I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. Maddie Adams and Jack Parker have a past and a child together. Although Jack was crazy about Maddie, he needed to see Maddie as a friend and his son's mom because Maddie is in a serious relationship, or she was until she caught her boyfriend in a compromising position with her best friend. She now has no place to go, so Jack offers to let them live with him until they can find a place to live. It should be an easy arrangement but Maddie has also always had feelings for Jack. When tensions and misunderstandings about the past come to the surface, will it bring them together or wreck everything they have built together?

There are not many twists or turns, but it had strong characters and it was a fun story.

One night of comfort between childhood friends led to an accidental pregnancy and a darling little boy.  Maddie finds himself once again seeking Jack's comforting embrace when she finds her boy friend under her best friend's skirt.  Is there a different outcome in store for them this time around?Jack lives a happy go lucky life working on construction crew with his friends enjoying a hedonistic life style.  Things change when Maddie comes to him crying.  Jack never could resist her tears but this time around instead of taking her to his bed to comfort her, an older, wiser Jack persuades Maddie and his son to move in with him temporarily.  He's going to have to work darn hard to change that to permanent if that's what he truly wants.
While Jack and Maddie have been childhood friends and have a baby between them they've never really indulged in a romantic relationship.  Now living in the same house and taking care of their son together they're a family with a new level of intimacy.  Can Maddie help Jack get rid of all his insecurities and be the man he's destined to be?
The author does a great job of building the relationship through beautiful every day bonding moments.  I personally like a little more zing and suspense with my romance so it's not on my favorites list but it's definitely a great story for the right reader.

I enjoy a good romance that has people getting back together years after they broke up. Even more so when there is a child involved and they are co-parenting. It brings out all my fuzzy warm feelings that I have (and have been accused of not having). Do Over, for some reason, did not give me those fuzzy warm feelings. While I enjoyed reading it, I couldn’t connect with the female or the male main character. Which annoyed me because I usually have a connection with at least one person.

Do Over did have a good plot. Maddie and Jack have a history between. Part of that history is that they have a son together. So when Maddie finds her boyfriend and best friend in a comprising position in the kitchen, she runs to him. Jack tells Maddie that she can stay with him until she finds her own place. Staying together reawakened old feelings in both.

Maddie annoyed me. She was whiny and at times, was undecided about if she wanted to move or not. You either want to be with someone or not. Plus, her trust issues got on my nerves too. She treated Jack like a child instead of a grown man. And she held him accountable for things he did/said right around she got pregnant. Now, I could understand her anger. A lot of her problems would have gone “Poof” if she talked to him after seeing that chick leave his apartment.

I did find Jack as annoying as Maddie. For a while, I actually felt awful for him. His self-confidence was at a zero. I really thought it was because he was a slacker. But when Jack started remembering how abusive his father was, I understood. Verbal and emotional abuse is as bad as physical abuse and all the damage is inside. I did think that Jack was a huge man-child in the beginning of the book. While he cared for his son, he never took care of him. Either his mother or sister did and Jack was there to play. He also had the awful choice in friends. Anyone who would discourage a father from spending time with his kid needs to go. Foot in the butt, out the door. I did not enjoy reading those scenes.

While there is romance, I didn’t see any of it. Maddie and Jack having as much sex as they could within the short amount of time that she was living with him. Even the flashbacks contained no romance, even when Jack’s sister assures her that “he was and is in love with her“. Where? All I read was a horny 19-year-old trying to have as much sex as possible. No love. Pure lust. I wish that there was more romance. I am not going to complain about the sex, though. I thought it was fantastic and hot.

The end of the book was very typical for these types of romances. I did like the epilogue but it didn’t leave me fulfilled or satisfied as a reader.

Do Over is an ok romance. Heavy on the sex and light on the romance, this would be the perfect beach book. I could not connect to the main characters. I also felt that they lacked a connection too. This is a 20 and over book due to explicit sex, language, and some very mild violence. Would I recommend this book? I am on the fence about that. So let’s say maybe and leave it at that.

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group, Loveswept, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Do Over.

All opinions stated in this review of Do Over are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

This may be a case of epically bad timing - I mean, I know for a FACT that part of my problem with this book is that I couldn't get past my "mom brain" enough to have any kind of attraction, appreciation, or...tolerance, really, for Jack. He was grating to me right out the gate and as his story with Maddie began to unfold, I only grew more exasperated. This book felt a little..."young" for me and I felt disconnected from it pretty much right out the gate. While I appreciate the opportunity to read and review - this was unfortunately a DNF for me.

So... I loved this book. I've missed Serena's writing, and somehow her Loveswept titles are her best work.

Jake and Maddie have known each other since they were kids. And now they share a beautiful 4 year old Gabe together. But as single parents sharing custody. See, Jake Parker screwed up five years ago. So caught up in his own crappy upbringing, fearing he'll follow his father's abusive behavior, he wrongs Maddie in the worst way.

Maddie is doing (almost) everything right. And then she walks in on her boyfriend and her best friend together. Betrayed and lonely she turns to Jake, her friend and the only person who's ever made her feel safe, even if in all aspects of her life except the one to promise her the happily ever after she deserves.

I didn't like Maddie in the first scene she appears in the story. I have to put it out there. Regardless, books, like life, are changing with each page you turn.

When Jake takes Maddie and Gabe in to live with him until Maddie finds a new place to live, a second chance at love is presented for both of them.

What I loved about this story is the dynamics between the characters: Jake and his friends - the epic 3 way bromance. They work together, hang out together, drink together and live the bachelor life together. They also don't really approve of the type of his relationship with Maddie, which makes it all that much interesting.

Maddie and Sienna, Jake's sister, their relationship grows with the story, and while their is a minor one, it's the type of interaction that moves the plot along wonderfully.

Jake and Gabe's relationship melted my heart in the best of ways, as expected with any father and son. Their just so stinking cute.

Jake and Maddie's relationship is the best, though. I appreciated the gradual unravelling of the layers to their characters, their complexities and their emotional depth. I'm partial to contemporary romances that have a child character. I normally really enjoy them. But this one was extra sweet because the child was not what made the story great.

Do Over is a fantastic feel good, minimum drama and no cliffy second chance at love story. It's exceptionally well written, it has its fair share of sexy times, there are sweet and tear jerking moments, but lots of aww scenes (Gabe is in all of them) and lovey dovey sweetness.

Cute, second chance love story that was fairly predictable.

Once upon a time, Jack and Maddie were very close friends and for the longest time that's all the way were. Until one night Maddie is heartbroken and they end up in bed together. 9 months later along comes their son. Jack doesn't abandon Maddie, but he's not very hands on. He provides child support and takes his son as he's supposed to, but his mom and sister provide most of the care when he has him.

That changes when Maddie once again shows up on his doorstep heartbroken.

I struggled feeling a connection between either character. I would have liked to read more about how their friendship before they had a child together or even more about the night that brought them back together. I think by the time these two issues were addressed in the book it was too late to help me feel connected to the characters.

I was completely taken in by the synopsis and really excited to read the book. However, I found that I just could not connect with the characters or storyline. I can't exactly pinpoint why I couldn't stay engaged in the story other than the characters didn't feel like they had a lot of depth. Maybe that came later in the story, but the story was a little to slow for my taste so I wasn't able to find out. I tried quite a few times, but finally decided I needed to DNF the story.

ven though Jack has fathered a child after one night with Maddie, he still maintains that he is not really worthy father material because he had such an abusive father who convinced him that he was useless. However, he does pay child support and take care of his adorable little boy, Gabe, even though he actually is depending on his mother and sister to provide much of the care for his son.

Things change when Maddie finds her current boyfriend cheating on her and needs to find a place to stay, Jack opens his house for Maddie and Gabe. Of course, they start rediscovering why they had been friends as kids and why they’re still attracted to each other now.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked reading Jack’s point of view and his uncertainties about taking care of Gabe yet how he perseveres and figures things out. Gabe is a sweetheart and seems like a real kid rather than a fictional kid who is just pulled out for convenience to the polot. You’ll be pulling for Jack and Maggie to realize what they have together.

I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a huge fan of second chance romance books!
While this book was a bit cliche, I enjoyed it.

Jack and Maddy have known each other their entire lives. As children, they are best friends but as they become teenagers things take a turn......

Jack annoyed me a bit at times and so did Maddy.
Overall an enjoyable read.

Thanks Netgalley

Jack and Maddie have been friends since they were children. Somewhere along the line, they grow an attraction to one another, but a series of unfortunate events leads to Maddie raising her son with little help from Jack who thinks he wouldn't be a good father. When things go wrong in Maddie's life and she needs to find somewhere to live because she is moving out of the apartment she shared with her ex-Harris, she turns to Jack. They rekindle their feelings.

This was a good book. I loved that Jack had strong feelings for Maddie, even when she was with someone else and although he didn't think he would make a great father and husband he was able to turn things around.

"Love can make us really, really stupid.
It can also make us our best selves. I should know."

This is about a guy finally growing up and accepting the man he wants to be, and then becoming that man, and the girl that gives him the chance to man up because of her belief in him. It’s nothing new, but still wonderful in its own right, and definitely worth a read if you love the best-friends-into-a-couple trope.

"She can lord everything over me for the rest of our lives, and that will be okay. Because, let’s just repeat that. Rest of our lives!"

You know how you know that a guy really loves you, like despite all the other people you both have been with, and even if you two don’t end up together in the end, you’re still the only one for him? When he admits to you that no, he wasn’t a sex god when your first time together was absolutely amazing, but it was amazing because you two together were that amazing. When he remembers exactly how many times you slept together the first time you were a couple, the exact number, even 5 years later. And you know it’s really real when he gives up watching March Madness to go to the aquarium with you and your son, just to be able to watch you while you watch your son watch fish.

"Yes, in case you’re wondering, I remember. I remember all these things about Maddie from before.
…..
“I lied, too,” I said, my heart galloping.
It was her turn to raise an eyebrow.
“When you asked, after we fucked, if I was always that good? The answer is no. I’ve never been that good. It wasn’t me.”
“If it wasn’t you, who was it?” She looked hopelessly confused.
“I mean, it wasn’t just me. It was us. How we were together. We were that good.”
……
We had sex fifteen more times during nine more nights over a total of seventeen days.
I don’t seem like the kind of guy who would remember those numbers, do I?
I remember everything."

That, kids, is forever love, and it’s possible, even with a hella rocky start.

"I brace myself on one arm and brush her hair back from her face, smiling down at her. “I love you, too.”
It doesn’t feel scary. It feels like I’ve told her a hundred times before in a hundred different ways, and if I haven’t?
I fucking should have, because it’s always been true."

The moment Jack Parker opens his door and sees the mother of his child in tears, he can't help but pull her into his arms and offer to fix the problem... no matter how much it costs him. They have history, once childhood best friends, then smitten teens who shared a night of passion, to now adults who share a child. They've never been in a relationship, been a domesticated couple, or been in love with one another, but it still kills him to see her hurting, so he offers her a place to say until the dusts of her recently imploded relationship settles. He knows he is doing the right thing for his child, but little does he know this new living arrangement may just be the best thing to happen to him too!

Maddie Adams has just discovered the man she thought was about to propose to her, in their kitchen up to no good with her best friend, and she is crushed, so she heads to the one place where she knows she will be accepted with open arms... the home of her child's father. They may have never been involved with one another, but they have always been there for one another, and right now she just needs someone to tell her everything is going to be alright... and she is hoping Jack can be that person. When he learns that she is about to be homeless he offers his home up to her, with no strings attached... but there is a little part of her that wishes there could be strings... a whole mess of them!

Do Over is a touching second chance romance story that is sure to leave your toes permanently curled, and your heart happy! As soon as I read the synopsis for this one I knew I had to request it, I am a sucker for a swoony reunion romance and I have to say this one was everything I anticipated it to be and SO much more. Jack and Maddie were quite the pair, their situation was a little unorthodox, but little by little they seem to get things righted and onto a path that neither ever saw happening for them, and boy was it fun to watch it all unfold. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, it got my emotions swirling, made me smile and swoon, and left my heart jumping for joy... and it doesn't get much better than that in my book! Highly recommend you meet these two their charming little reunion is sure to leave your heart happy!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this title.

This is the first book I have read by Serena Bell and after reading it, I plan on reading more of her books. The description sounded interesting so I thought I would give it a try and I am glad I did because I loved this story. It kept me engaged from beginning to end and I immediately connected with the characters. This is a second chance romance, which is one of my favorite troupes. The characters are real, vulnerable, good together and have amazing sexual chemistry.

Jack and Maddy have known each other their entire lives. As children, they are best friends but as they become teenagers, they go in different directions. Jack is a bad boy, getting into trouble and womanizing and Maddy is a good girl, always studying and doing what is right. When they are in their early twenties, they have a one night stand, which leads to an unplanned pregnancy causing Jack and Maddy to be linked together forever. Jack has little to do with their son Gabe until he is four years old. That is where the story begins and it periodically goes back in time to give the reader Jack and Maddy's background story. Sometimes, I don’t like the back and forth of going from the past to present, but Serena Bell does a good job.

I really enjoyed watching these two characters develop over time, especially Jack; he has a lot of growing up do to. Jack is a good guy who doesn’t think he is good enough. He is stuck in a never ending string of one night stands, because he doesn’t want to be tied down. Jack is a lovable guy. He is a typical guy who only thinks about sports, women, beer and hanging with the guys. Maddy is the responsible one. I devoured every word of this mesmerizing, emotional story.

Jack and Maddie are perfect for each other but the fact that it is so hard for them to see that makes this a great romance read. Loved this fun, sexy, sweet romance of two friends who co-parent their kid and find a way to be together.

My apologies to Ms Bell, but as much as I want to lie and say I enjoyed this book, I just cannot lie. For me, a die-hard romance reader, I want my Hero's & heroines to be in love & lust only for each other. I don't enjoy cheating (even if couple is not together). Loved the little boy though. That was the ONLY redeeming part....

Jack and Maddie are an amazing individuals that start off as friends, become lovers and parents and finally end up together as a loving couple. "Do Over" is a must read that has people believing that if you want something bad enough, you can have it. This is a must read and one that will have you turning the pages with a smile on your face and a feeling of anticipation in your stomach.

This was a cute second chance romance, which is one my favorite tropes. So here's a breakdown of my feelings about the book.

What I did like:
It was cute and had steamy moments.
We get to see Jack mature over the course of the book.

What I didn’t like about it:
It was a little bit predictable, there was nothing that stood out as different or any twist.
I really couldn’t feel the chemistry between Jack and Maddie.

All in all, it was good romance but I wanted a little bit more from the characters.

This was a great read. The story was interesting & thought provoking. It was also steamy & sexy! Jack grew up with a verbally abusive father that told him basically that he wouldn't amount to anything, so he decided that he would forever be a bachelor. Maddie is sweet girl next door type that has always told Jack he wasn't stupid & could do anything. They had a brief fling that resulted in Maddie getting pregnant. When she went to tell Jack her feelings (she loved him) & that she was pregnant, a woman was leaving his apartment carrying her shoes & bra. Maddie decided to keep her feelings to herself but told him about the baby. From that point, Jack was the "fun uncle" to his little boy Gabe with help from his mom & sister. Maddie was living with a man, who ended up cheating on her with her best friend. Jack offered her his place to stay until she could find an apartment. This leads to Jack taking more of an interest in his son & the day-to-day happenings with him. It leads both to wonder what if, but Jack is still hung up on thinking he's a loser. I highly recommend reading this book to see what happens with this sweet little family. You won't regret it!

Making a baby does not a family make….Maddie learned this lesson the hard way. Not only were she, Jack and their son Gabe not a family; Jack was hardly a dad. Sure he asked for every other weekend visits but it was his mom and sister that really took care of Gabe. Sometimes you just have to put a person in a position to realize what they have is actually what they want.
I really liked this book. I love second chance stories and I love stories with kids so this one checked off a quite a few boxes for me.
I’ve read a lot of “romance” and “love stories” and while they are very enjoyable most teeter on the unrealistic side; this book, not so much. I can honest and truly say I know people like Jack and Maddie. I pretty much didn’t like Jack throughout most of the book. He was a jerk and his friends? Total assholes! But you know what, they were real! They were relatable. I’ll admit, when I read, I like to go to La-La Land to escape the everyday heartaches and breaks that life throws at you with some really unrealistic relationships but I have to say, It’s really enjoyable when you find yourself immersed in a book that has this kind of realness to it. This wasn’t a rag to riches story, where the down on her luck heroine was swept off her feet or where the hero was a beast like person hiding his hurt. It was two regular people, with regular jobs, with regular problems who needed to find their way back to each other. Were there some moments that had me thinking “okay, this is just too cute and sweet to be taken seriously”? Yes, but the fact that these were relatable characters and situation out weighted that.
There really isn’t too much else I can say about this book. It was a quick, cute and enjoyable read; not at all what I was expecting…so much more.

Loved loved this book! I was rooting from jack from the beginning! This author is definitely on my top list !