Not exactly the romance I was hoping for, but loved the growth story and the friendships. I loved the growth that lily experienced. I'd read more about Beth any day and would love to see her story next time. Mia was an amazing strong friend. The romance was just not enough for me.

THE DO-OVER by Suzanne Park is a story about second chances on love and life, but in the oddest of circumstances:

Lily Lee is an entrepreneur and writer who is about to land her dream job at a top firm, but she finds out she is a few credits shy of actually finishing college and has to go back and retake them. What she wasn’t expecting was for her new TA to be her ex-boyfriend she never expected to see again. Armed with 10 years worth of post-grad experience, the best girlfriends, and a complicated relationship with her TA, Lily Lee is ready to take on senior year of college, again.

Park’s writing and storytelling is wonderful and this book had me both cackling and on the verge of tears. Park explores the many facets of Lily’s life, including her complicated feelings toward her parents, both grateful for the life they provided her and resentful at their lack of love and support. Lily constantly grapples with feelings of being an imposter and a failure (she hasn’t finished college!). Her fight to become good enough just for herself had me rooting for her all through the book. Not to mention she has wonderful support from her best friend, new roommate, and her classmates.

Lily also gets a second chance at love - Lily and Jake’s relationship ended painfully, and now they’re both reliving their senior year after having not talked for a decade. Together they figure out their messy and complicated feelings and maybe take a second, scary chance at love. I found their story to be sweet and charming and I enjoyed reading every moment of their [closed door] relationship.

Park also includes mental health rep, specifically anxiety in her story, which I appreciated. I found Lily’s internal monologues, struggles with self-doubt, and her journey of healing both relatable and endearing.

This was generally pretty good, I liked the group of friends. The romance didn't quite get there for me but I did like the honest convos about the past and anxiety

If you had to go back to your college or high school to complete courses, would you, do it? It would definitely be different now going back so long afterwards. I’m sure I would love taking classes and meeting new people, but it wouldn’t be the same with the friends from my original college run not there. With a job, husband, and kids, I wouldn’t be able to go back right now realistically!

Lily Lee has written a book and is making a success of her career. She is about to start her dream job when she discovers she can’t be hired because she never actually graduated from college due to a technicality. She returns to her alma mater determined to finish her degree with as little fuss as possible. When she gets there, she discovers that her TA for her computer science class is her ex-boyfriend from college, Jake Cho. How can this be? Luckily her best friend Mia does not abandon her and visits a lot. Will she be able to finish her degree, figure out her love life, and write her next book? Lily has a lot on her plate.

I really enjoyed Lily’s journey in this book. I really liked the honest look the book took at mental health and the expectations that our families place on us. In Lily’s case, her parents’ expectations caused worsening anxiety to develop over time. It also had an interesting discussion of how mental health is not often discussed in South Korean families.

This novel had an overall theme of female empowerment that I enjoyed. Lily has an arch enemy couple of rich siblings who seem to be ripping off her book series idea and are writing their own self help book in the same vein as hers. It is hilarious as the brother that is part of the team mansplains at events what it is like in the working world for women and seems to not see the problem with doing this.

I liked the second chance romance storyline with Jake. The book flashed back to show what ended their relationship ten years previously. The romance didn’t seem to be as well developed as it seemed to be a secondary storyline in this novel, and I was okay with it.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Do-Over. I loved Lily and her journey.

Book Source: Review Copy from NetGalley and Avon Books. Thank-you! Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Lily Lee is on the verge of landing her dream job and a book deal when she finds out she's a few credits short on her college degree and has to return to college. The TA for one of her classes is her old college boyfriend Jake Cho. They reconnect and their relationship is renewed.
This was a great second chances romance, and I highly enjoyed it. I liked how their story played out in flashbacks so we could see what happened the first time around with them. I also liked how much Lily grew as a person. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

I requested this one since my book club was going to read it and didn't read the synopsis. Which was a mistake. I am not a fan of second chance romances and it really did not work for me here. I'm not a fan of dual timelines, it really slows the plot for me. Unfortunately this book also felt more like women's fiction rather than a romance novel which is fine, except this book is being marketed as a romance and when my expectations are not met I'm less likely to enjoy a book.

Sadly this wasn't for me, but I still want to read more from Suzanne Park.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

First off thank you to the publisher or not only the Netgalley approval BUT a physical copy!

The nightmare you have where you forgot to take a class or you are back in school? Welp that is what happens. I LOVE Suzanne Park and her books, and this was no different!

This is a sweet, second chance romance and do-over (lol) of college. If you would rekindle with your ex and re-do school, what would you do differently?

I really liked the idea of Lily being forced to go back to college & running into her ex-boyfriend turned TA. But i've been really struggling to get through the book. Any time she's around the "typical" college age students from her classes, that's the only thing the book seems to focus on. It really feels like the author had a personal fear or dislike of turning 30 and could only focus on that while writing the book. Even in Lily's interactions with Jake, she acts like he could never be attracted to her because "she's 30 and wrinkled".

There are some genuinely funny banter & comments throughout the book which made it more enjoyable to read. But I just don't see myself enjoying the rest of this book.

Thank you to Avon and Suzanne Park for sending me an ARC!

I had different expectations going into this book, and though it didn't live up to them, I wasn't disappointed. I loved the take on this second chance romance and I'd always wanted to try Suzanne Park's books, but I'm not the biggest fan of YA lol.

I really wanted to love this book but just could never get into the story and the premise seemed a little far fetched.

Lily has had a successful career and is a bestselling author, but when interviewing for a new job she gets some unexpected news…when they did a background check, she doesn’t actually have her college degree! She came just a few credits short 10 years ago. Now she has a decision to make…put her life on pause to go back to school, or admit failure? With the help of her best friend Mia, and the TA that she has a past with, she navigates through all the changes to the college experience 10 years later.

This was a cute idea for a story, but I found it overall lacked enough to keep my attention. I liked Lily’s book idea and the work that she was doing. I liked her friends, and Jake. But I would’ve liked to see more with Jake. And when it came to some of her college requirements to graduate, I just saw it as silly and a little unrealistic. Overall it was just ok, but I probably wouldn’t pick it up for myself.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an advanced copy of this book.

AAPI Heritage Month #5

rep: Korean American

I think I'm going to add second chance romances to the cozy mystery and YA pile of things that don't work for me. I'm a realist. Or a pessimist? If things don't work out the first time, I don't see why you'd return to them.

Lily Lee is a published author. When she applies for a new job, she is flabbergasted when she fails their background check. Turns out she is a few credits short of a degree.

I appreciate the concept that Suzanne put out here. Mental health and anxiety aren't talked about enough in Asian American households. I also have high functioning anxiety. When I mentioned it to my dad recently, he told me to stop being anxious.

So the anxiety part of the book works for me. So do the friendships. Mia is a hoot. And a roomie who bakes? Sign me up. I also wanted a little something something with Ethan, because hello, a noona romance? But alas.

Jake was fine. I was never hot for teacher TA. I was also never hot for returning to any of my past mistakes. So that I don't get.

The last 1/3 of the book felt rushed. Everything seemed to happen so quickly. Some things weren't explained. Some things were explained poorly.

I actually moved this up my tbr because there is an in person author event with Lily Chu and Suzanne Park at Zibby's Bookshop tomorrow and I was thinking of going after work. Anyone interested?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

First of all, love the asian representation as always. I think this writer does great work and I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I can't wait to read more from her.

In the middle of a career advancement Lily realizes she never really graduated. She has to go back to college. She gets the entire college experience too. New roommate, no money, and a crush. But it's the same crush she had when she was in college the first time, except this time, he's her TA.

This was a fun rom-com that really made me feel old. I'm the same age as the main character and I can relate to her experiences of meeting other college students. Great read for someone in their mid-thirties for sure but anyone will love it!

The Do-Over by Suzanne Park was not what I was expecting. I have enjoyed previous books by this author but this one struck out for me. I thought this story would focus more on a romantic do-over, but that was more of secondary story. This was more of Lily's college do-over instead. Hoping for more from the author's next book.

Unfortunately this one didn't quite work for me. I believe this book was marketed as a contemporary romance, but the romance is very minor in this story. The book focuses more on our main character and her personal journey and growth, which is not inherently an issue, but I don't feel it delivers on the marketing focus of this book. I would want my patrons to know what they are getting, picking something up and getting something different can be frustrating. I didn't find the romance itself to be particularly engaging, probably because it was a minor element of Lily's story. I also really struggled with the writing style. Specifically, I thought that the dialogue felt incredibly stilted, unrealistic, and awkward. This is a personal pet peeve of mine, because it makes the characters feel very flat and two-dimensional. It makes it hard for me engage with the characters, story, and relationships. It didn't work great for me. That was a bummer because I was very intrigued by the premise of returning to college with a new perspective and life experiences.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and Harper Collins. I’m really torn on my rating for this book. For the first half of the book it was great! I flew through it, the dialogue was a little clunky sometimes but not terrible, and the characters were great. The second half of the book felt like one giant infomercial for self-help. It just didn’t click with me and it all felt very rushed compared to the first half of the book. Everything was very much told instead of shown which was a big departure from the first half of the book. I’m not sure if the author was rushed to finish the book or if they lost inspiration halfway through but it really fell apart at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

Although I enjoyed the premise of this book, I found the characters, dialogue, and relationships between characters to be unrealistic.

This was a fun women’s fiction, about empowerment even if this plot was over the top. I wanted this to be more of a second chance romance but it took a backseat and wasn’t as developed as I hoped. Just wasn’t quite marketed this way.