4.5 stars

The Do Over follows Emilie as she repeats Valentine’s Day over and over, similar to the movie Groundhog Day. While she repeats Valentine’s Day, she keeps running into Nick.

The plot of repeating a day over and over again may feel like it could get quite boring and repetitive, however, this book didn’t feel repetitive at all! I loved seeing the different versions of the day and the growth/self-discovery of Emilie.

Emilie was a very likeable character, and I felt that I could relate to her in many ways. I also loved the side characters as well - they were all extremely likeable too. Nick was the perfect love interest, and I loved his initial mysterious and depth (Jess Mariano from Gilmore girls vibes). And the banter between Emilie and Nick?? It was perfect, and I loved reading every second of their adventures together.

Overall, I absolutely adored this book and couldn’t put it down. I was so invested in Emilie and Nick’s love story and found myself giggling and getting giddy throughout.

Wow, I am completely left speechless after finishing this book. The grand gesture almost brought me to tears and, being outdoors at this time of year in Canada, that could've been problematic. However, it was that close to perfect!

I loved the Ferris Bueller style DONC and the adventures that Emily and Nick got up to. I loved watching Nick and Emily's relationship evolve over the course of the repeated Valentine's Days. I loved watching Emily learn that what she wants matters, both in love as well as in life.

So, so good.

This was the cutest thing ever. This is like if ground-hog day and a Disney channel original movie had a baby, and I loved every second of it.
The characters in this were so fantastic. I don't normally love the characters in YA romance this much, but I just found them so likeable and real. And they were SO CUTE together.
This was even more adorable and fun than I expected and I think everyone should read it for the vibes.

If you enjoy time loops, Valentines Day and Taylor Swift, than this book if for you! I very much enjoyed that the main character explored the timeloop more so that other timeloop stories and that things were more shades of grey than black and white. I also enjoyed that there is a playlist to go along with the story as well as the humour in it.

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter is a take on the Groundhog Day concept that is so engaging that I finished it in a single sitting. Set during a disastrous Valentine’s Day, this one contains a fair amount of chaos and a main character who really changes as she is forced to endure the same day over and over again. Despite the concept, this one never feels repetitive, and it is perfect for fans of short and sweet rom-coms.

Emilie is having the worst Valentine’s Day ever. She crashes into her lab partner, loses her summer fellowship, and discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her. The worst part? When she wakes up, she finds herself reliving the same horrific Valentine’s Day over and over again. As she finds herself with many chances to change the outcome of the day, Emilie must figure out what it takes to break the loop, and even learn that she might be able to make the most of the situation.

❀ ENJOYABLE MAIN CHARACTER

I enjoyed Emilie’s character, and she really changes throughout the book. At the beginning, it’s clear that she lives her life to please others, and she likes to be in control of things. This is all turned upside down when she finds herself in a situation outside of her control. As she relives each day, Emilie gradually learns to let herself have fun and embrace things the way they are, and I loved seeing her start to live for herself.

❀ ENGAGING AND FAST-PACED

Something I often struggle with when reading Groundhog Day retellings is that they can feel repetitive. While Emilie relives the same day, I appreciated how Lynn Painter makes each version different, and I found myself surprised by some of the outcomes. The story is engaging and fast-paced the whole way through, making this one a successful take on the time loop concept.

❀ CUTE RETELLING

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter is a cute Groundhog Day retelling set on Valentine’s Day. I enjoyed watching the main character change her mindset with each version of the same day, and I appreciated the author’s effort to keep the story engaging in the face of a concept that can easily become repetitive. This is the perfect read for Valentine’s Day, and for those looking for a bingeable rom-com.

Lynn Painter is unable to miss, ever. I loved this book so much!! the premise was great, and the characters were adorable!

I absolutely love Lynn Painter — and at this point, I would read her grocery list!

The Do-Over is such a cute and swoony YA contemporary romance. I loved the Groundhog Day vibes and the character arc for Emilie. It's just such a great premise for the story and with Lynn's signature wit and writing, it all works perfectly. The romance is swoon-worthy and in typical Lynn fashion, leaves you smiling and extremely happy (and desperately wanting more!)

I can't wait for Lynn's next young adult book!

The Do-Over is a cute YA Groundhog's Day rom-com set on Valentine's Day.

Nebraska high school student Emilie wants to have the perfect Valentine's Day with her boyfriend. Things do not go well. But when she wakes up the next day Valentine's Day plays out again and again.

Every Valentine's Day she tries different things including a Day Of No Consequences. And they are mostly fun and quite funny.

This is a really cute YA version of Groundhog's Day. Although it felt a bit weird to be reading this in November. But overall this is a quick fun read.

Lynn Painter strikes again!!

This was such a fun read! You’ve got an amazing coming of age story featuring a Groundhog Day theme. I LOVED the characters and the banter was ON POINT. I’m so excited for everyone to read this because it was flawless in my eyes.

5/5 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this good read. Lynn Painter has done it again but even better this time. I liked the time look and the day of no consequences as well. This was a good read and Lynn Painter really knows how to write a good novel even when it involves heavy topics like grief.

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 received a DRC of this book from the publisher but the thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

The Do-Over is smart and funny: it’s a coming of age story with a sharp romance.

First of all, Lynn Painter freaking knocks it out of the park with the Do-Over. Emilie Hornby is my new favourite teen MC: she’s smart and funny and unabashedly herself. She has a lot of emotions and expectations and struggles to let them all out. She’s raw and real and I wish she had been my friend in high school. Now, I didn’t realize truly how much I love ground-hog day stories, but between Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze and Painter’s The Do-Over, I have confirmed myself a fan of this story trope.

Emilie is a 16 year old girl going through A LOT: her divorced parents play ping pong with her and her feelings (and all she wants to do is be noticed and loved by them), she’s highly ambitious and is focused on succeeding in everything in high school, and she has her life planned out in her head and expects it to unroll as it should in real life. At the beginning of the book I just wanted to loosen Emilie up and let her relax her own expectations of herself. By the end of it, I wanted to go eat spaghetti with her and crank some Taylor Swift.

Emilie has planned the perfect Valentine's Day for her newish boyfriend, except nothing goes as planned. After a terrible day she is shocked when she wakes up to relive it again, again and again. Half the fun of The Do-Over is watching Emilie experiment with trying to change aspects of the day in order to change the loop. Of course, the day isn’t what needs to change, but rather Emilie’s outlook on the day. Watching Emilie come to terms with her own struggles and weaknesses, and develop her own book is one of my favourite aspects of The Do-Over. She’s got a lot of support systems in place, but has to learn to use her voice to access them - which so many teens (girls especially) struggle to use.

Emilie thinks she’s in love with her boyfriend Josh. On paper they are PERFECT for each other. Throughout the repeated timelines, readers get to watch the relationship develop and un-develop partially aided by the mysterious Nick - Emilie’s chemistry lab partner who keeps showing up at the most inconvenient times. Emilie and Nick have a fantastic relationship and part of the joy of the storyline is how Emilie uses the repeated day to learn more and more about the tacturn and seemingly anti-social guy who, it turns out, has a lot of layers to him.

One of the most charming aspects of The Do-Over for me is the little confessionals that begin each chapter: Emilie knows she’s a clean-cut kid that is the type that never has worried her parents or teachers. So, she has written down everything she’s done that isn’t perfect and kept them in a box hidden in her closet, so that in case she dies people will know she still had adventures. I giggled at the beginning of every chapter. Emilie’s antics kept me reading late into the night.

Lynn’s stories always delight but also keep it real, and The Do-Over fulfills this: while it’s a light-hearted romp, it also tackles issues of anxiety and fear, grief and the poignant challenge of teens growing up and trying to discover their places in the world. This is a book to gift to your favourite teen this holiday season, but you should also buy a copy for yourself. You won’t regret it. Although you may find yourself craving a Taylor Swift lyric tattooed on your arm.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for my e-arc of THE DO-OVER by Lynn Painter! And kudos to indigo, for delivering my physical copy preorder two weeks early 🤩 this one publishes tomorrow, November 15!

I really and truly believe Lynn Painter can do no wrong when it comes to writing books. I’m not usually a fan of time loop books, but I LOVED this one. A Valentine’s Day time loop/Groundhog Day style YA romcom with ALL the witty, laugh out loud banter? Sign me up!

Emily loves Valentine’s Day, and Nick hates it. But when Emily keeps reliving the worst Valentine’s Day ever, she gets to know Nick, and it changes everything… literally.

I don’t have much more to say about this one other than I loved it! If you have read Lynn’s first YA romcom, Better than the Movies (if not, I highly recommend it because it is one of my favs!!) then you will love this one!

I didn't think it was possible to top Better than the movies but Lynn Painter has outdone herself with her latest YA romcom that sees type-A planner and list lover Emilie Hornsby stuck in a Valentine's Day time loop. Perfect for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon's See you yesterday or the movie Ferris Bueller's day off. I so enjoyed seeing Emilie loosen up and embrace a day of no consequences (DONC) with her chemistry partner Nick, a boy she's previously had very little interaction with. Full of heart and lots of humor, this book made me feel all the feels and has a great song playlist included at the end! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

CW: child of divorce, death of a sibling

I received an e-galley of The Do-Over by Lynn Painter from Simon and Schuster Canada via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Valentine's Day should be a wonderful day, if you have the perfect boyfriend and a bright future ahead of you like Emilie. Except it's not. What's worst is that Emilie can't even escape it - she finds herself waking up to Valentine's Day again. And despite her best efforts to change the day, it seems that there are things that she is unable to change. When she decides to just do whatever she wants as the days seems to be on repeat forever, she finds herself having the best day ever - to wake up to the next day where she has to face the consequences of all that happened. I really enjoyed The Do-Over and watching the relationship develop between Emilie and Nick - even as the development seems a little one-sided as only Emilie has the memories of each Valentine's Day that occurs.

I’m convinced that Lynn Painters books are written with just pure joy. I love romance and romantic comedies, but it’s rare that I sit through them with a smile on my face nearly the whole time. I do that with Painter’s books. This was such a fun book. I loved the time loop and the DONC. I loved slowly figuring out why things were happening and how important Nick was to Emilie’s journey (and vice versa). This was so sweet, and despite dealing with some pretty heavy feelings of grief and abandonment, it didn’t feel sad. It was such an uplifting journey.

This book… amazing!… I loved it!… if you thought “Better Than The Movies” was good… you need to read this! 🥰 I’m so excited about this book, everyone needs to read it.

This book was ADORABLE!!! If there are two things I love, it’s the Groundhog Day trope and Lynn Painter YA romances. I don’t know how she does it, but she is 2/2 on the sweetest, most heart exploding YA romances I’ve ever read!!

The Do-Over is about Emilie, a notorious planner, who has the worst Valentine’s Day ever. She wakes up the next day, dreading the day, only to find out it’s Valentine’s Day again. She realizes she’s somehow stuck in a time loop and doesn’t know what she needs to do to get out of it.

The one consistent is that each morning she runs into Nick, who up until then was basically a stranger. After reliving the day over and over, she realizes that spending time with Nick is her favourite part of the day.

She quickly realizes that if nothing she does matters as she continues to relive the day, she might as well do whatever she wants. She invited Nick to spend the day with her doing the exact opposite of everything she would normally do.

I had the absolute biggest smile on my face reading this. Lynn creates such fantastic characters, has so much depth to her stories and I LOVE what a big role music plays in them.

Nick was wonderful. I wouldn’t say he was quite Wes wonderful (IYKYK), but he was pretty damn close!!

I loved this book. That’s really the review! I did get very frustrated with Nick near the end and if I had to compare this to Better Than the Movies I would have to say BTTM would get my top spot, but still so, so good, so charming and a must read - 4.5/5 stars

The Do-Over is a vibrant and boisterous YA Groundhog Day meets Ferris Bueller's Day Off romance offering from Lynn Painter. It's a bingeable read that left me both satisfied and wanting more. The time loop repetition was well formulated for you to get to know the characters in a short period of time.

Emilie is one of those girls that follows her planner, has the "perfect" boyfriend and plans to say "I love you" when she thinks it's expected. I love the growth in breaking outside of her box and saying what's on her mind.

Nick Stark... sweet, quiet, sad but also full of life once he opens up. He might not be everyone's cup of tea with his broodiness but he's definitely for me!

The DONC (day of no consequences) had me screaming at Emilie to start! Like woah girl, we're starting off the day with that type of speeding, alright BUCKLE UP.

Painter is my go to for sweet and sassy banter, relatable though giggle inducing situations, angst and heartwarming love. The Do-Over was so loveable and I freaking adore Lynn!

Plus, for all the Swifties, there are many MANY little easter egg moments.

CW: grief, divorce, coarse language, death of a loved one (past)

“I fell in love with you on Valentine’s Day, Emilie, but I need more than just seven minutes.”

Emelie wakes up on Valentine’s Day with the perfect day planned. Get to school, exchange valentines gifts with her boyfriend, drop the L word and have the best day ever. But the day goes up in flames and all her plans go extremely backward, including watching her boyfriend cheat on her. Once she finally escapes and goes home to sleep, she wakes up to experience the same day, over and over again. And she can’t figure out where she went wrong, but every single day, she runs into Nick: who may just be her saving grace.

5/5⭐️

This is the perfect cozy holiday romance. Read this for Valentine’s Day, or for Christmas but just know this book feels like a warm blanket that just wrapped you up. This is a YA romance book that holds so much love and cuteness that’s it’s actually an overload!

Nick isn’t a man ready for love and Emilie is just looking for a Valentine’s Day with no care. But on that one single day, they fall in love and you’re along for the journey every step of the way.

Thank you to netgalley & Simon Teen for this e-arc