Overall, I enjoyed this book. I've read a lot of Phoebe Macleod books, and I love her style of writing! I was really loving where this one was going, but about halfway thru it felt like a different story and I wasn't sure where it was going anymore. I really loved Alasdair and the scenes with him and Thea together, wish there had been more of that! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!!

Is there more to life than your job?
That is what main character, Thea, has to decide.
The plot was interesting though a bit confusing.
There is a little romance in the story. Nothing major though.
All in all, I did laugh out loud a few times and enjoyed reading The Do-Over.

Thank you NetGalley, Boldwood Books and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I enjoyed this book.

I loved the characters, and Thea who finally realizes that what the job she’s doing isn’t really that satisfying.

The story kept me hooked and the twist, I did not see coming.

I recommend this book.

Thea is a successful lawyer who lose faith in her career and takes a change of direction. The book is a light hearted romcom, quite readable. Good for the beach.

The Do-Over follows Thea Rogers, a corporate lawyer who’s dedicated her life to her career, aiming to become the youngest partner at her firm. But when a senior colleague dies and she sees how few truly care, Thea starts questioning her own life choices. Faced with a stark realization about her lack of close relationships, she decides to reassess her priorities and take a new path, searching for a life filled with meaning, family, and genuine connections. This leads her to wonder if she can really change—and if the life she’s always wanted is still within reach.

An absolutely wonderful story of transformation, healing, finding oneself, and true love. Thea has been on a very specific career and life trajectory since a childhood experience shifted her priorities. But now, as an adult and well on her way to achieving her dreams, everything suddenly seems hollow. I loved Thea's journey in this book - and especially loved the kooky characters she met along the way. An all-around fantastic feel good novel, perfect for those who sometimes wonder what if they completely changed their life.

After a tumultuous childhood, Thea has dedicated her life to being a corporate lawyer.
She’s put all her time into becoming the firms youngest female partner instead of cultivating friendships and relationships, with the exception of her ‘colleague and long-time friend-with-benefits Alasdair’.

The unexpected death of a senior partner makes her rethink her life, when the only attendees at his funeral are his colleagues. She’s hit with a dilemma - follow the trajectory she’s worked towards and end up like him, or take a completely new path and fill her life with new people and experiences.

So I’m starting this with a disclaimer I’m kind of over contemporary romances where the FMC has a successful high powered career at the start of the novel but lacking in a personal life (no friends or dating life etc) - work is their ‘life’. She then meets, or starts a relationship with, the MMC and realises there’s more to life than work and decides to scrap the career she’s worked her whole life towards. We leave her at the end of the book doing a more ‘wholesome’ job and leaving the corporate world behind. Please can we scrap the narrative that women can’t concurrently have successful corporate jobs and a successful love life. I just want one novel where she gets the guy, but also gets to keep the job she’s worked her entire life to get.

I understand she felt at an impasse with her job and life, that her colleagues passing made her have an epiphany that she didn’t want to live a life like his. But she loved her job before- she was happy about the promotion. I just don’t see her quitting her job out the blue (granted she did give it a few months) because the spark wasn’t there anymore.

I did however enjoy her journey of rediscovery with her new friend Rebecca. I really enjoyed the sections of the book that focused on her building that friendship and setting up a new life based on connections - this was where the book showed it strengths. The fact that they took a shared interest and turned it into a career for both of them - something they were actually passionate about.

In contrast, the romance plot seemed kinda shoehorned into the last quarter of the book. In my opinion the trajectory of the plot would’ve been far more impactful if it solely followed her journey of self discovery and finding out what she wanted from life. If it focused on the friendships she made and her reflections on what she learned without a romance plot shoved in at the end. We didn’t really see the MMC at all throughout the novel so her decision that he’s what she was looking for seemed to subvert her entire journey of finding herself.

ARC copy provided by Boldwood Books & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.]

Thea Rogers has spent her professional life climbing the corporate ladder at one of London's most prestigious law firms. As the youngest female partner in the firm's history, she should feel accomplished - but after attending a colleague's funerals he starts questioning everything.

This book isn't quite what the synopsis suggests. While it's marketed as a romantic comedy, it's neither romantic nor funny. Instead of a reflective "what if" journey, Thea impulsively quits her job with no plan and dives into a new venture inspired by reality TV - an idea from her new friend, Rebecca,

The first half of the story introduces an ambitious, logical protagonist but by the second half, Thea seems lost and easily influenced. Instead of using her newly found free time to explore hobbies or volunteer, she follows her impulsive new friend, even when she doesn't feel confident in the decisions.

It also doesn't feel like a romance. The love-interest is reintroduced close to the end of the book, and while he declares his love for Thea, her reciprocation never feels genuine. Prior to this, Thea talks about how attractive she finds another man, even making the point that she finds this new man significantly more attractive than the one she ends up with). Thea's romantic relationship felt rushed, confusing, and if I'm being honest, unnecessary for the story.

It's a quick read that unfortunately feels like two disjointed stories. It also lacked character growth. Thea wanted more from life than work, but it doesn't feel like she truly achieves that - she just swaps one job for another. This story begins strong, but as Thea's journey unfolds, it loses direction, mirroring the protagonist's own uncertainty.

The Do-Over started off with a bang. I enjoyed Thea in the first half of the book. She was making her way to the top of a prestigious law firm becoming the youngest partner. She spends her days and most nights working with some fun spent with her "friend" Alasdair. When Thea attends the funeral of a coworker she can't stop thinking about that all of her life revolves around work and makes a rash decision that changes her life. The second part of the book was a slower pace. I felt that Thea in the second half was a different person. Her strong will was gone, she second guessed everything. The whole George thing felt out of place. The ending wrapped everything up all nice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC of The Do-Over by Phoebe MacLeod for an honest review.

Sorry but I had to DNF at 15%. It wasn't bad but I was just so bored. The writing is good though so I might pick up another of her books.

I really enjoyed this book, though there were a few things that had me scratching my head.

Firstly, I'm not sure I'd call it a rom-com. There wasn't enough of the rom, nor the com, for that title. It was a fun contemporary fiction story, easy to read and kept my interest the whole way through.

Thea's personality does a bit of a dramatic change. I get that was kind of the point of the story, but there wasn't much of the old Thea in the second half of the book. I would have expected a bit of "regression" so to speak of the old Thea in some of her behaviour.

The romantic elements were a little flat for me, but maybe that's because I was expecting a rom-com and there wasn't much of it at all for most of the book.

That being said, I really liked the writing, and will look up more of the authors work. This was the first I'd read of hers.

I had no idea what to expect of this book and even at 80% I was like what is going to happen, how is this going to end. It kept me guessing right to the last chapter. I really felt for Thea and the mill conversion sounds dreamy. Such a unique concept for a book and the author smashed it.

I have really enjoyed Phoebe MacLeod's books in the past and though I can see that this one was really different in its intent, it was still marketed as romantic comedy - which it was not.
As someone else mentioned in their review, there is a strange disconnect between the first and second parts of the book. Before we have the energised and invigorated lawyer who gets junior partner and is rising through the ranks...next minute she's planning to flip a house? Okay...
I loved her relationship with Rebecca though, again, this felt like it came out of nowhere.
Luckily it was a quick, distracting read when I needed it and I read it in a lunchbreak plus about 30 minutes before a book club meeting. However, I feel that other books by MacLeod had something that this one didn't.
I liked the fact that we went with the characters to Drusilla's (a place I spent a great deal of my childhood), but again, another thing that came from nowhere. And as for George, don't even get me started on how much of a weak character he came across as being.
As I have said before, I have enjoyed her other books, but this one just fell flat for me.

I am genuinely a bit disappointed in this book - sorry. I did like the relationship between Thea and Rebecca, especially the parking wars which was quite funny. But overall, I just couldn’t get into this book and struggled to finish it.

As a long-time Phoebe MacLeod fan, I knew I was in for a cute and sassy story, and The Do-Over did not disappoint.

Thea is a strong, smart, driven young lawyer, teetering on the brink of professional burnout.

When she’s forced to make changes, we see more facets of her relationships, old and new.

I thoroughly enjoyed Thea’s new friendship unfolding with an annoying (but fun) neighbour, but I found one of her love interest storylines a bit lacking because I felt zero spark between them. I know that particular storyline wasn’t meant to carry through (no spoilers); I just wish there’d been a bit more zest to enjoy so I’d feel more invested and relieved at the resolution.

This novel was easy to read and had just the right blend of fun and troubles that had me rooting for Thea the whole way through.


A big thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for providing me with the arc in exchange for my honest review!

My review has been posted to GoodReads.

I loved Alasdair. He was an interesting character and I wish we had more chapters with him in it. But I didn't love all the time jumps that weren't well labeled. It was frustrating to start a new chapter and not realize that you were 2 weeks etc in the future.

Overall, this was an easy read however it does feel a bit disjointed at times. I do wish that there was a little more romance involved but I did enjoy Rebecca and Thea's friendship.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

Fue bastante fácil de leer, pasé rápido por las páginas a pesar de no amarlo. Pero sentí que no pasó mucho en realidad. No recuerdo puntos de trama muy distintos. Y el romance... muy, muy mínimo. Esto se publicitó como una comedia romántica. Dónde estaba el romance? La comedia? No me reí ni una sola vez...

I loved this! The FMC, Thea, was strong and and decisive, and an all-round entertaining character. I related heavily to some of her decisions; getting away from the rat race would be amazing...

The other characters in the book all help build the story into a wonderful tale that just leaves you feeling good. I dont want to give anything away, but the love interest didn't end up how I expected - but I found I preferred it this way!

I think this is my second Pheobe McLeod book, and she's making herself at home on my bookshelf.

This is probably the tenth Phoebe MacLeod novel I have read and I'm not sure how she manages to keep finding interesting stories to tell, but I'm not mad about it! I really enjoyed the main character, Thea and her journey as she realizes that her career maybe isn't as fulfilling as she thought. I was (pleasantly) surprised at the twist that I didn't see coming, and I smiled the entire last chapter. I loved it!

This was a pleasantly surprising book!
Thea has it all. The fancy car, the posh house, and the title of youngest female junior partner at the most prestigious firm in London. And for her, the work is all she needs. Until her world wobbles and she says yes to an idea that Thea from merely months ago would be going into cardiac arrest over.
The best part of this story was the amount of self-discovery Thea went through by throwing caution to the wind and following her gut instinct. I think there is something really remarkable about following one's intuition and this was very well done. Some may find her drastic change a breakdown- as we hear thrown around in the book- but she found inner peace with her decisions, so who can fault her for that?
I found myself drawn to Phoebe's writing as well. She took what could have easily turned mundane and tedious into something exciting and refreshing to read. She created a twist that, like Thea, I may have been a little dense to miss, but I loved the outcome throughly!

The Do-Over is about an ambitious female lawyer who began to second-guess her career choices. While I liked the premise of the book, the story and characters fell flat for me. I wasn’t connected to or invested in Thea’s character. The story didn’t flow and it felt like two separate books for before and after the career change.