The Do-Over by Lynn Painter: Book Review

In The Do-Over, a teenaged-girl has to relive her Valentine’s Day experience over and over. Will she ever get it right?

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From The Publisher:

In this riotous young adult romp for fans of Recommended for You and A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, a teen girl has the worst Valentine’s Day ever—only to relive it over and over again. 

After living through a dumpster fire of a Valentine’s Day, Emilie Hornby escapes to her grandmother’s house for some comfort and a consolation pint of Ben & Jerry’s. She passes out on the couch, but when she wakes up, she’s back home in her own bed—and it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. And the next day? Another nightmare V-Day.

Emilie is stuck in some sort of time loop nightmare that she can’t wake up from as she re-watches her boyfriend, Josh, cheat on her day after day. In addition to Josh’s recurring infidelity, Emilie can’t get away from the enigmatic Nick, who she keeps running into—sometimes literally—in unfortunate ways.

How many days can one girl passively watch her life go up in flames? And when something good starts to come out of these terrible days, what happens when the universe stops doling out do-overs?

My Thoughts:

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in high school but I found it a lot of fun to revisit those years in The Do-Over. Lynn Painter has created a story that is not only for teens and YA readers but anyone who is young at heart as well.

Emilie Hornby cannot wait for Valentine’s Day. She can’t wait to get to school and give her boyfriend Josh his expensive watch strap. She’s taken special attention to her makeup and outfit for the day and has her usual checklist of things she wants to accomplish for the day. In addition to his gift, Emilie also wants to tell Josh that she loves him for the first time.

But things don’t always go according to our plans. Emilie has a car accident on the way to school hitting her sullen and very quiet chemistry partner Nick. Then her plans with Josh take a very sudden and unexpected nosedive. Her plans for the summer are suddenly taken away from her and her Dad makes an announcement that makes this day the worse day ever.

She escapes and spends the rest of the day at her grandmother’s house where she receives the support she needs. But instead of waking up the next morning on February 15, she finds herself repeating February 14 over and over again.

This is a highly enjoyable take on a time loop. I loved how the fact that Emilie had to repeat the day gave her a chance to get to know Nick and to provide her perspective on the things that she finds to be the most important. The backstories of both Emilie and Nick are believable and relevant. There are some very lovely moments in the book and choices made that provide insight through a youthful lens. I laughed out loud at many points in the book as I remembered the decisions we make as youth and our rationale for making them.

I recommend this book to Teens and YA readers or anyone who is young at heart.

What I Liked:

• The well-executed timeloop story
• The fun, vivacious protagonist
• The level of character development for both Emilie and Nick

Acknowledgments:

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for the DRC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.