The Do-Over by Bethany Turner: Book Review

 **I received a complimentary copy for consideration. All thoughts are my own. 

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.

Bethany Turner has been writing since the second grade, when she won her first writing award for explaining why, if she could have lunch with any person throughout history, she would choose John Stamos. She stands by this decision. Bethany now writes pop culture–infused rom-coms for a new generation of readers who crave fiction that tackles the thorny issues of life with humor and insight. She lives in Southwest Colorado with her husband, whom she met in the nineties in a chat room called Disco Inferno. As sketchy as it sounds, it worked out pretty well in this case, and they are now the proud parents of two teenagers. Connect with Bethany at seebethanywrite.com or across social media @seebethanywrite, where she clings to the eternal dream that John Stamos will someday send her a friend request.

Bethany Turner is an author that I have really started to look forward to seeing new reads from. I've enjoyed her romantic comedies greatly in the past, and truly couldn't wait to dive into this one. I must admit though that as far as heroines go, McKenna was not my favorite character. For me personally, I found I didn't quite understand her or relate to her at all as she is quite different than my own romantic self. Still, while that might typically keep me from enjoying a book, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this one. I found Henry to be a great character (I did find myself wishing we could have seen from his point of view as well though), and found that there were several moments throughout that literally had me laughing out loud. I enjoyed the chemistry and the awkwardness of their interactions... that is perhaps one area that my socially awkward self COULD relate. There were perhaps some things that were a little predictable, and yet again that really didn't stop my enjoyment of the story. Overall, I found this to be a fun romcom that kept me smiling throughout.