𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 4.5 ⭐️

𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨. 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝘼 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙩, 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥, 𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙛. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜.

What a quirky, fun, spicy little small town romance! Tarah DeWitt is a new-to-me author but she definitely won’t be a one hit wonder because I was OBSESSED with the writing. Great flow, lovely humor, spicy spice, and the swooniest of love stories!

Sage Byrd and Fisher Lange were an absolute delight to meet. What a privilege to watch them fall in love. With a wonderful cast of side characters and all the small town vibes, I found myself struggling to leave this place! Spunes, Oregon will be with me for a while.

I am seriously blown away by the prose. Engaging and descriptive. Many of the scenes were told about instead of shown and it totally worked! The spicy scenes were spicy but also respectful to the characters. The whole story was told with care and gentleness and just the right amount of humor.

Savor It by Tarah DeWitt is like a warm blanket or a gentle hug. It brings out all the good feelings and even though there’s a bit of angst, it’s handled so delicately and instead of hurting, it left me swooning in relief when everything was resolved. Bravo! And I can’t wait to read more from this author!

𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘦: May 21, 2024
𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠. 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣.

DAMN, TARAH!

This book is SO GOOD. It is dare I say...delicious?

Apparently my reading "type" in my 30s is hot chef because wowee I was INTO this rich summer love story full of food, farm animals, and Big Feelings.

Living in small town Spunes, Oregon (not to be confused with Forks, Washington) Sage Byrd cares for the animals on her hobby farm, dodges her town-golden-boy ex Ian, (who just got engaged, woof), and prepares for the The Festival of Spunes, the coastal town's annual summer competition.

In a fortuitous turn of events, she's able to wrangle temporary in-towner Fisher to be her partner. Fisher is a disgraced NYC chef who is trying to get back on his feet after losing his Michelin star and his passion for cooking. Sent by his boss to Spunes to consult on a new restaurant opening, he isn't charmed by nosy small-towners, but he is captivated by Sage. A Strategic Kiss (we love those) leads to a competition partnership and the two spend a summer finding passion in cooking, the little things, and each other. But what happens when summer ends?

This book will just suck you in and grip you from beginning to end. It's warm and funny and resonant; it's sensual and evocative and smart. I didn't want it to end. It's got these genuine and well-developed characters, a lived-in sense of place, and beautiful writing.

SAVOR IT entertained me, but it also *saw* me. It so masterfully put words to feelings I've held and thoughts I've had, while still telling someone else's story. That impactful ability really is the mark of a great story, not just a great romance, and it's something that makes you return to that story and that author -- knowing you can find something there for yourself.

And are you serious with that cover????? talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before

5 stars, I devoured this book. Tarah is truly something special. You absolutely will want to go back and savor this story again and again.

A huge thank you to St. Martins and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. SAVOR IT is out 5/21/24.

I have no words, this book was everything. Small town, grumpy x sunshine, slow burn, 🌶️🌶️, such loveable characters. This book was so incredibly sweet and the chemistry between Sage and Fisher was actually insane. I loved the maturity of these characters and oh god this book made me feel so many emotions. Spent the last 20% crying. I’ve clearly been sleeping on Tarah Dewitt because this was fantastic. Clearly been listening to too much Taylor Swift but this book was giving Down Bad, So High School, and the 1. Thank you Netgalley for this ARC <3

This was my first Tarah Dewitt book and it was good, the writing quality was great and I thought the characters of Fisher and Sage were well developed. I would have liked to see more of Wren and Ellis. Especially how the story starts out with both Wren and Sage going over things, but once Fisher shows up it's like Wren suddenly just disappears and the reader doesn't get to see her on the page except in passing. the storyline of Indy I enjoyed, and I do think the author conveyed the grief but that teenage anger well. There were a lot of nods to the title all through out the story but at one point it got to be too much, as the reader it made me feel like the author didn't trust that I would get it. There were also a lot of moments through out the story in which the tension and momentum would build only for the chapter to end and that rising angst to just fall away. There was also a lot of summarizing through out the story and though I appreciate it sometimes to be shown how time is passing for the couple, it kept happening constantly throughout the story and took me out of it. I wanted to love it and give it all the stars but it just wasn't for me.

This book was the perfect, sweet, small-town, summer read that I didn't know I needed. "Savor It" has me anxiously waiting for summer and the way grasses in the meadows move in the summer wind. It had the perfect amount of "heat" to make it feel like it is summer even though we are still 2 months out.

Sage got out of a long term relationship just last year. She has been getting by with the love of her home, family, friends, and her animals. Sage and her 3 brothers have had a lot of loss and tragedy in their lives but it has made them even more tight knit. Sage is just fine in her little life in her small town until a big shot chef from New York moves in the house next door for the summer with his niece. The chemistry between Sage and Fisher soon seems to take on a mind of it's own and won't be denied. A deal is struct to enjoy the time until the end of summer. What happens when real feelings get thrown into the mix? Real life is what happens you have to figure out how life goes on wether you are together or apart.

Mandy Harris
Angel Wings Bookstore

4.5⭐️

Loved this!!! Savor It tugged at all the heartstrings, I love Sage and Fisher and everyone in Spunes:)

The setting is so sweet; I’m a sucker for romanticizing farms and small towns, and I think the author did a great job with this one.

We see character growth in different characters throughout the book, and different parts brought me to tears. The way Sage, Fisher and even Indy all dealt with their own grief and insecurities was well flushed out, and made me want to be more present as well.

It did take me a bit to feel connected to the story, but feeling connected to the characters made up for it. I loved the communication between Fisher and Sage, and the romance and spice was yum:)

Very heartwarming read overall, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a fun, flirty and adorable read. I loved the cozy small town charm. All of the characters were great. The banter, the chemistry, it was done incredibly. I love that we got the perspective of the two main characters - I loved being inside their head as their relationship blossoms. We never questioned where they stood as individuals - regardless of our opinions on their choices. I wanted to jump into the book and befriend all the characters… and hope that there are more following about some of the people we met along the way.

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader and audio copies!

I loved this book so much. I think I've been pretty clear that I'm currently obsessed with books that have kids in them and I'm not really sure why. But anyway, this book features a single "dad," in that Fisher has custody of his niece because her mom died (I think in a car crash?) and he's dealing with grieving her, but also now he's lost his job and is being sent to a small town in Oregon to help organize the new restaurant his old boss is opening there. Fisher winds up moving next door to Sage for the summer and Sage has a literal farm of animals. Her animals are such a delight. And Sage herself is pretty fantastic.

Essentially, the plot is that Fisher has to work on opening this restaurant and Sage needs a partner for this weird situation where this small town has a competition that's got like a physical component, a trivia component, and maybe something else? Honestly, I can't even pretend that I understood exactly what was happening. But the thing is that what this plot gave us was Fisher falling in love again with cooking, learning to parent his niece, and falling in love with Sage. And it gave us Sage letting Fisher and his niece into her heart, learning to love without the promise of tomorrow, and her falling for Fisher. I also am already obsessed with the follow up to this, which should be a second chance of a divorced couple that already has my attention.

I'm not doing a good job at all of explaining why this book was so good, but just know that it WAS and I can't wait to have a physical copy on my shelves.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I absolutely love this one! I went back and forth between listening to the audiobook and reading the e-book when I had time and have zero complaints with either 💖🥳

This was so so good! It was sweet and swoony, had me laughing like crazy, had me tearing up, and had me blushing all throughout! It was such a beautiful story that had me entranced from the very beginning! The characters were all amazing- yes, even the animals! I loved Sage and her personality! I loved that she didn’t let her ex, Ian, get her down too much and strived to continue on with her life and make the most of everything. I absolutely adored Fisher. That sweet, sweet man. He’s dealing with loss after his sister’s passing, finding himself the sole caretaker for his niece Indy. He’s also dealing with the loss of his job and possibly his love for cooking. I loved seeing him get his chance to redeem himself and to find where he belongs. I really loved seeing his and Sage’s relationship grow, as well as his and Indy’s relationship. Overall, I just really enjoyed it and I’m so excited to see what is next! 🥹

God, this book. Beautiful cover, beautiful writing, beautiful story. The hero is a chef who moves to a small town with his niece after he loses his NYC restaurant job. The heroine is a teacher who collects broken animals on her farm. The setting is a fictional small town in Oregon. The romance is so good. This book feels like its cover: lush, warm, sexy.

This was my first Tarah DeWitt novel and it was enjoyable. I liked the character's and the small town was charming. I was hoping there would be more plot and instead there were a lot of small moments between the two main characters. At times the fmc felt like a caricature of Lorelei Gilmore. Their relationship was cute, I just think it would have been better with more plot. I do hope that she writes about Ellis and Wren in the future.

This was my first book by Tarah DeWitt and I loved it! The chemistry, banter, pacing, story…it was all so good. I loved the dual POV and enjoyed both characters. I don’t typically like 3rd act break ups but felt it fit with these characters and was done well. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author. If you love small town romances, grumpy/sunshine, single guardians, cute animals and a little fake dating then I definitely recommend this one.

I was super excited to read this/listen to it. I have never read this author and heard so many good things about the book and the author. Plus, the narrators are two of my favorite (Vanessa Edwin and Zachary Webber). How could it go wrong?

But it was just meh. Boring. I felt like there were so many things going on as far as storylines and nothing was finished. Sage and her animals, Fisher and his guardianship of his teenage niece, Fisher in town to come up with the menu for the new restaurant, the canoe race, her brother's accident. It was just too much. I didn't feel any real connection between Fisher and Sage, either.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the advance readers copy and to Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love when I’m reading a book and the title comes up in the plot/dialogue as I’m reading. This book did that several times, and it felt organic, like a wink to the audience each time, not forced at all.

I appreciated the depth of the story and the way the characters both brought more to their relationship rather than just their interest in each other. They were both grappling with real issues that were written in authentic ways.

The only thing I found a letdown was the epilogue (which is often where a book goes weird for me). It would be a book I’d recommend though!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

this story is so cozy yet never shies away from the hard stuff. the town is magical, the characters will pull you in so quickly. they are so real and raw and so dang lovable.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was a lovely book. It was sweet, it was heartwarming, and DeWitt has a beautiful writing style that I really love. The characters and plot had a lot of depth, and there was such great communication in this book. The various types of relationships were also amazing, from romantic to friendship to familial. I think a lot of readers will enjoy "Savor It" and it may be my favourite Tarah DeWitt book yet!

I loved this book! I’m a sucker for a sweet small town romance. Plus there are cute farm animals and it takes place in Oregon!

Sage and Fisher were the sweetest! I loved their chemistry and their banter. They had me swooning.

I’m giving this book all the stars! I just loved how it all came together! The epilogue had me smiling ear to ear! I definitely recommend to read it!

Read if you like:
🍲 Small Town Romance
🍲 Grumpy/Sunshine
🍲 Dual POV
🍲 Cute Animals
🍲 Lots of Banter

Savor It was a beautiful story to read. I loved Sage’s personality and how much she loved life, I loved that the little things mattered to her. I loved Fisher’s growth, he had a burnout and was struggling with cooking again, I loved that he was inspired again and was learning to heal. I loved how the small town changed him and his niece Indy. I thought he was going to be douchey but he was overall a good guy and probably just needed a change of scenery.

I loved their moments together but at times I felt like there was just too many small scenes of them together. I felt like the moments that should have mattered was cut short, like them falling in love with each other and saying I love you.

I also loved Indy’s growth. There were times where she did piss me off but I loved seeing how much the small town and animals changed her, even if she was scared she was jumping from one small town to another.

I would say this book is slow burn but in a way it was perfect. The way they helped each other and enjoyed each other’s company. In the end, it was about living in the moment and savoring it all.

I’m intrigued by Sage’s brothers and I’m hoping they’ll all get a story someday. Maybe even Indy and Sam.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with this ARC for my honest review.

Read This Book If…you love small town romances!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
Savor It by Tarah DeWitt

Please note: this was an ARC provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

Genre: romance
Spice Level: 3/5🌶, 1-2 explicit scenes
Setting: small town in Oregon
POV: dual, 1st person, present tense
Tropes: neighbors, single guardian, grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, hurt/comfort

My Thoughts: This was such a beautiful read! For me, this is the epitome of a small town romance. The chemistry between these two was electric, and the relationship between the MMC and his niece was so tender. I definitely got in my feels at the end of this one. Even though it has the dreaded third act breakup, the pining afterwards made it worth it!

I knew this book was going to be my entire personality when I saw the cover. I am now prepared to dedicate my life to making sure everyone I know and have yet to meet will read this book.

Sage is maybe my favorite heroine of all time? She emulates everything I wish I could be and what a joy it was to get to know her. To view the world through her lenses. To chortle at her silly puns. To bask in the joy she finds in everything. Genuinely I wish she was a real person I could be friends with and now I have to live in a world where she isn't!!! But all it means is I have to re-read this a million times, which, well, is a win for me.

Sad boy Fisher. The exact kind of mix of sad and sexy I crave to read about in MMCs. What a dreamboat!!! No one warned him about the tiny goats and especially no one warned him about what it means to find your people and let them love you. I loved watched him fall into the trap of small town love and support, especially when his precious experience was negative. His loyalty to Indy, even if he never saw it that way, warmed my cold little heart. His dedication to her above all else. His love for Sage, his eagerness to love her and love her well.

Indy and Gary and the pets, Spunes, the berries, all of it. What a triumph of a story. What a fucking joy it was to read. How fucking lucky are we, as romance readers, to have this book in our lives. Thank you, Tarah. I'm changed for having read this.

Thank you SMP and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.