This book has some serious hype around it and I get the appeal!

This book is sweet and romantic. Caring for a hostile teenager who you just can't seem to relate to was so endearing and made our male main character so likable. I love anything small town related where they have to fix one person's image because that always means we will have some town chatter helping to push the story along. Think Tarah does a beautiful job making sure the characters are likable even when others around them do not see them that way. Definitely a bit of a slow burn but for a story like this that makes sense. If they had jumped into bed right away with each other it would have taken a lot of the romantic tension filled moments away.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a small town friends to lovers romance. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story!

definitely a cute small-town romance! i loved the characters, seeing how they navigated their circumstances, as well as how the romance progress.

Thank you Macmillan audio and SMP for the gifted audio copy and eARC!

What a sweet small town romance. I loved the characters as individuals - they were rich, emotional and deep characters. I felt that the relationship between them took awhile to “get there” while I felt the characters and story was well-developed, it at times felt like it hadn’t quite taken off and I wanted more from them as a couple. The ending was fantastic though and brought it all together for me. I’ll definitely read more from Tarah DeWitt in the future! The town of Spunes was lively and fun and I hope we haven’t seen the last of it.

This was one of my favorite romances of the summer! I thought the story was beautiful and loved the chemistry between Sage and Fisher. Sage was such a sweet character but still emotionally complex. Fisher's relationship with his niece was heartwarming even though they had a lot of conflict, some because of her age and some due to the death of her mother. Both are grieving and Sage is exactly what both of them needed in order to heal. You can tell this one was written from the heart and I experienced a lot of big feelings when reading this one. I'd recommend this title to anyone looking for an emotional small town romance similar to the Lovelight Farms series.

This book was really charming! I love small town settings for romances and the addition of family dynamics. Sage and Fisher share great chemistry.

The narration is excellent too - love multi-cast audiobooks.

Recommend for fans of the grumpy/sunshine trope. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for early access to the book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book!
The two narrators were AH-MA-ZING 🩷
They really gave life to Sage and Fisher, and their voices just went soooo well with the characters personalities!
I got really involved in their cute summer small town romance and just couldn’t stop listening until they got their happy ending 😄

I loved this cute rom com. Fisher and Sage were cute. I was a little annoyed with Fisher at first but grew to like him especially with Sage.

Tarah Dewitt will always be an insta buy author for me. I always connect with her characters. She writes the most beautiful heartfelt romances

This one was fun and enticing! My first Tarah Dewitt and I will come back for more!

I enjoyed the two main characters and their dynamic. It was steamy and the setting was beautiful!

The audiobook was enjoyable and done well.

This was absolutely the most fun read, and I devoured it right up.

Living in the small coastal town of Oregon all of her life, Sage Byrd is ready for a change when her long-term relationship suddenly ends. With plenty of spice, and all the chemistry, I loved the interactions between Sage and Fisher, who pair up in the annual Festival of Spunes.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-small town romance
-fake dating
-emotional
-warm and cozy slow burn

The audiobook format was great, and it was performed by duo Karissa Vacker and Zachary Webber.

*thank you St Martins Press, Macmillan audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

4.5/5 Stars

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an arc and ALC.

I didn’t know what to really expect going into this as I hadn’t read anything from Tarah DeWitt before this but I absolutely ate this book up. It was just a fun read and I loved the small town vibes plus both of the characters learning more of who they are after major life changes. The Spice was great and the romance was adorable. I can’t put this one down and it was the perfect audiobook listen for what I wanted.

Sage has lived in Spunes, Oregon her whole life and she has come to love her small town, misfit animals, and the people in it. But when her ex suddenly ends their 5 year relationship and ends up getting engaged fast, she needs a way to convince those around her she is okay and what better way than to find a partner of her own? Fisher is now responsible for his niece after his sister suddenly passes away and he wasn’t prepared to be parenting a teenager. So when he loses his michelin star, his boss banishes him to Spunes to find himself and consult on a new restaurant. But small towns don’t like when outsides come to “fix up” things so he needs a way to improve his standing in the community. What better way than to make a deal with a beautiful woman like Sage to help each other out… which eventually may lead to feelings neither is prepared for.

Sage is known for taking in misfits whether it is a disabled animal or now a man who has lost his way after horrible events. She needs a partner for a competition but also needs a way to get everyone to stop pitying her for her Ex leaving her and finding someone else so fast. Fisher’s whole world has been turned up side down repeatedly so when someone reaches out a helping hand he has to take it to stop drowning in everything. Both of them are learning who they are after big events and I loved how Sage was with Fisher’s niece.

I really do recommend this one if you want a fun fast paced summer read. The narrators were great and kept me engaged the entire time which is rare.

I loved this book. LOVED IT.

Fisher was going through so much in his life and he felt so broken, and Sage felt like she was more than what people perceived her to be. It was so lovely to watch them not only fall for each other, but also for Fisher to find peace within himself and realize that he was finally healing.

I seriously adored this book. The end had me tearing up when Indy realized that she had also found her home in Spoons. Gosh. It was SO GOOD.

And the narrators really brought this book to life and brought me into the book. They did an incredible job.

This is a small town, opposites attract, quid pro quo, summer romance with a single guardian and a school teacher who has a farm. There’s a lot of different things going on in this book, including a very attached goose. I listened to an e-Arc of this from NetGalley and Zachary Weber, who did the narration for Fisher and was the superior of the two narrators to me. Karissa Volcker does well, but I thought that Zachary was fantastic.

Harkening back to something said in the text, for the reader it is a privilege to watch Sage & Fisher have the privilege of falling in love. Even if the ending is very predictable and ended exactly the way I thought, I don’t mind. That’s why we like tropes because we like seeing how different authors use them.

There are a lot of really sweet and romantic moments in this story as Fisher and Sage both work to find themselves outside of other people's expectations and opinions of them.

The narrators were completely captivated, helped of course by Tarah DeWitt's engaging storytelling. This book had everything I love in a romance—yearning, sizzling tension, a healthy dose of spice, and lots and lots of feelings. Definitely recommend!

I enjoyed reading it but I did feel like it dragged in some parts and could have been shorter. Overall, it was a good romantic story.

A cute romance between two people who are looking to move forward and stop looking behind. I really enjoyed the small town romance with a burst of heat! Characters we likeable and I wanted to see them succeed!

I do not like Zachary Webber as Narrator.

Months late on reviewing this book 😓 but earlier this year I was in a big small town romance mood. So getting the chance to read savor it was perfect for me 🥰 what I still remember about this book months later is the small town feel. When an author is able to make me feel something for a town I’ve never heard of, then you know it’s good! I really enjoyed sage as a character. Her little farm was so cute. And having the roles reversed and having a big city man come to the farm was a refreshing change! The romance felt authentic most of the time and I liked how fishers niece was incorporated into this family. The themes of grief running throughout were a nice surprise as I was only really expecting a romance. The parts that lost me were some slight pacing issues. I felt like the beginning was a little slow and the relationship a little insta lovey. But I do understand that’s the point of a 300-400 page book. Overall I would def read more from this author and am interested in her next book!

Small town ✔️
Quirky supporting characters ✔️
Single parent ✔️
Baggage all around ✔️
Slow burn✔️
Fake dating ✔️

This book was so lovely! I really loved how quirky and fun Sage was and then how she and Fisher grew together!

Tarah Dewitt continues to give all the feels with her books and I'm here for it!

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC. it was just lovely!❤️

Yeahhhhhh this book was not for me. I really didn't enjoy it.

It started out REALLY cute and I was enjoying it. Around 30% in it completely lost me completely. The characters became annoying & frustrating and the storyline became meh. My favorite character was Gary.... Who is a Goose.

Thank you Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ARC.. Even though I'm realllllly late to the party.

[alc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Savor It releases May 21, 2024

Disappointing to say the least.

As a chef, I love seeking out romances with main characters who are chefs or bakers, but I did not get an ounce of the culinary passion or imagery I was yearning for.

This story is filled with so many unnecessary details that have no relevance to the plot, and I’d say the Spunes annual festival and Fisher’s restaurant consulting amounted to 5% of the book, at best.

DeWitt introduces so many characters residing in this small town, yet the writing results in an overwhelming inability to care about a single person.

The guardian trope was lackluster, and character descriptions were horrendous. Instead of using a given name, Fisher describes a teenaged boy as a <I>“sentient penis with a car […] looks like he’s been through a pasta maker […] Lanky, thin, skinny wrists and sharp elbows—probably in some state of nicotine addiction.”</I>
What’s with the body shaming?

Listening to the audiobook had me wanting to crawl out of my skin; the male narrator was unbearably breathy.