Tarah Dewitt knows how to write cute romantic comedies; that’s for sure! I think the premise of two people coming together after their grandmothers left them a house is absolutely brilliant. I think some of the tension and slow burn was very well done in this book. If you love angst and witty come backs, I highly recommend picking this one up!

Where this one a fell a little bit for me was the immaturity that screamed off the pages of this one from the main characters. It was pretty constant stupid arguments and outrageous blow ups over more childish things. Instead of coming off as more lovers to enemies to lovers, it was too much immature ways of handling conflict and problems.

Super cute read, but fell a little flat for me!

Thank you for the advanced copy!

LaRynn and Deacon have a second chance at romance, but they will have to work together to renovate a home that meant so much to both of them. They will have to put their past hurts aside to live and work together, but will they be able to?

They get into a marriage of convenience, and when they spend time together, old feelings start to come back. It's a slow burn romance, but then, it gets spicy! Wow, was this a spicy book!

I loved the dual timeline because it was great to see what happened to them in the past as well as the present. The story is also dual POV, and I loved being in the mind of both characters.

LaRynn and Deacon's story kept my attention the whole time, and I just wanted to root for them so much. Their chemistry was off the charts, and their HEA was so amazing to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book.

TARAHHHHHHHH! MA’AM how did you make me fall in love with LaRynn and Deacon even more than the first time?!?! Y’all know I absolutely love a second chance, dual timeline, dual POV book and THIS DELIVERED 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 the banter, the tension, the pain, the hurt, and the character growth where phenomenal!

DNF - I DNF’d this book at the 43% mark. I really tried to stick it out, but I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t mind the FMC but I absolutely loathed Deacon. So many people love this book. What am I missing????

The Co-Op is simply a fantastic, “read-it-in-a-day-and-purchase-the-entirety-of-the-author’s-backlist-that-same-day” kind of a story.

This is my second Tarah DeWitt book, and it 100% solidified her auto-buy status for me.

Even more than loving the storyline, this book, like Savor It, is a masterclass in how to write a compelling contemporary romance that is set apart from the rest.

So much heart and humor here, a blend of sweet and spicy. DeWitt is an excellent storyteller overall, but what impressed me most, was how fun this was to read at a sentence level. So many charming details and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it jokes. Absolutely on par with - if not better than - Henry or Jimenez.

- Second chance after heartbreak
- They flip a house and fall in love
- Dual timeline
- Black Cat / Golden Retriever
- Small-town feel
- Memorable side characters and setting
- Grief and loss/starting over
- Banter. Banter. Banter.

Thank you to SMP Romance and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am obsessed with these two. The banter is top tier and and I love a marriage of convenience. I wish we got a sequel with these two because I need more. The pace was perfect for this book.

Such a fabulous ride. LaRynn and Deacon have already been through so much as this story begins and it continues to escalate as they are faced with a home reconstruction project with no end in sight. This story is pure chaos, which is so fitting because any home repair project has similar ups and downs. LaRynn has (life) mess that she needs to handle and seeing Deacon again presents her with so many memories interwoven with her mess. Deacon is an adorable hero, their banter and fighting worked so well. I really enjoyed watching them grow and rebuild together. Lots of spiciness as well, which was great! Would recommend this and all of DeWitt's books, she's a go-to for me!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC (for the re-release).

I really enjoyed this book. I loved how we got to better understand LaRynn throughout the book and she her grow. I really liked reading and seeing Deacon and LaRynn’s relationship change and flourish.

The FMC was annoying at times.
It took me a while to start this because of all the emotional drama she brought.

The writing was a bit confusing too, when we were flashing back to years ago vs now.

The story, or idea of was sweet, but I don't felt it played out as well as I'd hoped.

Rating⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice🌶️🌶️🫑
Tropes
🔨 Enemies to lovers
🏡 Marriage of convenience
🔨 Second Chance-ish
🏡 Duel POV & timeline
🔨 Forced proximity
🏡 Summer fling
🔨 Black cat fmc / golden retriever mmc

This was ADORABLE. Good god im such a sucker for a second chance. I loved this book from the get go! The characters were great and their development was so so so good!! I really felt connected to LaRynn. She was so misunderstood and Deacon was so important to her healing! So good!! I can’t wait for more from Tara!

A construction romance? Sign me up! I enjoyed this romance. It had the perfect amount of spice! I was deep in this story the entire time and couldn’t put it down!

The Co-op

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This was the first story that I’ve read by Tarah DeWitt, and I’m so glad that it was. It’s a romcom set inside a home renovation show, but make it spicy. What makes it better is that this is a renovated version of the story. If you’ve read the co-op I’m sure that you will love the extended scenes and extra chapters that you find in this newly released version. Deacon and LaRynn have a lot to overcome after having been in an adolescent situationship and it’s a beautiful read. I really really loved how their grandparents came together and also brought them together.

Pick up this book if you enjoy:
Home Reno shows
Spicy romcoms
Second chance romances
She falls first, he falls harder

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and the galley for the free eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

“Marriage is about you and your person.”

I don’t know if I’ve read another book that so beautifully captures the importance of unlearning the toxic beliefs we have from our past traumas and relearning healthy ways to accept love and life in all the ways we truly deserve the way The Co-Op by Tarah DeWitt does.

This beautiful story is a second chance, home-renovation romance that’s filled with insecurities, grieving those who truly made you feel loved and safe, and bonding with the only other person in your life who might actually get it. There’s fun banter, an enemies-to-lovers vibe, and a marriage of convenience to boot.

I haven’t stopped thinking about this story since the moment I finished reading it. LaRynn and Deacon made me laugh, cry, and hug them.

As someone who has lost a grandmother who meant the world to me, this story has held my heart captive with the amount of love they share for their grandmothers. Their desire to fix up their house because of how much it meant to them. Their ability to put their differences aside (mostly) for a common goal.

I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time to come. It’s an empowering and heartwarming one, for sure.

You’ll love this if you like:
- Marriage of convenience
- Second chance romance
- Home renovation projects
- Mutual love for grandmothers
- Mutual pining
- Found family
- Enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to lovers

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. Unfortunately I did not finish The Co-op by Tarah Dewitt. I could not get into the story and I could not relate to the characters.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
This is my second book from Tarah DeWitt and it was good ( slightly steamy) fun. I found it a bit slow to get into as the difficulties the leads faced seemed too apparent, but the ending drew me in so perfectly.
LaRynn certainly comes into the story with a lot of baggage that she is very aware of and wants to be more than the sum of her history. But she is definitely young and hasn’t reflected much on how she has impacted other people. She’s not wrong to be where she is, but she is immature and knows it. I did appreciate that a great deal for her as a lead and the growth that we read she has already undergone in recent times.
Personally, I read Deacon too simply. He seems too plainly written and didn’t surprise me at all. I wish that he had a slower reveal for elements of his past, as LaRynn does. But he is a solid lead.
As someone who has also recently lost a beloved grandparent, I was worried about getting overwhelmed by the grief in this story (and even took a break to try to avoid it). However, while the grief is present and did feel real, it was not overwhelming. It honestly felt comforting to read an authentically human experience similar to my own (wow, almost like that’s a huge reason I fell in love with reading!).
And the romance is there. Their past, from meeting during high school to a summer affair, is represented in flashback chapters that meld well with the narrative. And they are humans, but definitely trying to be reasonable-ish adults, aiming for the good.
I enjoyed The Co-Op and will definitely check out more from DeWitt!

I love this book! Deacon and LaRynn have had their fair share of ups and downs, both together, and as individuals. I loved getting to know them and their relationship through flashbacks to when they were teens and young adults. They felt real, and were interesting, flawed, and relatable characters. There was so much angst and tension between them, and the slow burn just kept adding to it. There was a lot of depth, grief, character development, but so much humor as well. I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud. Their banter and pranks on each other were hilarious.

𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 🎧 - Tim Paige and Amy Hall were so fun to listen to! I really enjoyed their performances and the way they brought out the personalities of the main and secondary characters.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press & Tarah Dewitt for the eARC!

I rarely re-read books, but for Tarah DeWitt, I made an exception. I'm so grateful I did. I loved reading LaRynn and Deacon's story again, and DeWitt did a beautiful job writing the story to make their love even more true and earnest.

LaRynn and Deacon are an "I love ALL of who you are" romance, and it's always one of my favorites. There is no better love than to be seen in all our flaws and scars and then to still be chosen.

In this rewrite, LaRynn and Deacon's second chance is a lovely depiction of how the right person isn't always the right person when it's the wrong time, and it was an absolute treat to watch them grow together at the right time.

I missed some of the more tense pieces within the reconstruction process and with side characters, but I felt their relationship development and growth was better focused now. In the midst of that, it was a worthwhile trade.

This was a reread I was grateful to have done.

this book was so cute! i am always a sucker for enemies to lovers, and i liked that this one was enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers. i also loved that it was not only dual pov, but also dual timelines. i appreciated the fact that they both had flaws that they needed to overcome in order to actually have a healthy relationship.

🏚️ Book Review 🏚️

The Co-op by Tarah DeWitt
🏚️
Tarah is the queen of writing complex, realistic characters who are deeply flawed, but are also raw, honest, and worthy of love. I adored Funny Feelings and Savor It, and I loved The Co-op as well. Deacon and LaRynn had the best story. They are the epitome of black cat and golden retriever energy. LaRynn is standoffish and has put up walls around her heart because of her parents and the way she was raised. They didn’t give her the love and support she needed, so she learned to be alone, to not rely on anyone, and to never ask for help. Deacon is giving, loving, and thoughtful, but he has his own baggage to overcome because of his father’s infidelity and battle with cancer. To make things more complicated, they fell in love as teenagers and it ended badly, so when they are forced together as adults for a home renovation where they have to live together, all of their bitterness and anger is still there needing to be dealt with. This book is emotionally charged, absolutely bursting with anger, angst, and miscommunication, but the payoff when they finally get together is so worth it! Do yourself a favor and read it and the rest of Tarah’s books.
🏚️
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
🏚️
Read if you like:
▫️second chance
▫️teenage lovers to enemies to lovers
▫️marriage of convenience
▫️forced proximity
▫️dual timeline
▫️dual POV
🏚️
Thank you to SMP Romance, St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Tarah DeWitt for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Ugh this was so good. I loved how messy it was, the depth of tension but also care between the characters, the whole world....this is what I want romance to be.