My second read of the year comes from the long-standing tradition between my spouse and me: At the end of each year, we jot down five books for the other person to read over the upcoming year. I confess that The Do-Over was from the 2024 list, but in the spirit of the book, I thought I should go ahead and get ‘er read (a do-over!). I enjoyed the book and found it to be good medicine for our toxic times. 
Emily Hornby is the kind of teenager that a teacher would call “a dream to have in class”; she’s organized, relentlessly positive, and tries hard. That’s sort of her brand. She’s even dating a cool guy at school called Josh. I don’t quite understand why anyone would like this guy; he is like if Chalamet from Ladybird were more goal-oriented. Personally, I hate his guts. But I’m not Emily.
Anyway, Emily is SUPER excited to spend Valentine’s Day with Josh, her boo of three months. But Valentine’s Day starts bad at gets worse, from getting rushed out of the shower by her stepmom, to wrecking her gross old van into the truck of broody Nick (her lab partner with a TATTOO of all things, if you can believe that), to seeing Josh get up to some NOT GREAT things at school, it’s a bad day. Emily ends it at her grandma’s, and wakes up the next day to find out she is in some sort of Groundhog Day/Live Die Repeat/Palm Springs time loop.
As the loop continues, upright Emily slowly becomes more and more unhinged, and perhaps more and more herself.
This was a perfectly enjoyable quick read, with a little bit of coming-of-age grit. Didn’t quite soar or gut-punch for me in the way something truly excellent does. 3.75/5, rounded up.
