Review: The Do-Over by Lynn Painter

Title: The Do-Over

Author: Lynn Painter

Genre: YA, contemporary romance

Publication date: November 15th 2022

Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Source: eARC from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis: 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 rating: ★★★★★

Oh my god, not me requesting an ARC of a contemporary romance, being excited after being approved, and then absolutely loving the book after reading it! Sometimes I don't even recognize myself 😆 But honestly, I'm enjoying diving into and exploring this genre that just years ago I would not touch. And this book is probably one of my favorite contemporary books I have ever read! (To be fair, I haven't read that many, but still 😆)

This book was so freaking cute, I just can't! This book had me grinning the entire time, which made me look like a complete crazy person when I was reading in public! But you know what? I don't even care! 🤣 I can't believe I was such a romance hater back in the day 😞 What was wrong with me?? 😱🤣 Anyway, my point is: I loved the romance in this. I liked how the universe basically kept pushing Emilie and Nick together even though Emilie was, in the beginning, kinda fixated on her cheating boyfriend. Which I understood because they had been together for a little bit, but still. Lol. Nick though, the more we got to know him, the more I loved him! He was very broody and the reason behind that is so heartbreaking I swear I almost cried. But he was also sweet and very fun. And the banter between him and Emilie was one of my favorite things about the book! And I loved as they got to know each other and shared all these little stories with one another. It was just so heartwarming and sweet.

I really liked the time loop aspect of this book as well. Honestly, that's probably the reason why I even decided to give this a shot. It definitely gave me Happy Death Day vibes (one of my favorite movies), minus the whole murder thing, of course 😆 But that trope worked really well here! It was fun! And one of my favorite loops was the classic I Don't Give A Fuck loop, as I like to call it 🤣

You know, the loop where the characters do ALL the things because they know there'll be no consequence due to the reset the next day. And the IDGAF day Emilie had was great start to finish! The way she roped Nick into her shenanigans... 😍 That entire scene was amazing! And not to mention the end of that day 😍😍 It was SO good!

Another thing I liked was the setting in Omaha! I actually just visited there for the first time this past summer and I honestly loved it more than I thought I would! It is such a cute place! And I liked envisioning the places they talked about that I didn't visit. But there were some places they mentioned that I recognized, and I always love that. For example, they mention Spaghetti Works which I thought I went to, but I didn’t. I wanted to though! Every time we went downtown that place was always absolutely packed! We did end up going in once but the wait was so ridiculously long we ended up going to a pizza place down the street instead. Which is a shame because I do love me some pasta. Lol. And Emilie claims it’s amazing, and after seeing how packed it always was, I don’t doubt it. Oh, and another place that was mentioned was Ted and Wally's ice cream, which I did end up going to! Several times! The line always went out the door, but honestly it was worth the wait! Another place I went to that I absolutely loved was The Monster Club. This wasn’t mentioned in the book, but I’m mentioning it because it was horror movie-themed and it was awesome! 😆

But enough about my trip to Omaha (if you do want to know more about it 👀 you can read about it here and here), I loved this book SO freaking much! It was just so cute and the added element of the time loop was a definite plus. The end when Emilie pondered if this specific thing could be the catalyst to the time loop.... It made sense! And I almost cried. Again. Lol. I loved Nick and unwrapping the enigma there. I also loved the character arc Emilie went through. You really got to know the characters and understood why they were the way they were. I even liked the resolution with Josh there at the end! This book was just great all around! Right after finishing this I actually went on to read Better Than the Movies by this same author and omg... SO good! Honestly, I think I may have found a new favorite author! 🤩

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊