A construction romance? Sign me up! I enjoyed this romance. It had the perfect amount of spice! I was deep in this story the entire time and couldn’t put it down!

The Co-op

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This was the first story that I’ve read by Tarah DeWitt, and I’m so glad that it was. It’s a romcom set inside a home renovation show, but make it spicy. What makes it better is that this is a renovated version of the story. If you’ve read the co-op I’m sure that you will love the extended scenes and extra chapters that you find in this newly released version. Deacon and LaRynn have a lot to overcome after having been in an adolescent situationship and it’s a beautiful read. I really really loved how their grandparents came together and also brought them together.

Pick up this book if you enjoy:
Home Reno shows
Spicy romcoms
Second chance romances
She falls first, he falls harder

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and the galley for the free eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

“Marriage is about you and your person.”

I don’t know if I’ve read another book that so beautifully captures the importance of unlearning the toxic beliefs we have from our past traumas and relearning healthy ways to accept love and life in all the ways we truly deserve the way The Co-Op by Tarah DeWitt does.

This beautiful story is a second chance, home-renovation romance that’s filled with insecurities, grieving those who truly made you feel loved and safe, and bonding with the only other person in your life who might actually get it. There’s fun banter, an enemies-to-lovers vibe, and a marriage of convenience to boot.

I haven’t stopped thinking about this story since the moment I finished reading it. LaRynn and Deacon made me laugh, cry, and hug them.

As someone who has lost a grandmother who meant the world to me, this story has held my heart captive with the amount of love they share for their grandmothers. Their desire to fix up their house because of how much it meant to them. Their ability to put their differences aside (mostly) for a common goal.

I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time to come. It’s an empowering and heartwarming one, for sure.

You’ll love this if you like:
- Marriage of convenience
- Second chance romance
- Home renovation projects
- Mutual love for grandmothers
- Mutual pining
- Found family
- Enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to lovers

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. Unfortunately I did not finish The Co-op by Tarah Dewitt. I could not get into the story and I could not relate to the characters.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
This is my second book from Tarah DeWitt and it was good ( slightly steamy) fun. I found it a bit slow to get into as the difficulties the leads faced seemed too apparent, but the ending drew me in so perfectly.
LaRynn certainly comes into the story with a lot of baggage that she is very aware of and wants to be more than the sum of her history. But she is definitely young and hasn’t reflected much on how she has impacted other people. She’s not wrong to be where she is, but she is immature and knows it. I did appreciate that a great deal for her as a lead and the growth that we read she has already undergone in recent times.
Personally, I read Deacon too simply. He seems too plainly written and didn’t surprise me at all. I wish that he had a slower reveal for elements of his past, as LaRynn does. But he is a solid lead.
As someone who has also recently lost a beloved grandparent, I was worried about getting overwhelmed by the grief in this story (and even took a break to try to avoid it). However, while the grief is present and did feel real, it was not overwhelming. It honestly felt comforting to read an authentically human experience similar to my own (wow, almost like that’s a huge reason I fell in love with reading!).
And the romance is there. Their past, from meeting during high school to a summer affair, is represented in flashback chapters that meld well with the narrative. And they are humans, but definitely trying to be reasonable-ish adults, aiming for the good.
I enjoyed The Co-Op and will definitely check out more from DeWitt!

I love this book! Deacon and LaRynn have had their fair share of ups and downs, both together, and as individuals. I loved getting to know them and their relationship through flashbacks to when they were teens and young adults. They felt real, and were interesting, flawed, and relatable characters. There was so much angst and tension between them, and the slow burn just kept adding to it. There was a lot of depth, grief, character development, but so much humor as well. I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud. Their banter and pranks on each other were hilarious.

𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 🎧 - Tim Paige and Amy Hall were so fun to listen to! I really enjoyed their performances and the way they brought out the personalities of the main and secondary characters.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press & Tarah Dewitt for the eARC!

I rarely re-read books, but for Tarah DeWitt, I made an exception. I'm so grateful I did. I loved reading LaRynn and Deacon's story again, and DeWitt did a beautiful job writing the story to make their love even more true and earnest.

LaRynn and Deacon are an "I love ALL of who you are" romance, and it's always one of my favorites. There is no better love than to be seen in all our flaws and scars and then to still be chosen.

In this rewrite, LaRynn and Deacon's second chance is a lovely depiction of how the right person isn't always the right person when it's the wrong time, and it was an absolute treat to watch them grow together at the right time.

I missed some of the more tense pieces within the reconstruction process and with side characters, but I felt their relationship development and growth was better focused now. In the midst of that, it was a worthwhile trade.

This was a reread I was grateful to have done.

this book was so cute! i am always a sucker for enemies to lovers, and i liked that this one was enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers. i also loved that it was not only dual pov, but also dual timelines. i appreciated the fact that they both had flaws that they needed to overcome in order to actually have a healthy relationship.

🏚️ Book Review 🏚️

The Co-op by Tarah DeWitt
🏚️
Tarah is the queen of writing complex, realistic characters who are deeply flawed, but are also raw, honest, and worthy of love. I adored Funny Feelings and Savor It, and I loved The Co-op as well. Deacon and LaRynn had the best story. They are the epitome of black cat and golden retriever energy. LaRynn is standoffish and has put up walls around her heart because of her parents and the way she was raised. They didn’t give her the love and support she needed, so she learned to be alone, to not rely on anyone, and to never ask for help. Deacon is giving, loving, and thoughtful, but he has his own baggage to overcome because of his father’s infidelity and battle with cancer. To make things more complicated, they fell in love as teenagers and it ended badly, so when they are forced together as adults for a home renovation where they have to live together, all of their bitterness and anger is still there needing to be dealt with. This book is emotionally charged, absolutely bursting with anger, angst, and miscommunication, but the payoff when they finally get together is so worth it! Do yourself a favor and read it and the rest of Tarah’s books.
🏚️
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
🏚️
Read if you like:
▫️second chance
▫️teenage lovers to enemies to lovers
▫️marriage of convenience
▫️forced proximity
▫️dual timeline
▫️dual POV
🏚️
Thank you to SMP Romance, St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Tarah DeWitt for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Ugh this was so good. I loved how messy it was, the depth of tension but also care between the characters, the whole world....this is what I want romance to be.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I think maybe she just isn’t for me. In no way am I saying book was bad, but I just didn’t love it.

The story is based on complete miscommunication from their teen years, to them reconnecting, and to about the 75% mark. Marriage of convenience is one of my favorites but I didn’t feel much emotion for theirs. Yes these two have a ton of family trauma and need to work through it but it didn’t feel momentous when they finally did talk.

I liked their banter but it was also a reminder that both of them were hiding their true feelings and had been for a long time and it was a main reason that she missed important moments for her gran.

Like I said, overall not a bad book - many others enjoyed it - just didn’t seem to be the one for me

Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc!

Home renovations will test even the most solid of marriages. Doing them with your ex? Who you marry to access the money to fund the renovation? In a house without walls and doors in most of the rooms? Yeah, that’s just asking for everything to go wrong.

Tarah DeWitt captured this stressful experience perfectly. The tension was crackling between LaRynne and Deacon. They reminded me of Melanie and Jake in the movie Sweet Home Alabama for so much of the first half of this book! Their banter was dripping with sarcasm and innuendos, and they were so quick with serving digs up left and right. It was hilarious 🤣

And while it felt like the slowest of slow burns, they finally got to the point where they were knocking down walls literally and figuratively to reconnect. And when they did was it STEAMY! 🥵 This is definitely an open door romance for more than the fact that there were literally no doors to the rooms while they renovated. I ended up skimming these chapters because the spice wasn’t quite written in the way that I personally enjoy but it was a very sex-positive relationship 🌶️

This was my first from Tarah DeWitt and somehow my first romance with a marriage of convenience trope! 💍 While I didn’t find myself connecting with these characters on a deeper level, I loved how they were messy, real and perfectly imperfect. I’m looking forward to reading more from Tarah DeWitt in the future! 3.5 Stars

This took me an embarrassingly long to finish. But not because it was boring or lacked anything. No, it was a lot in the best way possible.
I was combing through my own big feelings while they were combing through theirs. It had my heart in a vice grip with emotion.
I loved seeing teenage LaRynn and Deacon navigate their obstacles, but was also yelling at them to communicate and to just give into the love. Teenagers, amiright?
But it was well made up for as they fell apart and came back together years later. Unfortunately due to the passing of their grandmothers months prior and the actively falling apart home they passed on to them, but what else would force them back together than this whirlwind of issues. Then you toss in the marriage of convenience that had me kicking my feet over the tension.
The push and pull between our MCs will hurt your heart, I’m sorry for the spoiler on that, but also not because you need to know they will put you through it. You will scream and cry and laugh and dance along with them.
And I loved it so much. I love LaRynn because I saw a lot of myself in her. I love Deacon because he saw her and still loved all the sharp bits. Plus that man is scrumptious.

<i><b> My home, my girl, my pain in the ass, my world. That fucking force of nature. I want her on my side, that formidable, fierce woman.</b></i>


ARC REVIEW

Th Co-op is a well told enemies to lovers, second chance romance. Deacon and LaRynn are the epitome of black cat and golden retriever energy. LaRynn is emotionally exhausted from leaving law school and being cut-off by her father after a lonely childhood. They didn’t give her the love and support she needed, so she learned to be alone, and to never ask for help. Deacon is giving, loving, and thoughtful, but he has his own baggage to overcome because of his father’s infidelity and battle with cancer. To make things more complicated, they fell in love as teenagers and it ended badly. So when they are forced together as adults for a home renovation where they have to live together, all of their bitterness and anger is still there needing to be dealt with. As well as their grief for the grandmothers who left them jointly the house. This book is emotionally charged, absolutely bursting with anger, angst, and miscommunication, but the payoff when they finally get together is so worth it!

I don't actually know if I've ever actually read a romance with a marriage of convenience trope and let me just say this one has me hooked. I found her slightly annoying in the beginning but I did grow to like her.

LaRynn and Deacon first met as teenagers when their grandmothers got married. They shared a passionate summer as young adults but it ended in heartbreak. When their grandmothers pass away, LaRynn and Deacon inherit their beach house but it is in disrepair. Deacon has been fixing it up himself, but he desperately needs more capital to finish the job. LaRynn has a trust fund, but she needs to be married to access it. Deacon and LaRynn end up making a deal: they will get married, use LaRynn’s trust fund to fix up the house and then share the profits when they sell it.

This was such a sweet story! I am always a big fan of second chance romances with dual POVs and dual timelines. This book was so fun and I absolutely loved LaRynn and Deacon together. This is officially my new favourite book by Tarah DeWitt and I am so excited to read more of her books.

What to expect:
🩷 Romantic Comedy
🩷 Marriage of Convenience
🩷 Dislike-to-Lovers
🩷 Second Chance
🩷 Dual POV, Dual Timeline

Thank you to Tarah DeWitt, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautiful story about what happens when two grandmothers leave their home in need of many repairs to their respective grandchildren. Those grandchildren also happen to be former lovers. Now they must work through expensive renovations as they decide what to do with a home that holds so many memories. As money runs out, a lucrative opportunity to access a trust presents itself through marriage.

LaRynn and Deacon's dynamic and relationship were wonderfully complex. Both characters were beautifully flawed in their own ways. As a bonus, this story has a multitude of delightful tropes.

🛠️ Marriage of Convenience
🛠️ Forced Proximity
🛠️ Rivals-to-lovers
🛠️ Second Chance

Thank you NetGalley, Tarah Dewitt, and St. Martin's Griffin for the e-ARC.

Tear down the walls and pick up this amazing new romance read.

✨ Book Review: THE CO-OP by Tarah DeWitt ✨

Just like a renovation project, this book will tear you apart and put you back together again more whole than you started. The characters are both so beautifully written. The dual timeline and dual POV of the story work to show who LaRynn and Deacon were and how they are working to be better versions of themselves for their own wellbeing and then maybe also for each other.

The depth of the characters and how deftly there were written reminds me of Abby Jimenez, one of my favorite authors. So, if you’re also an Abby fan, please pick this up. Definitely recommend.

Read THE CO-OP for
😭 All the feels
🥊 Enemies to lovers
💍 Marriage of convenience
💕 Second-chance romance
🛠️ Forced proximity
🫶 Found family and belonging
🏐 Tall, sporty main characters
🏡 Small town coastal charm
✌️ Dual POV and dual timeline

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 stars)

😘 Thanks to @SMPRomance and @NetGalley for an eARC of this fun read. All opinions are mine alone.

This was such a cute book with some sprinkles of spice that featured tropes such as cat and mouse, second chance, marriage of convenience, and forced proximity. I really enjoy the author’s writing style and I especially adored how the cat and mouse game between the two MCs was portrayed. The multiple points of view along with the slow burn were just *chefs kiss*. The character development is absolutely phenomenal (I mean admitting faults and being the bigger person???). This book had me crying happy and sad tears throughout. Needless to say, I really enjoyed this story and I can wait to read everything that Tarah Dewitt has written!

The co-op
5/5⭐️ 
3/5🌶️ 

“-I should know how that feels, to be put in a box and for assumptions to be built around me. But instead of closing himself off and turning into an angry, imposing fortress, he just gives more of himself to people”

LaRynn and Deacon are former summer flings that ended in dramatic heartbreak. After a decade, both of their grandmothers have passed, and they’ve inherited their home and need A LOT of work. With LaRynn’s trust money and Deacon’s knowledge of construction, a marriage of convenience is struck up so they may fix the house, sell it, and put the past behind them.

This book had the best character development, displaying imperfect people deserving of love like everyone. The chemistry and banter between these two were fabulous. Tarah did an amazing job portraying how their childhood traumas carried into insecurities as adults. I loved how, with time and forced proximity, they navigated through their miscommunication of what happened that summer. 

Tropes:
Black Cat FMC POV
Marriage of convenience
Second chance 
Forced proximity
Slow burn

TW:
Death of grandparent (off-page)
Emotional abuse/neglect
Parental abandonment