Evvie (rhymes with Chevy) Drake has all of her bags packed and she’s ready to go when her husband dies in a car crash. So instead of starting over in the way she had initially planned she’s now laying in the floor of the apartment connected to her home just staring at the ceiling. Sometimes all the things we need to do in life are so overwhelming you just do nothing instead... I can relate. Then Dean, the baseball player who lost his arm becomes her tenant and shakes up her world.

This is a love story, a finding yourself again story, and occasionally, a laugh out loud story. I found myself loving each of the characters and just how very human they are. Top it off with the tiniest but perfect amount of steam and you have a cozy, five star read.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes- Although not a straight romance, more fiction with romantic elements, it does have a happily ever after.

CW: grief, emotional abuse by an intimate partner & parent.

The heroine, Evvie like Chevy, is a widow but she is not sad that her husband died. She is sad that she is not sad.. She doesn’t know how to open up to people. Even her best friend. When Evvie meets Dan she wants to help him even though he doesn’t want it and her learning boundaries is interesting to read.

The hero, Dean, is a retired baseball player. He’s retired because he has the yips, aka lost his ability to play. He lives in NYC but relocates to Maine and rents an apartment in Evvie’s house. They agree to a pact where he won’t ask about her husband, she won’t ask about his yips.

I really loved this book. Everyone is messy. Evvie lies, not big lies, but she doesn’t know how not to. This story is really about Evvie finding herself and as the title indicates, starting over. I really enjoyed her journey of self discovery. The love story was satisfying to me and felt like enough in relation to the overall story. This book has a very high price point for digital so I understand if you don’t rush out and buy it immediately. But maybe see if your library has it. :)

Evvie Drake Starts Over was not the light fluffy love story I was expecting. It was better! Evvie and Dean were such nice people that had some crappy things happen to them. Luckily they find each other and begin the process of healing. Life is never as easy as a simple do-over so they have ups and downs but you are cheering for them every step of the way.

I had heard so much about this book. I couldn't wait to read it and see why people loved it so much.

Evvie's husband has died and now she is trying to understand who she is and her place. Her husband was 2 different people: charming and gracious to the world but emotionally abusive to her. Evvie need to find her center, her purpose, and her life to move on from the abuse.

In comes Dean, a former professional baseball player with issues of his own. The story of how they both journey to heal is both heartwarming and entertaining.

This book is definitely as good as everyone says. Easily understandable, flowing beautifully from chapter to chapter. You won't want to put it down.

I received this book for review purposes.

A nerdy, feel good breeze of a book with more intelligent than usual characters. I read this quickly but felt the somewhat predictable plot was supposed to be buoyed by deeper character development that fell just short. Although of course I adored the Dean character, which I think was the point. :)

It’s that time of year when everyone is on the lookout for their next summer read. And what could be better for a summer read than a story that involves the summer game?

Linda Holmes – perhaps best known as the host of NPR’s excellent “Pop Culture Happy Hour” podcast – has written her first novel. Titled “Evvie Drake Starts Over,” it’s the story of two people, each lost in their own way, finding solace in one another’s unexpected company – solace that begins as friendship, but gradually develops into something else.

It’s a charming and engaging story that also proves willing to look at loss and how that can mean different things to different people. The way we mourn – and what we choose to mourn – can vary wildly. Sometimes we wish to be helped. Sometimes we wish to be held. And sometimes, we simply wish to be left alone.

Evvie Drake lives in a small town on the Maine coast. She’s a widow, having lost her husband to a tragic accident nearly a year ago. But while she has rambled around her big empty house, she’s been keeping a secret. What everyone else sees as grief, Evvie knows to be guilt. No one knows the truth, not even her best friend Andy. Only she knows how rocky her marriage was. And only she knows that she was in her car with a packed bag, ready to leave her husband, when she received the tragic call.

Dean Tenney has lost something too. The New York Yankees star is suffering from a case of the dreaded yips – he has simply lost the ability to throw strikes. He’s tried everything he can think of, on both the physical and mental sides. He’s just lost it, much to the full-throated dismay of the notoriously level-headed New York sports fandom. He needs to get away from it all, go somewhere where he can simply be and not be confronted with his failure on a daily basis.

And so Dean, who grew up with Andy, winds up at Evvie’s door inquiring about the attached apartment that she has made available to rent. In need of money, she takes in the lodger.

The rules between the two are simple: Evvie doesn’t want to talk about her husband and Dean doesn’t want to talk about baseball. From there, a friendship begins to flower … and to bloom into something altogether unexpected.

But while the present has its appeal, the reality is that both Evvie and Dean are going to have to reckon with the ghosts of their respective pasts for there to be any real chance of a future going forward. And in dealing with these shadows, some hard truths are going to be revealed – truths that may impact not just their relationship with one another, but their relationships with those close to them.

“Evvie Drake Starts Over” is a story of moving on and moving forward. It is a story of what it means to allow yourself to love. It is about the fear and the strength that comes from letting yourself to be vulnerable. It is about forgiving your flaws and allowing them to be forgiven. It’s about losing control, whether figuratively (Evvie) or literally (Dean). It’s about knowing what’s wrong but having zero idea how to fix it.

There’s a wonderful juxtaposition at play here. On the one hand, we have Evvie, who has lost a husband, yet feels more guilt than grief. She regrets her relative lack of regret; she’s sorry about not being sorry enough. On the other, we have Dean, whose loss is less tangible yet arguably more personally impactful – he has lost something that has almost completely defined him for his entire life.

First and foremost, this is a love story. This is about two people drawn together by a mutual desire to be left alone, which sounds oxymoronic, but makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Like seeks out like, and both of these people are wounded in ways that few others will understand … but they understand each other. Not totally, mind you – each makes their share of questionable choices – but enough. Enough to find solace in their shared company.

It should be noted that this is a debut novel from Holmes, although it certainly doesn’t read like one. There’s a smoothness to the storytelling that is a great pleasure to read, a gentle persistence of plot that bears the reader forward with deceptive speed – it’s the sort of book that you might read cover-to-cover in a single sitting if you’re not careful. The characterizations feel very full; Evvie and Dean are well-realized in ways both large and small. Oh, and it’s pretty damned funny in stretches too.

(It should also be noted that while there's not a ton of actual baseball or baseball-adjacent stuff here, what there is is actually really good. Holmes has an obvious affection for the game to go with a solid understanding of it. In the moments when Dean throws, we feel what he feels in a fundamental way, good and bad.)

“Evvie Drake Starts Over” is an ideal summer read, the sort of breezy book that offers strong relationships and compelling characters while also providing a fluid narrative flow. Few things are as captivating as love born from loss; this book offers that and more. If this is how Holmes begins her career as a novelist, I can’t wait to see what she does next.

This was a quick, sweet, enjoyable read. It had very much of a Kristan Higgins feel to me, so I'd easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys her romances or women's fiction.

I enjoyed the romance as well as the heroine's friendship with her best friend. And there was one moment, in particular, with her dad that brought tears to my eyes. I appreciated that there weren't any quick fixes and that the hero and heroine both felt realistic in their individual circumstances.

Fancy review: Holmes, a pop culture correspondent and host for NPR, has been an ardent defender of the rom-com and has published her take on the category with Evvie Drake Starts Over. The heroine, Evvie, is a young widow with a secret about her marriage, and the hero, Dean, is a professional baseball player with a bad case of the yips. There's certainly romance and comedy, but there's also more emotional weight to the story than readers may expect. Holmes weaves themes of loss, the value of friendship, family ties, and moving on into a sweet and sometimes sad story about two people forced to reevaluate their plans for their lives. A small town in Maine provides a delightful setting and the town's citizens add further charm to Holmes's heartwarming novel. And as a fun bonus for Minnesota readers, the heroine is named after the Iron Range town of Eveleth, MN, where her mother was born.

Evvie Drake has been with her husband since she was 16. Now, half her life later, she has decided it’s time to leave him. She’s packed up a few bags and is heading out when she gets a call saying her husband has been in a car crash. When she arrives at the hospital, he’s dead. So now she’s a widow, and no one knows she was leaving him; she doesn’t tell even her best friend, Andy.

Evvie’s complicated feelings on this whole situation keep her isolated and mostly confined to her house for some months, except for her weekly breakfasts with Andy. Then Andy gets a call from an old friend of his, Dean Tenney, a celebrated Major League pitcher who got a case of the “yips” —an inexplicable sudden inability to pitch. Dean is looking to get out of the big city, away from all the commentators and the constant talk about his failure, and Andy suggests he come up to stay in Maine for a while. Evvie has a small apartment at the back of her big house, so thanks to Andy, she gets Dean as a temporary tenant.

Both are hurting, and neither wants to talk about the cause of their pain, so they agree at the outset they can be friendly and chat about anything but those issues. Not long after Dean moves in, he and Evvie become friends, and then possibly more, and they even talk about the things they agreed not to discuss. Slowly, each of them starts getting a taste that there can be a future past the events that have stopped them in their tracks.

It’s not hard to fall right into this story. I empathized with the characters and the battles they are fighting within. Evvie in particular has to come to grips with what she faced in her marriage and how little she shared with anyone close to her. Evvie and Dean’s conversations with each other are so natural, and while their attraction to each other is evident, it’s also clear they have to find their way through their problems individually even as they help each other along. I liked their banter, all the little ways their connection popped off the pages. I was moved by the growth that occurred and the hope for better things for both of them. A sweet story.

Evvie Drake was about to leave her husband without telling anyone about it when she heard the news that he died in a car accident. She was not just thinking about leaving him. She was actually halfway through loading her car to leave. She was going to start over anyway, but in a way, she was forced to start over differently. Since nobody knew about her plans, she had to show grief but at the same time felt guilty for what she was about to do. The book tells how she starts over and moves past what happened - spoiler alert, it took some help from friends and therapy. It's a nice story of starting over and being happy about yourself even when you lose everything.

This was an enjoyable summer read and I really appreciated the author writing adult characters who acted, thought, and spoke like intelligent and realistic adults. It was a breath of fresh air in the romance genre.

Evvie Drake Starts Over is starts with two people thrown together by circumstances or fate. She is a widow with unresolved issues about her dead husband. He is a baseball pitcher who has lost his mojo. Their evolving relationship helps them both discover their true selves.

Loved both Evvie and Dean. A quick enjoyable read which leaves you rooting for a happy ending. Three and a half stars rounded up to 4. Many thanks to Linda Holmes, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this arc of a very recently published book. You will enjoy it.

Evvie has her bags packed and is leaving her husband when she gets a call that he has been in an accident and isn't going to make it. As a result, Evvie refuses to use her husbands life insurance money and a year later her best friend Andy suggests that she rent out the apartment attache to her home to his best friend; an MLB player whose recent string of pitching failures has left him with time on his hands.

Evvie Drake was a fun read with real adults who communicate and deal with their issues. I loved the idea that you can have a romance while still being true to the real challenge the characters would face. I wish we would have seen a little bit more of Dean's character throughout the book because he was the more intriguing of the two characters. I liked Evvie's heart but wished she was a little more quirky and fun. Because she was in a low period in her life, there wasn't a lot of opportunity to show a more fun side of Evvie.

Overall, this was a great quick summer read that I would recommend to anyone who wants to get away to the shores of Maine and fall in love with some endearingly real characters.

Post about Evvie on social media will happen July 3rd, 2019

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this ARC of Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes.

Evvie Drake is packing up her bags. She is done with her husband, and she is leaving him, she is leaving her life, and she is leaving her friends. But her plans are thwarted quickly when she gets a phone, her husband has just died in a car accident.

Saddled with the terrible feelings of guilt and loss, Evvie turns to her best friend Adam for support and advice. Adam suggest that she take in a housemate to help pay the bills, and he happens to have a friend in mind. But there is a twist, Adam's friend is also a famous baseball player, Dean, who is cursed with the "yips" or, a mysterious inability to pitch anymore. And that is how two broken adults come to live together and begin their new start.

To be fair, I'm just not the right audience for a book like this. I don't mind romance, but this was just a bit too syrupy for my taste. The dialogue was unbelievable, and the extra drama was exasperating. However, it certainly has charm and I can see how it would be appealing as a light hearted beach read.

From Linda Holmes, the host of NPR’s hit podcast “Pop Culture Happy Hour,” comes EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER, a witty and charming debut about second chances.

For the past year of her life, the eponymous Evvie Drake has played the part of the grieving widow following her doctor husband’s tragic and sudden death from a car accident. But what no one knows is that Evvie was planning on leaving Tim and was, in fact, sitting in her car with her packed bags when she received the news about his accident. Tim was beloved by their small-town friends and even once saved her father’s life. But he could also be cruel and judgmental, and on the day she decided to start over, he went and died before she could make the choice to leave herself. Now Evvie is paralyzed by her shame at feeling no sadness about his death, and the realization that her life will always be defined (especially in their cozy coastal town in Maine) by the label of “widow.”

In a very different part of the world, baseball player Dean Tenney has suffered one of the worst losses imaginable in professional sports: he is a Yankee with the yips. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “yips,” it is the strange and inexplicable phenomenon that occurs when an athlete loses the ability to do what makes him or her special --- suddenly and without any apparent cause. For Dean, this means he can no longer pitch and that his career as a World Series player is over. Whether you’re a baseball fanatic or barely know what a home run is (like this reviewer), it should come as no surprise that being a Yankee with the yips puts one under an unbearable amount of scrutiny, derision and shame.

Evvie and Dean are brought together by a mutual friend, Andy, who believes that Dean could use a break from the spotlight and Evvie could use a renter in her big, no-longer-paid-for-by-a-doctor house. Dean and Evvie hit it off immediately, but agree to never ask one another about late husbands or baseball, making their friendship easy and light, if at times a bit shallow. Evvie is intensely private (even Andy had no idea she was unhappy in her marriage), so this arrangement is easy for her, but Dean soon forces her to confront her boundaries and press on for her own happiness. At the same time, Evvie tries to remind Dean why he loved baseball before the major leagues came calling. With plenty of witty banter, a lot of intelligent discussion and just a few sparks of romance, Evvie and Dean ease one another into their new lives --- and discover something magical along the way.

Evvie and Dean are perfectly normal people --- flawed, scared and searching for happiness --- in unique situations, and Holmes invites readers to not only read about their struggles, but to truly get to know them. This feels like a real grown-up romance in that the characters are mature, more or less stable, and a bit set in their ways. As a result, there is no hungry, laughably passionate “love at first sight,” but rather a lot of compromise, some hard-hitting conversations and plenty of mutual respect. Holmes writes intensely nuanced relationships, particularly between members of the opposite sex, in a seemingly effortless way that makes her characters positively leap off the page. Though they are going through some tough times, Holmes fleshes them out with hobbies and passions that add some levity to this romantic comedy. Dean, for instance, is a huge nerd with a surprising love of Comic Cons and pinball machines.

Beyond her characters, Holmes demonstrates a pitch-perfect talent for writing settings and dialogue and injecting just the right amount of pop culture into all of the above. Her dialogue is whip-smart and modern --- Evvie has no problem correcting Dean when he uses speech that has misogynistic undertones (i.e. referring to a woman as a girl). Readers will also adore Holmes’ descriptions of the small fishing town of Calcasset, Maine, which presents itself as its own character in the book, largely thanks to Evvie’s penchant for storytelling.

EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER is a gentle, quiet novel that manages to pack a punch without any unnecessary drama or overly romantic undertones. If you love well-written characters, quirky towns, and charming, hopeful love stories, this is the perfect book for your next summer read.

This was my first time ready Linda Holmes and I found Evvie Drake Starts Over to be the perfect beach read in the contemporary fiction category. It’s the complete package – complex characters, interesting setting, believable and relatable plot with just enough sizzle in the romance department. Whether you’re headed for the beach or not – this was a light and engaging with substance but not too dark or deep.

Evvie, when we first meet her, is about to leave her husband after his abusive behavior, but before she has the car fully packed, gets a phone call that he has died. Now she is having trouble adjusting to widowhood. Tim, her doctor hubby, was a saint in the eyes of many and no one would ever believe how rotten he was to her so she alone carries these thoughts. Even Andy, her friend, does not know what she had planned to do and thinks she is grieving instead.

Dean is an old friend of Andy and has hit bottom after a career as a major league pitcher. He can't pitch and the world refers to him in very negative terms saying he has the yips. He is seeking a chance to come to terms with the loss of the only career he ever cared about. Andy has suggested he rent a room from Evvie, since he thinks she needs the money.

No one would ever call this a deep book, but it is the kind that makes us cheer them both on to resolving their issues. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and would give it 4.5 stars. The characters are likable and the writing is comfortable. You can put it down, but you look forward to picking it up again and finding how they are adjusting.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Linda Holmes's Evvie Drake Starts Over might be the most refreshingly delightful book I've read all year. A year after the sudden death of her husband, Evvie Drake is navigating life as a widow who's not all that unhappy about her husband's demise. Not that this book is dark - Evvie finds a way to understand her late husband's abuse by opening herself up to her new tenant, Dean Tenney, in hiding after an MLB pitching career went sour. Dean and Evvie both have their baggage and damage, but Holmes has them help each other through it. The book is at times devastating, hilarious (I laughed out loud many times, and books don't usually make me laugh), clever, and cozy - I could have stayed in this world with these characters for several hundred more pages. I look forward to more fiction by Holmes; I've been following her work in other media for some time, and I'm so happy she decided to turn to writing novels!

I recommended this book to a friend before I'd even finished reading it. It took me a little while to get into the book, but I was speeding through by the end. It was certainly sexy, but not explicit or smutty (although there was plenty of swearing), so it should be good for romance readers who are looking for that.

The first thing I had to do was adjust my thinking. For some reason, I thought Evvy was a woman in her 7os so it took a few beats to reconcile the 30-something Evvy with the Evvy in my mind!

This book is well-written with vivid characters. I can't say that I 'loved' Evvy but I liked her. She was in an impossible position - having to act the grieving widow while feeling like a hypocrite. I wanted to believe her friendship with Andy but it didn't always ring true to me. It was inevitable, though, that that friendship would change; but I was glad they were able to continue in it's new reality.

The relationship between Evvy and Dean was sweet and built slowly - like an old fashioned movie. It was refreshing that we were able to watch their friendship/romance grow and that they 'found themselves' individually before reconnecting.

I enjoyed this book and predict many copies will be seen on the beach this summer!