Book Review: "Evvie Drake Starts Over" by Linda Holmes
“Evvie Drake Starts Over” by Linda Holmes
Synopsis: In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future.
When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out.
A joyful, hilarious, and hope-filled debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over will have you cheering for the two most unlikely comebacks of the year—and will leave you wanting more from Linda Holmes.—Penguin RandomHouse
Rating (out of 5): 4.5
Review: I’ve listened to Linda Holmes on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour for years now, and was excited to hear a while ago that she had written a book. It’s hard to believe this is a first novel, as her voice is so well-developed and accomplished.
Evvie Drake is a lovable protagonist, consumed with guilt after losing her husband the day she had planned to leave him. She has kept her plan to leave a secret, so no one around her understands the complexity and nuance of her grief. Her best friend Andy’s childhood friend Dean, a baseball player who suddenly and mysteriously loses his ability to pitch, comes to live in the apartment in her house to recover from the pressure of being in the spotlight.
What follows is a really beautiful and sweet romance, with a very slow burn, between Evvie and Dean. I won’t spoil anything here, but this is one of my favorite literary romances in a very long time. I loved Dean even though I find baseball baffling and inexplicable, so that says a lot.
All of the relationships in this book are really lovingly written. Evvie’s complicated relationship with her best friend Andy, and her love for his young daughters, is really heartwarming. Through this relationship, and that with her father, we see how Evvie grows to learn to love people while acknowledging their faults, rather than ignoring them.
This book is lovely and bittersweet, and gets into deep and upsetting topics without being morose. It’s a hard line to walk, and Linda Holmes accomplished this beautifully. I hope she has many more novels forthcoming!
TL;DR: This is a really heartwarming and lovely book about two people starting over (together? you’ll see). Don’t miss it.
If you liked this, try:
“The White Rose” by Jean Hanff Korelitz
“The Female Persuasion” by Meg Wolitzer
FYI: When you click links in this post to purchase a product, SFOL might get a cut of your purchase.
Thanks in advance!
