVERYTHING. Relationship goals, friend goals, found family goals, small town goals, adopted animal goals – just – ALL. THE. GOALS. I have not loved or been moved by a book this much in a very long time.

Sage Byrd has lived in Spunes, Oregon all her life. She lost both her parents at 12 and was raised by her 3 brothers. Now she happily lives in the house she grew up in on the edge of town and tends to her farm. Sage is a high school social studies teacher, mother to many orphaned animals, and lover of terrible puns. She is also very tired. Tired of being pitied, tired of being overlooked, and tired of being devalued. She dated the town golden boy, Ian, for 5 years and he belittled Sage the entire time they were together. They broke up a little over a year ago and he’s already engaged to someone else. Typical. Sage doesn’t ask for much from life. She wants to feel important to someone, she wants to feel useful, and more than anything, she just wants to be happy. And maybe – just maybe – one day she’ll find someone who will love her “as is”.

Fisher Lang is a three-time Michelin star winning chef. His sister died in a car accident three years ago, and life has been nothing but rocks in his pocket, dragging him down, ever since. After spending 15 years deeply ingrained in, and at the top of the culinary industry, Fisher is teetering dangerously close to a meltdown. Three months ago, it happened. The result? He lost his restaurant one of their Michelin stars and got himself fired. Two months ago, his niece, Indy, ran away from his parent’s house in Nebraska, and showed up on his doorstep in NY. One week ago, his former boss/business partner staged an intervention of sorts, and confronted Fisher about “the incident” that ended his career. She’s willing to give Fisher a second chance, so he’s now on his way to Sprunes, Oregon, teenage niece in tow, where he will design a menu, and set up her new restaurant, Starhopper. Oh, and Indy is resentful, angry, and seemingly hell bent on hating him, so life is going swimmingly for Fisher.

When Fisher arrives in Sprunes, his rental house is across the meadow from Sage’s farm. After an eventful first night, the two meet and Sage quickly realizes that Fisher & Indy are both struggling on every level. Sage befriends Indy and puts her to work on the farm and asks Fisher for help with some errands to make him feel useful. Along the way, she gives Fisher some sage advice, they become friends, and Fisher slowly begins to emerge from his funk.

Sage’s favorite place in all of Sprune, other than her farm, is the library. After unexpectedly coming face to face with her ex, Ian, and his new fiancée, Cassidy, Sage is shaken & embarrassed. In an attempt to help Sage take back her library, feel in control, and powerful again (and also to shamelessly flirt a little), Fisher offers to kiss Sage between the stacks so Ian can see. By the next day, the gossip train has barreled through town, and everyone thinks Sage and Fisher are dating. Shortly after, Fisher runs into some permitting problems with Starhopper, and Sage is still looking for a partner for the yearly Festival of Sprunes canoe race (that she’s desperate to win). Fisher and Sage agree to do a little bit of fake dating so Sage can help Fisher get Starhopper back on track with the Main Street Business Coalition, and in return, Fisher will be her partner for all the festival activities. But the more time they spend together, the more they realize this thing between them isn’t pretend. Their feelings are growing exponentially, and Fisher’s time in Sprunes has an expiration date. They are both in too deep, and deeply in love with each other.

Can Fisher and Sage figure out how to love each other “as is”? Will they win the canoe race? What happens to Bert and Ernie, the baby Nigerian Dwarf goats? Or the miniature donkey family, Rosemary and Ginger? And most importantly, will SageByrd, Fisher, and Indy get their happily ever after? Do yourself a favor and just read the book. It comes out on May 21, 2024. Pre-order now & thank me later.

Also, Gary the goose & Indy. ❤️ 👩🏻 🪿 ❤️
I’m just not emotionally capable of saying more about Gary right now. (IYKYK)

Mrs. DeWitt. You had absolutely no right to shatter my heart and make me ugly cry so hard that all 3 of my cats came to check on me. And then – THEN – you had the gall to put the teeny tiny pieces of my broken heart back together, better than before, and make me smile, and then laugh through those tears. I have been forever changed by Sage & Fisher. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU – but also – HOW DARE YOU. Savor It will live rent free in my head for a long, long time.

It’s been a privilege to read your novel, Tarah.

Aaaaand…I’m crying again.

** I received this book for free from St. Martin's Griffin, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. **

“I like mastering something, I think,” I admit. “I struggle when I don’t feel like I'm good at it, or struggle to jump into something when I don’t feel like I can see and control the outcome.” OK I SEE YOU AMY MARCH I WANT TO BE GREAT OR NOTHING.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! If this book interests you, make sure to check it out on 5/21/24!!!

Ok I have some very non-extreme opinions about this book. There were some elements of it that I didn’t like, but there were also some elements that I actually quite enjoyed.

First, the star of the show: the romance. I felt like there was absolutely no build-up to the sage and fisher just randomly making out. I wish there was more tension, more angst, more subtle flirting. Instead, they go from 0 to 100 with seemingly NO substance or spark.

Yes, the writing was a little cheesy, a little cliche, a little cringey (the trifecta of c’s!), but honestly, that’s just the standard for contemporary romance books nowadays. One major pet peeve/gripe I have about the writing is that it constantly references internet slang and current pop culture, which I can't imagine aging well. I know that this bothers a lot of people, so definitely keep that in mind if you want to read it.

Continuing the conversation about the writing in this book, sometimes characters would just come out with super profound, philosophical lines (see the above quote), and immediately follow it with the cringiest gut-wrenching sentence written in all of history. The whiplash was honestly hilarious.

The two main characters were fine. I don’t have any major complaints about either of them, and neither of them really irked me. I will say, Fisher’s niece Indy go on my nerves so much. She was supposed to be the moody, “no one understands me,” teenage girl caricature, but as a teenage girl, no part of her character felt remotely relatable. Like I understand that she went through some truly tragic events in her life, but she was SO ANNOYING.

The plot of the book was nothing groundbreaking. It followed the general plotline and pacing of any other contemporary romance book. However, I want to emphasize that this isn’t necessarily bad!!! Sometimes you just want a reliable story that won’t throw you for a plot twist!

Overall, this book was very classic-contemporary-romance book with a cute little cartoon cover. it was also very trope-y: small town, grumpy/sunshine, single dad, fake dating (kinda, not really). Although it wasn’t revolutionary, it definitely accomplished its goal of being a solid romance book!

Thank you to the Author & publisher for the ARC.
First off, this book cover is STUNNING. I was very excited to read this book as I’ve heard so much about her other books being amazing. So I immediately got into reading this one. Sadly I had a lot of trouble getting into it. Honestly the beginning felt like I didn’t know what I was reading. I was very confused. The only reason I knew who the main characters were was because of the synopsis. I really wanted to like this but I could not do it. It’s very hard for me to dnf a book especially early on.