I really wanted to love this one.

The tropes are all some of my favorites, but honestly these two drove me crazy with just how mean they were to each other! And it wasn’t even the fun kind of mean, where its teasing and bantery. LaRynn especially was pretty mean, even when she was younger, and it just didn’t make sense to me. I think she was supposed to be grumpy, but overall I just really couldn't get into her character.

The book did get better for me as it progressed, specifically with LaRynn healing and moving on from the trauma caused by her parents, but overall this one didn’t hit me the way I was hoping it would.

Read if you like:
-second chance
-marriage of convenience
-enemies to friends to lovers
-small town vibes

Thank you NetGalley, Tarah DeWitt and St Martins Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Co-Op has delicious tension, second chance history and hilarious wonderful banter. Any author who makes her couple be together in a shared space when they still kind of hate each other is a winner for me. This book was chaotic but honestly a blast,

This romance was super fraught and angsty, and there were times when the characters were somewhat hard to like, but in the end it was very easy to be invested in their love, their lives, and their story. I’ve come to be a big fan of Tarah DeWitt for her romances that combine the fun, flirty, and steamy with strong plot and backstory, and this book lived up.

The dual timelines and dual POV both helped build the story in a full way and give a duo worth rooting for.

4 stars.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This started slow for me, but by the end, I really loved it! Second-chance romance is one of my bread-and-butter favorites - and DeWitt is an auto-buy author for me!

I loved these character's growth and ability to work hard - and I loved the epilogue even more!

**Thank you to St.Martin's Press & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I received this book for free, but all thoughts are my own. – SLR 🖤

This marriage of convenience, enemies to friends to lovers romance is the heartwarming book that everyone needs in their lives.

The Co-Op is absolutely hilarious but was also filled with so many tender moments that my heart felt like it was going to burst at any given time. LaRynn and Deacon are so relatable that I could see myself in both characters and their pain was my pain, their joy my joy. I was rooting for them from the beginning and loved how the slow burn was one that felt natural and realistic. They became such amazing friends/partners that the romance part felt like the perfect next step and it wasn’t based only on their attraction to each other but mutual respect and compassion.

The epilogue was beautiful and was the perfect ending to a truly outstanding romance book.

FYI: NO THIRD ACT BREAK-UP!

P.S. if you have read Funny Feelings there is a little Easter egg in this book that will bring you to tears (at least it did for me and my emotional self).

“𝐈’𝐦 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤—𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈’𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞.”

The Co-op is a cute, wholesome second-chance romance with some favorite tropes such as marriage of convenience, forced proximity, and slow burn.
LaRynn and Deacon have history, a past summer fling broke LaRynn's heart leaving her wanting nothing to do with Deacon. But they inherited a duplex from Larynn's late grandma. The problem is, it's in bad shape and needs to be repaired before it can be sold.
To access her inheritance to help fund the repair, they get married and coexist while trying to navigate past feelings that were left unresolved.

I loved how natural their relationship felt, everything was realistic and their banter was easy to read.
The problem is I felt they were so at odds with each other for so long that it was hard to connect and root for them at times. It took too long for them to get on board with one another. But through the slow burn, there is a lot of pining and angst and I still enjoyed it. I loved the ending, it was perfect for these two.

Thank you NetGalley, Tarah DeWitt and St Martins Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful, seemingly well-researched novel. It’s like the author grew up in Santa Cruz or spent a great deal of time there (no hardship I imagine). Santa Cruz lifestyle was well written, I felt like I was walking the hills and sandy beaches with the MCs.

And talk about real life emotions and experiences (heartfelt, messy, embarrassing, and the like). The interactions between the two MCs were so genuine and realistic.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention all the strong women as secondary and off page characters who helped carry the storyline along.

I could not stop reading this book once I started. Tarah DeWitt, an auto-buy author for me.

I love Tarah's lyrical writing, but this second-chance romance fell a little flat for me. I was sometimes confused when switching back and forth from "before" to "present-day." The two characters seemed aggressively at odds with each other initially, making it difficult for me to root for them as a couple. I wasn't fully invested in Deacon and LaRynn's relationship until halfway through the book. The second half had a lot of cute and some spicy moments, which ultimately saved the book for me.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Tarah DeWitt, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and were not influenced.

I absolutely loved seeing this relationship play out! This is my first book by Tara DeWitt and I absolutely fell in love with not only the characters but her riding as well. The duo POV as well as duo time periods make it an extremely well rounded story!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5, open door, explicit, a few scenes
🛠️
Feelings after turning the last page: Wow omg that was SOOO cute!!!
🛠️
10-second Synopsis: LaRynn and Deacon had a summer fling; fast forward 8 years and their grandmothers leave them shared ownership of a house that is in serious need of repair. In order to fund the repairs, they get married so LaRynn can access her trust fund. They sort of hate each other and it’s TOTALLY going to stay that way!
🛠️
Review: I loved this one so much!!! There was angst, there was pining, yet there was NO third act breakup!! It was fun to see them hate each other (okay mostly LaRynn), and their actions towards each other were just 👌🏼. Their relationships with all of the side characters were special and I had a lump in my throat the last 10% of the book😭😭. M This is my first Tarah Dewitt novel, and it certainly won’t be the last ❤️. Would recommend!!!

LaRynn and Deacon have such great enemies to lovers vibes. They’re also so refreshing in that they actually speak to each other about how they’re feeling and work through the immature end to their long ago summer fling. LaRynn is a strong, independent FMC who is so misunderstood by all the men she’s dated before, but Deacon sees her for the loving, protective woman that she is and never attempts to dull her shine. Deacon also is an MMC who gives so very much of himself to those around him and expects nothing back. LaRynn appreciates him for everything that he is and truly wants to give back to him so he can fell the love and joy he gives others.They had a fling the one summer that ended badly and they have avoided each other since. But their grandmothers were married to each other and left them their house after their passings. In order to access her trust fund to get the money needed to restore the grands’ house, the two have to get married. But with all that closeness, LaRynn and Deacon remember why it was so easy to fall for the other all those years ago.

A super cute, fluffy read!

The Co-op by Tarah DeWitt follows LaRynn and Deacon -- former summer flings when they were teens (LOVE a second chance summer romance) -- as they are forced back together to fix up a (extremely dilapidated) house their grandmothers left to them. Deacon is a construction whiz but lacks the money. Thankfully (!) LaRynn has money! … But she needs to be married to access her trust. Naturally, the two end up getting married so they can get the work done, make some money, then go their separate ways.

I liked the dynamic between the two main characters, although I wish we saw more of their relationship when they were younger. I'm not usually a fan of the marriage-of-convenience trope (especially in contemporary romance novels), so I think that's why this book isn't rated higher for me. I wish there was a better reason for doing it besides accessing trust money, especially because it made the rest of the novel's plot so predictable. Of course, with it being a contemporary romance novel, we could already infer the main characters end up together, but forced proximity is simply not my personal favorite. Nonetheless, the author did a pretty good job of writing this trope and it didn't make me want to stop reading. LaRynn and Deacon's banter was so fun to read too - very much reminiscent of You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle and I'm not at all mad about it! The love confession at the end is what really did it for me… SO good.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

Tarah DeWitt is the mastermind behind some of my favorite books. That being said, this isn't one of them. I want to stress that this was well written, but I could not find it in me to like the characters. Something that is a very hard no for me is when characters intentionally do or say things that they know will hurt their counterpart. That was basically 95% of this book. There will be people who enjoy and relate to LaRynn, but honestly she is the type of person I would avoid in real life. There was too much immaturity and both characters could do with therapy.

I read The Co-op nearly two years ago when it was independently published and originally rated it 2 stars (I had the same issues with it that I do now). I am adding a star to that after this reread, though I am not sure if it was the rewrite or if it was my later-developed enjoyment of Tarah's writing style that made me tolerate it a bit more.

3 stars- the concept was alright but the characters were not for me.

3.75/5 Stars

LaRynn Lavinge has returned to her grandmother's Santa Cruz home a year and four months after the passing of her beloved grandmother. Only to be smacked in the face of her co-trustee of her grandmothers home, Deacon Leeds. Deacon's grandmother was married to LaRynn's grandmother. She died only four months after. Deacon and LaRynn have a past that causes them to struggle in the beginning to work together to fix the home to sell. A marriage pack helps them come into some money to fix the renovations on the home. But a history filled with longing leads them to more than just a renovated family home.

The book starts off a little jumbled and was hard to get started one it picked up, you were sad for it to end. Seeing LaRynn deal with the trauma of her parents constantly leaving her when she was younger and feeling unwanted by someone she loved leads to a beautiful story about loving ones self to be strong. Deacon has a similar growth but not to the same as LaRynn's. If you love a good contemporary romance mixed with some good tropes along the way (Fake Marriage, One Bed, Enemies to Lovers, and Second Chance), this book might be right up your alley. This is my first Tarah DeWitt book and I would be very interested in reading her others from this one.

The Co-Op follows LaRynn and Deacon who had a summer fling after they graduated high school about 8 years ago. Their brought together again when their grandmothers leave them a breaking down house and they're forced to work together to renovate it back to its former glory.

I loved the original edition of this book and when I saw that Tarah DeWitt was writing an updated version I had to read it!! I loved that Tarah kept the storyline mostly the same, but added more past scenes from when L and D are teens. I think this really added more depth to their characters and relationship with each other. I also just love how much they love each other!!!

“And I don’t think there’s a version of you I couldn’t love.”

one of the main reasons i love a second chance romance is because of the angst and the history between the characters. the angst and the hurt was good here, and one of my favorite parts of the book. i also loved the setting of santa clara, and the character journeys were really sweet. also maybe it's because i am obsessed with home reno tiktok but that element of the book was nice, and i think there could have been even more conflict over the construction.

I was so engaged in this book. I read it on a plane and was so into I missed the drink service. The way the time switches are incorporated is done so smoothly it really adds to the experience. I wished that the letter they wrote to the buyer had a bit more substance to it.

The Co-op was one of my favorite Tarah Dewitt books and I was interested to see the differences in the new, revised one coming out. I enjoyed it (second chance, dual timeline, first love, marriage of convenience), but the author claimed it was a different book. I know there were changes (her friend was from college in the original and a childhood friend in this one, the grandmothers were partners in the original and were married in this one, etc), but overall I felt like I was reading the same book. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to people who like those tropes and haven't read it. For people who have already read it, I would only recommend it if you really loved the original.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the access of this book!

I will absolutely be an outlier here but I sadly didn’t enjoy this one…
The FMC wasn’t likeable and I don’t know how the MC put up with her behaviours. The reason as to why the house was left to both of them was a bit far fetched or not well explained…

The marriage of convenience didn’t have any valid reasons to be.

A lot of people have enjoyed this so definitely give it a try but it wasn’t for me!

This can’t have been penned by the same author whose previous books made me laugh with delight. It absolutely didn’t work for me, and that’s essentially due to the ever self-pitying of the female MC and the want-you-can’t-have-you loop both MCs us readers have to waddle through.