NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • “Everything a romantic comedy should be: witty, relatable, and a little complicated.”—PeopleA heartfelt debut about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who’s lost her husband and a major league pitcher who’s lost his game.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, … THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR
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.
Praise for Evvie Drake Starts Over
“A quirky, sweet, and splendid story of a woman coming into her own.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six
“Effortlessly enjoyable . . . [a] pitch-perfect . . . adult love story that is as romantic as it is real.”–USA Today
“Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic . . . Evvie Drake is great company.”—Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park
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A book that perfectly walks the tightrope between women’s fiction and romance…likeable characters, beautiful setting and an interesting conundrum—when a woman plans to leave her seemingly wonderful husband, only to have him die that very day, how does she move forward? Loved every word.
A quirky, sweet, and splendid story of a woman coming into her own.
Witty, fun, and utterly relatable debut novel from a very talented new author. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a smart adult love story!
Really enjoyed this book – especially the slow burn relationship between Dean and Evvie. Also, I have a hankering for lobster now. Great feel-good read with wonderful characters.
This book is fun – well-written, witty, poignant. It is intelligent, and while there is certainly tension aplenty to keep the plot moving, said tension is innocent and healthy and normal in a world where the news is anything but. For all these reasons, I thoroughly enjoyed EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER, hence my five-star rating.
The premise? Evvie Drake is a young widow living alone with a world of guilt and lack of direction. Dean Tenney is a major league pitcher who has lost his stuff and needs a place where he can hole up and rethink his life. At the recommendation of a friend, Evvie rents him the back apartment of her house, and while they agree that neither will talk about the past, of course they do. But the talk is clever.
Though some reviewers have called this book a romantic comedy, I didn’t think it was a comedy. Romantic? Absolutely.
Make no mistake about it – EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER is a romance. This is a word not often used today when a publisher wants to market to a younger demographic. That generation thinks a “romance” is for her mother or grandmother. Indeed, EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER is wrapped in a smart, young, non-romancy cover with a title to match.
But it is a romance as I define it – meaning (roughly) 75% love story, 25% other stuff. I say this knowing that it will draw many of you to it, just as I was drawn.
Want a perfect beach read? Try this one.
Deeply moving while simultaneously hilarious, Evvie Drake Starts Over is what happens when great writing, complex and charming characters, and a not-quite-what-you-expect ending collide. . . . Much more than just another romantic comedy.
A witty blend of romance and reflection . . . wraps you in the cozy warmth of small-town Maine and delves into the complexities of the human heart.
Charming, hopeful, and gently romantic . . . Evvie Drake is great company.
This is the rarest of birds–a love story for adults. Not just a love story between two people, but a story about the love between friends, the love of family, and the love that you find for yourself by going through the hard stuff of living. It is warm and funny and real and smart in all the best ways. Treat yourself to this book–it’s a marvelous reminder of some of the best things about being alive. And it takes place in coastal Maine, and has dogs and baseball, so, you know, it’s perfect.
It takes a lot for me to laugh out loud, but this one managed it. The book started in a gloomy place. Evvie’s husband has died just when she was going to leave the bastard. Oops. Guilt sets in. Everyone in her town loved him. They didn’t know how miserable she was behind the scenes. Why did I laugh? Because this author can write the best dialogue ever. I loved her voice. I’m a widow too so I could relate to her ambivalence about some things. I didn’t hate my late husband, but decades of marriage has its highs and lows. Anyway, it’s a love story too, so hang in there and enjoy a fresh voice and a good story.
What a completely fresh, charming, and thoroughly engaging love story! I’m so glad I finally picked it off my TBR. This book will make you smile a lot. The hero is “pitch perfect”…LOL (you’ll get that when you read the story), and Evvie is relatable and quirky in all the right ways. And the setting is so well done, it’s made me even more excited to go back to Maine in May. Those are all the reasons readers will enjoy it. As a writer, I was also blown away by the excellent “Show, don’t tell” in this story. So well done. Bravo!
Delightful, entertaining, just the right amount of depth. Not exactly a category romance but not too far off from that vibe if that’s what you like to read. Julia Whelan reads the audiobook and of course knocks it out of the park (appropriately for a book with so much baseball content.) Loved it.
What an enjoyable read. It’s a warm and witty love story, but it’s also about the lasting damage a bad marriage can wreak over the years, and how little those outside a marriage may know about it. It’s impossible not to root for Evvie and Dean, the pitcher who flames out in a world of brutal social media. It’s also set in one of my very favorite parts of the world, midcoast Maine, which never hurts. The cover has a sort of chick lit look, although lately I notice a lot of more ambitious women’s fiction is getting that treatment. It’s not really inappropriate, because this is indeed a fast and easy read, but there are real depths here. Highly recommended.
I loved this warm and witty story about a grieving widow and a disgraced Major League pitcher, who have new beginnings thrust upon them after each suffers their own kind of tragedy.
I read this book because I was in the mood for something a little fluffier than what I’ve been reading. Almost a year ago, Evvie’s husband was killed in a car accident—on the very evening she was going to leave him. Since then she’s isolated herself from the tiny seaside town she’s lived in since she was born. Everyone assumes grief keeps her housebound, but it’s not. When Andy, her best friend, suggests she rent the apartment attached to her house to a friend of his, she agrees only because she needs the money. Soon, a former MLB pitcher, Dean, is underfoot. The two develop an awkward friendship.
This is women’s fiction with a heavy shot of a slow-burn romance. This is a love story about loneliness, grief, and healing. The writing characters are well-executed with flaws and relatable. The writing is acute and avoids sentimentality in dealing with the heavy emotions here. The best part—and why I categorized this as women’s fiction—is that Evvie makes the changes she deems necessary in her life, not for a man, but for herself, not with a man’s help, but on her own. A delightful read.
This one was a wonderful surprise!
Evvie Drake’s emotionally abusive husband dies on the day she plans to leave him, and the rest of the book deals with how she comes to terms with guilt over that plan (and how she felt about her husband), abandonment issues (mom) and trying to be a “fixer” in the lives of those around her.
This book featured wonderful character development (especially loved her bff relationship), a slow, get-to-know, burn of a love interest and ultimately a path towards self-healing for Evvie. Fast read, loved every bleary-eyed moment of it! Out 6/25
Thanks to #NetGalley, #RandomHouse and #BallantineBooks for providing me the ARC! The opinions are strictly my own.
Loved the characters and the setting! Though the book doesn’t have a fairy-tale ending with all problems solved, the characters do their best at muddling through what life throws at them.
A great choice for an uplifting read when you’ve been spending a little too much time in dark topics and/or nonfiction
What a charming, quirky, realistic and romantic story! I loved Evvie and she quickly became my friend and someone who you related with and rooted for. Adored every word.
I liked it when I was reading it; don’t remember much about it now. It’s a good read but not memorable.