4.25 ⭐

"Savor It" by Tarah DeWitt is a delightful and heartwarming read that captures the essence of love in the most charming way. DeWitt's writing is engaging and relatable, making it easy to connect with the characters as they navigate their personal challenges. The playful banter and chemistry between Fischer & Sage add a fun dynamic that keeps you rooting for their relationship to blossom.

What really stands out in "Savor It" is how it emphasizes the importance of savoring life's moments, both big and small. Overall, Tarah DeWitt serves up a sweet and savory story that’s perfect for anyone looking for a cozy, healthy relationship with a dash of swoony romance.

Thank you so much to @macmillan.audio @stmartinspress @netgalley for the ALC/ARC! #MacAudio2024

💜 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 💜
This is such a sweet summery read that will really urge you to enjoy life and be in the moment! It features Sage, local small town teacher in Spunes, Oregon and Fisher, visiting out of town chef who needs a reset on life. Along with Fisher, is his niece Indy, who he is now parenting.

Sage and Fisher are neighbors for the summer, and when it seems Fisher and his business are not exactly welcomed to small town life, Sage volunteers to help him win over the townspeople and he wants to help her in return. The two start forming an easy bond, and the chemistry is sizzling and something they can’t resist.

I love the challenges that Fisher faces in this book and how much he seems to learn from Sage on making the most of the moment and of each day. Fisher seems to not know what makes him happy anymore, and Sage knows how to guide him naturally.

I also love how Fisher makes Sage loosen up a bit, and savor the moments they have together. Sage is not a fling type of a person, but both of them can’t resist one another and are drawn to living in the moment.

The small town atmosphere and warmth seems really present in this story as well. It literally made me feel like I wanted to adopt a herd of unwanted animals and go lay down in a field of flowers. It paints a simplistic life view, that not everything that makes us happy has to be super wild and adventurous, but can be lived daily and with the small things.

I highly recommend this sweet love story!

🎧 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 🎧
Karissa Vacker and Zachary Webber were great narrators for Sage and Fisher. I have listened to both before and am always excited to start and audio with narrators I really enjoy! Vacker brings a cheery vulnerability to the role of Sage; you can feel it in her voice when she narrates. Webber sounds like I’d imagine Fisher to be; he is a little tightly wound and in his head, and that comes through in Webber’s narration. I highly recommend this audiobook!!

💜 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
🩷 Small Town Romance
💜 Professional Chef/Teacher
🩷 Single Dad
💜 Summer Fling
🩷 Grumpy Sunshine
💜 Nosy Neighbors

This book gave me all of the warm fuzzy feelings you would expect from a small town romance!! The banter between the characters was something I lived for with every page turn!! Think quirky, small town farm girl meets slightly uptight, small town hating, overwhelmed guy! The book was packed with romance, tension, witty, banter, love and so much more!! Absolutely loved it!

I absolutely loved this book! I wish I could read it for the first time again. It was beautiful and emotional and everything I could ask for in a romance novel.

I cannot express enough how much I loved this book. The writing was exceptional describing each detail in such a way helping me to imagining it as if I wad there. The author described Oregon with such depth and complexity bring the beautiful state alive. The intensity that Sage and Fisher have between one another is a pure romance lovers dream. The spicy scenes are pleasantly interesting and describing the passion between them without being vulgar. Showing how a small town life might not be as bad as a big city fella might think they are. Definitely ended well but I wouldn't mind a sequel. If you love romance books I highly recommend this one.

An audiobook perfect for summer! The narration for this was so great - fit the story/characters well and were great at capturing all the emotions of the story. I was giggling and yelling and swooning. Tarah DeWitt has made Savor It into a book I’ll be recommending to everyone who’s looking for their next summer romance read.

Sadly this was a book i just didnt get into the characters felt uninteresting. It was just hard to picture this novel. I sadly didn't finish it because it felt unrealistic and relatable

SAVOR IT review

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

🪿Tarah is an auto-read author for me and SAVOR IT was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases! The premise of this one had me hooked!

🪿Here’s a summary of the plot:👇
Sage loves everything about her small town, except that she’s constantly running into her ex and his new girlfriend. She’s determined to win her town’s summer competition to prove that she’s “winning the breakup.” She partners with her new neighbor, Fisher, to win the contest together. Fisher is only in town for the summer and has plenty of baggage he’s brought with him. Can they work together and pull off the win?

🪿No one is more bummed than me that I didn’t love this one. 🥲 It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly about this one didn’t work for me tbh. The beginning was so strong but then the pacing was weird. I honestly felt like the middle was just going on and on and nothing was really happening? I did like how the story wrapped up overall and I am very excited for Wren and Ellis to get their own book next year! If you’ve loved Tarah’s other books I’d still give this one a shot!

🪿Thanks @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for my digital copies!

I absolutely loved this one from Tarah DeWiitt. I felt that the character development was incredibly strong, and I loved the push and pull of Sage & Fisher's relationship.

If you're a fan of a good rom-com with a bit of spice, this one is for you!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the ARC!

I absolutely loved the narration on this audiobook! Zachary Webber and Karissa Vacker are perfection and their narration really brought this story to life for me. I preferred the audiobook to reading in print, but overall also adored the small town setting, and as a foodie I loved the restaurant angle and food descriptions. A wonderful summer romance!

“I think finding the right people-finding 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 people-can be the thing that makes anywhere feel like home.”

Sage Byrd has lived in her small town of Spunes her entire life. She loves it here. What she doesn’t love, is that everyone seems to pity her now that her ex has moved on. Needing a win, she sets her sights on competing in her towns annual summer festival. All she needs is a partner…

Enter Fisher Lange, a chef from New York. Things have not been going well for him. After the loss of his sister, becoming responsible for his tennage niece, and losing a Michelin star, he needs a change of scenery and to try to regain his love of cooking. He’s in Spunes for the summer, and just so happens to be neighbours with Sage. They make a pact to help each other out for the summer, but as feelings develop, what will happen when it’s time for Fisher to go back home?

I loved every minute of this book. It was tender, it was sweet, but it was also so smart and funny. The friendships and relationships between all the characters were so well done, especially between Fisher and his tennage niece, Indy. The heavier topics explored in this book, including grief, made the story and the characters more real and relatable.

I receive and ALC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

One of my top books so far this year. A small town and a guy who can cook, yes please! Add in the fact that she has a funny farm with lots of awesome animals. There’s just so much to love in this one! This was an adorable romance and I love how these two came together. There was some heat, some heartbreak, and some beautiful reconciliation. The added part of the teen was actually the icing on the cakes a unique relationship and piece to add into a relationship but the author did it so well that I actually loved it.

This is the absolute perfect book for the summer! When Fisher loses his Michelin star, along with his love of cooking, his boss sends him to Spunes, Oregon to consult on a restaurant opining. He heads there with his niece, who he is responsible for, after the death of his sister. Once there, the two encounter Sage and none of them will ever be the same.

This one is filled with so much small town fun, along with fake dating that turns into a wonderful friendship. Sage and Fisher were just so dang good together. The chemistry and banter were top notch. The things Fisher says to Sage..my gosh! There are so many tender moments and some heartbreak, but there is also self realization, character building, healing, and some fabulous swoon and spice! I laughed and I cried and I loved every single second of it.

As for the audio, Karissa was perfect as the feisty and fun, Sage, who was absolutely unapologetic in her love for life and her endearing small town. And Zachary just personified Fisher’s broodiness and vulnerability and dang was he sexy! The two together were magical. I could listen to them narrate together every single day! I highly suggest this on audio!! I’m about to listen again!

I loved the dynamic between Sage and Fisher, I appreciated how they both dealt with loss and hardship and the reality of bringing real life into a relationship. I was a bit annoyed by Sage’s ex and some of the overall behaviors in the book by other characters and at times the story did drag a bit, but overall an enjoyable read.

This was a cute story. The narrator did a good job and eas engaging to listen to. The characters were likable. I loved their connection throughout the years.

This book had potential but the execution wasn't the best. For some reason I felt like this book didn't had enough dialogue between the main couple, which is extremely weird. The plot wasn't going nowhere and there was an excessive amount of filler that could've been easily removed.

I always have the same problem with this author: the pacing is weird, she uses random words to make her writing seem "fancy" and "eloquent" but these have no correlation with what is really happening (it seems pretentious to me) and the worst one, her characters never have chemistry. Sage wasn't a likable FMC, she was too quirky for my taste and she would say the most random out of pocked things (why would they talk about dead relatives after having sex???? Every single time). I don't know. This wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either.

I loved this book so so much! I think it might be one of my fave books of the year! I loved it so much after listening to it on audio that I had to go buy the book for future re-reads!

We already know I love a small town romance! And there are goats and so many adorable farm animals! It was a joy watching these neighbors fall in love! Such fun ride - go read it!!

Easily 5 stars from me!

I will not be providing an actual review until St Martin's Press takes accountability and response to the SMP boycott as a result of the Islamophobic and racist actions of an SMP employee. There are three demands but until they are met I will continue to stand in solidarity with the boycott and withhold my reviews from SMP Titles.

Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.

Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.

Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

A quick and enjoyable read. I liked both of the protagonists and enjoyed their personal journeys alongside a romance that developed very naturally. The setting was fun and unique enough to keep me engaged despite a premise I’ve seen a few too many times lately (“we’ll have this casual fling for the summer even though we are very obviously falling deeply in love over the course of a couple months”). I wanted more of the side characters/relationships and the town itself — the way things fizzle out with the competition and some of the other early setups was a bit of a letdown. No shade to this book specifically, but I’m also getting burnt out on the conflict of two people who can’t possibly move to be together resolving the issue with a sudden realization that they can, in fact, move to be together. I liked the writing here enough that I’m interested to see what Tarah does with other romance tropes. 3.5 rounded up.

I ended up likijng this much more than I thought I would as it started. The characters were well drawn and I ws very engaged and it was nuanced between real emotion and hurt and love and joy.