May I say I'm in awe?
I just finished "The Do-Over" by Andrew Hessel and, well, it's been a while since I stopped what I had to do and did what I wanted to do: write this review. It's been a while since I finished a book by wasting one good hour of much needed sleep and then spent another 30 minutes laying awake thinking of it. It's been a while since I last ran to the computer to write a review.
That's not to say I didn't absolutelly love the books I finished reading before this one. That's just to say that The Do-Over has touched me. So let's do this!
Summary: Kimberly Ann “Kiki” Kinsler is a twenty-one year-old college
student excited to be returning home to Portland, Oregon for summer
break and eager to see her family. Instead of the happy homecoming that
she anticipates, Kiki’s world is upended by an unimaginable tragedy. Her
parents and younger sister are dead, victims of Little Mo Biggs, a
tragically accidental monster, himself a victim of profound parental
neglect and abuse. Kiki is also attacked and hospitalized but survives.
In the hospital, when all appears lost, she is given an opportunity to
wipe away the nightmare, to un-do it, and correct the senseless tragedy.
A second chance, a wonderful, improbable, and miraculous gift, that
doesn’t come easily. To reclaim her future, Kiki must first correct the
injustices of Little Mo’s past, which can only be corrected at the root.
In doing so, she learns that home is more than a place, it is also a
time, and must confront the parallel challenges of life and love, past
and present, in a love story with a foot in each world, 2012 and 1981.
Kiki is an ordinary undergrad student, with a best friend, two years out of her parents' house, just broke up with a crappy boyfriend... Until tragedy sets in.
Little Mo Biggs is a poor young man, with brain damage and badly abused.
Their paths cross and life will never be the same. Kiki will have to understand that evils can be undone, using The Gift, given by The Guardian.
There's also Jenna, who is Kiki's best friend and so much like my own best friend and my relationship with her that I could feel their relationship rather than reading it and there's Clark, who is Kiki's father's best friend and sort of like a favorite uncle to Kiki.
Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I loved this book very badly. Just as the movie "Somewhere in Time" (which Kiki actually watched, back in 1981), we see, along with the people trying to fix the present/future, a love story. One that transcends time itself.
It saddens me. I don't understand people who think "Somewhere in Time" is a beautiful love story - it is a tragic love story, since whenthe guy goes back to his time, she is dead! I mean that's SO sad, she's lived all her life just to be able to give him the means to go back to her. It reminds me of Doctor Who (River Song's story, if anyone follows the series).
There's nothing just as tragic in The Do-Over, but there is something very similar and it broke my heart. The ending really hurt me and I hope we see more of Kiki Kinsler and that we actually see that part of the story fixed.
I only have one complaint and it is a minimal one... The descriptions of Oregon and the city of Portland are a bit too much and I got lost in them, since I don't know the city or the state and it made me feel strange reading all of that since it didn't add up to the plot. But still, it didn't bother me that much.
I really loved the book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good fantasy/sci-fi/love story. I mean, really, how can we have so many cool things all at once? :D
You can buy The Do-Over at Amazon.
Now, I don't want to spoil anything, but I loved this book very badly. Just as the movie "Somewhere in Time" (which Kiki actually watched, back in 1981), we see, along with the people trying to fix the present/future, a love story. One that transcends time itself.
It saddens me. I don't understand people who think "Somewhere in Time" is a beautiful love story - it is a tragic love story, since whenthe guy goes back to his time, she is dead! I mean that's SO sad, she's lived all her life just to be able to give him the means to go back to her. It reminds me of Doctor Who (River Song's story, if anyone follows the series).
There's nothing just as tragic in The Do-Over, but there is something very similar and it broke my heart. The ending really hurt me and I hope we see more of Kiki Kinsler and that we actually see that part of the story fixed.
I only have one complaint and it is a minimal one... The descriptions of Oregon and the city of Portland are a bit too much and I got lost in them, since I don't know the city or the state and it made me feel strange reading all of that since it didn't add up to the plot. But still, it didn't bother me that much.
I really loved the book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good fantasy/sci-fi/love story. I mean, really, how can we have so many cool things all at once? :D
You can buy The Do-Over at Amazon.
