Evvie Drake Starts Over

March 15, 2019
A widow and a former baseball player try to start over after life throws them some surprises in Pop Culture Happy Hour podcaster Holmes' debut.As far as everyone in her small town knows, Evvie Drake is a grieving widow. Her husband died in a car accident, and she's been living all alone in their big house, rarely venturing out except to get breakfast with her best friend, Andy. But what no one--not even Andy or Evvie's father--knows is that her husband was emotionally abusive, and she was planning to leave him on the night of his death. When Andy suggests that his old friend, former baseball player Dean Tenney, move in to the apartment attached to Evvie's house, she agrees. Much like Evvie, Dean's life hasn't turned out the way he wanted it to. After pitching for years, he's struggling with "the yips"--he's unable to pitch for reasons that neither he nor any professionals can figure out. Evvie and Dean are both mourning their old lives, for very different reasons, and the two of them quickly become friends--and then, slowly, something more than friends. Holmes writes with an easy warmth about kind people who are trying their best but messing things up anyway. Characters speak to each other with natural but hilarious dialogue, making their conversations a joy to read. Refreshingly, Evvie and Dean's relationship hurdles come about because they're adults with complex lives and baggage, not because of easily fixed miscommunications. Although their romance is often front and center, there are many other emotionally affecting storylines, chief among them the changing friendship between Andy and Evvie and Evvie's need to stand up to her family.A warm and lovely romance, perfect for readers of Rainbow Rowell and Louise Miller.

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April 29, 2019
Holmes’s debut charms, as a young widow and a former Major League pitcher learn to begin again. Evvie Drake has spent her whole life in Calcasset, Maine, and doesn’t feel as sad about her widowhood as she believe she should—possibly because she was packing up to leave her husband when she got the call about his deadly car accident. Then Dean Tenney, a former New York Yankees pitcher who has inexplicably lost his amazing pitching ability, comes to Maine to retreat from the media, and rents the apartment in Evvie’s house. Evvie and Dean grow closer, with the agreement that they not discuss her husband or his failed baseball trajectory. When Dean gets an opportunity to revamp his career with Evvie’s support, and she reveals some of the details of her difficult marriage to him, they develop trust and sparks ignite between them. But the future of their relationship depends on their ability to communicate and confide in one another. Believable, flawed characters are at the heart of this novel. At times deeply emotional yet sometimes extremely humorous, This is a satisfying crowd-pleaser. Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Company.

Starred review from April 1, 2019
The host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour introduces an appealing character in Evvie Drake, a recent widow living in small-town coastal Maine. Everyone assumes they understand why she has all but locked herself in her house, but even her best friend, Andy, doesn't know the truth. When Evvie agrees to rent her spare room to Andy's friend Dean, she discovers she is not the only one who's trying to hide from the world. Dean is a former Major League baseball star who's lost his ability to pitch and doesn't want to talk about it any more than Evvie wants to talk about her dead husband. Fighting her way through her guilt and fears won't be easy, but with help from Dean and her close-knit community, Evvie Drake might just make it to the other side. The charm of Holmes' novel comes not only from a genuine friendship turned sweet romance between Evvie and Dean but also from watching amiable Evvie stumble through the process of finding herself. A warm and funny book that will captivate fans of Abbi Waxman and Taylor Jenkins Reid.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

June 7, 2019

DEBUT Thirty-three-year-old Evvie Drake has been living a fairly solitary life in the year since her husband died, rattling around their too-large house in the small Maine town where they both grew up, and working as a transcriber for clients around the country. So when a friend of a friend needs some time away, she's happy to rent him the apartment attached to her home. Dean Tenney is a professional baseball player, a pitcher who, one day in the middle of a game, stopped being able to pitch, a rare but not unheard of condition known as "the yips." Each character is living in a sort of limbo, struggling to adjust to fundamental shifts in their identities, and they gradually become friends, then something more. But both have unfinished business with their previous selves that they'll have to address before moving forward. Though one could make the case for this being a romance novel--and plenty of romance readers will enjoy it--there's a stronger focus on the characters' individual arcs than on them as a couple. VERDICT Holmes's (host, NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour) debut is charming, funny, and warmhearted and will please fans of Jasmine Guillory and Maria Semple. [See Prepub Alert, 12/17/18.]--Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 7, 2019

Host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, Holmes tosses out a debut featuring a recently widowed young woman named Eveleth "Evvie" Drake, who remains a recluse in her small Maine town until former major league baseball pitcher Dean Tenney--childhood buddy of Evvie's best friend Andy--moves into the apartment at the back of Evvie's house.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.