The Re-Do List Summary: A Warm Romantic Comedy
TL;DR: When a Breakup Goes Viral
Willow Lewis spent ten years with her high school sweetheart before he ended things beside a park fountain.
She stumbled backward into the water, a bystander filmed it, and the clip turned her into a meme known as “Drowning Girl.” The fallout cost her the job and the version of herself she had built around one relationship.
The Re-Do List by Denise Williams begins there.
Willow relocates to Des Moines to house-sit for her deployed brother, and his best friend—a medically discharged Air Force Pararescue Jumper named Deacon Rakes—is assigned to keep an eye on her. What follows involves a handwritten list, a fixer-upper house, and two people rebuilding lives that stopped fitting.
- Central pairing: A humiliated twenty-four-year-old rebuilding her identity and a thirty-four-year-old veteran facing the permanent end of his military career.
- Core structure: A physical list drives the plot, alternating between Willow’s and Deacon’s points of view.
- Main tension: Deacon’s loyalty to Willow’s brother against his growing feelings for her.
- Key threads: Lost ambition, grief over a parent’s death, and the difference between reinvention and escape.
The book balances comedic set pieces with heavier material about identity loss, then closes on a forward-looking note rather than a dramatic rupture.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
- Readers of contemporary romantic comedy with emotional weight.
- Fans of the brother’s best friend and forced proximity tropes.
- Readers drawn to military veteran characters and recovery arcs.
- Anyone who likes bucket-list or “re-do” list story structures.
The Re-Do List Summary: The Full Story
SPOILERS AHEAD. This section covers the plot from beginning to end, including the ending.
The Fountain, the Meme, and the Move
Willow Lewis is a public relations receptionist whose ten-year relationship ends when her boyfriend Spencer dumps her at a park fountain, admitting he has met someone else. Her shocked backward fall into the water is filmed and becomes the viral “Drowning Girl” meme, which costs her the job.
With few options, she agrees to stay in Des Moines to care for her older brother Cruz’s house and his enormous dog, Gus, while Cruz is deployed overseas. Before leaving, Cruz asks his best friend and former Pararescue teammate, Deacon Rakes, to look out for her.
Meeting Deacon and the First Re-Do
Deacon is thirty-four, medically discharged two years earlier because of an aneurysmal bone cyst on his spine, and quietly training to reenlist. He and Willow meet at a local coffee shop, where he recognizes her public humiliation and offers to be her plus-one at a wedding reception that night.
At the reception, Deacon learns Willow has only ever slow danced with Spencer. He leads her through a dance and calls it a re-do on her first slow dance, without the eighth-grade fumbling.
The List Begins
Later that night, after heavy drinking, Willow breaks down over how every adult milestone she has—first date, first apartment—is tied to her ex. She and Deacon scribble a rough list of “firsts” to redo on her own terms, which she transcribes the next morning into an official Re-Do List.
Deacon offers to help her work through it. They paint Cruz’s living quarters a bold deep red, and Willow gets her hair dyed bright red by a stylist named Blaine, whose sister Hollis becomes a fast friend.
Bicycles, Porcupines, and a Revived Dream
Deacon tries to teach Willow to ride a bicycle in the park, producing falls and shared laughter. When Gus tangles with porcupine quills, the two of them race the dog to an emergency vet clinic.
At the clinic, Willow reconnects with her teenage goal of becoming a veterinarian, a path she abandoned because Spencer preferred a more flexible business schedule. Encouraged by a veterinary student named Des and by Deacon, she starts volunteering at an animal clinic, studying for the GRE, and drafting a veterinary school personal statement.
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Page Two and the Boxes in Storage
Willow accidentally reveals “Page Two” of her list, a private page written during a late-night audiobook session that details bedroom firsts and sexual re-dos. Though bound by loyalty to Cruz, Deacon agrees to help her complete it with clear boundaries, and their encounters develop into genuine romantic attachment.
At the same time, Willow unpacks stored boxes belonging to her late mother, expecting evidence of a woman broken by divorce. Instead she finds receipts and notes showing her mother had been planning trips to Japan, skydiving, and dating again, proof that she had been building a life of her own.
Colorado, a Missing Unit, and a Closed Door
Willow travels to Colorado for a camping trip with her best friend Zoe and Hollis. Around the campfire she realizes she no longer needs Spencer or the list to feel whole, and when Spencer texts her wanting to catch up, she feels no pull toward him and dismisses the message.
Back in Iowa, Deacon learns from military contacts that Cruz’s unit has gone missing during a high-stakes rescue mission. He rushes to a recruitment office to push for immediate reenlistment and is told flatly that his DD 214 Code 4 medical discharge makes a waiver impossible.
Forced to accept that his Pararescue career is permanently over, Deacon opens up to a fellow veteran student at a bar and begins considering a different purpose outside active service.
Cruz Comes Home
Word arrives that Cruz has been rescued, injured but alive. When he returns to Des Moines to recover, he walks into his house and catches Deacon and Willow in bed together.
Furious that his best friend broke his trust, Cruz confronts Deacon and orders him out. He also warns Willow not to sacrifice her veterinary school plans for another man after hearing her suggest delaying her application for Deacon.
Submitting the Application
Willow accepts that Cruz is right about her goals. She finishes her veterinary school personal statement, addressing her journey of reclaiming her ambition, and officially submits the application.
She then confronts Cruz and explains how Deacon helped her heal from her trauma and regain her confidence. Recognizing that Deacon genuinely loves her, Cruz seeks him out, and the two friends reconcile over beers with their unit’s motto bump.
The Fountain and the Epilogue
Willow asks Deacon to meet her at a new park near a fountain. When she texts to ask if he is coming, he replies that he is done with re-dos and asks her to officially be his girlfriend, confessing his love.
He joins her at the fountain, where she shows him her submitted application and they kiss, ready to start a real future together.
In the epilogue, a group chat shows Willow on her first day of veterinary school and Deacon thriving as a peer mentor at the campus Veterans Center. In a private thread, Deacon shares a picture of an engagement ring and prepares to propose, with Cruz agreeing to be his best man.
Characters in This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Willow Lewis | Twenty-four-year-old protagonist who becomes the viral “Drowning Girl” and creates the Re-Do List. |
| Deacon Rakes | Thirty-four-year-old medically discharged Pararescue Jumper who helps Willow complete her list. |
| Cruz Lewis | Willow’s older brother and an active-duty Pararescue Jumper who asks Deacon to watch over her. |
| Spencer | Willow’s ex-boyfriend of ten years, who ends the relationship at a fountain. |
| Zoe | Willow’s best friend living in Denver. |
| Hollis | A Des Moines local who becomes friends with Willow and joins the Colorado camping trip. |
| Blaine | Hollis’s brother and a hairdresser who dyes Willow’s hair red. |
| Des | A veterinary student who shows Willow the university’s vet school facilities. |
| Dr. Theo | The veterinarian supervising the clinic where Willow volunteers. |
| Bryce | A veteran classmate in Deacon’s economics course. |
| Kelly / Kylie | A Navy veteran classmate who invites Deacon to the campus Veterans Center. |
| Emi, Sybil, and Marcus | Deacon’s housemates and close friends in Des Moines. |
| Gus | Cruz’s large dog, cared for by Willow and Deacon. |
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Quotes from The Re-Do List
“You don’t know who you are when you’re not part of that thing you thought defined you?”
“Consider this a re-do.”
“If I can make new firsts…if I can remind myself who I am without him…I know it doesn’t make sense, but it’s what I need to do to move on and really find my way again.”
“These things we do, that others may live”
“I’m re-doing all these things, but it’s about me, not Spencer. Not Deacon. About how I feel, and I feel…good.”
“I figured out how to commit to my own goals and to prioritize what matters most to me, which is succeeding in this field and making positive change.”
The Re-Do List at a Glance
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