Review: The Do-Over

Title: The Do-Over

Author: Andrew Hessel

Illustrator: Liz Kingslien

Genre: Crime thriller-love story with a dash of fantasy and a sprinkle of Sci-Fi?

Age: 14+

Pages: 288 (paperback)

Publisher: Old Dog Publishing LLC

       
        Kiki Kingsler could never have been prepared for the events that unravelled themselves when she arrived home. Finding her parents and sister dead and barely escaping with her life felt like she had been through hell and back. Things like this only happened to other people not yourself! But they did, and soon she is offered a second chance. A Do-Over if you will... With the help of a few friends, Kiki is prepared to go back 31 years in the past and fix the problem at it's root!

        The Do-Over was very well written. The story started off focusing on the characters. This gave us a good idea of what we were getting into and who would lead the adventure. It then distributed the plot and jumped right into the details. Andrew Hessel did a marvelous job with his pace. he wasn't a step too late nor a step too fast! His ideas we're clearly stated and shown, they were well explained and given!

        Okay guys, I just want to explain real quick how great the plot was! So from the summary I believe you caught on that Kiki Kinsler (the main character) was given a second chance to go back and do what's right to save her family and others. I'd like to point a few things here. While conflicts between two characters are good, Inner-conflicts are great! It's always refreshing to have those types of stories. Secondly, the whole second chance, go back in time and do what's right theme gave off an air of contradictions. Some people may believe in that stuff while others may not. the protagonist argued and debated with herself if she believed in that stuff. I think that a conflict, which makes the reader question and/or reflect afterwards are always top notch!

        The author must have done some serious researching for his novel because the Oregon history was very well explained. I'm not fascinated by history in the slightest, but those who are will be overjoyed. It's also not to the point where you are bored out of your mind reading about it, but it gives you some background information on the environment. It also helps out since our protagonist must go back in the past, if you do not know about the past and the present then it might be a bit confusing!

        The only negative aspect of this book is the romance. I'll try not to spoil anything here but I hated it. It was very awkward, and maybe it's just me but it really changed my perspective of the characters. Honestly, I would rather had replaced the romance sections with some fast pace action! Of course I've hated pretty much every relationships in every novel I have read of late. Maybe it's just I'm in a bad mood, who knows!

Available on Amazon

Rating: 4/5