I’m not a huge romance reader, but I am such a sucker for a good RomCom, and The Co-Op was such a fun read. The main characters were relatable, fun and kept the story fresh. There was some light spice but a whole lot of feel good moments and some silly bits too.

Old flames to enemies and back to lovers made for an interesting read.

A cute, fun, marriage of convenience! Took me a minute to get in invested in the characters. LaRynn’s character fell a tiny bit flat for me, but the second half of the book made up for it!

I feel exhausted by this book. I had such high hopes given I loved loved loved Funny Feelings and I love the way Tarah Dewitt writes. But I felt so disappointed by how disjointed these characters felt, which is ironic given I read the version that is supposed to have been rewritten and will be rereleased. The book reads like a book that’s gotten chopped up and put back together. So as a result, the characters and their stories felt disparate. And it just felt like absolutely nothing was happening for most of it.

Deacon and LaRynn’s story (both past and present) is largely one of miscommunication. But then they pine after each other for most of the book but honestly I’m not even sure why they liked each other.

It isn’t until their confrontation at 70%(!!!!) of the way through the book that things start to click. All of a sudden, their motivations are crystal clear and suddenly well explained? I’m not buying it.

And by 70%, I was so frustrated and so exhausted by these characters that the rest of their relationship felt inauthentic. Like I was too tired to care. Which is such a disappointment because the last 30% of the book is lovely. A wonderful treatise on a relationship that has been broken and been healed and a story of processing old grief. It’s this part that got me back to the rating that I gave it.

LaRynn Lavigne and Deacon Leeds were once summer crushes as teenagers, but now they’ve inherited an old, run-down building from their grandmothers. To fix it up and sell it, they agree to a fake marriage—LaRynn needs to be married to access her trust fund, and Deacon has the skills to renovate but not the money. As they work and live together, old feelings and past arguments start bubbling up. While rebuilding the house, they also begin to rebuild their relationship, realizing that maybe their fake marriage isn’t so fake after all.

This one was sweet, cute, and kept me engaged and hoping for a happily ever after!

The Co-Op is already available so I highly recommend checking it out!

Thank you NetGalley, Tarah DeWitt, and St.Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for honest feedback. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was good, but the slow burn was a little too slow. There was also the miscommunication trope and I didn't find the FMC very likeable.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Love 👏🏻 love 👏🏻 love 👏🏻

@authortarahdewitt is quickly becoming an auto read for me! And I am slowly (but surely) making my way through her books! I was obsessed with this one as soon as I started reading!!!

LaRynn was amazing! I loved her passion once she got an idea, & her drive. She felt relatable in so many ways, & I really liked getting to know why she was the way she was. And Deacon was the peanut butter to her jelly! He was patient, gentle, & so so helpful. I loved their chemistry, & how their past & present was woven so beautifully together 💕

The writing, the characters, the town! Everything was exactly what it needed to be & I couldn’t get enough. And their grands 🥰 I absolutely loved all of their interactions with them. They gave the best advice, & Sal was there to add a laugh!

I definitely recommend this if you haven’t read it already 💕💕💕

What to expect:
✨home reno setting
✨forced proximity
✨second chance
✨marriage of convenience
✨grumpy/sunshine
✨great banter

Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress for the early copy!

Forced Proximity
Summer fling
Marriage of convenience
Tiny bit of second chance romance
Dual POV

The Co-Op is peak marriage of convenience and sealed my love for all things Tarah DeWitt writes or will write in the future. I loved everything about this story. I found myself flipping pages faster and faster as the story progressed. Declan and LyRynn are romcom couple goals once they get their communication worked out.

Be my wife. Stay my wife. FOREVER. *swoooooooooon*

I really enjoyed this book but the only thing I didn't love was the amount of miscommunication! I really don't like this trope and unfortunately this book has a lot of it. But I did love the characters, the plot, and the setting! It was a nice pallet cleaner between fantasy books that are making me crazy!

I absolutely love Tarah Dewitt, but for whatever reason, this story fell short for me. I’m sad to say I was just a bit bored and it felt kind of bland for a romance… it has SO much potential though. The marriage of convenience trope and second chance trope would be so fun in theory, but again, just fell short and felt a little half-assed.

Tarah DeWitt does not miss. Anything that she write I will consume in short order. I am not always a fan of the marriage of convenience trope, but coupled with the second chance romance this book is nothing short of a firecracker.

This was the perfect romance book for me personally. The writing was wonderful and I was hooked from the beginning. I oved this book and it was my first book by Tarah DeWitt! I cannot wait to read more of her books. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the early copy!

I loved the home renovation marriage of convenience aspects of this book and the ending was very good but these characters were very unlikable and the lack of communication was frustrating!

So good! Banter is amazing! I loved the concept of this book!! It was a different friends to enemies to lovers!!

Slow burn, friends to lovers, fake marriage turned real.

Very cute a coxy lots of will they won't they, very standard in terms of romance books. Quick read nothing too crazy, if your looking for a beach read, plane read, cute sunday afternoon read this is it

Marriage of convenience, second chance and a home renovation on top of tension in a forced proximity setting….

This book has some of my absolute favorite tropes in it but somehow it just fell flat for me.

The MCs were a little insufferable for me. Everything could have been cleared up with just a simple conversation and yet they just kept flirting then backing off for literally 80% of the book.

I will give it credit for not having a 3rd act breakup - but they kinda did that 3 other times in the book.

I did enjoy getting to go back to the past and seeing how their relationship blossomed over the years. I do wish we got to see more of the grans tho. NOW THATS A STORY I WOULD READ ABOUT.

The spice was good at least - once you get to it. Definitely a slow burn.

Overall, not a romance that will be high up on my list of favorites. I’m giving this one 3.5 stars with a 1 spice rating. But it wasn’t bad enough to make me DNF.

Will someone else enjoy this more than me? Absolutely. But I just wanted more of those MY WIFE vibes.

Big thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

Tarah DeWitt is an absolute queen, and honestly, I’d read her grocery list if she published it! Thank you for this copy!

Now, let’s talk about this book... WOW. It was everything I didn’t know I needed...sincere, heart-wrenching, hopeful, and packed with so much delicious angst! LaRynn and Deacon are beautifully flawed, raw, and so honest about their feelings and traumas that you can’t help but feel every emotion right along with them.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ll be shouting about this one from the rooftops! If you’re looking for a story that will absolutely wreck you in the best way possible, pick this up NOW. You won’t regret it!

3.5 stars. The Co-Op is an enjoyable breezy read. I liked it for the most part, but the dual timeline was messing with me in the first quarter of the book. It was just confusing for some reason. I didn’t really care for LaRynn but Deacon was fine. They had great chemistry and some pretty hot scenes, whether in the middle of an “oh we can’t do this” rom-com trope, or when they just got real with each other. Some plot points were a bit convenient. Though I loved the epilogue, it was very refreshing as we don’t often see a time jump past a year.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this arc in exchange for my honest review.

✨ Publication date: November 12, 2024✨

The Co-op is a second chance, dual POV, now/then steamy romance by Tarah Dewitt.

LaRynn and Deacon share a bit of a past. They had one fateful summer together and then life took them in two very different directions.

LaRynn and Deacon met through their grandmother’s who met much later in life and fell in love. They lived together on the top floor of the building they owned together and LaRynn and Deacon spent summers there over the years.

After the grandmothers passed away, the building was left to them both bringing them back together after the summer that changed everything.

The building is falling apart, they have no money to fix it and can barely stand to be in the same room together. Both of them having very different versions of how that summer went and the way it ended.

As they come together to honor the grandmothers and fix up the building to sell it, they realize they have a lot of finished business with each other and within themselves. If they can be honest with each other and come clean about how they feel, maybe they have a future together after all.

This is my second book by this author and while I liked this one, it didn’t have me captured quite as much as the first book I read. This is a slowwww burn. Almost too slow for my liking so I was getting frustrated the deeper I got into the book. There is some spice and it was well written - you could really feel the pull of the two main characters during these scenes. This was a 3.25 star for me.

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

#NetGalley #tarahdewitt #theco-op

This was a re-release and I loved it just like I’ve loved every other Tarah book. The tension sucked me in and I was so invested in LaRynn and Deacon resolve their lasting conflicts. A must read if you love second-chance, enemies to lovers.
🌶️🌶️🌶️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tara Dewitt delivers a witty and heartwarming second-chance romance in The Co-Op. LaRynn and Deacon, once young and impulsive, are forced to renovate the house they bought years ago, leading to hilarious banter, unresolved tension, and undeniable chemistry.

With sharp writing, dual timelines, and the perfect mix of humor and heart, Dewitt crafts a feel-good love story that keeps you hooked. If you enjoy forced proximity, slow-burn romance, and plenty of swoon-worthy moments, The Co-Op is a must-read! I truly loved this one and Tara Dewitt delivers another amazing story that just makes you feel all the feels.

Thanks for the ARC!