I really loved this book. It just made me feel happy while reading it. I was able to connect with Perci through out the book and I think that's what really brought me into the story. The book was also really funny which kept me laughing and helped with the whole feel good aspect of this book. I will definitely be recommending this to my patrons in the future. Fantastic read! I can't wait to read more books by this author!

The Do-Over by Sharon M. Peterson was just what I needed to get out of a reading slump. I loved this sweet and fun book along with the characters. Did I mention how funny this book was?!? I found myself laughing out loud while reading. Praise to the author for great writing, characters, and the happy ending!

- “You put so much pressure on yourself to be what they want you to be, you forget to be you.”


Wow, this was such a good read. I would like to point out a few TWs before I get started with my review: there is a lot of calorie talk and diet culture drilled into Perci’s life for a good portion of this book, so if you’re recovering from an ED or you don’t think you could handle that sort of talk right now, I would recommend you not to read this, or wait until you can.


One of my favorite parts of this book is her relationship with her grandmother. I LOVE her grandmother, and the lessons she has tried to give to Perci over the course of her life, right up until the end of the book. One of my favorite quotes from her is, “See, there are moments in life— sometimes they’re big, sometimes small. Some are happy, like meeting the man you’ll marry or having a baby. But sometimes they’re ugly. It’s the moments that make us who we are.”

I also really love the de-constructing Perci has to do with all the diet culture she’s grown up surrounded by. It’s hard, but she does it. It hits home, because I’ve spent the last two years of MY life doing the same. It’s really appreciated that this author chose to not just say “oh she woke up one day and said ‘fuck diet culture’ and stopped counting calories and going on fad diets” but she actually showed her going through each thing she’d “learned” over the years and unlearning them.

If you’re expecting this book to be completely romance, it isn’t. The big part of the plot is self-growth, and romance is the side-plot. But I really did enjoy her relationship with Nate. It was sweet, and organically slow, and beautiful. This book is PEAK strangers to friends to lovers, and coming of age but in your late 20’s.

Now onto the thing that made me give this book 4.25 stars instead of 5. I would’ve liked there to be a *little* less calorie counting and diet culture talk, even though I get WHY it was there. It just seemed to be a *little* too much.

Overall, I loved this book. It was hilarious, and beautiful, and I literally recommended it to my mother to read, so y’all KNOW I love this book. Side note: her name is also Sharon. So thank you, Sharon, for writing this book. Can’t wait to see your future works!!!

This book starts out with Percy at the dentist when she hears a live radio show offering concert tickets for people to break up with their significant others. Her heart drops when her boyfriend, Brent, dumps her on air via voicemail and says she’s boring and he can’t imagine spending his life with her.

After this, Percy’s overbearing mother immediately pressures her to get back with Brent and when Percy then quits the family business to work at a daycare her mother is even more on her back (and insufferable).

It’s at the daycare where Percy further gets to know her neighbor, Nate and his daughter Lilah who is her own person in the best way at only eight years old, she has a deep love of birds and marches to the best of her own drum.

Percy and Nate eventually begin to explore a romantic connection while Percy continues to stand on her own two feet doing the things she wants for the first time, not letting anyone else hold her back.

Percy’s family are delightful (with the exception of her mother who to me reads as a narcissist ) and I adored them; especially her sister Phee and their close relationship.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this book; 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Do Over was a great, quick read. Perfect for summer porch reading. .

I found Percie to be a very relatable character, and I loved watching her relax into who she truly was throughout the book. I loved her relationship with Mimi and how all the women in their family slowly healed together, even if it was ugly at first. Although it is technically a romance, I found I was more drawn to seeing Percie learn to love herself, and the falling in love with Nate was just an added bonus.

I thought her and Nate’s relationship felt very organic and sweet, and I was so happy with the ending. I honestly now wish I could read things from Nate’s perspective. Overall it was a nice, feel-good read.


Thank you to NetGalley, Sharon M. Peterson, and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

Thank you to Bookouture for letting me take part in this tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I mainly listened to the audio version of this but did read a bit of the ebook too. This is Sharon’s debut book and she is most definitely going on my must-read list.

This book is so funny. I absolutely loved the Mimi quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Mimi was possibly my favourite character but it’s a close one between her and Lilah. Both were very funny. Mimi has that wise older lady knowledge and Lilah has that childlike innocence that you can’t help but love.

Perci is a main character you instantly root for. She really goes through it at the beginning of this book and her mother well what a mean woman! She never says anything nice to Perci and that birthday dinner! Wow! I was so proud of Perci when she started to stand up for herself.

I really liked next-door neighbour Nate. He is such a good guy. As you read more and more about him you just can’t help but fall for him. He is such a breath of fresh air in Perci’s world. I also loved how good he is with Lilah. He really shows her that it’s okay to be yourself and it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks as long as you are happy with yourself. This is a message that we could all do with embracing.

I really enjoyed the narrator. Elise has an excellent southern American voice which is perfect for this Texan setting. I found it very easy to listen to and my mind didn’t wander, which is always a sign of a good narrator.

This book is heartwarming, funny and thought-provoking. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for an uplifting read.

I received this from netgalley in exchange for an exchange.

This is the first netgalley arc I’ve received that I’ve really enjoyed! I felt I really got Perci and what she was going through. I enjoyed watching her grow as a character and how her relationships changed as she started putting her wants and needs first.

I really enjoyed Mimi. I want a grandma like her.

This was just the dose of happy I needed!

It’s full of witty dialogue, great friends, terrible parents who do actually love their daughters and a heroine who stole my heart. She’s the kind of character you want to be friends with and the hero Nate is just the right amount of kinda grumpy and broken.

I seriously loved it!

Highlight of the book for me was Mimi. Everyone needs a grandmother like her.

The story is so cute! It follows the life of Percy and her trying to make her life a new normal by not following the same old rules she has been following all her life. I loved the fact that Percy is not average size but slightly bigger.

Hands down Mimi is one bad ass woman! Follow all her tips!

This story was as much a romance as it was a story of self-acceptance and growth. Hands down, the best part of this book were the Mimi-isms that began each chapter. Not only were they laugh-out-loud funny, they were smart and astute as well. Perci is recovering from a public dumping—over the radio no less. What a jerk! —and makes an anti-New Year’s resolution list guided by her best friend Mathias. She is very close with her grandmother Mimi, which is great because her mother is controlling and misguided and, yes, sometimes cruel as she tries to impose what she thinks is best for her daughter without ever consulting Perci. Along the journey of learning to be a better version of herself, she makes up a fake boyfriend, Nate, who turns into a real boyfriend. She also helps her sister Phee to see what she really wants. I really liked all the characters, well except for Joel, Phee’s boyfriend, but the reader is supposed to hate him.

**Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Sharon M. Peterson. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own.***

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

The Do-Over is a sweet rom-com with characters I loved (and also loved to hate) however, more than that and in my opinion more importantly, it addresses self growth and toxic family relationships/dynamics in a really believable way.

Perci believes when she is very publicly dumped that's about as bad as it gets, but she soon finds that maybe it's not the worst thing to ever happen.

The characters are very well written and I adored the little quotes from Mimi at the beginnings of each chapter. The love story in this book is cute but I really enjoyed the friendship between Perci and Matthias and the relationship between Perci and her sister as well

I really love this book. I love it so much that I purchased a copy to keep as soon as I finished reading it.

Sharon M. Peterson's The Do-Over follows the story of Persephone (where did that come from?) as she navigates life as an adult, surrounded by the machinations of her toxic (really, I have no other word for it... I think it's even abusive) mother. Because of that, she battles a life of self-doubt, low self-esteem, and self-pity.

I have nothing negative to say about this book. It hit all the parts perfectly. There are no boring parts or parts that don't make sense. The self-pity, self-doubt, and confidence issues weren't annoying because they were so real. The issues tackled here weren't done in a flat way, if that makes sense. You will really get a proper understanding of everyone's issues here.

The characters are all well-rounded. Their motivations are clear. No one was flat. I especially loved Mimi and her little bits of wisdom at the start of each chapter. I really love Perci's character development. It is so raw and real. I really love it.

Oh, this book is tagged as romance, but it's so much more than that. The romance is a significant, but not a big part of it, actually.

I don't have any other words but that I really love this. I really do. I'm a little selfish with my 5 stars, but this book really deserved it. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Cute and funny novel about the trials and tribulations of Percie, a young woman of generous proportions who finally finds “The New Percie” and begins to change her life. She finds love along the journey.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book! So sweet and simple, tugging at all the right heartstrings. I recommended it to a friend who runs a book club for plus-size baddies, and they've also reported wonderful things in regards to the MC representation. Kudos!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for my honest review.
The Do-Over is more than just a sweet rom-com, it addresses self growth and toxic family relationships/dynamics in a really believable way (trust me I had to remind myself it was just a book several times, its very realistic/hits close to home!). The characters are very well written and I adored the little quotes from Mimi at the beginnings of each chapter. The love story in this book is cute but the friendship between Perci and Mathias is brilliant! Very much a great coming of age story!

This is a great feel-good Rom-Com that has a great comedic element. I also really love the fact that it demonstrates the effects of difficult/toxic parental relationships. The characters are so well-written and genuinely heartwarming. No-ones life is ever picture perfect, but if we learn to love ourselves it could be special. At the end of the book, all I wanted was more. I need to thank #netgalley for this lovely book I really hope we get a sequel for more Perci adventures. #TheDoOver

I could not really get into this book even though I really wanted to! The first couple chapters didn’t really sell it for me. I was waiting to be introduced to the love interest/watch the romance grow but it took too long for it to begin. I now understand that this book wasn’t necessarily a romance but more about the main character growing in herself! However, I do appreciate the representation shown within this book! Perci is like a normal person who is a little bit more relatable with.

This was really sweet. Lots to love about it all - the storyline was totally believable, the writing was good - especially the writing about emotional reactions - the main character was very easy to step into, and all was wrapped up very well. I also loved all the tiny details about clothes, food, grumpy coworkers, and more.

Of note - a good read for moms and their teenage girls to enjoy reading together. A 4.5 from me.

A great read, the story of Nate and Perci.
After a public break-up, Perci has some anti resolutions for the new year, but will she be able to stick to them when she meets Nate? Fake dating him seems like a good solution, but will it backfire on them both?

A well written, sweet booK. I loved Mimi and her sayings. I found the beginning slow because Perci comes across as weak which can be irritating.