The Co-op by Tarah DeWitt
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 279
Published By: Piatkus on 20th October, 2022
Format: Paperback
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Book Synopsis:
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 in order 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, LaRynn and Deacon 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, much to their growing mutual frustration) they’ll also have to learn what it means to truly cooperate as a team.
Book Review
I’d never heard of this author before and picked this book up completely on a whim when I saw it in a second-hand shop. I’m deep into my romance era at the moment, so I picked it up purely because of that. However, this book was such a let down that I’m glad I got it second-hand and not wasted my money on getting it brand new…
My main issue with this book is the amount of miscommunication and petty arguments throughout. For about 70% of the book the main character’s are arguing about such little things. It became quite irritating and exhausting. I also didn’t really like main character’s themselves. They seemed quite immature considering they are in their late 20s… I understand that they both have their issues from the backstories we get but there were times they were just acting ridiculous.
The romance wasn’t all that. It’s a very slow-burner which I normally like in romance books. However, when we eventually got to the romance it was so underwhelming. The spice was ‘meh’ and honestly I didn’t really care for the relationship between them both. I purely kept reading because I was hoping it would redeem itself by the end but it didn’t really…
Although this book is under 300 pages long, I found it quite a slog to get through, which highlighted how little I was invested in the story. There were some side characters that I enjoyed seeing interactions with. It’s saying something though if I prefer the side characters to the main characters. Honestly by the end I was just glad it was over. Not much happens throughout, they are literally just working together to renovate a house they both own… I know this review seems wholly negative but don’t get me wrong the ending was cute. I liked seeing the 10-year flash forward but it was nothing to write home about. It just wasn’t giving me the giddy feels that I normally do when reading a romance.
My quote to summarise how I feel about this book… “I liked it, but I didn’t love it”. I can’t really say whether I’d recommend it or not. All I can say is that it’s your own decision whether you want to give it a try or not… I’m not sure now whether I would try another book from this author or not…
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