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arthur_ant18's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Classism and Pregnancy
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Death of parent
aedavison's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A laugh-out-loud funny novel about starting over, taking chances, and personal growth.
Perci Mayfield is having a hell of a time. Her boyfriend breaks up with her over voicemail, she's stuck in a job she hates, and her mother is trying to run her life. Sick of feeling stuck, Perci vows to make some changes, to stop trying to please everyone else, and live for herself. Unfortunately, one little lie to get her mother off her back lands her with a fake boyfriend who just so happens to be her next-door neighbor and... Oh no, she might have caught feelings.
Perci is a delightfully relatable character. I think we have all been stuck in life at some point and, at times, felt like we didn't measure up. The Do-Over has us sit with Perci and those feelings and takes the reader on a journey towards self-acceptance and joy in every aspect of life.
I loved that Perci felt real and tangible—all of the characters did. Everyone was beautifully flawed. They were allowed to make mistakes, endure the consequences, and learn from them.
Peterson's novel was brought to life by the wonderful and talented narrator, Elise Roth. Her voice truly embodied Perci and made a wonderful story even more perfect.
This novel has wonderful representation of a plus-sized character and deals with topics of body image and weight loss in a very realistic and gentle way.
Perci Mayfield is having a hell of a time. Her boyfriend breaks up with her over voicemail, she's stuck in a job she hates, and her mother is trying to run her life. Sick of feeling stuck, Perci vows to make some changes, to stop trying to please everyone else, and live for herself. Unfortunately, one little lie to get her mother off her back lands her with a fake boyfriend who just so happens to be her next-door neighbor and... Oh no, she might have caught feelings.
Perci is a delightfully relatable character. I think we have all been stuck in life at some point and, at times, felt like we didn't measure up. The Do-Over has us sit with Perci and those feelings and takes the reader on a journey towards self-acceptance and joy in every aspect of life.
I loved that Perci felt real and tangible—all of the characters did. Everyone was beautifully flawed. They were allowed to make mistakes, endure the consequences, and learn from them.
Peterson's novel was brought to life by the wonderful and talented narrator, Elise Roth. Her voice truly embodied Perci and made a wonderful story even more perfect.
This novel has wonderful representation of a plus-sized character and deals with topics of body image and weight loss in a very realistic and gentle way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death of parent
mx_virg's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
This book was a lot of fun and has a lot of heart. If it weren't for the ending, I would have given it 5 stars.
I don't know how to categorize this book. It's in the romance section, and while there is some romance there, it's not the center of the story (it doesn't really even start until the half-way mark), more like something happening in the background (still very sweet, I enjoyed it a lot). This book is all about the MC's, Perci, journey to self-acceptance and happiness. This is more a coming-of-age-for-adults book. Does anyone know how to categorize such a book, what genre it is ?
✅ Mimi is the best. Everybody should have a Mimi in their lives. I'll for sure go back and write down some the Mimi-isms at the start of each chapter, most of them are golden.
✅ Perci is a great MC, I certainly could relate to her (sometimes painfully so). I loved her journey of self-acceptance and transformation, and how gradual and imperfect it was.
✅ I loved Mathias, if only for that anti-resolution list. Might make one of my own. I also loved his friendship with Perci, how genuine they were with each other.
✅ Great plus-sized representation ! You have Mimi who owns her body, of course Perci's journey with hers. And even Brent kinda does it too(it was a nice touch to see him on a date with someone as curvy, if not more, as Perci) .
✅ I liked the writing, it was a joy to read.
⛔ As much as I love Mimi, her deliberately calling her daughter by a name she doesn't like is wrong. Every time she called her "Bobi Jo", I cringed so hard. Perci's mom even changed her name legally to Roberta, asked her mother to use her preferred name, and Mimi just says it's the name she gave her so she's going to keep using it. Big yikes.
😐 The romance was sweet, but forgettable. I liked Nate well enough, loved how he rolled with Perci's weird circumstances. And there are some nice scenes between them. It's kinda sad though that for a book in the romance category, it would have worked almost as well without the romance. We don't spend a lot of time getting to know Nate, or with Perci and Nate as a (potential) couple. The scenes we do have with them though are lovely, I did enjoy the moments we did spend with them.
😐 Perci's sister, Phee isn't a bad person, but she's not really a good one either. I was very hopeful at first, she seemed to be nice and a good sister, no catty stereotype, she didn't gang up on Perci with her mother. I lost all respect for her though when she barely said anything when her boyfriend insulted and humiliated Perci, on multiple occasions. I understand she's herself a victim of her mother's emotional abuse, but I would have appreciated the book acknowledging more her "don't rock the boat" attitude around her mother and Joel, often at the expense of Perci (and Mathias).
Since the book's main focus is Perci's journey to finding herself and self-acceptance, it is tightly linked to her relationship with her mother, and the rest of the family. So even if the book is not really about toxic relationships, it's such a big part of Perci's journey, I wish the book did a better job highlighting those toxic family dynamics.
😒 The ending was a bit too movie like for me, too perfect with everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. Especially stuff surrounding Perci's mom and Nate.
First, Nate being there because of the moms is kinda sad, not romantic. I would have prefered him ging to talk to her and owning up to his feelings and his actions. But that's just my opinion / the way I feel about things, it's super subjective.
What's less so is how Perci and everyone else got very quickly over the fact that her mom bought a building to DESTROY A BUSINESS !! Does she even apologize for it at some point ? She costs someone's livelihood, forces parents to find childcare in a rush, and no one cares ? Seriously ? I know Mrs. Marge is taking it as an opportunity to retire early and move to be with her grandkids, but that does not make it ok. At all.
Also, the fact that Perci is opening her own day-care IN THAT SAME BUILDING. How is she okay with this ? In my head, Mrs. Marge finds out and rues the day she hired Perci. How else could you interpret that chain of events ?
This leads to my biggest gripe with this ending : one of the main points of the book is that Perci's mother is super meddlesome and pushy and rules her daughter's lives, because she thinks she knows best and can't comprehend how miserable her actions are making them. And how does the book end ? By her being super meddlesome in Perci's life, because she knows best, only this time she "gets it right", so it's ok for her to be so pushy. What ?!?
This whole book, Perci is on a journey to discover herself, take her life in charge, and it ends with her not really doing that(Nate is back because of the moms, and her new job has been decided and planned by her parents) . I guess the goal here was to show her family understanding her more and supporting her, but this could have been done differently.
This book spends 85% on the drama and how awful the mother treats her (and her sister), and the resolution to that is rushed, too neat, and thus not satisfying. Roberta was really horrible towards Perci, and the ending only makes it seem like not much has changed, but enough that Perci will stay and endure more of it. Did Roberta even own up to or apologize for her actions at some point ? I don't think so, and worse, it's kind of implied it's not needed because of Perci's own screw up. As if Perci's outburst is at all comparable to a lifetime of emotional abuse. It's like the author wanted a happy, all wrapped-up ending, but also knew someone like Roberta couldn't believably do a 180 so it's on the people around her to, again, take her as she is and not rock the boat.
If I ever re-read this book (which I might, there's lots of good stuff in it), I'll ignore that last chapter, it's more sad than hopeful for me.
I don't know how to categorize this book. It's in the romance section, and while there is some romance there, it's not the center of the story (it doesn't really even start until the half-way mark), more like something happening in the background (still very sweet, I enjoyed it a lot). This book is all about the MC's, Perci, journey to self-acceptance and happiness. This is more a coming-of-age-for-adults book. Does anyone know how to categorize such a book, what genre it is ?
✅ Mimi is the best. Everybody should have a Mimi in their lives. I'll for sure go back and write down some the Mimi-isms at the start of each chapter, most of them are golden.
✅ Perci is a great MC, I certainly could relate to her (sometimes painfully so). I loved her journey of self-acceptance and transformation, and how gradual and imperfect it was.
✅ I loved Mathias, if only for that anti-resolution list. Might make one of my own. I also loved his friendship with Perci, how genuine they were with each other.
✅ Great plus-sized representation ! You have Mimi who owns her body, of course Perci's journey with hers. And even Brent kinda does it too
✅ I liked the writing, it was a joy to read.
⛔ As much as I love Mimi, her deliberately calling her daughter by a name she doesn't like is wrong. Every time she called her "Bobi Jo", I cringed so hard. Perci's mom even changed her name legally to Roberta, asked her mother to use her preferred name, and Mimi just says it's the name she gave her so she's going to keep using it. Big yikes.
😐 The romance was sweet, but forgettable. I liked Nate well enough, loved how he rolled with Perci's weird circumstances. And there are some nice scenes between them. It's kinda sad though that for a book in the romance category, it would have worked almost as well without the romance. We don't spend a lot of time getting to know Nate, or with Perci and Nate as a (potential) couple. The scenes we do have with them though are lovely, I did enjoy the moments we did spend with them.
😐 Perci's sister, Phee isn't a bad person, but she's not really a good one either. I was very hopeful at first, she seemed to be nice and a good sister, no catty stereotype, she didn't gang up on Perci with her mother. I lost all respect for her though when she barely said anything when her boyfriend insulted and humiliated Perci, on multiple occasions. I understand she's herself a victim of her mother's emotional abuse, but I would have appreciated the book acknowledging more her "don't rock the boat" attitude around her mother and Joel, often at the expense of Perci (and Mathias).
Since the book's main focus is Perci's journey to finding herself and self-acceptance, it is tightly linked to her relationship with her mother, and the rest of the family. So even if the book is not really about toxic relationships, it's such a big part of Perci's journey, I wish the book did a better job highlighting those toxic family dynamics.
😒 The ending was a bit too movie like for me, too perfect with everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. Especially stuff surrounding Perci's mom and Nate.
What's less so is how Perci and everyone else got very quickly over the fact that her mom bought a building to DESTROY A BUSINESS !! Does she even apologize for it at some point ? She costs someone's livelihood, forces parents to find childcare in a rush, and no one cares ? Seriously ? I know Mrs. Marge is taking it as an opportunity to retire early and move to be with her grandkids, but that does not make it ok. At all.
Also, the fact that Perci is opening her own day-care IN THAT SAME BUILDING. How is she okay with this ? In my head, Mrs. Marge finds out and rues the day she hired Perci. How else could you interpret that chain of events ?
This leads to my biggest gripe with this ending : one of the main points of the book is that Perci's mother is super meddlesome and pushy and rules her daughter's lives, because she thinks she knows best and can't comprehend how miserable her actions are making them. And how does the book end ? By her being super meddlesome in Perci's life, because she knows best, only this time she "gets it right", so it's ok for her to be so pushy. What ?!?
This whole book, Perci is on a journey to discover herself, take her life in charge, and it ends with her not really doing that
This book spends 85% on the drama and how awful the mother treats her (and her sister), and the resolution to that is rushed, too neat, and thus not satisfying. Roberta was really horrible towards Perci, and the ending only makes it seem like not much has changed, but enough that Perci will stay and endure more of it. Did Roberta even own up to or apologize for her actions at some point ? I don't think so, and worse, it's kind of implied it's not needed because of Perci's own screw up. As if Perci's outburst is at all comparable to a lifetime of emotional abuse. It's like the author wanted a happy, all wrapped-up ending, but also knew someone like Roberta couldn't believably do a 180 so it's on the people around her to, again, take her as she is and not rock the boat.
If I ever re-read this book (which I might, there's lots of good stuff in it), I'll ignore that last chapter, it's more sad than hopeful for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Fatphobia
Minor: Death of parent
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