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
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Feelings after turning the last page: Wow omg that was SOOO cute!!!
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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!
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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.

LaRynn and Deacons second chance love story is so cute. Their grandmas were married and when both passed left them their house that needed updating. They had a brief romance during a summer in the past, leaving them with difficult feelings. Overall cute and I loved the supporting characters!

‘They say love and construction don't mix. By that logic, hate and construction may as well be condemned.’

Told from alternating 1st p/POV’s as well as alternating timelines, The Co-Op was dysfunctional as much it was enjoyable.

From teenage drama, falling in love which inevitably leads to heartache, Deacon & LaRynn come back together as adults when renovations on a family home beckon.

FMC is all over the place & tends to come off a little on the “poor-me” side. MMC is dreamy & hunkalicious of course.

They butt heads like a couple of rams. But when things start to slide into place (& you know they will), shiznat really heats up. I mean, they talk to each other like dirty little freaks🙌🏼😂 But alas, we get our HEA!

DeWitt’s always fun & I will always be a fan!

Big thanks to SMP & NetGalley for this complimentary e-book!

4.5 - Tarah's writing is cozy and a warm hug.

After having her heartbroken by Deacon one summer - LaRynn decides to leave town and never return. But, when her grandma leaves her a her house, LaRynn finds her self back home. With the stubborn intention to sell the home - LaRynn didn't realize that her grandma also left the home to Deacon. In effort to making the sell easier - the two get married and fix the home together.

This book has everything I love and more. Tattooed MMC (Hello an octopus, obsessed), forced proximity, marriage of convenience, second chance?

The growth and development between these two was so good and felt so natural. I loved seeing them get closer as the renovations were happening. There was tension and angst, but also banter and memories that made me laugh. I think of LaRynn and Deacon constantly, I love them so much.


Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, The Co-op was not at all what I expected. I went in thinking it would be fluffy, but there is so much substance to this book. It was very emotional and the love story between Deacon and LaRynn was almost bittersweet. Ive never simultaneously wanted two people to get together, but also want them to stay far apart, as much as I did with this book. LaRynn was quite possibly one of the worst FMCs I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. She was spoiled, bratty, manipulative, and just plain mean. I get that she had a terrible-ish childhood, but she doesn’t really redeem herself. We also don’t have much closure with her parents, so things felt unresolved. I thought Deacon was generally amazing, but basically a doormat.

I struggled a bit with the writing style at first, and almost DNF’ed the book because of it, but I ended up getting used to it. It felt a bit too flowy and lyrical for what the book was. I also had the hardest time with pronouncing LaRynn. Like, it messed with my reading flow the entire book. I couldn’t figure it out and it really bothered me. I think that if an author has a character with an odd or weirdly spelled or pronounced name, they should have to tell you how to pronounce it. Maybe that’s a quirk of mine, but it honestly affects my enjoyment of a story. Lastly, the epilogue felt forced and out of place to me. There was so much depth to our MCs that I think there could’ve been an entirely separate book after they get together. You can’t go from a closed-off, emotionally stunted person who has barely started to work on herself to the sunshine in her family’s life. I almost thought that that storyline should’ve been the bulk of the book, not the will-they, won’t-they.

I received a copy of The Co-op from NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Tarah DeWitt does a masterful job writing characters that are as flawed as all of us but good enough, deep down, that you can't help but root for them. If you enjoyed her other books, particularly Savor It, you'll love The Co-Op!

I'm partial because I live for a second chance romance and Deacon and LaRynn's story embodied the best of the trope-- nostalgia, with the searing pain that only first heartbreak can bring, and hope, with the enduring comfort that comes from someone knowing you (and loving you, even if unexpressed) through so many years. It's a true rivals-to-lovers journey of two people who are scared to get hurt again but can't stop themselves. If "It was always you," was a book, it would be this one.

Rounded out with lovely side characters, including Sal (my favorite, a sweet and salty older woman who shares the home the two MCs are renovating), DeWitt captures the type of friendships and relationships that we all aspire to have.

In summary? This story is a sweet and spicy journey as two people fix up a house, and themselves, to create a home for each other.