The Do-Over

Three and a half stars. McKenna Keaton think she has been summoned to the boardroom in her swanky New York law firm to pitch to become a senior partner, instead she is put on administrative leave without pay, accused of embezzling over $300,000 from the firm. In an attempt to salvage her pride (and conserve money) she leases out her apartment and returns home to Durham, North Carolina. McKenna has always had a life plan, when she was very young she decided to be a lawyer and she has been 100% focused on that goal ever since. Even at school she chose her dates based on whether they would want more time than she was willing to give. In fact, it would be true to say that McKenna is so focused on her career that she misses some pretty big things, like the fact that her nerdy high school rival Henry Blumenthal is now the renowned documentary maker Hank Blume and he looks mighty fine all grown up. One look at Henry (sorry, but Hank is such an old-fashioned name in the UK I can't believe Henry chose it in order to make him sound younger!), and McKenna is reduced to a gibbering idiot, something that has never happened to her before in her thirty-eight years. This book sits uneasily for me on the boundary between slapstick comedy, rom-com, and women's fiction with a side order of pop-culture infusion. On that last point, in my opinion pop-culture allusions really work best either when they are so iconic that everyone understands them even if they have never seen the film/read the book etc, or where they are so achingly hip that the reader just feels more cultural for having seen them. This fell between the two stools, referencing films and people I'd never heard of or couldn't remember. Also, a pet peeve, McKenna is thirty-eight but reads like twenty-eight (or younger), it's as if the author wanted her to be pushing for named partner promotion but realised that could only happen in her late thirties so changed McKenna's age without giving her maturity, and don't get me started on her youngest sister Taylor! Overall, I felt it stalled in the middle and I had no idea where the book was going, I'm not even sure of the relevance of the title TBH. It picked up towards the end but relied upon a lucky coincidence (being deliberately vague) to achieve resolution. I liked it but I didn't love it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

2.5★s The Do-Over is the fifth stand-alone novel by American author Bethany Turner. Up-and-coming New York City attorney, McKenna Keaton was meeting with the board of Wallis, Monroe and Burkhead, expecting a promotion to senior partner, so the accusation of embezzlement from the partner with whom she’d worked most closely, and even harboured ideas of marrying, is a huge shock. Forced to take unpaid leave while an investigation is conducted, McKenna sublets her Upper West Side brownstone apartment and goes home to her family in Durham, North Carolina. Erica, the sister she’s closest to, is the only one who knows the story; everyone else thinks she’s taking a well-earned break to attend her younger sister, Taylor’s engagement. When she attends a function with her brother-in-law and encounters Henry Blumenthal, her academic rival at high school, she’s not prepared for the shy, nerdy boy to have morphed into the confident, urbane documentary maker now famous for his prolific work, Hank Blume. Not is she expecting the instant attraction, apparently reciprocated. Henry’s interest in her father Scott’s family genealogy project uncovers a disturbing trend with the unmarried female members of the family. But then he proposes to include her family tree in his latest project, and suggests that McKenna helps him with the research. McKenna can’t resist. Turner’s protagonist is not particularly likeable: a thirty-eight-year-old woman who often acts like she’s sixteen, she is so focussed on her career, she has not even visited her incredibly supportive family in three years, and she effortlessly throws out thoughtless remarks that wound the younger sister who clearly idolises her. Keeping her work situation from her loving family? Makes no sense at all. Her attitude to relationships is rather cold and calculating: “her prospective ideal mate based on his LinkedIn account more than the consideration of any human emotions.” In a story that is 95% romance and 5% intrigue, the revelation of the embezzler is no surprise; it’s a sweet but very predictable love story that drags a little towards the end. But don your disbelief suspenders: McKenna is supposedly a very smart junior partner in a prestigious law form who trusts an internal investigation to clear her name, and doesn’t bother with representation? Cue eye roll. Does she get her ducks in a row and act to prove her innocence? Not really. Does she redeem herself with her family? Eventually, when she’s pulled up by others for her attitude. It’s Henry and McKenna’s family who save this from a lower rating. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction