tarah dewitt – Page 2

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 364 pages
Author: Tarah Dewitt
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: October 20th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

They say love and construction don’t mix.
By that logic, hate and construction may as well be condemned.

LaRynn Lavigne and Deacon Leeds had one short and contentious summer fling when they were teens.
Certainly nothing to build a foundation on.
But a decade later, when their grandmothers have left them with shared ownership of their dilapidated Santa Cruz building, they’re thrust back together and have to figure out how to brace up the pieces.
LaRynn has the money, but to access her trust, she has to be married.
Deacon has the construction expertise, but lacks the funds.
A deal is struck: Marry for however long it takes to fix up the property, collect a profit, and cut ties.
Thrust into a home without walls, they quickly learn that it’s easy to hide behind emotional ones, even in a marriage. But, with all the exposure and pitfalls that come with living with the opposite sex (and none of the perks) they’ll also have to learn what it means to truly co-operate as a team.

The Co-op is a steamy story about restoration and renovation, and uncovering all the things that build character within ourselves. It’s about the never-ending construction project that partnership is, and finding enjoyment at every stage.

BEST [YET].

Easily calling this my favorite book by this author. It was this beautiful steady growth that just made me fall in love with the characters and story. I live for character progression and this had that in spades. LaRynn and Deacon CLEARLY have some unresolved history and I appreciated immensely that amidst the digs and teases real communication started to flow. Both sides started to look at the situation differently and were able to talk about things that had been sitting on their souls for too long.

And what happens after? A wonderful relationship filled with pure love. These two had the heat, the banter, and all of the emotions. The innuendo was a bit past my comfort zone, but the steam itself is easily moved over. I just loved this story. LaRynn was not an easy character to love and sometimes we feel like that about ourselves and so I loved watching her story unfold (and I promise I did love her by the end!). Deacon was just the sweetest. And I loved that they both didn’t let each other get away with anything that needed to be discussed. Gah, I love communication.

The setting with the house flip was great. I liked the mix of construction shenanigans and everything else happening. The romance really stood out and dang do I love no third act break up that makes me want to pull my hair out.

I can’t wait to see what Dewitt writes next. I will eagerly be anticipating her next book.

Overall Audience Notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: strong
Romance: multiple open; high explicit + high innuendo
Violence: Low
Trigger/Content Warnings: parental abandonment

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 410 pages
Author: Tarah Dewitt
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: December 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

You really can’t go home again.

Tait Logan is proud of the life she’s built for herself. Despite her world-shattering divorce, the absence of a pet, not having any genuine connections with other humans (apart from her sister Ava), and the fact that the remainder of her family is estranged from her life, she’s happy…Happy-adjacent, at least. She’s rebuilt herself through her photography; her dream career, the one thing she does still have.

So, when that career contracts her to do an assignment on her estranged family’s home, Logan Range – a now famous ranch functioning as the setting for a popular show – she’s left with no choice but to agree.

Thus, Tait is bound, on a reluctant course back to her roots, and to the family she feels abandoned by… to the family that, seemingly, has had no interest in a relationship with her since her parents’ divorce, when she was seven.

Henry Marcum has dedicated his life to the Logan family and to their ranch. He owes them for raising him, rescuing him, and for his life’s purpose and opportunities… He also owes them for every hardship he’s inadvertently brought their way. So, when Tait Logan shows up after 20 years of near total silence, he takes it upon himself to protect the people he knows and loves.

It’s a rocky start when Tait and Henry first collide; he is naturally wary of her intentions, and she is more than perturbed by their literal collision – which results in her broken camera, during her first night on location, no less.

There’s no shortage of shaky ground here in the mountains and valleys of Idaho. They’re thrown off balance time and time again by their growing feelings for one another, and by the story of the Logan family as it becomes increasingly less clear from their perspectives. As they confront the past, theirs naturally get brought to the foray. They’ll have to weigh their feelings against their experiences of heartbreak, and decide if the potential for disaster is worth the risk that accompanies love.

NOT TOO SHABBY.

I finished this book and didn’t know quite what to rate it. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, but I leaned towards 4 and here we are.

What I did like were a lot of the conversations surrounding the main character, Tait, and moving past divorce and opening herself up for true love again. I still remember some of those conversations from this book and liked the passion and heartfelt emotions that come along with moving past something personally devstating.

Some of things that irked me were the complete lack of editor. I hope further books are looked over a bit more. It got better as the book went on, but an immense amount of grammatical and punctuation becomes very noticeable. I didn’t always love Henry’s POV either. It was occasionally cringy and I just didn’t love him as much as I wanted too. The spice is a bit past my comfort zone (but I know others love a bit more! I’d say a 3/5 flames).

I did like Tait and Henry together. I thought things got off pretty fast between them, but slowed down just enough that I was able to get on board with their relationship. At times, the family drama leaned a bit too much to the ridiculous side. I did like that Tait got to meet some of her estranged family and find healing through those decisions.

It was a good read and I look forward to the author’s next book.

Overall audience notes: