A review by deena_
The Do-Over by M.K. Schiller

5.0

➸ 5 'Hold on, while I go cry over Kyle Manchester' stars ☆

First of all, this book had so many red flags:
-The third person perspective
-It didn't help that the writing style was a hard pass
-The plot carries on around the FMC having a huge crush on her sister's boyfriend, I couldn't picture how that could lead anywhere good. These and some more predictions.

That's probably the reason I put this book off for so long but then I went ahead and said why not? Did I like it? Yes, but it definitely could have used some work. It was good in a cliché way with a predictable ending but surprisingly, I couldn't put it down. I thought I'd feel bad for the sister but guess what she's terribly mean and treats Lanie so bad, a cheater ontop, it's kind of impossible to feel anything other than hatred. In Lanie's defense, she fell in love with Brad first who is also her long time colleague.

I was no fan of Kyle's either, he was a major douchebag no mistaking that. He was cornering her a lot which made him no better than her family. I mean like dude, if you're not interested, fine! You don't get to make backhanded comments on a woman's appearance. No one should be forced to come out of their comfort zone to catch the interest of someone they like. If things come down to that, it's not worth it. I was so prepared to open a hate club in his honor but he eventually flipped the cards in his favor. That guy is a literal panty chaser and had no interest in settling for someone but boy doesn't he fall first and hard right on his own crap.

The first half of the book was giving me 'She's All That' movie vibes, but instead of all the bets and pining for the prom king/queen title, here Lanie was pining for her sister's boyfriend aka Kyle's bestfriend and he was helping her do it right. Somewhere along the process they ended up becoming friends with benefits and catching feelings before they knew it.

➷ He went from 'Oh, she's so not my type' to-
“Her hair was by far her best feature.”
“Her smile was her best feature.”
“Her eyes were definitely her best feature.”
“I was wrong, her legs are definitely her best feature.”
“No, her hips are her best feature.”
And so goes on the never-ending list of him manifesting over her.

➷ He accidentally ruins her first kiss for the sake of pretending, then feels bad about it and says,
“Would you let me have a do-over? At least make it memorable?”
How can I not give him plus points?

➷ When he's a literal sex addict and she says things like,
“It was never appealing to me.”
They quoted freaking 'Star Trek' in their bedroom and all those 'Dirty Dancing' references—can they get any cuter?!

I do have to give him a heads up for making her feel confident about herself and helping her out in her scheme even though he thought it was ridiculous; he even stood up for her which was totally radiating 'I can make fun of my girl but that doesn't mean I'll allow anyone else' energy. He was always there when she needed him, whether it was running over to comfort her after a bad day or making her feel beautiful and happy every chance he got. At some point, I didn't even care if their relationship was a facade, atleast Kyle didn't think so. He was confused and scared of his feelings, worried that she wouldn't choose him, that he wasn't right for her. Even hurt at the fact that she was keeping him at arm's length and was heartbroken waiting for his bestfriend to turn around and notice her. It only made me want to scream at her, like girl how clueless can you be?!!

It was kind of frustrating cause we couldn't tell what was going on in their heads, what they thought of each other, who felt the sparks first? At the same time interesting, that we were completely blindsided and could only anticipate how the storyline would deliver it all.