ARC Review: "The Co-op" by Tarah DeWitt ★★★★

ARC Review: The Co-Op by Tarah DeWitt

This second-chance golden-retriever-boyfriend and black-cat-girlfriend rom-com contains a great combination of enemies-to-lovers and marriage-of-convenience tropes, with deeper layers of restoration, not only of homes but relationships. Too many dashes in my sentence? Too bad, you should be dashing to read it instead! Seriously, a heartwarming and lovely read though there were some things I wish I had vibed better with. For fans of “How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days”.

Just like the house that once felt like it would never be done, like there was more to fix or address around every corner . . . even in the mess, I think *this* is still livable, too. There’s something to love here, in this place where our relationship exists. And maybe if we keep working at it, eventually it will be somewhere comfortable—maybe even lovely—too.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
LaRynn Lavigne grew up with uncertainty. When she was younger, her parents’ strained marriage caused them to move from place to place. The only thing that stayed constant in her life was visiting her grandmother Cecelia in Santa Cruz during the holidays. Her grandmother met and married Helena. When she was 15, she met Helena’s grandson 16-year-old Deacon Leeds, who in his own way has family issues too (his father cheated on his mother and died from cancer). They have a summer fling when LaRynn is 19 but things turn sour.

Now, seven years later, at the ages of 26 and 27 respectively, LaRynn and Deacon’s paths cross once more after both Cecelia and Helena (“the grands” as they call them) have passed away, leaving them as co-owners for the house, which has been falling apart.

Cecelia’s passing causes a huge spiral in LaRynn’s life and an even bigger rift between her and her parents. She drops out of law school, and her trust fund gets revoked by her dad. She can only get access to it if she marries. Deacon has been managing things himself for the past year as LaRynn ghosts his texts, wanting to restore the property to its former glory but he does not have the funds to carry this out.

The two draw up the most unlikely pact that will solve all their problems: they will marry for however long it takes to fix everything up, though they can barely tolerate each other. Together they must learn to work together before the past and their feelings get in the way again.

This is told from the first-person present-tense POV of LaRynn and Deacon though a dual timeline of the then when they were teenagers and now.

OVERALL OPINIONS
After reading Savor It back in May, I was obsessed with Tarah DeWitt’s manner of writing. She captures the essence of her characters and the story she is telling and touches the soul. While I prefer her other book, this has a special place in my heart.

This story is actually the book she began after her debut Rootbound but she didn’t get the chance to finish it when there was a demand for Funny Feelings. It was released in 2022, but it has been re-released in 2024, with tweaked – or you could say “renovated” haha! – and bonus content added. Now, as someone who has not read the original, I cannot compare but I just know that it has been redone well because of how much I love this.

DeWitt considers this her favourite work, and I can see why in terms of the story itself. There are very raw heartfelt moments and those who have had experiences like strained relationships with family or still harbouring feelings for someone will find this rather relatable. Both LaRynn and Deacon go through these things. I wish I could put into words how much their dynamic meant to me, because it felt so realistic: seeing two broken people misinterpret each other so much when they were younger, trying to play it cool, to them years later eventually allowing their barriers to come down, seeing the real sides of themselves and embracing their flaws. And their flaws were so well-defined, so human, I just want to hug them both!

Tarah DeWitt hooks you into this book so well through the prologue. The date the story is set is “Some Wednesday in May” where LaRynn is marrying Deacon. This firstly, sets the scene and tension because a wedding is considered one of the most important days of a person’s life so by describing as some Wednesday shows LaRynn’s feelings: that it is strictly business, not a special day, therefore the details do not matter. Secondly, it makes you immediately want to read more, as it is established that she is getting married to the man who broke her heart nearly a decade ago, and it’s like “Wait whaaat? What happened? How did it come to this?” – this was done excellently! The momentum after that was neither here nor there for me and only picked up around the halfway point when they became more communicative and open.

I think the way Tarah DeWitt handles the sensitive subject of parents with narcissistic traits is excellent. It is such an important thing to cover, and was done well! Anyone who has parents who see you as a failure if you do not do well will relate heavily to LaRynn’s story as she was always a people-pleaser and wanted to do her parents proud. I absolutely adored LaRynn’s growth: in deciding to please herself and not anyone else (“I’d take their love where I could get it, which usually came in the form of pride whenever I did manage to do something impressive. I’d like to impress myself for a change.”), in finding the strength to stand up for herself and tell her mother off about the mistreatment she was younger, left to fend for herself against her toxic father. She is very brave for doing this, considering that she used to stay silent for fear of falling out of line and out of favour.

Maybe that’s why it was so liberating to speak up for once.
Because there’s power in that. In saying, look; I was damaged, and you played a role. But I’m repairing myself. Not you, and no one else. If you can accept and love this version of me, chipped bits and all, and acknowledge your part in that, then maybe we can have something real.

This was a powerful and beautiful moment. I was so glad her mother regretted what happened and that LaRynn and her mother were able to begin all over again, and it all turned out for the better.

In a lot of ways, this book reminded me of the contemporary romance I read earlier this year called The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce. Interestingly, this book was also planned to be released earlier and contained a dual timeline. It also reminds me of The Reno by Maggie Grant, another 5-star read which is about renovation and strained relationships with parents, too!

<< Positives >>
🠚The humour when it was there was great! DeWitt really did make me laugh out loud. Some of my favourites were when Elyse is going to leave and checks if they’ll be okay while she’s away and they both respond the same things simultaneously. Or when LaRynn sells her car and gives Deacon the money and he immediately grows suspicious “Where’d you come up with it? Sell some hexes? Kill a man?” and she thinks to herself “Not yet” haha! Or Deacon being drunk. Or this one:

“I just can’t see us being able to get through it without killing each other,” I say.
He tosses a shoulder. “I have great life insurance. You’d be the beneficiary.”

🠚LaRynn and Deacon’s collective growth is satisfying to see. The way eventually their walls (both literally and figuratively) come down is so lovely, and the scene where they both openly talk about when they were younger and how they honestly felt, they realise they both completely misinterpreted the other’s intention in the same situation. It harkens to real-life scenarios as this often happens. They have both been through so so much and have my heart! 🠚There are some great descriptions throughout.
🠚As previously mentioned, the sensitive topics have been handled well.
🠚I love that LaRynn and Deacon dress up for Halloween as Gomez and Morticia because they were exactly who I thought of when it said that Deacon went wild every time LaRynn speaks in French: Gomez does the same thing about Morticia speaking French.
🠚The epilogue is adorable (also, renaming the café “Café Co-op” is perfect)!

<< Negatives >>
🠚Deacon’s obsession with LaRynn’s legs felt odd. I don’t know about that one, man.
🠚LaRynn’s character irritated me at times, especially in Chapter 13 when she overdoes the spending of the budget and buys ridiculous things without consulting Deacon (particularly when they share the budget). I understand, especially the more you read, that this is her way of healing her inner self and giving herself comfort she never had (furniture for a permanent home because her parents were always moving place to place). She does deserve to have nice things but she was being unreasonable. She could also be rather petty and it was too petty for me.
🠚I thought that LaRynn’s signature blown-kiss-that-turns-into-a-middle-finger was going to continue more often than it actually did. It would have even worked in the epilogue or some time before that.
🠚I didn’t vibe with when Mrs. Gold and Deacon’s mother find the pair of them canoodling in the shed. It was amusing, don’t get me wrong, but it felt too silly for my liking. I wanted them to have that moment to themselves.
🠚I feel the time-jumping was confusing at times, and then the “Before” sections stop some time well before the end, and I think the buildup should have been more progressive and less telling at once.
🠚I thought because LaRynn was married she automatically would have taken his name, but instead she keeps Lavigne I only found this out because Deacon calls her that at one point. I think this decision should have been made clearer, though I am obsessed with him asking her to take his name later on.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ LaRynn꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I still can’t believe she is 6ft tall! I relate to her people-pleasing attitude, her openness when emotional, her “lean into the innuendos and double down on the double entendres”.
🠚It’s so sweet how she helps her friend Elyse with her café, drawing the sidewalk sign and then rewriting all the other signs. She is a fiercely loyal friend.

Having Deacon on my side has made me feel invincible, which has made me feel brave enough to be vulnerable, too. To other relationships in my life, and to betting on myself. I don’t know if we’ll always get what we wish for. I know that life is going to come with its battles. I know that love will, too. But I’m starting to think that’s the whole point—finding the person, or people, who’ll fight and dream *with* you.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Deacon꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ We had a “That’s my wife” ladies, and it was everything! Deacon, thank you for your service. He’s such a beautiful selfless man and there is nothing I dislike about him.
It breaks my heart how much he desperately wants to understand and fix things, even if it is beyond repair, all because of how his father treated them.

“I want you for me,” he says again. “I want your smiles for me, the ones that I’ve worked so goddamn hard for that come so much easier for everyone else. I want it to be easy like that for you to smile and laugh with me... I want you to get everything you want, but I want it to be with me, too, and I don’t care if that sounds selfish anymore. I want this house, but I want it to mean something more. I want you to stay with me and I want you to never fucking leave.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Other Characters꒱ ˎˊ-
I love Elyse so much, she gives great sage advice and even though she has stressful things going on in her life, she doesn’t let it get in the way of what she is doing and keeps a positive attitude.
And Sal, she is so iconic! Especially that text where she tells them to install a door haha I did wonder if she would make a comment about that.

FAV QUOTES
• The fact that he’s managed to take up any room in the overcrowded space of my mind is a bit embarrassing and a lot grating, to say the least.
• Whatever is happening in my stupid chest all the time over the ridiculous things he does and says, and why it all works is so beyond my comprehension. It’s hysteria in this body at any given moment, I swear. It’s addicting as hell. *He* is addicting as hell.
• It occurs to me that LaRynn and I keep wading through the ugly. Between revealing all these less-desirable parts of ourselves, and constantly falling back to the uglier versions with one another in that torn-apart house, we still keep going. Me with my phony charm and bad temper and her with her worse temper and cruel-toned apathy. I wonder if there’s some comfort to be had in being able to show those sides to someone and have them still stick around the way that we are, even if it’s out of obligation.
• We can’t ever seem to get on the same page, the right foot, or build a good foundation no matter how hard we try. And we can’t seem to escape each other, either. Not really.
• I want him as wild and messy as I feel.
• She stares into me, her hair a wavy mass around her shoulders. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and the person who has a terrifying amount of power over me, whether or not she realizes it.
• People talk about falling in love like it’s some comfortable, easy thing. Maybe it is sometimes, or maybe it is in steps, but it’s also overwhelming and scary. It’s giving yourself over to this thing you can’t see the bottom of, and then trying not to struggle against it so that it drags you down too fast.
• “I don’t mind your mess,” I say. | He looks at me, his coffee eyes warm. “I don’t mind yours, either, Rynn.”
• What a fucking treasure he is, to want all the pieces of the people he cares for, the inconvenient and painful parts, too.
• When we were young we shared our bodies. We shared an angsty, sarcastic view of the world, a false roof over us for shelter. Now that we’re being real, that self-preservation’s all stripping away, and I’m fucking terrified that I’ll mess this up somehow and lose her altogether. The idea of being without her when I’ve only just got her is enough to make me wrangle the hope back down.
• “I’ll see you at home,” she says. Home. Home. Home. Three months together in a ripped-up building and nothing’s ever felt more like it.
• A dreamer and a fighter. I want to be just that. He does make me feel that way, like I could dream and then fight for those dreams to come true. Like I could belong to whatever home and whatever life I want to make.
• When we make it into the room, he lays me down with heartbreaking gentleness—onto the bed he built, among the pillows I picked for their colors because I think they reminded me of us. Tans, blues, blacks. Sand, ocean, leather. Night skies and back seats. Maybe I picked the green tile for the redwoods and the buildings around Santa Sea. Because he and this place are part of me again.
• What a gift it is to trust someone, I realize. To know that through every up and down, every unexpected break, they want the same thing as you in the end. Just to be together.
• I’ve never felt like I could be messy, could be less than perfect, or could show my anger to either of my parents and still be loved. I’ve contorted and diminished myself to try to keep them happy… But someone loves me at home. Someone who loves my sharp edges as much as all my softer ones, too, and even the ones I haven’t quite got figured out yet. And I’m no longer afraid. I’m tired of acting fine just to spare her feelings.
• I turn around with a smile to find her beaming back just as brightly. And God, I’m struck all over again. By her same incredible witch hair and her sea glass eyes. The same constellation of freckles. The addition of a few laugh lines. She’s only grown more stunning, and it’s even more overwhelming because I get to know her soul.

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Tarah DeWitt, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“The Co-op” is out now!