Marriage of convenience, forced proximity, and a whole lot of tension. What more can a girl ask for?

I absolutely loved reading about these two falling in love and all the trials along the way. It is so easy to get lost in the story and fall in love with the characters.

Every single bit of this book had me wanting more and more. And before I knew it I was finishing. If I could read it again for the first time, you bet your bottom dollar that I would!

Loved the honorable mention at the tattoo shop. And when the big confession happened… swoon 🥰 another hit Tarah DeWitt!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the arc

This was my first Tarah DeWitt book and I’m sure it won’t be the last. The characters were deep and I could see their pull grow throughout the book and I loved it. I’m normally not a dual timeline, second chance fan, but I felt like the flashbacks were well done, timing and length wise and really added to the story while not over taking the story. Good romance read.
Also, looove the updated cover! Beautiful.

3.5⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the early release of The Co-Op. If you love a slow burn with spice plus forced proximity this is the book for you.

This book follows the story of LaRynn and Deacon who had a summer romance when they were teens that did not end well and a decade later they are brought back together when they are left a building that means a lot to both of them but is in need of major repairs. Both main characters have baggage that they need to work through and they both go through major growth throughout the book.

This book tackles some tough topics but also exemplifies that life can be messy but two imperfect people can be perfect for one another.

LaRynn has the money to fix the building that she shares ownership with Deacon. But she needs to marry in order to access the money. They agree to marry to fix up the building then divorce. Except that old feelings come back...

Love this second chance romance. I love the characters. They are terrific and makes you care about them. Great chemistry and love the steamy scenes.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

If you are interested in a romance with a focus on personal growth and development, this is a good book for you. But if you are looking for a ‘beach read’ or something light and silly, I would look somewhere else.

As the synopsis implies, this story goes deeper than your average romance book. Both main characters have baggage; they haven’t let go of past scars, neither from their childhood nor from their first chance at love when they were younger. As such, there is a force on personal growth. Realizing they might not have seen the best in someone, and learning to give each other a fair chance.

I appreciated that the Co-op didn’t include the stereotypical romance third act miscommunication. Instead, as both Rynn and Deacon share their insecurities and learn to love themselves and each other, their relationship strengthens.

My biggest issue with the book is it took half the book before I felt invested in the story and wanting to see where it was going. At the beginning, Rynn came across as petulant and combative. It takes a while to unpack her characters motivations, to understand why she is acting out, and to want to see her with Deacon, someone who seems happy and to love openly. Similarly, it takes awhile to understand why Deacon is so quick to react (and often negatively), and to think he is mature enough to be in a healthy relationship.

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 A fake marriage, second chance romance in modern day money pit by Tarah Dewitt?!! Yes please, I will sign on all of the dotted lines! Deacon and LaRynn’s high school fling did not end well but they are forced together when they jointly inherit a falling apart home from their grandmothers and fake a marriage to access LaRynn’s trust fund to revamp it, sell it, and move on. Dewitt takes the readers on a delightful journey of healing through time and addressing issues from families of origin that sparks hope that second chances can be successful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review is on Goodreads and will be posted on instagram closer to publication date and on Amazon when published!

If you’re in the mood for a fun romance read, The Co-op is the book for you. I enjoyed the story as well as the sexy banter. Fans of Christina Lauren should enjoy this book.

I was given an advanced copy in exchange for my review. This is my honest opinion I am giving voluntarily. Tarah is my favorite author so I'm probably biased but I can't help in saying I'm in love. Dual POV, absolutely hilarious, spice is perfection with a great happy ending, how can you not love it? if your a fan of Tessa Baileys writing style this is a perfect choice for you.

The Co-Op was a quick and okay read. While, I loved certain aspects of the story, the romance felt a bit underwhelming in my opinion.

It is dual POVs of the main characters (LaRynn and Deacon) and has some great tropes like: a marriage of convenience, forced proximity and a second chance romance. I would suggest checking the content and trigger warnings before reading just in case.

The overall premise was enjoyable. I really liked the home renovation aspect and all the struggles they had to navigate through. I will say though, it did take me a bit to fully get into the story for some reason.

The romance between LaRynn and Deacon was not my favorite to be honest. Their romantic development felt a bit forced and while they did have some cute, heartwarming and spicy moments I just didn’t really feel their connection or spark despite their history. I just would have liked for more scenes from their past that showed their feelings and connection before they reunited again or more moments in the present that showed them getting to re-know each other again. Their relationship was also a slow burn one, as nothing spicy happens until 85% into the story.

I did like all the side characters and friendships throughout the story. LaRynn’s connection with her late grandmother was so beautiful and I loved that she was able to keep her memory alive.

There was no third act conflict, which I appreciated as well. But there were a few subplots that felt underdeveloped and forgotten at the end. The epilogue though, was absolutely perfect and so heartwarming.

Overall, a decent read just not my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A top tier slow burn romance! I am obsessed with LaRynn and Deacon. Tarah DeWitt excels at writing characters with many layers that you can't help but root for from start to finish. I was immediately pulled in by the writing and could not put this book down. This book is packed with fantastic tropes including forced proximity, marriage of convenience, small town, and second chance romance.

The renovated co-op is stunning. Dewitt has done an incredible job taking an already-strong book with two fierce characters and turning it into something that feels fresh and even more exciting. Deacon and Larynn are a new and improved version of themselves. Tarah has done a phenomenal job both for fans of the original and new readers to fall in love with this marriage of convenience, second chance masterpiece.

Another fun romance by Tarah Dewitt! Here’s what you can expect:

Forced proximity
Small Town
Marriage of convenience
Slow burn
Second chance romance

In other words… lots of good tropes packed into this one. I would recommend!

I don’t know how, but Tarah Dewitt made a book I really loved even better! This new version of The Co-Op is just absolute perfection!!!

You just can’t help but root for Deacon and LaRynn the whole time as you watch them sand the rough edges off of each other (construction pun— ha!) and find safety in the other. I love that the FMC is feisty and what would be considered “hard” since you get to see that it’s a product of her childhood and being offloaded like an object instead of being nurtured. Tarah is gifted at making her characters feel very real and then takes them through growth and maturity in such a perfect way. Each book feels a little like therapy to some characteristic of mine.

Plus, she’s absolutely hilarious! No one writes banter like Tarah Dewitt. Top tier book, would recommend to everyone!

I really like Tarah Dewitt her books, but could not really get into this book. I am just not a huge fan of marriage of convenience trope, and didn’t love the construction aspect of it as much as I was hoping. The writing was pretty good, but I did not really feel the connection between them.

I did really love the second chance romance side of it, and them coming back after years later. It made the book a lot more interesting.

Overall, a cute book but i could not get into it as much.

4.5 stars for this one, rounded up. Tarah Dewitt continues to be a favorite romance author. Her writing is easy to follow and you can just feel the emotions in it. I loved the book overall.

However, there were a few things I felt could have been included or left out. With both of their parental issues, I feel therapy would have been amazing for both of them. I know this book is actually a re-publish, but it would have been amazing and helpful. Especially with the horrible communication these two had for the longest time.

The most messy imperfect characters made the perfect book.

Imagine the dumpster fire of renovating a house with an ex who you hate while also grieving your dead grandma. Should be chaos, and it was, but done perfectly so.

I have never seen a more true representation of an enneagram 8 than LaRynn Lavigne. That girl is scary until those walls get broken down. I want to forcibly hug her (because I know she would never allow it otherwise). Deacon I want to keep him in my pocket to protect him at all costs.

Their chemistry was so tension filled and angsty. The blurred lines of love and hate were depicted so well in this book. Their inevitable irritation with eachother while simultaneously being obsessed. Their stubborn and pettiness had me loling more often than not.

The shared Grands grief was believable and heartfelt. Made me want to give my grandmother a big ole hug.

Couldn’t have asked for a better improvement to an already well loved favorite of mine.

Read if you like:
🌊Northern California coast
🛠️Home renovations
✌🏻2nd chance romance
🤬Enemies to lovers
🏐Beach volleyball
🐈‍⬛Black cat FMC
🏠Forced proximity
🥵Slow burn

The Co-op by Tarah DeWitt is a terrific story about two people who meet as teenagers, have a steamy Summer fling which ends when the Summer does. They move on, grow into adults, and are thrown back together under sad circumstances when they inherit a home their Grandmothers owned. Oh, and it seems that Summer fling was never really forgotten, by either of them.

I was engaged in this story right from the beginning. Both LaRynn and Deacon were interesting characters with many layers. Their emotions ran deep and strong. I really enjoyed watching them interact and peel those layers away, bit by bit. Their back and forth banter was at times cringey and at other times laugh-out-loud funny. LaRynn was stronger than she knew and could come on pretty tough, but that stemmed mostly from her upbringing. She really was smart and sweet and simply wanted to be seen. Deacon was incredibly attractive, accommodating to a fault and desperate to prove he was good, capable and deserving. I adored all his vulnerabilities. These two really were the perfect match. Everyone seemed to see that, except for them!

The evolution of their relationship was captivating and charming. The story flows back and forth from future to past and back to the future again. Honestly, it works for this story, but it is my least favorite way to read, so I'm dropping a star on this review. That being said, for me this was a completely enjoyable read that I highly recommend to all. I loved it!

Tarah DeWitt is a heartstring virtuoso. She knows just how to build up to a moment, to wield her words for maximum impact. The Co-op transforms two very common, beloved tropes - second chance romance and marriage of convenience - into opportunities for the characters to heal. Deacon and LaRynn need this second chance to repair what they did to each other as teens, and they need their marriage, their partnership, to repair what each of their broken families did to them as individuals.

If you're looking for a blue-collar book boyfriend, Deacon is your man. Smooth lines, rough hands and a whisper of an east-coast accent..Tarah likes to make us swoon! The way he saw straight through LaRynn's walls (figuratively, since lack of actual walls is a thing in this book) and called her on it made me actually yell out loud.

First things first: this cover is just PERFECT!!! I am so in love with this cover ad this book that I can't express well enough how I loved the plot and the main characthers.

This book has, as well, the best tropes you can find in a romance book.

And the chemistry between them? SO GOOD!!

Please, please read this one!

I love Tarah Dewitt’s writing. Her characters are real and poignant. They bring real life struggles and make them palatable.