I'm a huge fan of the author, I think her writing is so catchy and sweeps you into the story where you're on whatever adventure that book holds. There are things that aren't my favorite throughout the story, but the way the writing overtakes you, it just breezes you to the next page. The surprising thing for me is that even at times when maybe I didn't love some of the phrasing, or maybe it was a little like, oh really to the characters, I couldn't help but want to keep reading and reading and reading. And this is a mark of a good book for me. I want a book that makes me want to come back it, I want to be wishing I didn't have to go to bed already because I'm so intrigued by this book, and every time I've read a book by this author, that's the feel that I get. All of her books have kept me completely invested and I enjoy almost every little bit about them. It's a fun read with heart to it. The characters not only are personable, fleshed out, but they also have growth throughout the book. I love reading anything by this author, and would highly recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me have this ARC! It was a wonderful read.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! I’m not even sure where to begin with this book, other than to shout how much I loved it! I finished this book within a day and that is a feat for me having a 2 year old!

I absolutely love Painter’s writing. It just sucks you right in and she has you loving the characters immediately. I think that she does a great job at making the characters so relatable and charming and adds so much humor into her writing. There were so many times where I was laughing due to the dialogue and the banter between Emilie and Nick. While the Groundhog Day loop isn’t my favorite trope, I think Painter does this trope justice and just reminds the reader that each day is a gift and not to waste a single day. There was such amazing growth to the characters throughout the novel and learning to speak up for yourself that I think it is such a wonderful lesson for young readers. Also, all the Taylor Swift references throughout the book are freaking amazing and are just the icing on the cake! Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this book and cannot wait to get a copy for my shelves!

This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

Type-A Emilie Hornby is very prepared for Valentine's Day. Which is why it's an absolute tragedy that she's just had the worst day ever. And even worse, it seems that she's somehow stuck in a time-loop, reliving the day again and again as she watches her boyfriend cheat on her and continuously, sometimes literally, runs into her aloof lab partner Nick in unexpected ways. Desperate to finally reach February 15th, Emilie does all sorts of things to try and change her day, and might learn something about herself in the process.

I adored Painter's debut novel (BETTER THAN THE MOVIES) and was thoroughly excited to be approved for an e-arc for The Do-Over. Of course, I find it hard to read this book without comparing it to its predecessor, which I think I enjoyed slightly more. Yet I still really liked this book, so I'm giving it 4 stars.

The book feels a bit like an homage to Groundhog Day, with a main character that has to look inside herself to see if she's truly happy, and who may experience a chance at new love along the way. Painter injects these characters with a lot of humor and heart, and Emilie's banter with her lab partner, Nick, is funny and adorable at the same time.

Despite the fact that the majority of the book takes place in a time-loop, it is not the main focus of the novel. Instead, the book is a very character-driven contemporary romance. Emilie's character arc takes place front and center as she tells readers of her very planned-out day and begins to slowly change and evolve with each repeated day. Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of the other characters feel a little lacking in comparison, as we don't get to experience any true character changes from them.

I thought the book was thoroughly enjoyable, but also think that the time-loop took away some of the characterization from the other personalities in the story. Readers who enjoyed SEE YOU YESTERDAY (Solomon) would likely enjoy Painter's take on the time-loop romance.

Posted to Goodreads October 31, 2022.

Let me preface my thoughts on this novel with the fact that I LOVE Lynn Painter. She's an auto-buy author for me. There are SO many things that she does well and they're evident in this book. The characters are relatable, charming, and well-written. The dialogue is HILARIOUS and is absolutely Painter's strength as a writer. Nick and Emilie have strong banter and chemistry. I enjoyed reading all of their interactions and genuinely cared about their connection. I read this entire book in one sitting, so overall, it IS very enjoyable.

With that being said, I HATE the time loop trope. Is it a trope? I mean, we have the classic Groundhog's Day and then In a Holidaze (which is funny since Painter even references Christina Lauren in the text). I just cannot wrap my brain around the concept being fathomable. Not even slightly. I strongly dislike the idea that anyone can be "trapped" in a day and I don't find it enjoyable to read. I don't think it's fresh or interesting. I will say that I was happy that Painter did a nice job of making sure the reader knew WHY she was stuck there. I appreciated that neat little bow.

So, overall, I LOVE Lynn Painter. I hate this concept. If you're someone who is okay with the trope, you'll like this. It's everything Lynn Painter does well, but trapped in a storyline I just don't enjoy.

Four stars for Lynn Painter. Still hate a time loop.

This one earns ALL. THE. STARS!
As a fan of Lynn Painter’s previous YA, Better than the Movies, I was super excited to be receiving this ARC. And it was just as good as BTTM and just as swoon worthy.
The story follows Emilie, a by the book romantic who lives her life by lists. On Valentine’s Day, though everything she had going right goes absolutely wrong. Starting with crashing into her Chem partner, Nick Stark. Once she finds out she can just rewrite Valentine’s Day over and over, she does, but not everything ends up to what she had planned, and maybe that’s soon proves to be a good thing.
Nick & Emilie’s relationship was so well struct out and I loved the Ferris Bueller vibe the book gave to really make their relationship bloom. So amazing job to Lynn Painter on another AMAZING book!!

I enjoyed this cute romantic comedy quite more than I thought I would. Teenager Emilie finds herself reliving the same Valentine’s Day over and over enduring seeing her boyfriend not only cheating on her but experiencing the same frustrating and annoying interactions with Nick Stark, her chemistry lab partner. No matter what Emilie does to try to change the events that keep her stuck in February 14, she wakes up and it’s still V-Day.

In addition to the cheating boyfriend and annoying lab partner, Emilie also has to deal with the fact that her father has accepted a new job and will be moving out of state and whether Emilie will be joining him and his new family remains to be seen. Emilie also has to deal with the unwelcome news that the summer fellowship she was competing for and won has been snatched away due to a counting error. It’s enough to drive anyone bonkers, but I really enjoyed hanging out with Emilie to see what happen next and how she responds.

And responds she does. She decides to have a Day Of No Consequences. She steals her Dad’s Porsche, gets pulled over and the car gets impounded, she practically kidnaps Nick and they ditch school, visit a tattoo parlor, fast talk their way onto the roof of an office building and share seven minutes of the most breathtaking kiss Emilie has ever experienced. Nothing is off the table, because nobody except Emilie will remember it tomorrow as it will still be February 14. Or will it?

This story was a fun read for me because it was a reminder to live every day to the fullest extent you can even if you are stuck in a time loop and repeat the same day tomorrow. I liked the characters and the dynamics of Emilie’s life with her family and friends was entertaining. The dialog was realistic for the characters and the story moved at a good pace.

My Final Verdict: The Do-Over is my first Lynn Painter novel. I really enjoyed this author’s voice and her sense of humor shines through the story and characters. I recommend this to teen and young adult readers, fans of romantic comedies and anyone who likes their stories to end on a positive note.

A huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and NetGalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
This is the most delightful YA I've read in a long time!
Em and Nick's story was authentic and all-encompassing, I immediately fell in love with them. Everything played out right, and I'm happy.
P.S. I finished this with tears in my eyes.

There's something about romance books and Taylor swift that is absolutely going to do it for me every single time. If you thought Better Than the Movies had a fair amount of swiftie references, I'm happy to share that this book has even more. This book follows Emilie, who has just experienced a pretty terrible Valentine's Day. When she wakes up the following morning, she realizes that she's repeating the same day over again and she's stuck in a groundhog's day scenario. I personally really enjoy groundhog's day scenarios, and Emilie's days were not ones to disappoint. As far as love interests go, Nick is mysterious, flirty, and absolutely willing to do anything Emilie puts him up to. Their back-and-forth banter is absolutely adorable and makes my rom-com heart so happy. Overall, it was a super quick and fun read that I would definitely recommend if you're a fan of bttm! Or if you're a die-hard folklore girlie (like me) because...

...Emilie just had a 𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓋𝑒𝓁𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝓇𝓊𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃' 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔.

thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC! and thank you very much to ms lynn painter, who I'm so incredibly thankful for <3

this is my second lynn painter read, and i am proud to say she is slowly becoming one of my favourite authors!! she absolutely knocked it out of the park with BTTM, and i expected another phenomenal YA romance novel, and that’s exactly what she delivered.

— the plot focuses on emilie (h), she lives by rules, lists and wants to please everyone and live a perfect, set out life to avoid conflict—but then she has a not-so-perfect valentine’s day.
she is stuck in a time-loop having to relive her shitty valentine’s day over and over again, a day she had planned out perfectly but it went HORRIBLY wrong.
even though she has to relive valentine’s day constantly she is given so many chances to right that terrible day and live it differently. she also keeps crashing (literally) into cold and distant nick stark. i love how she finally has had enough of being this perfect girl and gets this “fuck it” attitude and starts living for herself.

MY BELOVED NICK STARK, oh he is so swoon worthy and absolutely dreamy.
— he is emilie’s chem partner who gives off this grumpy exterior at first. the way he pretends to not know who she is but is obsessed with her, sold, sold, sold!!! he literally agrees to do everything emilie wants, he is so smitten with her from the very start!
the banter between nick and emilie had me giggling out loud and swooning, it was perfect!

this was a fun, enjoyable read and very well written—and the taylor swift references *chefs kiss* i highly recommend this book if you love fluffy, insta-love novels .

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this e-arc!

This book went back and forth between being endearing and giving me second hand embarrassment - I'll be the first to admit that perhaps some of the embarrassment stems from my own experience being a goody-two-shoes teenager back in the day, but to be honest, some of it was just too much to overlook. I would be reading one page that was the cutest thing in the world, and then all of a sudden I'd flip the page and be cringing so hard I needed to put the book down for a little while.
That being said, I did really like Emilie as a main character, for the most part, and I thought her banter with Nick was top tier. Did I like Nick? I didn't love the brooding asshole thing - I get that he was going through unimaginable pain, but I didn't like that that was kind of used as an excuse for him to be a complete asshole to Emilie the next day. There's more nuance than that, and I really did like his banter with Emilie, but sometimes he was just a bit much for me. Emilie, on the other hand, was adorable and relatable (in some good ways and some bad ways), and just altogether a realistic person that I really was rooting for. As far as main characters go, she was fun while still making mistakes, but at the end of the day, I wanted things to go right for her.
This book was a little bit predictable - as in, I knew that the second the Day of No Consequences happened, her time loop would be over - but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. All of the pieces were laid out for us to follow, and the character development of Emilie was well-done, which is the only reason I was able to predict what would happen next. I really enjoyed watching her grow as a person (even if it caused me to cringe a lot, like a LOT).
One of the main strikes against this book in my opinion is all of the pop culture references. I love Taylor Swift as much as the next person, but every time there was a reference it really took me out of the story. That's just a personal preference of mine - I find that references, even the most modern of them, really date a book in a bad way. Still, this book was fun and felt fresh, despite the fact that there is so many other "time loop" stories out there.
Overall, this book may have made me cringe quite a lot, but it was still fun and had some really good character development. It was endearing and a quick read, so I flew through it. Looking forward to reading more from Lynn Painter!

i can tell this book is going to go so hard with the tiktok girlies!! the love interest is swoony and his chemistry with our main character is very palpable and engaging. i did not care for the third act of the story as i felt that emillie didn’t really experience any consequences/low points, the exploration of her relationship with her father felt unresolved and all but forgotten about (in fact her relationship with her parents generally felt unfinished) and the premise for the story didn’t really seem to matter in the end. but it was a fun rom com nonetheless and again, it will work for the tik tok girlies.

I adore Lynn Painter. They have the beautiful talent of capturing the awkward, sometimes cringy, feeling of teenage love and drama - in the best way.

While I tend to not love the "groundhog's day" trope, I did enjoy Painter's newest story, focusing on a Valentine's Day gone awry. Beyond the loop, I enjoyed how this book eventually devolved into a Ferris Bueller's Day Off-esque adventure, both in it's adventurous frivolity, and sentimental ending.

Overall, I think YA and romance lovers will adore this YA romance/coming of age book - it is both tender and heartfelt, adventurous, and so reminicist of teenage love - both in it's overdramatic, I'll love you forever, way, and it's heartfelt way to make a teen feel seen.

This is the second Lynn Painter book I’ve read. AND IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT! She has a way about her when it comes to writing wholesome, sweet, love stories. There is always a bit of humor and sarcasm through her writing which I appreciate. I loved this book — almost as much as Better Than the Movies. It is a close runner up!

LYNN PAINTER HAS DONE IT AGAIN. I think I need to start reserving a special 6 star rating for her books because they are just so freaking magical.

This book is literally the cutest shit I’ve ever read. I don’t know how this woman is able to so perfectly encapsulate the feeling of falling in love for the first time in every single damn thing she writes BUT SOMEHOW SHE DOES. This book made me GIDDY at every interaction between Emilie and Nick. The flirting, the tension, the banter, ThE fEeLiNgS.

This book is really giving groundhog day meets ferris buellers day off meets that scene in the santa clause where scott gives carol the baby doll, except they’re also all swifties. And it’s simply ✨elite✨I just really have a soft spot for taylor swift references what can i say 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you liked Painter’s previous YA release Better Than The Movies you will absolutely DEVOUR this. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off go cry.

I HAD A MARVELOUS TIME RUINING EVERYTHING —> this book to my feelings

Huuggeee thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! The Do-Over is out November 15, 2022!

Thank you to Simon Pulse and Netgalley for giving me an arc of this book!

THIS BOOOOKKK. I loved absolutely loved Better than the Movies so I had very high expectations for The Do-Over and it did not disappoint. I love the character development in this novel for Emilie especially. She has to learn to let go and I definitely relate to her type A/planner personality. This story serves as a great reminder that sometimes when you let go is when the best things happen.

The romance and banter was top tier. Nick and Emilie remind me of Jess and Rory from Gilmore Girls in all the best ways. I love how in all of Lynn Painter’s book we’re showered in music and book references (my two favorite things) It makes the characters seem more real and relatable. This needs to be a movie asap!!! If you need a book to pull you out of a reading slump or you’re simply craving a romcom look no further!

6/5 stars! highly highly recommend. a new autobuy YA author for me!

What a fun, romantic romp, full of Taylor Swift references! This was my first Lynn Painter book, but it won't be my last. It was absolutely charming!

After experiencing the WORST Valentine’s Day ever, Emilie Hornby wakes up the next day to discover it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. And the next day, and the next day…She’s in a time-loop nightmare, watching her boyfriend cheat on her day after day, and has no idea how to get out. Each day, she tries to change the outcome of the events—including her morning run-in with Nick Stark, her (seemingly) surly chem lab partner.

But as the same day passes, she learns more and more about Nick…and begins to fall for him. Meanwhile, after deciding to finally live a day with no consequences—with Nick by her side—doing whatever she wants, she discovers her true self, to have a voice,…and that maybe her “perfect” relationship hadn’t been as perfect as she’d thought.

It’s no secret that I love Lynn Painter, the energy drink-guzzling, Taylor Swift-loving goddess of humor, so it should be no surprise that I loved this book. It was SO cute. I laughed so much throughout, but as Emilie peeled back Nick’s layers and the two of them leaned on each other as they dealt with their issues, my heart nearly exploded. And here’s the thing—I didn’t expect the ending. And THAT was awesome! This story was seriously swoony, and while it IS a rom-com, it also tugs at your heartstrings. I’d had every intention of reading this slowly and instead, devoured it in 24 hours. As usual, highly recommend.

This was a fun YA romance. Emilie is stuck in a time loop living Valentine’s Day over and over again. I loved all the Taylor Swift references in the book! My favorite part was Emilie and Nicks ditch day of course. If you liked her last YA release, Better Than The Movies, you will probably like this as well.

Thank you @netgalley and @simonandschuster for an early copy of The Do-Over by @lynnpainterkirkle in exchange for an honest review. 🤍

The Do-Over is on of the best rom-coms I have ever read! It tells the story of Emilie as she relives the worst valentine's day over and over again, and somehow she keeps running into Nick in every worst-possible scenario.

While I have read some books with the same time-loop scenario, Lynn Painter did an amazing job in making this the best rom-com. Every valentine's day, although each is as terrible as the last one, is hilarious and I honestly don't think I have the emotional strength to relive every single day, let alone a bad one.

The story's pacing was okay although some days were skipped and summarized, but good all the same. I loved that despite Nick not remembering all the loops, his and Emilie's love story felt heartwarming. I just loved how they are able to share their stories with each other and feel like they have known each other for so long. 💖

Rating The Do-Over ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5! Grab a copy on November 15th, 2022! I seriously recommend this for a refreshing read! ❤️

I really enjoyed The Do-Over, a fun rom-com featuring a driven student who loves her lists and the boy that she can't seem to get away from. I thought the time loop bits were handled in a clever way, but the real star of the story are the relationships between Em and all the people in her life.

(The romance is clean, but there is some language sprinkled throughout.)