Oh, I SO enjoyed this one Heartwarming, poignant, witty and so atmospheric- EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER is an ode to coastal Maine and the complexity of grief. It’s about fresh starts but also grappling with the past. Friends and lovers, truth and polite falsehoods, with some baseball thrown in for good measure.

I had heard a lot about this book and I liked it enough to give it 4 stars. The writing was strong and kept your attention and did not let it waver. I did not expect it to be this deep either.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the free ebook copy of Evvie Drake Starts Over in return for an honest review!

Evvie Drake is about to leave her husband for good when she receives a phone call that he has been in an accident and ends up passing away. She spends the next year struggling to get out of bed, and everyone - her best friend, Andy, her dad, her deceased husband's parents - thinks it's because she is grieving.

Andy's childhood best friend, and former MLB baseball player, needs a place to get away and Evvie has an extra apartment and needs the cash, so Andy suggests Dean move into Evvie's apartment. They have 2 rules: Dean doesn't ask about Evvie's husband, and Evvie doesn't ask about baseball. This works for awhile, but as they grow closer the rules change.

I had heard a lot about this book, and I really enjoyed it. I read it in an entire day, and it was fast paced to me. I love baseball so I loved the MLB tie-in, and I enjoyed the dialog between Evvie and Dean. This is a fun romantic fiction book, and I'd recommend it to someone looking for a light, fun read! It also deals with a little mental health, and I liked that aspect.

I am definitely in the minority with this one sadly. I just could not connect with the characters or the story line. I found Evvie to be boring. I couldn't get past the first 100 pages on either of my two attempts at reading this one. But again, I know so many people love this book, but I just didn't connect with it.

I honestly thought this was just gonna be something to cleanse my reading palate after reading The Wives, but I fell in love with the story as well as Evvie and Dean. What a great book!

What a delight! This is easily one of my favorite new books. It's light and fluffy which is exactly what I wanted and needed.

I really wanted to love this book but it just felt flat for me. I was expecting more romance but it seems to be more women;s fiction or light on romance.

Linda Holmes' debut novel is, as you would expect, incredibly delightful. I'm waiting for the perfect moment to read it again. It was that good!

After just finishing a page turner book about starting over after her husband’s sudden disappearance, it seemed interesting to read a book about starting over but from the finality of death. The paths forward and the response to grief are very different in the two events. Both books leave many unanswered questions, unfulfilled wishes and dreams but both force change for good or bad. Sometimes we can see and understand the truth all around us but sometimes our judgement is clouded and truth is harder to find. No one really knows that Evvie was actually packing her car to flee her childless marriage when the police call to tell her that her husband has been in a dreadful accident. A year later she is still guilt ridden and depressed. She has a divorced friend Andy who is her friend and confident but not her lover. When he asks her if she would rent out an apartment in her house to his retired professional baseball pitcher friend, She agrees. The characters are warm, human, likeable and believable. They simply felt right with plot twists that also seemed appropriate and real.

This was a delightful read about somewhat off center characters who are looking for love. I really enjoyed this book and would love to know what happens next to our couple.

Romance is not my cup of tea but this book was really cute. Evvie Drake's life is going down the drain. On the day she decides to leave her abusive husband, he is killed in a car accident. Dealing with guilt but wanting to restart her life, Evvie leans on friends and family and eventually meets an ex-baseball player who is also dealing with his own problems.

It has been a year since Evvie Drake had decided that it enough was enough. It has been a year since Evvie Drake loaded up her car and was ready to leave her husband. It has been a year since Evvie Drake got the call that her husband had been in a serious car accident. He had died before she got there. Evvie has spent the last year in a daze. Everybody in their small community thinks that she is grieving but in reality, Evvie is - relieved. And nobody knows it. Her best friend, Andy, is worried about her wandering around the big house all by herself. He has a solution. A childhood friend of his is looking for a soft place to land. His career as a professional baseball player has imploded pretty spectacularly and he is looking for a place to hideout. To both of their surprise, Dean and Evvie hit it off. Their blossoming friendship is a treasure to both of them. And they cannot deny the underlying currents of attraction. Both Evvie and Dean have a lot of baggage, but are they willing to work through their issues so they can be happy together?

From the very first page I really enjoyed Evvie Drake Starts Over. I really liked Evvie and I wanted nothing but peace and happiness for her. She isn't just mourning the death of her husband, in fact she isn't mourning that at all. Instead, she is mourning the marriage that she longed for and never got to have. For her deceased husband, Tim was emotionally abusive. He made Evvie doubt herself and treated her like shit. But he was all she knew and it took her years to work up the courage to leave. And then he died. I loved that this author depicted a completely platonic male/female friendship. And that everybody accepted their friendship to be true and just friendship. Including Dean, and Monica, Andy's girlfriend. That is so rare to find in novels. The character development in all three of them Andy, Dean, and Evvie was pretty significant. And I just love novels where the character's growth is so visible. Of course, the end was exactly as you would expect for this kind of novel, but it was perfect.

Bottom Line - Evvie Drake Starts Over is an absolutely charming book. The perfect kind of book if you are looking for an escape from your daily life. Great characters and a great love story. What more could you want?

Details:
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
On Instagram
Pages: 304
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication Date: 6/25/19
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

This one started off so good and I was very invested in the characters, but then the book lost some of its shine as it went on. The ending was a little lackluster.

3.7 - cute, with some great laugh-out-loud moments (cereal race). I’m not sure why I expected this novel to be “heavier” - but it still felt like it was missing something, despite all of the fun.

"Delicious" is the word that comes to mind for this novel by Linda Holmes. Witty, smart, and charming are also contenders. Grab a blanket and curl up on the couch because you won't want to set this one down. Characters are lovely and imperfect, and you want happiness for them...all of them. I really enjoyed this perfect fall read!

Reviewed on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3059328967

I loved this book. I felt that the characters were very relatable and I enjoyed the storyline. I would have liked a lit more detail on how things ended up and thought the ending was a little abrupt, but it didn't affect my overall opinion of the book. I would definitely recommend this to others.

Do yourself a favor and get this book. I love charming, heartfelt books and this was perfect. A brilliant story of starting over!

I loved this book. It was an incredibly moving and enjoyable read. I definitely expect to see this book made into a movie.

I have been a HUGE fan of Linda Holmes' podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour on NPR, so I was particularly excited to have the chance to read Evvie Drake Starts Over. It did not disappoint. I was hooked from the very beginning - the opening page in fact. The writing style was refreshing and the characters were flawed, but lovable.

I am already a huge Linda Holmes fan so I couldn't read this one fast enough.

Evvie Drake was married to an emotionally abusive husband who has died. She struggles with her lack of grief all the while keeping up the appearance of "Grieving Widow" for the people in her life who didn't know he was a terrible human. Meanwhile, she rents the guesthouse of the house she shared with her husband to a super hot baseball player whose found himself with a bad case of the yips. Emotions are running high, adorableness ensues.

The visuals in this book really lend themselves to a cinematic rom-com but I would be so worried no film would do it justice.

One of my favorites of the year. HIGHLY recommended.

This was a heartwarming tale of loss, guilt and rebuilding a life, for both our hero and heroine. In a sleepy town in Maine Evvie lives alone after the death of her husband, keeping a secret that everyone mistakes for grief. Baseball star Dean needs a place to hide after his career goes south, and finds the perfect place in Evvie's house. While there is a happily ever after, the story focuses more on the relationships that Dean and Evvie build during their healing, as well as the friendship that grows between them.

I love the setting of this book as well, the description of the town, the houses, the ocean really puts me in the spot, and I enjoyed that aspect of the book just as much as I loved the characters and the storyline. I highly recommend this author and this book!