Evvie Drake Starts Over
by Linda Holmes
The recap
In a small seaside town in Maine, Evvie Drake barely leaves her big, draughty house. Everyone assumes she is a heartbroken widow after her husband's sudden death, and she lets them, because the truth about her marriage is something she has never said out loud. In New York, Dean Tenney, a star pitcher for the Yankees, has lost the ability to throw straight and has no idea why. When Evvie's best friend, who also happens to be Dean's oldest friend, suggests that Dean rent the apartment attached to her house while he lies low, the two lonely people strike a deal: he won't ask about her husband, and she won't ask about baseball. Naturally, the deal starts to wobble. Linda Holmes writes about grief, anxiety and second chances with gentle wit and a warm small-town cast, and lets the relationship unfold slowly and honestly. It is a cosy, funny and surprisingly wise novel about finding the nerve to try again.
Why read it
For readers who like their romance slow, kind and grown-up, with as much attention paid to friendship and healing as to falling in love.
Fun facts
- 01
Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent at NPR and a host of its podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, and this was her first novel.
- 02
It was picked for Jenna Bush Hager's Read with Jenna book club on Today and became a New York Times bestseller.
- 03
BookPage gave it a starred review, recommending it to fans of Rainbow Rowell and Marian Keyes.
- 04
Holmes's second novel, Flying Solo (2022), returns to the same fictional Maine town of Calcasset, with a brief nod to Evvie's story.
