This book was a fun read about a woman who finds herself having to start over in an unexpected way. Evvie finds that she has been lying to herself and to her friends for years about her life. As the lies get exposed, Evvie must learn to deal with the truth and all the ugliness it includes. Dean is a baseball player whose career ends suddenly when he gets a case of the yips. These two roommates must decide to be honest with each other before they can start over with each other. The characters are likable and easy to root for.

There's a lot to love with this book from Linda Holmes. I was excited to check this out because of her work with NPR, and her frequent musings about the romance genre and Hallmark movies in particular. She delivers! This is sweet, sad, and a little steamy - you'll want to check this one out as soon as it's been released.

This was such a fun book to read! I was looking for something to read that was lighter after reading a few harder novels in a row, and this was exactly what I needed! Such likeable characters, and I appreciate the platonic relationship that was thrown in there as well.
Great book!

I loved spending time in Evvie Drake's world and getting to know her her friends and family in her little Maine town. I enjoyed the journey that Evvie and Dean take from tenant and landlord to romance, and seeing each of them figure out how to rebuild their lives. It was a great balance of smart and funny!

I have to admit that I wanted to like this more than I did. As a long time fan of NPR's Linda Holmes, I was really looking forward to reading this. But I just couldn't get into it. I felt that it was slow moving and I wasn't super invested in the budding relationship between the two main characters. I think this could be a good pick for the right reader, someone who enjoys books like The Wedding Date (which I also found slightly boring) and other sort of low key romantic comedy types. It just wasn't for me...

This was an enjoyable book. I liked the main characters -- Eveleth (Evvie), Andy, and Dean. I am glad that the author choose to have the strong platonic relationship between Evvie and Andy, and even had a brief attempt at a relationship as part of the backstory. It is not often that one finds a book where a male and female character can have a close relationship and be mutual sources of support without one person secretly being in love with the other person or the friends eventually becoming lovers.

One of the best aspects of this book is how relatable is the character of Evvie. She knows that people have a certain image of her and her life and certain expectations of how she should behave, and while those impressions and expectations of her are mistaken, she cannot bring herself to contravene those expectations, not wanting to cause others pain and not wanting to face what kind of person she is if her true feelings are known. She also has a desire to fix others, as with Dean and his pitching career (or lack thereof since developing the "yips."). I enjoyed watching the evolution of Evvie as situations forced her to confront her past and admit that she had essentially been living a lie and as she realized how truly toxic her marriage had been, and as she finally had to confront how much of herself she had been hiding/suppressing due to the circumstances she had experienced so far in her life.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley.

This book was really lovely. It's a slow burn and not a fast-paced novel, but it is the perfect book to read wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea/cocoa/coffee. It had humor, heart, and just lots of feeling. I highly recommend!

One of my favorites of 2019!! The story drew me in right away. I loved the characters and their friendships. It was so sweet. Both main characters had issues to work through but really helped and learned from each other. It was cute, sweet and pulls on your heart strings. It reminded me of Katherine Center’s novels. This will be a summer must read for Women’s Fiction.

I am not going to talk about the plot here, and I recommend reading this book with no information other than the title, which should be enough. The way the plot unfolds is lovely, and learning about Evvie only through Linda Holmes' words is the best way to go. Evvie has a unique story while being completely relatable, and there's a crying scene that made me feel completely seen. Getting to know Evvie is worth whatever time you have to spend.

I was immediately captivated by the quirky perspective of thirty-year-old widowed Eveleth (Evvie) who lives in a small Maine coastal town. The night her husband dies in a car crash, she has decided to leave him and has begun packing up her car when she receives the news. Unable to tell even her best friend, Andy, that she had been so unhappy in her marriage, she struggles to come to terms with her new status as a ‘grieving’ widow.

Enter a former Major League pitcher, friend of Andy’s, who was fired for suddenly being unable to pitch. He rents an apartment at the back of Evvie’s large home to try and figure out what to do next and an unlikely friendship begins, eventually leading to something more. As Evvie and Dean each grapple with their respective emotional dilemmas that they only gradually reveal to each other, they find understanding and love, yet, of course, silly miscommunication gets in the way of ‘happily ever after.’

The dialogue and Evvie’s inner musings are hilarious and the gradual, natural movement of the two from friendship to romance is heartwarming and engaging. The writing is smooth and interesting and keeps the reader moving along, wanting more, rooting for the main characters. The peripheral characters are also interesting, and the Maine setting is charming. I highly recommend this light-hearted read that also touches on the important theme of being true to one’s self while being honest with others.

Thanks to Random House-Ballantine and Net Galley for providing me with the ARC. I truly enjoyed this book.

A feel-good, heartwarming, story about the unlikely relationship between a woman whose husband died just as she was (literally) leaving him and a star Yankee pitcher who “loses his stuff” in a spectacularly public way.

Well-written with great banter, an array of likable characters, and plenty of humor. The premise is plausible enough and I enjoyed the social commentary and details of every day life in this small town on the mid-Coast of Maine. There is a lot more depth to the characters than is usual for a women’s fiction offering of this sort.

The author is the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast — I haven’t heard of this (I’m not a big podcast person), but I like the title, and I can guess that this explains a lot about the great character interactions!) Interesting to note that in two of the primary families, it is the mother that left, leaving the father to raise the children alone. I’m noticing a trend of this kind of gender role swapping which is always interesting!

One small annoyance for me personally — a (pretty humorous) diatribe on the part of one character about a woman who was destroying their book club because she wanted people to actually read the books and didn’t accept that book clubs were just for socializing. I am that woman, and I stand by my demands!!

Great for fans of Kristan Higgins

Cute little read for spring. Evvie and Andy, her deceased husband's best friend, become close after her husband's sudden death from a car crash. Meanwhile, Andy's best friend, Dean Tenney needs a break from his baseball career when he can no longer pitch. He encourages Dean to come to Maine for some much needed rest. He moves into the apartment that Evvie has at the back of her house. They make some promises to each other that prove impossible to keep. .

Oh, how I needed this one! This is a perfect book for those who are in a reading slump or are finished with an intense read. This is such a light story that you can either read in one sitting of take your time. I have not read s a book like this in a long time and I am so glad I requested it. I must admit I'm not a big fan of romance novels so I was not sure what to expect with this one. It has romance but not so much that it put me off. It has the right amount of comedy, drama, love and heartbreak. This one will be my go to read should I ever need a pick-me-up.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes was simply wonderful. I loved the character development and flow of Evvie's tale. The story was sad, sweet, and everything in between.

As a longtime follower of Linda Holmes's work at NPR and on the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, I have been looking forward to reading her debut novel for some time. It did not disappoint! Funny and relatable, with just the right touches of sentimentality and sweetness, I am recommending Evvie Drake to any friends interested in a well-told story with GREAT characters. I appreciate that the characters act like adults and the story is free of manufactured, overwrought drama. The baseball storyline and references are a fun bonus for anyone who loves the game!

Linda Holmes clearly loves rom-coms and has created a book that I think could easily be translated to the screen, with protagonist Evvie Drake's failing confidence but endearing sense of humor and ex-baseball pitcher Dean who is looking for a quiet place to hideout from a career that ended in flames. A few things I loved about the novel:
-Side characters that were thoroughly developed and lovingly included (specifically Andy and Monica, both of which I could read more about!)
-All of the little hints and nods to public radio and podcasting (since I'm regular fan of Pop Culture Happy Hour and Linda's NPR commentary)
-The setting (a little town in Maine? Lobsters?!) Having spent a little time growing up in Portland/Bangor as a child, I felt like it was a perfect setting for an introspective set of characters
-Limited baseball talk (and thankfully it's not football)
I'm only marking it down because I didn't feel like it offered anything mind blowing or new - but sometimes it's nice to enjoy an easy, quick read without thinking too deeply about it. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book is exchange for my honest opinion - if you're looking for a book that will pull on your heartstrings but not toooo hard, spend some time with characters that are flawed but trying to do their best, and like to read #womensfiction and #romance, pick this up when it comes out!

I loved this sweet heartwarming book. I loved the characters of Evie and Dean. They were such believable and beautiful characters.
I didn’t want this book to end
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

This book is wonderful— funny, smart, and full of heart! I listen regularly to Linda Holmes on her podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, and was so excited to read her novel. It certainly did not disappoint! Evvie Drake Starts Over is a romantic comedy, but it’s more than that, too. It touches on adult friendship, the parent-child relationship, and the protagonist’s relationship with herself. I would happily recommend this to all of my girlfriends.

Evvie Drake is trying to change her life when her husband dies in a car accident. For the next year, she barely leaves the house. Her best friend Andy has a friend who is a major league pitcher. Dean Tenney has a bad case of the yips and can't get the ball across the plate. When Andy suggests that Dean get out of New York and rent the apartment in Evvie's house in Maine, both begin to move forward with their lives.
Both Evvie and Dean are fully developed, flawed characters. I enjoyed watching them come to grips with the things they learned about themselves and others. Minor characters are also well developed and small town Maine gives this novel a good sense of place.

Evvie Drake is a widow who was in the process of leaving her doctor husband the night he was killed in a car wreck.  She feels bad that she doesn't feel like the grieving widow that everyone expects her to be.  Her best friend is Andy whose wife left him.  There is no romance between the two, just a deep friendship.  Andy's friend Dean was a major league pitcher who suddenly lost the ability to make the ball go where he wanted.  He moves to their small town in Maine and rents the attached apartment from Evvie.

The story is good and it is enjoyable. This probably would have been a four-star review except for the language.  Dean's is especially vulgar.  He doesn't seem to get through a single sentence without swearing.  As the book goes along, the rest of the characters pick it up. 

If you can tolerate the language, it isn't a bad read.  It keeps moving and the story unfolds well.