A Book Review of The Do-Over by Bethany Turner, a romantic comedy

*I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary e-copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts below are my own and I was not required to post a positive review. Also, this blog post includes affiliate links. You may view my affiliate disclaimer here.

ROMANTIC Comedy

A Brand New RomCom from the Queen of Wit!

Bethany Turner returns with The Do-Over, her newest romantic comedy release. Known for her pop culture references and humor, Bethany Turner writes fantastic inner dialogue in my opinion and that is ultimately what keeps me coming back to her novels.

Continue reading for my full review…

Sometimes dreams come true. Other times, the best outcome begins with an epic fail.

Career-driven McKenna Keaton has devoted her life to attaining the senior partnership at her law firm. So asking a man on a date should be nothing. But the past four days have been the worst of her life and have called everything she thought she knew about herself into question. Besides, she can’t remember her last real date—one that didn’t involve using a blind date as an opportunity to get a stranger’s perspective on effective cross-examination techniques. (It’s like sharing fondue with a jury!)

But a real date? And with shy, nerdy Henry Blumenthal—McKenna’s high school rival for valedictorian who once took three hours to beat her at chess? Scratch that. He’s Hank Blume now, the famed documentarian, Durham’s darling son, who has attained all his dreams and more. He also happens to look like he stepped out of an Eddie Bauer catalog.

Whereas McKenna is a disgraced workaholic from New York on unpaid leave, accused of a white-collar crime she would never commit, succumbing to panic attacks, watching her dreams unravel. At age thirty-eight—and destined by the family curse to die before she turns forty, it appears—it’s absolutely the wrong time to have a major crush on a man. Especially one who treasures his memories of McKenna as the girl Most Likely to Succeed.

“Pitch-perfect comedic timing, a relatable heroine, and a refreshing sweetness elevate this novel above the sea of modern rom-coms. The rare author who can make me laugh-out-loud, The Do-Over is Bethany Turner at her best.” —Lauren Layne, New York Times bestselling author

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★★★ | Bethany Turner returns with The Do-Over, her newest romantic comedy release. Known for her pop culture references and wit, Bethany Turner writes fantastic inner dialogue in my opinion and that is ultimately what keeps me coming back to her novels.

Upon reading The Do-Over, I was expecting a romantic comedy that would have me laughing out loud and that wasn’t exactly what I found…

What I Enjoyed : The second chance at love trope, an adorable, sweet guy who’s actually a genius and outgrown his shy teen years, a fantastic kissing scene in NYC, a dad with a cool hobby and some great family connection moments.

My Thoughts: McKenna, while incredibly driven and smart at age 38, was hard for me to relate to with her deep cynicism and self-centered focus. I did not love the things she thought about her younger sister, Taylor, and expected better of a grown adult. Turner redeems that quality later though, thankfully. Regardless, McKenna was simply unrelatable for me.

I wanted to toss the book across the room when McKenna chose to make decisions that did not satisfy my desire for a deeper, richer romance in this story. I found my heart going out to Henry over and over. He was by far my favorite character, so very sweet and for the life of me, I don’t know why he fell for McKenna. Ha! He was perhaps the one reason I decided to see this novel through to the end.

The secondary characters were cute and I liked them, enjoying their family connection and Mr. Keaton’s hobby. The dual setting was fun, with parts of the story taking place in rural Durham, NC and other scenes in the excitement of NYC. The pop culture references were somewhat lost on me (there were many) but I also do not watch a lot of television and am certain other readers might find that more relatable. The beginning of the story as well as the romance were a very slow build that almost lost me (again, expecting an instant rom-com with laugh out loud scenes) but I hate to not see a story through and give the author a chance to win me over.

In Summary: I’m giving this read three stars with an OKAY/GOOD rating. I liked the book enough to finish it, found one or two reasons to enjoy it and I think that, as with most books, the story is relative to the reader who is reading it. I know others will like this story more than I did and I believe it is worth a recommendation to those who want to dive into a clean romance read, especially one with characters who are “older” and like a second chance at love.