ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Evvie Drake Starts Over is wry, bittersweet, and an absolute delight to read.
As EVVIE DRAKE begins, it’s been a year since Evvie’s husband died after a car accident. She’s still living in their too big house in Maine when her bestie Andy comes up with a plan to have a friend rent Evvie’s guest house. The friend happens to be Dean Tenney, a Yankees pitcher who’s got the yips, and needs to get out from under the microscope that is New York City.
Their landlord/tenant relationship develops into friendship and then more. The beauty of it is that it feels totally organic, even though there’s forced proximity at work.
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 the 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.
From lobstah rolls to baseball, Evvie Drake Starts Over is quintessential summer, and a 2019 must read.
In a word: Swoon.
Holmes will be touring EVVIE DRAKE with mostly East Coast stops in NYC; Brooklyn; Washington, DC; Portland, Maine; Chicago; and Los Angeles. A full list of cities is available here.
Get EVVIE DRAKE at The Ripped Bodice | Amazon
