My sincere thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read The CO-OP by Tarah DeWitt. I give my unbiased opinion of it in the following review.

LaRynn and Deacon have inherited a home in Santa Cruz from their grandmothers. They need to work together to renovate it in order to sell. They also need to navigate some serious feelings stemming from a pretty serious relationship that they had seven years earlier where they broke each other's heart. In order to have the funds to do the renovation, they enter into a marriage of convenience to access LaRynn's trust fund. Circumstances also require that they live together in the home while they work on it. Their chemistry is intense, and they don't always handle it well. They know how to jab each other in their vulnerable places. They agree to be friends, but can either one of them be satisfied with that?

I really liked this book. There are a lot of feelings to unpack and watching the characters come to terms with them little by little was so interesting to read. It is definitely not smooth sailing. We are given both LaRynn and Deacon's points of view from the past when they first became involved and the present. It is easy to see their connection and wonder how the author is going to bring them together in the end. I appreciated the slow burn. They had far too much to deal with and having them succumb to their attraction too early would not have been realistic to me. I loved how everything played out.

This is my second Tarah Dewitt book this year. While I enjoyed Savor It just a little more, I am excited to keep up with what Tarah comes up with next.

The Co-Op is a second chance romance, forced proximity, marriage of convenience, and frenemies to lovers novel. First, this book was extremely well written. I loved the grandmas so much. Dewitt knows how to build up background and character backstory. LaRynn showed me that I need a female main character that is a little bit softer and empathetic straight off the bat. Deacon being head over heels for LaRynn physically was endearing, but because LaRynn was so harsh at first it seemed to leave little room for emotional attraction which in turn made it a little difficult to fall for their relationship. LaRynn’s deeply tragic childhood of being isolated from anything outside of pride for her accomplishments truly allows for the reader to remain sympathetic to her struggles in life and in love. Deacon always being there to hold space and push back when necessary allows for the love and trust to blossom once again, 10 years later.

If you’re looking for a romance that is digs into deeper into the familial wounds that hurt us and how to learn to love and be loved in return, this one is for you!

I did not love this one. I DNF’d at about 50% because I just couldn’t stand the FMC LaRynn. Deacon was ok, but once I decided I didn’t like the FMC I wasn’t rotting for their enemies to lovers, forced proximity relationship to take a turn. I wanted to tell Deacon to run, far far away!

There is some good banter and if you like forced proximity, save the family ____ “insert cliche here” and enemies to lovers, you may like this one.

Eep!! I have to say, Tarah writes a mean romance novel and “The Co-Op” is no exception. Deacon and LaRynn had a history that literally could not be ignored and watching them attempt to was hilarious (like those sweet summer children ever stood a chance). It was the perfect mix of their home renovation, angsty tension, and pure repressed pining. The love they had for one another was, seriously, palpable and had me feeling like I was in the room with them like this:🧍‍♀️in the corner, just w a i t i n g for someone to snap. Then once they did..it was so worth all the cups he'd leave on the nightstand and the hair she'd leave on the shower wall. The pacing was smooth until the last 12% or thereabouts - it gets rushed from there, I felt like, but the epilogue then was precious. I did also feel like those “team-building exercises” were practically nonexistent and long-forgotten. And with that all established, I’m en route to read the rest of her oeuvre in preparation for the beautiful and emotional mack truck LOF will inevitably be. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Tarah DeWitt for providing this eARC!

I was going to say I wish I read this sooner but there was a rewrite (hence the new release date). And I’m happy I waited because damn, Tara Dewit does it again. There is something about her characters that I absolutely love.

To be honest second chance romance isn’t one of the tropes I generally read but this was so good. The story goes back and forth between then and now so you can see what happened between LaRynn and Deacon. You also get duel POV, which I absolutely love.

Tarah Dewitt is a magician. I loved this when I read it as an indie and I love it even more now! The tension, banter, and chemistry is unmatched!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and St. Martin's Griffith for this advanced copy! You can pick up The Co-op on November 12, 2024.

This was such a fantastic marriage of convenience and forced proximity story! Seeing LaRynn and Deacon's relationship evolve from passionate, heartbroken teenagers to slow-to-trust, healing adults was so, so good. Plus, I love a good "my wife" moment.

There's no better feeling than picking up the right book at the right time, and I fear Tarah DeWitt's steamy, angsty romance was exactly what I needed.

Cute, fun, read. After their grandmothers leave them their house that is in desperate need of repair…. LaRynn and Deacon have not seen or spoken to each other in seven years.
It seems like it takes forever for these two to actually have a conversation, but when they do… it’s explosive. The banter was great and overall I really enjoyed this book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved Deacon. He was super sweet and hardworking. Overall, I liked LaRynn as well. She annoyed me slightly at the beginning of the book and presented a little too needy for me. I felt the book's first half was a little slow and drawn out. I loved the second half of the book and the HEA. I loved how they both opened up to each other and were honest about their fears and feelings. This would make for an EXCELLENT audiobook with their banter throughout the book!

Thank you for this ARC in exchange for honest feedback!

The Co-op by Tarah DeWitt is being rereleased on November 12th and I want to thank #netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my advance reader copy. I enjoyed this romance. It features LaRynn and Deacon - they were together the summer they were 18, it ended badly scarring both of them. LaRynn never returned to her grandmother's home - the home she shared with her partner, Deacon's grandmother. Now both the women have passed away and left their home to LaRynn and Deacon. In addition, LaRynn has 100K in trust, but she can't access the money until she marries. LaRynn and Deacon want to fix up the house and sell it for a nice profit but need the cash so they skip right over the fake dating. There is great banter, good pacing, medium spice, and overall a good story. Both characters really struggled with their upbringing and have issues with their fathers that they need to move past as individuals and they need to forgive themselves and each other for everything that's happened. Again, I really enjoyed this read, and I love a good love story that does not feel compelled to make it unnecessarily long. 4 stars.

I have read and enjoyed other books by this author, but I didn’t love this one. I loved the small-ish town vibes and the side characters. I also loved the story with their grandmothers and the discussions of grief. I did not love the main characters. I disliked LaRynn, I just felt like she was constantly rude to everyone and it was hard to see her full character because I couldn’t get past that. Deacon was fine, but I wished we could’ve had maybe more of him interacting with the community or something. I just was not invested in the romance. The epilogue was beautiful and had me teary-eyed! I will definitely read more from this author, but this one was not for me.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not always the biggest fan of second chance, but I loved how DeWitt wrote it! And paired with marriage of convenience, so amazing. Deacon and LaRynn both had rough childhoods and trauma from that and I really enjoyed how the author slowly unfolded all that to show how they broke up the first time and slowly fell in love the second. I really appreciated it being dual POV.

I have not related to a character as much as I did LaRynn in a very long time, or EVER. From the first chapter when she got motion sick, I felt connected. From then on, it just kept going. The thoughts and feelings she had just rung a bell, from being to tall and “not smiling enough” to the pressures from her parents. I just really connected with her.

I loved the symbolism of how the further their renovation went along, the more their relationship healed, in the house it all started. The character growth in this book was incredible. All the music references were also so amazing and the book playlist DeWitt created is so good and is in my opinion the perfect driving at night playlist.

I became a big Tarrah DeWitt fan after reading Savor It and was excited to read THE CO-OP. It promised things I tend to gravitate toward: second chance romance, marriage of convenience, and forced proximity and, while it delivered on those tropes, my failure to connect with the main characters created an issue for me.

LaRynn and Deacon each inherit equal shares of the house their grandmothers owned together. The house needs repairs before they can sell it, but there’s a small problem. Deacon has the talent to make the renovations, but lacks the funds. LaRynn has funds available in a trust, but lacks a husband which is a stipulation for her to access the money. Hence, the marriage of convenience. Here’s where the big problem arises - LaRynn and Deacon had a hot and heavy teenage romance that ended badly and haven’t communicated since.

The last 30% of the book was entertaining, but getting there required navigating frequent instances of the MCs failing to communicate. It also felt like the entire house renovation which was central to the plot simply disappeared. Consequently, the book had a ton of promise and just didn’t execute to its potential.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

“Life feels like it’s happening to me and moving around me, some heavy tide I’m always treading, trying to keep my head above water.”

This is a really solid second-chance, enemies-to-lovers romance. I love the dual POVs and dual timelines, so we get to see their relationship from five years prior that led to their current animosity. LaRynn and Deacon have such good chemistry and their banter works really well. They both have some family trauma, so it’s good when LaRynn finally talks with her mom and Deacon talks through what happened with his parents. I do wish that we got a little more resolution with LaRynn and her dad. I think her familial trauma plays a big part to her character, so it would have beeb ore satisfying for resolution with both of her parents.

It feels a bit like a slow burn, which is right up my alley. But we do get so much from the past so it doesn’t feel like it drags. They take time to reconnect and learn what the past five years have been like. I really love the way everything unfolds regarding the house and especially Sally, the elderly neighbor that was friends with their grandmothers. She absolutely is a scene-stealer.

“You’ll be so happy you were brave.”

I really enjoyed this one and it’s just such a sweet story. It’s funny and loving, raw and vulnerable, and a little spicy.

Thank you to SMP and Tarah DeWitt for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Deacon and LaRynn's story was fantastic and I really liked the dual timeline. This was a fast, fun read with some great characters. I love the tropes of this book - second chance romance and marriage of convenience with a really fun "fixer upper" HGTV vibe.

Tarah DeWitt is going to be an auto-read author for me from this point forward!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️🌶️🌶️

ARC Review: Pub Date November 12, 2024

𝑴𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆, 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍, 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒔, 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇*𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏.

I legitimately squealed out loud when I was sent this ARC. Tarah Dewitt is an auto-buy, auto-read (auto-obsess) author for me. I read the original version of The Co-op over a year ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But this version? I LOVE it. Everything that was good before has been amplified and reworked to be so amazing.

Deacon and LaRynn are both such phenomenal characters. They are so well rounded and they're pains are so deeply human that they feel like real people. We all know I love when they yearn, and I don't remember the yearning being quite so visceral before. These two are in PAIN and I LOVE IT!

The flashbacks to their summer love makes everything they feel in the present so much more vibrant. I loved the way they healed individually while also taking the time to heal they're shared past and move forward in a way that felt healthy and lasting. These two have my whole heart now.

The flirting, the banter, the SPICE! Y'all Tarah kicked this up a notch and it is a good time! I love the way Deacon and LaRynn fight with each other and for each other. The tension is so good and when it finally snaps it is delicious.

I really enjoyed the side characters so much. They brought life to this beach side town. Sally was an MVP. When she tells Deacon to "kindly eat glass" I nearly spit out my drink. I know we got nearly 30k more words in this edition, but I want more. I would read a whole series of these people in this idyllic little beach town.

“𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒖𝒔𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅,”𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒚.
𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒍𝒚. “𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖?”
“𝑰 𝒇*𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕.”

Read November 8-10, 2024

This book is a delightful mix of humor, romance, and the ups and downs of community living. DeWitt’s writing is sharp and engaging, making the characters feel like real friends navigating the chaos of life together. You want to be friends with them.

The story revolves around a group of quirky residents in a co-op, and their interactions are both hilarious and heartwarming. I found myself laughing at their antics while also rooting for their personal growth and relationships. The dynamics between the characters are so well-crafted that I could easily see this as a fun movie—imagine the ensemble cast bringing these vibrant personalities to life!

Overall, “The Co-Op” is a charming read that left me with a smile. If you’re looking for a book that combines laughter with heartfelt moments, this one is a must-read!

Cute romance revisiting a summer teenage romance years later. The feud and miscommunication they started out with was a little obnoxious, but it did create some funny scenarios and set up the rest of the story well. Overall enjoyable and fun.

This is an entertaining, fun read. Decan and LaRynn are interesting, wounded, complex, intriguing, relatable, complicated, strong, entertaining characters. I enjoyed their romance and the path it took to get to their HEA. These two are fun to spend time with. The secondary characters added to the fabric of the story and my enjoyment. The story deals with tough family relationships and dynamics in a sensitive and meaningful way. I enjoyed the duel timelines and wasn’t pulled out of the story at any point because of them. The story is easy to read and get into.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed certain parts of this book. But it took me awhile to get into it. For some reason I felt confused throughout most of the story and didn’t connect with the MC. But the ending of this book was cute.