Scan barcode
A review by juliamikhno
The Do-Over by Lynn Painter
2.0
whewwww here we go.. 2 ⭐️ initially i didn’t want to be harsh with my review because after all i am outside the target audience However a) i read romance and YA so my threshold for things that could be considered cringe is quite high, b) i’ve seen lots of people in their early 20s or older enjoy and recommend this book/author, and c) the premise sounded really cute and fun
well! personally i did not have a fun time with it. i was expecting a cute little ya romcom but this felt even younger than YA to me. our characters are 16 and in high school but it feels like a middle schooler wrote this story based on their wild guess of what they ~think~ high school is like.
the main character? absolutely insufferable. i was so willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when she was doing silly irrational things at first, because she is young and her family situation is difficult to navigate, but then the DONC (god i wish i never have to read that acronym ever again) happened. girly talked shit about her ex over the school’s intercom, cussed out the (obligatory for every high school story but so unnecessary) “mean girls”, took her father’s car without permission and got in trouble for speeding, got a tattoo, yelled at school officials etc all in one day. cool. good for her.
her DONC partner nick was just… boring. bland. as appealing as stale bread. he got his Tragic Backstory Reveal later on in the book, but for the majority of it he’s just a surly mysterious guy. the extent of his rizz is telling emilie “you’re scary-grinning like some creeper.” great chemistry you have there guys! their dialogues were so dreadfully robotic and boring too. some of their interactions (mostly those without words) were cute and resembled what i wanted from a YA romcom, so that’s cool
well! personally i did not have a fun time with it. i was expecting a cute little ya romcom but this felt even younger than YA to me. our characters are 16 and in high school but it feels like a middle schooler wrote this story based on their wild guess of what they ~think~ high school is like.
the main character? absolutely insufferable. i was so willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when she was doing silly irrational things at first, because she is young and her family situation is difficult to navigate, but then the DONC (god i wish i never have to read that acronym ever again) happened. girly talked shit about her ex over the school’s intercom, cussed out the (obligatory for every high school story but so unnecessary) “mean girls”, took her father’s car without permission and got in trouble for speeding, got a tattoo, yelled at school officials etc all in one day. cool. good for her.
her DONC partner nick was just… boring. bland. as appealing as stale bread. he got his Tragic Backstory Reveal later on in the book, but for the majority of it he’s just a surly mysterious guy. the extent of his rizz is telling emilie “you’re scary-grinning like some creeper.” great chemistry you have there guys! their dialogues were so dreadfully robotic and boring too. some of their interactions (mostly those without words) were cute and resembled what i wanted from a YA romcom, so that’s cool