Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER by Linda Holmes is a fun LibraryReads selection for June.  The tale begins with a young woman who is in the process of leaving her husband when she learns he has died in a car crash.  Now, regarded by others as a grieving widow, she struggles to redefine her life and depends in large part on a platonic friendship with Andrew. He, in turn, has a childhood friend named Dean Tenney, an MLB pitcher facing a career ending case of the yips.  Looking to get away, Dean arrives in small town Maine and rents an apartment at Evvie (rhymes with Chevy) Drake’s house. Holmes describes the feeling: “that was when he had known what was next. Now, his only plans were dinner and bringing his duffel in from the truck. The part of the future that was in focus had shortened; the part that was just a wall of fog went on forever.” Fortunately, these two lonely and bruised people click and both the banter (including a hilarious story involving a baseball field cereal box race) and the emotional healing (from abuse and devastation) begins. EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER is a gentle story, an undemanding read about forgiving oneself and moving forward. Author Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent at NPR and her debut novel received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus.