REVIEW: The Do-Over by Lynn Painter

In The Do-Over by Lynn Painter, Sixteen-year-old Emilie Hornby has had just about the worst Valentine’s Day on record. After wanting nothing more than to put that miserable excuse of a day out of her head for good, she somehow wakes up on what should be February 15th–except it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. Not sure if it’s some kind of cosmic joke or if she’s possibly hallucinating, it throws Emilie’s carefully-planned world into total disarray. With each new V-Day she endures, morning after morning she feels her spirit sagging. Because nothing she does changes the outcome: she’s stuck in a loop with no way out.

“You are not the people-pleasing mouse you purport yourself to be. Burn some cities down with your rage!”
“What do you want me to do, Grandma? Just unload on people?”
“A little bit, yes… Quit worrying about making everyone else happy.”

Emilie soon runs out of ideas on how to tweak things to hopefully wake up to a fresh new day on the calendar. So she decides, why not have some fun in the process? If she gets a redo every morning then maybe she should just let go, saying and doing exactly what’s on her mind for once. And it feels amazing. Especially when Emilie spends time with her Chem lab partner, surly Nick Stark. It turns out that when you give someone a chance–someone you normally wouldn’t hang out with–you might forge a meaningful, if unexpected, connection. It’s just too bad Nick will probably never remember it. Unless Emilie can figure a way out of the day that never ends.

‘The day had been unbelievably wonderful, yet when I woke up tomorrow morning, it wouldn’t have existed for anyone but me.’

The Do-Over was a delight from start to finish. A time loop à la the movie Groundhog’s Day–although this was set during Valentine’s Day–the quirky, lovable cast and Type-A heroine stole my heart while keeping me chuckling and sighing happily throughout.

‘What if these repeating Valentine’s Days weren’t karmic punishment for something I did in a past life or some other horrible reason? What if they’re a *gift*, an opportunity to right a day that went so very wrong?’

While I don’t read a lot of YA romance, I won’t hesitate to pick one up by authors I know and trust to write a solid story. Lynn Painter is certainly in that category. Filled with humor and sweetness to balance out the heroine’s loneliness and the hero’s recent family issues, I was absolutely smitten from page one of The Do-Over. I was struck by not only how quick and snappy the dialogue was but also how realistic each person felt to me. And it was nice to have high-school-age characters who made believable mistakes but who (overall) had good heads on their shoulders.

The time loop portion of the book was as comical as it was poignant. I loved watching Emilie’s slow progression as she woke up each morning, still Valentine’s Day, and seeing how it kind of wore her down until she decided to have a “Day of No Consequences” or DONC for short. That day!! Oh my goodness, that (shenanigan-filled) day was magical and changed everything for Emilie. As we watched her go from being a tightly-controlled people pleaser to finally letting herself breathe and be herself for once, things started to fall in place. From her relationships at school to her struggles with her parents, I couldn’t have been happier with the way Emilie’s journey was wrapped up.

QOTD: If you were reliving the same day over & over (just go with me on this) and thought there would be no consequences, would you go wild and do anything you wanted to?

Book Info:

Publication: November 15th 2022 | Simon & Schuster |

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?