Fisher is struggling with his career after a meltdown so he spends the summer in Spunes where he meets Sage. Summer romance ensues.

I struggled through this one. So many things that seemed like they were major plot points were awkward and didn't flow: the competition, the ex, even the restaurant. The last 20% was really good but I found it hard to connect to the story for most of the book.

Net Galley ARC:
After being obsessed with Rootbound and the Co-Op I was really excited for this book, but it took me a long time to get into it. It was overall enjoyable, but just didn’t feel as well developed as Dewitt’s other stories have been

*will post on @youhavetoreadthisnow closer to pub date*

SAVOR IT by Tarah Dewitt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is was such a satisfying romance. I loved the main character Sage. She was smart, independent, kind, and felt confident in who she wanted to be. The characters had all experienced so much loss and it added so much depth to their relationships watching them grow and navigate their grief. There was no miscommunication trope and they were so honest and vulnerable with each other about what they were going through. If you want a romance that will make you laugh, cry, and warm your heart, this is the one!

Fishers life is in shambles and he is given a chance to start over by relocating to a small town for 3 months. Sage happens to live in the small town next to where Fisher will be living. Both of them need to prove themselves to this small town so they strike a deal with each other to win the towns summer competition!

Perfect if you like:
•Fake dating.
•Small town romance.
•Complicated families.

Pub. Date: May 21, 2024

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Mood: 🌮🍩

🚪: 18, 20, 21, 24, 26, 31
⚠️: explicit language.

A quintessential small town romance that is easy to devour. There is great banter between Sage & Fisher, and thankfully it is dual POV so we really get to see into both of them, which I love. This one has a lot of puns and a lot of heart, and will be a perfect summer read for 2024. My only grievances with this one are that some of the plot points kind of got lost along the way, and there is one plot point that is pretty abrupt and doesn't really add anything to the story, in my opinion.


Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for a an early copy of this very beautiful book. Sage and Fisher are each broken or healing and find themselves in forced proximity to each other but only for a summer. The writing made me laugh out loud. Each character is lovable in their own unique ways. There are a lot of characters introduced very quickly in the first few chapters, which threw me a little. Indy, Fisher’s niece of whom he is the guardian, is a bad ass and I would love to see a sequel about her.

Also there are lots of food refs and cute animals in this book which is a double win for me!!

Spiciness level on this book: 🌶️/5

I was a big fan of Funny Feelings so was happy to go on my second ride with Tarah DeWitt.

This book!!! Bravo to Tarah for having a 3rd act conflict that makes sense and is NECESSARY for the story - not just a check box item. This book is filled with heart, love, sadness and joy. The characters and relationships are just amazing (Indy and the goose?!). I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time to come

This book was so amazing! I have read one other book from this author but it had been awhile and I didn't remember much. But this one will definitely be a comfort read for me! Sage and Fisher were the perfect character to fall in love with. I do think the pacing was a little off at times, but I still loved this book.

I received an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

Sage and Fisher's story was cute! But there were definitely some issues with pacing and being able to connect with the MCs. It felt like the story definitely needed either another round with the Beta readers or an editor to help with the choppy story and really let this story shine.

I first discovered Tarah on Instagram and previously loved all her other books so when I got lucky enough to get this one I was sooo excited!

I loved the location of Spunes. I grew up in a small town. On a farm. With a bunch of animals, so reading this book really brought me home. 😭
I loved Sage and Fisher so much! You can feel the chemistry come off the pages!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was cute! I enjoyed it alot! I loved getting both Sage and Fisher's perspectives throughout the story. At times i did feel like it was a tad long, and some parts could have been cut out. I would have liked to know more about Indy and her future with Sage and Fisher. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a light hearted rom-com.

I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of this book, my first read from this author, and I ADORED it. It hit all the feels—I felt hope, I felt joy, I felt the heat and the tension, I laughed and I cried. And I just couldn’t get enough! The backstories of the two main characters, their families, Indy and her angst and dreams, the small town quirks, and just the pure dichotomy of the whole juxtaposition of expectation versus reality, misplaced assumptions, big city versus small town, and how being in the present while being stuck in the past can impact one’s soul. I loved Sage and her outlook on life. She was super relatable and such a mixture of pleasing people and standing her ground with just this effervescent joy and appreciation for what makes her happy, underpinned by insecurities from her past (and those layered in by her ex). Fisher and his grumpy/cinnamon roll duality was charming and caring, while also trying to cope with his past, his present, and what he really wants for his future, all while trying his best as a new caretaker. But I think my absolute favorite parts of this book were not only the moments of tension between Sage and Fisher, but the way that they spoke about and to each other. It was just so endearingly lovely and it made me, as the reader, yearn for that kind of love, understanding, and appreciation—all while not only building their partner up just as they are, but helping them heal and giving them purpose. Plus you could just FEEL the love. The way Sage observed Fisher when he was cooking for her you could just picture it and feel the same. And when the spice came, and oh the spice was chefs kiss, it wasn’t JUST the spice aspect—it was uniquely poignant in its representation of the love and luck and sense of urgency laced with pure joy and I just thought it was such a pleasure to read. Definitely highly recommend this one and will be reading more of their work!

“And I decided a long time ago that life being too short and too beyond my control meant that I’d let the small stuff feel big.”

This book was heartfelt and delicious! I am so impressed by the way DeWitt built this town and its people with so much detail and heart, I definitely felt like I knew Spunes well by the end of it.

Sage and Fisher deserve nothing but love and happiness forever and ever and ever. I love when authors let broken people mend and break over again because that’s what makes the characters feel even more alive, and the characters in Savor It were vibrant and real and flawed and lovable all the same. I wanted to stay in Spunes forever and find out where everyone’s stories lead.

This was a cute book, I did enjoy see the progress of sage and fishers story. I enjoy when authors add in more deeper topics to their story as I think it adds more depth to the story. I will say about halfway in the book I did start to get a little bit bored. The plot was a little hard to follow at times. Overall, I would rate this 3.5 ⭐️ thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press publishing for the ARC in return for an honest review♥️

I anticipated a lot from this, being a huge fan of "Funny Feelings" and "The Co-op" however, my expectations weren't met. I struggled to connect to the romantic plot because there's very little tension there. There's nothing keeping the characters apart and no reason why they can't simply be together, so there's not much story happening in that regard. I just wish there had been more depth throughout.


Thank you netgalley and publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I loved everything about this book. I loved how quirky the female main character was and how she marched to the best of her own drum. I thought the male main character was portrayed well as a grumpy chef. I the character development throughout the books was great, with each main character going through their own individual struggles. The competition element provided a gray way to add some comedy. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a romance with a chef and small town vibes.

Some fine-tuning of the voice here and there would be nice, but the story was beautiful and Sage and Fisher are both messy and beautiful and I love them. Loved the parts with Indy, and I’m crossing my fingers that we see more Spunes people in coming books??
Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

Rating: 3/5
Warnings: workplace burn out, death of a parent
Steam: 3/5

Thank you to SMP and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

~and this is a VERY honest opinion~

I'm giving Savor It a 3-star rating overall, breaking down to 2.5 stars for the initial 70% and 4 stars for the concluding 30%. And settle on 3 at the end of the day.

Part of me pains to say this because I was so excited for Savor It but I’ll be honest a large chunk of this book as painfully bad. A significant portion of the book was disappointingly choppy, leaving many loose ends that felt incomplete. I found myself frequently going back to reread sections, only to discover missing pieces or thoughts without a clear origin.

Here are my other qualms:

Despite the premise involving an MMC with guardianship over his niece, the actual depiction of their relationship was surprisingly minimal. More emphasis on Fisher building a connection with Indy or even exploring their past could have added depth to the narrative.

There were an overwhelming number of side characters, it’s like Stars Hallow exploded and I needed a map to know who was who. While I understand the intent of world-building for a potential series, it consumed a substantial amount of page time with minimal impact.

The storyline involving the two main characters preparing for a competition lacked cohesion, with references to two of them during a separate part of the competition left unexplored…where was our cooking competition and trivia portion?

On a positive note, there were some really sweet parts and I really loved the last bit. The foodie parts where excellent. And Wren and Ellis need a story, I’m more interested in them that I was Sage and Fisher.

I had pretty high expections of the author after Funny Feelings but I'm unsure if it was a fluke of perfection, as this one, fell short in several aspects.

This was a cute romance that dealt with loss, guardianship, and grief. It's my first book by the author, and it was a good small-town read with funny farm animals, a chef mmc, and a sweet fmc. The mmc Fisher was a well-known and talented chef but lost his job after a blowout with a food critic. He is the guardian of his niece and goes to Sage, the fmc small town, for a summer job. Sage and all her farm animals help Fisher get to know the town and help him find his love for cooking and creating food again. I loved how the relationship developed it was a slow burn, and the author spent a lot of time developing the main characters' relationship. I also loved the farm animals and the chef plot. The food was described in such a way that made me a little hungry lol. The beginning was a bit slow, and I wanted more from their relationship at times, but overall, this was a good read that I would recommend. Thank you to the publisher for this arc for an honest review.

Read if you like:
- Small-town romance
- Slow burn
- Angsty romance
- Guardianship
- Some steamy scenes
- Fake dating
- Opposites attract
- Grumpy/sunshine
- Next door neighbors

Thanks so much for the arc!

Sage Bryd lives in a small town in Oregon. Her next door neighbors rent out their house to a man a teen girl. The man turns out to be Fisher Lange. He’s temporarily living here to help a restaurant get off the ground, as he’s a chef.

This book was full of small town feels. Sage had all the animals- her brothers were the local police- there were nosey ladies- a charming library- town hall meetings. Of course the small town elders were not a fan of Fisher starting some new restaurant. This is when he must enlist the help of Sage to win them over. In the meantime she recruits him to be her partner in the town festival competition. They must train to row & cook something.

Throughout their journey of figuring out who they each are & their purpose they find peace in each other. Fisher is raising his difficult teenage niece (who also happens to be a big fan of Sage’s nephew). Watching Fisher and Sage fall in love was sweet. They have some hurdles to cross as Fisher is only here temporarily.

Sage gave me old-lady vibes. She lives in this old house and feeds all these animals. She wears corny “pun” filled t-shirts. She gardens & doesn’t seem to have a filter when she talks. I guess I struggled to relate to her. I didn’t love the random terrible migraine bit or the hospital emergency situation. They felt rushed and only placed in the story for a challenge. Also the word “savor” was used way too many times. This book gave Hallmark movie feels. It all seemed a bit unrealistic. I don’t think I’m the right audience for this. I love a good rom-com but this was too Hallmark for me.

4.5 Stars

Savor It was my first read by Tarah DeWitt, and I'll definitely be coming back for more. Summer romances with an "expiration date" are not usually my preferred trope for a rom-com, but Tarah hit every note with polish, even if the path to the characters' happily ever after was a little predictable.

Ultimately, what makes this book special is that it has a lot of heart. Sage and Fisher both feel like very fleshed out, real characters, struggling with similar feelings of grief in different ways. Many of their conversations together had me welling up with tears. The larger cast of characters also feel very well thought out. I really enjoyed Sage and Fisher's interactions with Sage's family and with Fisher's niece, Indy.

The things that made this not a full 5 stars for me are all subjective and matter of personal taste when it comes to tropes. I'd definitely recommend this heartwarming read to anyone who loves a good summer romance!