Cover Image: The Do-Over

The Do-Over

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Member Reviews

This gave me all of the high school/young love nostalgia. Such a cute story and I loved the banter between Nick and Emilie! Even as a 25 year old, I was cackling and enjoying every part of this story. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

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I loved this book and cannot stop thinking about it. As an adult in my 30s, who has started to fell as if I might have grown out of loving YA as much as I used to, I was worried to pick this up and not love it. PLUS, it was a groundhogs day scenario, which I usually avoid, because THAT SCENARIO USUALLY GIVES ME ANXIETY. BUT, THIS WAS WRITTEN BY LYNN PAINTER AND SHE CAN DO NO WRONG, so.... I picked it up. AND I AM SO GLAD I DID!

I read this story in one day and just could not stop reading.

Emily Hornby (almost my maiden name) has found the "perfect" boyfriend and has planned the "perfect" Valentines Day where she can finally tell him (after 3 whole months of dating) that she LOVES him. But everything blows up throughout the day, leading to a car accident, losing her place in a summer program, finding her boyfriend cheat on her AND her dad relocating across the country. When she falls asleep, she just wishes that the day didn't even happen. WELL GUESS WHAT? She gets stuck in a time loop reliving the day over and over. Unlike the stressful versions of living the day over and over, this one moves QUICKLY through these days until we get to the BEST DAY OF ALL.

Day of No Consequences (DONC) is the day where Emily decides to just ignore what everyone wants and put her people pleasing ways behind her and DOES WHAT EVER SHE WANTS, because, tomorrow, it will all be wiped away. She ropes in her hot lab partner (who she has started to become friends with through the repeating days) and they end up spending a truly magical day together, learning more about each other and living a teenage fever dream. You end up loving their time together and not wanting it to stop.

At the risk of spoiling some of the best parts of the story, I'll stop here, but just know the ending both wrecked me, made me squeal and then gave me heart palpitations and left me feeling twitter-patted. I often find that the explanation behind why the time loop is occurring frustrating or not making any sense... NOT IN THIS BOOK. It's left with an air of mystery, but a potential AND ADORABLE AND HEART WARMING reason and I cannot get over it.

Lynn, you are a genius and I need all your book to live in my brain always. I also NEED to see this on the screen one day. This book was incredible and definitely one of my top books of 2022. It had great commentary on emotional trauma, grief, and people pleasing tendencies. So much depth and so much swoon.

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GAHHH I LOVE LYNN PAINTER!

She something gets you so sucked into her books and characters. I want to live in her books!

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I have never read YA and don't really read new adult too often. This was my first YA book and I. Am. Sold. This was such a charming, endearing, funny story that brought back the highs and lows of high school through characters that were real, and layered, and had the right balance of maturity and wisdom but also the light-heartedness and right level of silliness. Emily and Nick were so lovable and the DONC was literally the perfect day ever. The present at the end slayed me (iykyk). I immediately texted my 17-year-old niece to run and pick this up.

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I SWOONED over this darling! Lynn Painter is the QUEEN of banter- we bow down to your wit and creativity. Could you imagine reliving the WORST day of your life, over and over? That’s exactly what happens to our heroine, Emilie. With heart, humor and hope- she figures out how to make the most of her situation. Reminiscent of Groundhog Day + Ferris Bueller’s Day Off vibes, this was a cute AF teenage dream to read. I couldn’t have loved it more! The sass and humor were spot on- but this story also covered topics of grief, divorce and loss with tenderness. There was tension, angst, joy, and SO MANY FEELS. I’m truly so impressed by this author’s writing.

This story was an instant burst of serotonin- grab your copy now! Thank you so much to Simon Teen for mine. And be sure to check out this author’s other YA + adult romcoms- you won’t be disappointed!

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Emilie is repeating Valentine's Day. And it's not the Valentine's Day that she dreamed of that would've included gifts and declarations of love with her boyfriend Josh. Instead her Valentine's Day includes mishap after mishap. And when she wakes up she does it all over again. Her day typically starts with a fender bender with Nick, her chemistry partner, and it goes downhill from there.

I love these time loop stories where the main character gets an opportunity for a daily do-over. The opportunity to experiment with different ways of acting and interacting and seeing if the outcomes remain the same or change. It's almost an experimental design, if I do this what will happen? And learning from that and doing something different the next time. I loved getting to know Emilie, and I loved getting to know Nick.

This was a delight to read!

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Hooray for amazing YA! With total Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Groundhog Day vibes, The Do-Ever highlights Emilie who is having a horrible Valentine's Day and reliving it over and over. Lots of hilarious and cute moments. Emilie's grumpy lab partner, Nick, makes for top-notch banter. Highly recommend!



Thank you to Simon Teen and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

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Adored this take on “Groundhog’s Day” and the nod to The Gilmore Girls. It was funny, witty, and heartwarming. Lynn Painter is an automatic purchase/read for me.

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I adore this author and couldn’t wait to read this one! I loved the Groundhog Day-esque storyline, only set on Valentine’s Day. And as with her other books, I was left with a smile on my face during so many parts of the stort.

The characters were wonderful. I loved the witty conversations, I loved how Emilie kept trying to get things fixed, but had to of course learn what really needed to be fixed. While we didn’t have as many do-over days like in the GHD movie, there were just the right amount. And the way the cycle got stopped was perfect! I like that it didn’t just wrap up everything perfectly when it did end, but rather now Emilie knew what she needed to do, mostly, in order to make things better and get her life where she wanted it.

And while yes this was a romance, it also had such developed family aspects to it that reminded me of the families in my favorite 80s teen movies that I grew up watching and loving. The funny Van Gogh “truths” were so perfectly done that for a minute I missed the part where she even said they weren’t true and was about to Google them. Adored the book, another wonderful cover too!

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This book is perfect. It's so fun and happy, but also has deep moments. I loved every single second of it. And didn't want it to end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ BRB, I'm running to read everything else by this author.

What would you do if you had a day with no consequences?

Thanks @simonand for sending me this book.

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Loved this from the first Taylor Swift lyric reference. The romance and the storyline. Great YA romance.

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The Do-Over was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022 and it did not disappoint. Lynn Painter has a way of giving us fluffy YA romances that you can’t help but love even when you know how it’s going to end. I flew through this book and was so sad when I read the last page.

Our main character Emilie is a straight A student, wants to please everyone, and each day has a checklist. Even her boyfriend meets all of the items on her list. So when her perfect Valentine’s Day ends up being anything but perfect (it starts off with an accident and ends with some news from her father she’s not expecting). I have to say I’d be just as shocked waking up the next morning and having to do it all over again. My heart broke for Emilie, because it had to be so frustrating to have to have hurtful things happen over and over again.

Emilie’s journey is a big one, because at a certain point she’s so fed up she decides to live the day and just do what she wants. I loved seeing Emilie learn that she should speak her mind and do what she wants just a little more often. Trying to please everyone is just hurting her in the end. And as a bonus, Nick comes to be a very interesting and important person. Sometimes love and comfort is found in places you don’t expect. Besides the time loop and romance plot, there is also some emotional sides to this book. I wanted to hug Nick and Emilie multiple times.

I don’t want to give away too much of Emilie’s DONC (day of no consequences), but it was one wild ride that left me with a smile on my face. Getting to know Nick was a lot of fun and Emilie finding letting people know how she feels was amazing. All in all, I couldn’t put this book down and flew through this book. I need Lynn Painter to keep giving me books like this!

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This book was so enjoyable!!! Very quick and fun read

Thank you NetGalley for eARC in exchange for honest review

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Read if you love:
🦄enemies to friends to more
🦄groundhog day vibes
🦄young adult romance
🦄flirty winks
🦄piggyback rides
🦄throwing caution to the wind
🦄tattoos
🦄epic grand gestures

“He held out his hot chocolate and said with his eyes on mine, “Do you trust me?” I just nodded and held out my free hand. “Good girl.”’

I’m am OBSESSED with Nick and Emmie. This book has my heart and is definitely one of my favorite reads of this year and probably my favorite young adult book — EVER! That’s why I immediately bought a physical copy because I will easily read this once a year. It’s such a comforting read!! Nicholas Stark is book boyfriend perfection and him and Emmie together just give me butterflies. Emmie’s total transformation was epically satisfying. These two have their own individual traumas and the way they shared them with each other was the perfect medicine. This book truly made my heart ache in the best way. And the grand gesture at the end?! Omg…cue the tears. More things I loved (beware — may be spoilery):

•he smells like body wash and dryer sheets
•the jacket 🥹
•DONC
•the balcony and Cupid shuffle
•”yes, I will prom you so hard.”
•”he just looked over at me and winked. I’d always thought winking was cheesy until that day. Nick’s winks made me warm and melty.”
•the bench on the roof
•the epic school put downs
•”I kissed the tip of his nose.”
•the thong song 😂
•seven minutes
•unicorn cakes
•I had a marvelous time ruining everything

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy. My thoughts are my own.

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My first Lynn Painter book and I absolutely adored it !!! Such a fun, humorous and emotional story ! Def will be reading more by her !

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Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing the ARC.

I love Lynn Painter and I will reas whatever she puts out.

This book is a solid YA contemporary romance. I love time travel books and reliving moments until you get them right, and this book really fed into that. The story was engaging and fun, and i truly believe that it rivals Better Than the Movies.

Overall, a fantastic read and thoroughly enjoyable.

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Lynn Painter has done it again! The Do Over was an absolute delight, and has quickly moved up the list of favorite books of 2022. I have loved Lynn as a YA author since Better Than the Movies, and this was another winner.

What did I love?
❤️ the time jump! Typically this is not one of my favorite elements in a story, but Lynn did it so well.
❤️ the character development. Emilie was kind of a brat for the majority of the story, and I’m glad that she had her moment to learn some very valuable lessons after her worst Valentines Day ever finally stops repeating itself.
❤️ Nick 😍😍😍 let’s just say, Lynn writes the best YA book boyfriends. Where were these types of guys when I was in high school?
❤️ the multitude of classic rom com references AND Taylor Swift references. I know I’ve said that about many books these days, but the way these were embedded so naturally was so 👏🏻 good 👏🏻

Amazing work, Lynn, on another spectacular YA release. Please keep them coming!

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I'm a big fan of this author's work, especially Better Than the Movies. It will always be one of my favorite YA contemporaries. The author's writing is right up my alley, smart, witty, and engaging.
Sadly, The Do-Over didn't work for me as well as I hoped it would. In the end it comes down to me not being as enamoured with the story or characters.
Because there wasn't anything wrong with either, I can only blame myself. But I also must admit that I'm NOT a big fan of the whole "Groundhog Day" Loop. It rarely works for me, actually let's be honest and just admit that it have NEVER worked for me.
But I'm looking forward to the author's next release.

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Lynn Painter is quickly becoming one of my favorite romance authors. I just love the lovable and relatable characters she creates and I’m an especially big fan of the laugh out loud humor that she infuses her stories with. For those reasons, The Do-Over was already a must-read for me, but throw in the fact that it’s also a time loop story, and I couldn’t pick up my copy fast enough!

The story follows Emilie Hornby, a high school student who has just had the absolute worst Valentine’s Day ever. Between crashing her car into the truck of her aloof lab partner, Nick, and watching her boyfriend Josh cheat on her with another girl, Emilie is just done with this day and heads to her grandma’s house for a sympathetic ear, some ice cream to cheer her up, and a sleepover. Imagine her surprise and horror when she wakes up the next morning in her own bed and it’s Valentine’s Day all over again! After it happens a third time, Emilie starts trying to do little things here and there to break the cycle.

I really enjoyed Emilie’s character. She learns a lot of things about herself while she’s trying to figure out how to escape the time loop, particularly that she’s too much of a people pleaser and needs to learn to stand up for herself more. I think that’s a lesson that a lot of us can relate to, myself included, so I was particularly invested in watching Emilie’s growth in this area. I also loved that the lesson and the subsequent growth came in the form of a hilarious “Day of No Consequences” (or the DONC as Emilie dubs it) where Emilie sets out to please no one but herself and thus shenanigans ensue.

In addition to the DONC, one of the biggest highlights of the book for me was Emilie’s evolving relationship with her lab partner, Nick. I loved watching how Emilie tries different tactics every day of the time loop to try to engage with him more and get him to open up to her. They had wonderful chemistry, even when dealing with the aftermath of a car accident on repeat, and I loved that Nick, who is clearly so much better for Emilie than cheating Josh, plays a huge role in the DONC and in Emilie’s journey of personal growth. Nick’s scenes with Emilie added a more in-depth and sometimes poignant element to an otherwise hilarious story and I was 100% there for it.

Hilarious and heartfelt, Lynn Painter’s The Do-Over is sure to please all of the rom-com fans out there.

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Quite the unique spin on a true day from hell, over and over again. This one will keep you guessing as to how it’s actually going to turn out! You’re going to love Emilie and find yourself cheering for her victory over this messed up day, again and again. Loved it!

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