I requested this book on Netgalley, and I won't lie... the cover caught my attention. Judging from it, this book looked like a cute, fun, silly read. While yes it was cute, it was even more than that. It was serious, sometimes a bit dark (you'll know what I mean if/when you pick this up), and very realistic. There is no insta-love in this story. This was a carefully crafted, well thought out love story that was both believable and realistic.

Evvie (rhymes with Chevy) is a widow who is grieving more than just the loss of her husband. Dean is a professional baseball player that moves to town and eventually stays in Evvie's apartment attached to her house. Both have secrets, one heavier than the others.

I wouldn't call their love story a slow burn, though it felt like that. It wasn't rushed and it didn't feel like those sappy love stories where they fall head over heals within the first chapter. This was a real view into the lives of two people whose lives turned out far different than they expected.

This had obvious romantic undertones but I think it focused more so on Evvie and her grieving, processing and growing as a person after the death of her husband. This will be a great summer read and I think many will love this, but beware of the serious elements that pop up throughout this story. This has an emotional aspect that I wasn't expecting. It is lighthearted and fun, but again, there is a part of the story that will break your heart. Well, it broke mine. I loved Evvie and all her flaws. I wanted her to have a happy ending more than anything.

Evvie Drake is a young, married woman living in a small town in Maine when her life suddenly turns upside down. Her husband has died unexpectedly and she is forced to learn to live a new life as a single woman, all alone.

Meanwhile, Dean Tenney is experiencing some big time life changes, as well. He was a star pitcher for the Yankees, until recently, after he inexplicably lost his ability to throw a decent pitch. Depressed and confused, he leaves the League and is searching for a way to get away from the city, the spotlight, and the scrutiny. He decides to hide out and soul search in Maine, where his childhood best friend, Andy, lives.

But Andy happens to also be the longtime (platonic!) friend of Evvie, and Andy has an idea: Evvie is alone in that great big house. Maybe Dean could move in to the attached apartment?

He does, and you might be able to guess what happens next. ;) Watching the slow development of Evvie and Dean’s relationship is a joy to behold. There are laughs, awkwardness, and sad moments, too. I especially loved their dialogue—it felt smart and real. And the writing throughout in the book is also very clever. I found myself highlighting choice, particularly great phrases often (something I rarely do!).

Evvie Drake Starts Over is a great read and will particularly touch anyone who has had to find love after a tragedy. It really shows that we *can* have another chance at love—and that it can be even better the second time around.

I thoroughly enjoyed this heartwarming, charming tale of love between two broken people. A year after her husband’s death, Evvie Drake still carries immense guilt disguised as grief. As she evaluates her life and seems to be stuck moving forward with it, she does a favor for a friend and rents her attached apartment to a major-league baseball player with a case of the ‘yips.’

Evvie, Dean, and the cast of characters are believable and likable, though flawed. As Evvie tries to ‘fix’ Dean, she begins to face her own feelings, which allows her the freedom to admit that her marriage wasn’t what it appeared. I loved Evvie, including her disposal of the hated marital dishes, her creative swearing, and her ability to be optimistic while struggling with her own pain.

I would recommend this sad, funny, romantic, offbeat, witty, and inspiring story to anyone looking for an enjoyable read that goes beyond a light romance story.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. It wasn't grabbing me, so I will pass on the review! Normally I don't assign a star rating to books I haven't finished, but Netgalley forced me...

I really enjoyed this book. It tackled some heavy topics but still managed to feel like a lighthearted read. The characters were beautifully developed and very real and relatable. Nobody was a caricature, and everybody had real flaws without being irredeemable. The relationships made sense, even when they were messy and tricky, and played out in very relatable ways. And the book was fun - I read it in a single sitting. A great way to take a break from dense literature while still reading something meaningful and worthwhile.

This novel was brilliantly beautiful. I really lost myself in the story of Evvie & Dean and how their unhappiness brought them together to create a whole new kind of happiness from within. This is not your average love story. There’s a much deeper story to tell, one about grief & loss and how to begin again. It gets messy and hard in parts, but I think that’s why I felt so pulled toward this story. There’s an authenticity to it that kept me coming back for more. I highly recommend this novel.

In ‘Evvie Drake Starts Over’, Linda Holmes (of NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour fame) brings to life an endearing, quirky cast of characters.
It’s not your typical love-at-first-sight romance, but felt very real dealing with loss, friendship, personal growth and self discovery. I felt empathy with Evvie as her life changed so drastically throughout the book, not only with her suddenly becoming a widow, but the shift in her friendships and how those evolved as life circumstances changed.
I had laugh out loud moments and then felt like I might cry. It’s a charming, heartwarming story that’s a must read for 2019. This is such a beautiful debut novel.

Evvie Drake Starts Over is a must read in 2019. While it is a lot different than what I usually read, this is definitely in my top 10 this year. Evvie Drake is kind of a mess, but she is a mess most women can relate to. I think most people have been in situations where they are not feeling the way everyone thinks they should feel. In those cases it is easier to act how you're supposed to act instead of rocking the boat, and that is how Evvie lived her life after her husband died. Enter Dean. Dean is a former pro baseball player who retired involuntarily. He moves into the apartment attached to Evvie's house and they agree to not talk about the dead husband or baseball. The story follows Evvie and Dean's evolving relationship through the year he stays with her. It is a heartwarming story with many life lessons. While the content could easily become heavy, the book was surprisingly lighthearted. I read this book in one sitting and was sad when it ended because I liked it so much. I definitely recommend this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC!

Lovely, heartwarming story about second chances, forgiving yourself and others, and recognizing that you can change your life and move forward.

This novel was an absolute delight. As a long-time fan of Linda Holmes, this has been my most anticipated book of the year. I loved that the book was divided into seasons, as this story truly benefits from a broader scope instead of an isolated timeline of a week or two.

All the characters felt real, both in their flaws and strengths. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Evvie and Andy, and how the novel does not pretend that their friendship needs to be more than it is nor that it is perfect as it is. Evolving friendships are often as painful (and rewarding) as evolving romantic relationships, and this novel explores both with empathy and insight.

I honestly laughed out loud at several points throughout this book, and because of my familiarity with Holmes's other work, felt that I heard her voice clearly on each page. I will absolutely be recommending this book to everyone I know, and it is a perfect companion for a weekend when you just want to dive into a book (preferably with a baseball game turned on in the background).

In "Evvie Drake Starts Over," Linda Holmes presents a cast of quirky, mostly likable but flawed characters and gives us a bird's-eye view of their lives at a particular moment of crisis. There's recently widowed Evvie, her best friend Andy, and a variety of other folks who live in their small town on the coast of Maine. Holmes' affection for her heroine shines through, even when Evvie is at her worst. And there's lots of wisdom to be found here, even if the book is just a few steps away from being a romantic comedy. For example, "grieving the first call," that moment when a relationship changes and a person who has been close to you is no longer the first person you call in a moment of joy or sadness, is a powerful concept. I'll be thinking about this charming story for a while.

I fell in love with these very real characters! The story was sweet, the setting was charming, and the characters were relatable. Evvie is someone you would want to friends with. Her friendship with Andy was remarkable in that it was so important to both of them. And her romance was realstic, never silly or cloying.

Love at first sight...the most beautiful people ever created...falling into bed within days after meeting each other...UGH! Too many contemporary romances use this formula. If you are as tired of it as I am pick up this book!!

Realistic characters with realistic flaws, getting to know each other as friends before anything else and a lot of humorous dialogue. I enjoyed this book and will look for others by this author.

Refreshing and warm, these are the words that come to me after reading Evvie Drake Starts Over. In many books, I feel like the romance goes 0 to 60 in no time. I loved the build up and the natural progression of a relationship. It’s very real. Evvie Drake is a relatable character that I can easily see myself in as a young woman. I enjoyed the character development of the supporting characters as well. Altogether a well written and great story.

I absolutely LOVED this book. It was exactly what I needed at the right time - funny, smart, witty, thoughtful, sad, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once. It was really the ideal contemporary romance novel - charming and swoon-worthy with characters that were actually well developed and relatable. Plus it had baseball and Minnesota references? Sign me up any day. I'm looking forward to rereading this many times when I need a comforting, warm story!

Linda Holmes is my favorite person working in media and when I heard she was writing a book, I was excited but also a little nervous that I wouldn't love it. But I needn't have worried, because I did love it. It's a warm, charming, lazy river ride of a story about moving on and starting over and being an adult human in the world. The relationships feel real, the romance is swoon worthy, and it's cozy but also smart, which is just the best.

This was fine! It's nice to see a romance about adults who are actually adults.

Evvie is a recent widow. Dean is a World Series champion pitcher whose career has been derailed by the sudden onset of the yips. Their mutual friend Andy arranges for Dean to rent an apartment in Evvie's house for a time while he figures out his next step in life and this catalyzes Evvie to figure out what she wants out of her future and forces her to admit how she really felt about her marriage.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine Books for an advanced read in exchange for this review.
Evvie lost her husband nearly a year ago. Since then, she has barely left her house. Her friends and family think it is due to her grief, including her best friend Andy. She doesn’t tell them what is really happening and how her marriage really was.
Dean Tennery is a former MLB pitcher who now has the yips and cannot pitch anymore. He’s best friends with Andy and is looking for a place to stay to get away from the media. He makes arrangements to stay in Evvie’s guest house. They form a deal – she can’t ask about him about baseball, and he won’t ask her about her marriage. The two quickly form an unexpected friendship and realize they have to process the past in order to move forward.
I loved this book! It was full of subtle and not so subtle humor, as well as characters that you want to root for. The story felt so authentic and full of heart. The way the author writes about two different styles of grief – the end of a long career for no explained reason and a marriage that was not great – made me feel like a close friend in the story. I laughed, I wanted to cry, and there were moments that just gave me warm fuzzy feelings. Great read. One of my favorites this year for sure.

A fun, interesting book with great characters. Even the baseball parts were pretty good. :) All these characters really felt like real people. And the process - for everyone - of how to start over was just fascinating.

Evvie Drake Starts Over is wry, bittersweet and utterly delightful.

I think my note to myself in Chapter 17 sums it up, “Sweet. Bittersweet. Damn, Linda Holmes, just damn.”

Holmes deftly intertwines Evvie and Dean’s individual struggles with grief and loss, peppering it with humor, banter, and the age-old ‘When Harry Met Sally’ question, “Can men and women ever really be just friends?”

In some ways, Evvie Drake Starts Over is a modern throwback — to when movies were about women’s lives, or about baseball (usually starring Kevin Costner). In Evvie Drake, you get both, though Costner's not who I picture when I think of Dean Tenney. I loved that Holmes really did her homework about players who get the yips, that mental health and therapy are portrayed openly and honestly, and that we also get a few of those romantic, picture perfect movie moments.

Review will post in May on dailywaffle.com. Links will be updated when available.