Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for an ARC of this book! I’ve willingly read and reviewed it. All opinions are my own.

I’ve been desperate to read SAVOR IT ever since it was announced and the excitement I experienced when I found out it was a Read Now title on Netgalley is a little *too* embarrassing to detail.

The book follows Sage, high school teacher, lover of animals, and someone who goes out of her way to do for others, and Fisher, a successful chef who recently blew up on a food critic which led him to losing his job and one of his Michelin stars. Fisher moves to the small town of Spunes, Oregon with the niece he recently took guardianship of in order to get his boss’s new restaurant up and running. On Fisher and Indy’s first night in town, they’re woken up by what they believe to be someone breaking into their rental and from there, their lives completely transform.

I absolutely loved these characters. I saw so much of myself in Sage, getting burned and burned out by being too nice, love of puns, and related with her must-rescue-all-the-needy-animals mindset. And Fisher. Fisher is another amazing book boyfriend who actually COMMUNICATES. The conversations and realizations between these two had me highlighting so many quotes that I know I’ll be going back to.

SAVOR IT, refreshingly, isn’t a book with explosive conflict. Like I said, the characters communicate and communicate well. But that animosity was definitely not missed. Instead, readers will get to see these two characters have a beautiful summer romance filled with respect and appreciation and love.

I can’t wait to receive a physical copy of this book and I’m hopeful this is just book one in a Spunes, Oregon series!

I feel in love with the characters and the story. The romance was very enjoyable and the banter was so cute. I would highly recommend this book!

I fell in love with the way DeWitt created the atmosphere, the vibe, the electrifying chemistry. Everything about this book was cohesive, the plot interesting, and the characters well developed.

I happen to like this quite a bit and think it is lovely, and I would love to live there in Spunes, Oregon.

Savor It - Tarah Dewitt
⭐⭐⭐⭐

"𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒔...𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔, 𝑺𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉...𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒎𝒆."

This was my second Tarah Dewitt book and it will not be my last. She just write such swoony love stories! Sage lives in a small town where Fisher is forced to reside for the summer as her neighbor with his niece that he has custody of. Super cute, witty with a side of spice.

"𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖."

I adored this story and the characters very much, but I will say it was SO heavy on the small town stuff and super descriptive where it didn't need to be. With that being said the love story sold me and I am so happy I got the opportunity to read this.

"𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒔....𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓."

🧑🏼‍🍳Small Town Romance
🧑🏼‍🍳Chef
🧑🏼‍🍳Grumpy/Sunshine
🧑🏼‍🍳Neighbors

tarah dewitt, i want to kiss your brain.

another this is me trying bf x mirrorball gf for my collection of perfect ships.

tarah has such a gifted way of writing these perfectly personal and vulnerable characters. they're all imperfect and she even makes it a point to let you know that even by the end, most of these characters aren't healed or fixed 100% through, because who among us ever is?, but they're satisfied in life. you don't need to figure everything out in life to feel or be whole. and her character's sort of root themselves into your core and you sort of feel like you can't breathe until they've gotten their happily ever after. you feel everything they feel and it's like they've entangled you in their (fictional) lives.

it's a little disturbing how every time i read one of tarah's books it feels like she's sort of surgically carved out part of my brain to study and then splattered parts of it into all of her books. too visual? anyway! sage being the representation of being the "too-nice translates to too-boring and unmotivated but also kindness is just who i am and i sort of need to be kind to my core because it provides a sense a necessity about me that people seek" REALLY HURTS. JUST SAYING. after that first internal monologue about feeling overlooked for being "too soft" i felt myself aching for her to realize that she's worth more than what she provides other people. that she's worthy of just being enough for herself and that she can be selfish but still be kind and and she can be tough and direct and confident but still be soft. and that brings me around to another thing tarah does so well: giving so much dimension to her characters. it's why it's so easy to find yourself in so many of them (or in my case all of them).

and, god damn. fisher. listen, it's gonna take A LOT to dethrone meyer as my #1 tarah dewitt book boyfriend, but man does fisher come in close. sage says something along the lines of how arousing it is to watch fisher just try to be good and reliable to indy and you know what, girl? I GET IT. reading about men learning to be vulnerable and accept help and go to therapy and just be human is literally one of my biggest kinks wow i wish men were real! fisher learning that his value isn't dependent on how well-liked he is, is extremely humbling and great, sage (ha!) advice for anything. i think i need this constant reminded tattooed on the inside of my eyelids. again, tarah's openness to vulnerability with her characters is so refreshing.

as i sit longer (and, fine, re-read) i will come back with more words because this book already means so much to me and i only just finished it an hour ago. okay. peace and love!!!!!!!!!!

thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. i MUST return thinking about indy's big (and loud) rant to fisher and cry-sobbing about it ( i had to shut my bedroom door because my brother asked if i was okay and i said i thought i was coming down with something and didn't want to alarm him with how violently i was crying. alright. goodbye.)

5⭐️ This book made me so happy it was so cute!!! This book follows Fisher and Sage who end up becoming neighbors for the summer when Fisher has to help create a menu for a new restaurant in the small town that Sage lives in. Fisher has a lot going on in his life while also having to take care of his niece. Sage is the sunshine small town girl who wants to help Fisher and so they strike up a deal. I loved the small town vibes in this book and literally I love this town. I won’t say much else about this book except it was such a cute read and I was smiling throughout the whole book. I need books that follow some of the other characters that are in this book so badly!

Oh my gosh. My heart.

This was a SLOOOOOOW burn. 20-30% in I was convinced I wasn’t going to end up loving this because of how slow it was. But holy heck did it end up sucking me in and giving me ALL OF THE FEELINGS.

This was like, Nicolas Sparks level feelings with charming small town done RIGHT.

The ending. I think we got more Fisher chapters than Sage chapters and that honestly made me love it more because seeing is love bloom was so precious.

I was laying in bed crying like the little cancer I am because of how cute and precious it was. I hope we get more books about the side characters finding love because I NEED Ellis and Wren’s story.

THIS BOOK! I have been in a bit of a reading slump, just not being able to get into any books. I had read a different chef romance earlier this year and loved it, so when I saw this I immediately requested it and I love this book too!

Chef romance, small town romance, he has ear piercings, fake dating, getting his inspiration back, there’s a goose, uncle raising niece, free spirited, third act breakup, they get back together, slight spice, he’s obsessed, calls the cops on a vacuum

Spoilery section

I have no real qualms with this book. I love books that just hit the ground running and you get the plot/background explanations as you go and are not bombarded with it in the beginning. My favorite character is probably Indy, her and her goose are otp.

This book did NOT work for me and I'm DNFing at 10%. The writing was so bizarre... almost fake elitist? The type of language used when these characters were supposed to be talking to everyday friends and colleagues was incredibly pretentious. I was pining for a good romance but this clearly just does not vibe with me. Thanks anyway for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book. Single guardian is one of my favorite tropes and Tarah did not disappoint. To see the relationship between not only Fisher and Indy but Sage and Indy grow was amazing. I loved every character but Gary stole the show for me.

Took me a little bit to get invested in the characters and storyline, but I'm so glad I stuck it out. Fischer and Sage are such a good couple - they just get each other. I also loved Indy and how she grows to love Gary! Really felt the angst at the end and couldn't put it down.

I loooved this book. I devoured it. Sage and Fisher were perfect. There were quite a few moments when I was laughing out loud reading, and of course I loved the whole small town romance. I loved Indy too!

This is my first book from Tarah Dewitt and it won't be my last. I really enjoyed this story and a big part of that was from the charming protagonist, Sage Byrd. Sage was smart, quirky, unique, funny, and willing to accept her flaws and learn from them. I loved this character and I loved her romantic pairing Fisher, who also had an interesting story. The secondary characters were excellent and fit in wonderfully and the setting seemed kind of magical by Dewitts depictions and great writing. This was a great story to read over a holiday weekend and I definitely recommend it to romance readers.

The story with Sage, Fischer and Indy was really sweet and had a really nice balance of hard hitting topics with lightheartedness. There are absolutely some tough, real topics in their story that most everyone can relate to. It was really nice to see how they manuevered them and worked to be better for themselves. That being said, I laughed a lot despite that. The characters were absolutely charming and felt so real. It was such a delightful read. Tarah DeWitt is just a wonderful storyteller and did a fantastic jobs in making this story so engaging.

Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity!
I rounded this up to 4 stars, although I probably only really give it a 3.5. I did genuinely enjoy this small-town romance with dual POV, and Fisher has such STRONG Carmy vibes from the Bear that I am completely engrossed in his story. He can describe cooking all day, any day.
The romance was believable and sweet; Fisher's interactions with his niece Indy were incredibly raw and authentic. I think this story did a great job of highlighting male trauma, maybe better than most. The spice level was VERY spicy, above my usual tase, but not once cringey.
I didn't love Sage. She feels very Mary Sue to me: I was missing some nuance that made her feel real. I also feel like this wasn't truly a 'FWB / fake dating" trope, but was trying really hard to be? It almost didn't feel like it knew what lane to be in. The Fisher chapters are really excellent, the Sage chapters are just ok.

Tarah DeWitt is an automatic buy author for me so I was so happy to receive an ARC! She writes some of the most fleshed out, imperfect, real characters I've ever read. Her books are so intimate and raw that I often times have to take a break because they feel so intense with emotion. 5 stars, this book was fantastic!!

Savor It was absolutely delectable! Sage and Fisher’s journey to love was so tender and loving that it made me genuinely happy! I love how pure both of the characters were and their journey to navigating through all of life’s struggles. Tarah’s commitment to portraying raw and good characters just does something to my outlook on humanity. Please read this book and enjoy small town girl/big city male romance in its purest form.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Fisher and Sage were the perfect pair, and the animals were the cherry on top. The growth Indy and Fisher have was also very heartwarming. 3.5⭐️

"Savor It" by Tarah DeWitt is a romantic novel set in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon. The story revolves around Sage Byrd, a resident of Spunes, who finds herself at a crossroads after her five-year relationship ends, especially when her ex, Ian, suddenly gets engaged. To shake things up and reclaim her narrative, Sage decides to participate in the Festival of Spunes, the town's annual summer competition. However, she needs a partner.

Enter Fisher Lange, a former hotshot chef from New York City who, after facing personal tragedy and losing his love for cooking, is sent on a summer sabbatical to Spunes with his teenage niece, Indy. Fisher's mission is to consult on a restaurant opening, but clashes with the townspeople threaten his chance at redemption. When a kiss between Fisher and Sage sparks dating rumors, they decide to form a strategic alliance. Sage will help improve Fisher's image in the town, and Fisher will be Sage's partner for the competition.

As they navigate the competition and the small-town dynamics, their pact turns into steamy rendezvous, healing emotional wounds along the way. The novel promises a mix of spicy summer fun, small-town charm, and emotional depth. With themes of self-discovery, healing, and the fleeting nature of time, "Savor It" is a romcom that explores love, redemption, and the joy of savoring life's moments.