Download Evvie Drake Starts Over A Novel Linda Holmes 9780525619246 Books

Product details Hardcover 304 pages Publisher Ballantine Books (June 25, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0525619240

Evvie Drake Starts Over A Novel Linda Holmes 9780525619246 Books Reviews

• Mom loved this book. This was her first Linda Holmes read. I get these type of romance books for my mom. She loves to read and this book was no exception. I know when she loves a book because she will read it in a day or two. This book was read in a day. I understand that this is Linda Holmes first book, but mom is definitely looking forward to Linda Holmes next book.
  
  I never tell about the book itself as I DO NOT want to spoil anything for another reader. Mom may give me a synopsis about the book but I never talk about the story line. Hate it when someone tells me something about the story that occurs 3/4 the way thru a book or a reviewer tells me they do finally get married. I don’t want you spoiling my reading and I do not want to spoil your reading when it comes to a good book. I figure it you are wanting to know a little about the story, you can read the synopsis that and the author gives you. What I can say is this is a nice warming feeling romance from 2 people that are at different places in life.
  
  This is definitely a recommend to Mom’s Beauty Shop Book Group. She really enjoyed the flow of the book, the writing style of the author and the story itself. Good Read.
• The day she's going to leave him, Evvie Drake's husband, a beloved child of her small Maine town, dies in a car wreck. A year later, she finds herself stuck in the role of grieving widow in the eyes of her town, party to a big lie, unable to move forward, or to reconcile the truth of her past.
  
  Determined to break her out of her rut, her best friend Andy convinces her to let his old friend Dean move into the apartment at the back of her house. Dean is a big time baseball star with a bad case of the yips for reasons that no one knows, he has lost the ability to play.
  
  Two people, both lost, both hiding, both determined to keep their secrets.
  
  Of course we all know what happens next.
  
  There is something about a well earned happy ending that I like more than anything else in the world. And Evvie Drake provides one. That's not a spoiler, by the way! The well earned happy ending is not necessarily the one you would expect
  
  Here's what that means The characters are real and well drawn people, who have authentic and significant obstacles both within themselves and with each other. The things keeping Evvie and Dean stuck in their traumas are real, and it takes real work to get past them. The book doesn't draw on big plot twists, as much as it does naturally unfolding stressors and setbacks. And when they resolve their challenges, it makes emotional sense, as opposed to book cliche sense.
  
  And yes. Long time readers of Linda Holmes will know that through all of this, is great, tart humor. I've been reading Ms. Holmes' work since she was writing TV recaps, through her long time stint at NPR and host of their podcast. I've been looking forward to this work for a long time, and it did not disappoint me. It was funny, sweet, heartfelt and real, just as I expected it to be. (I also shared the book with a friend who loves this kind of read; she did not know Ms. Holmes' work at all, and loved the book just as much as me.)
  
  I'm delighted to be part of the next stage of Ms. Holmes' writing career, and I hope she keeps writing more books. Like Evvie and Dean, she's found her sweet spot.
• Evvie Drake Starts Over is a character driven novel with a lot of heart. While the premise is nothing new, all of the characters are complex and genuine. Adults who have their own troubles but find a safe haven in each other.
  
  Evvie Drake transports the reader to a small fishing village in Maine. Evvie was raised by her fisherman father after her mother deserted the family. Recently a widow at 33 years of age, Evvie has a secret. Married to her high school sweetheart, a well respected doctor in the community, she feels like a “monster”. She is not grieving for her deceased husband, in fact she was leaving him, on the day he died in a car crash. Strapped for money, Evvie agrees to take in a boarder for the apartment in the back of her large Victorian House. Her best friend Andy, a single father raising his two daughters after his own wife left, suggests his friend, Yankee pitcher Dean Tenney. Dean’s demons are external…..he can no longer pitch straight and fears the end of his career. Evvie and Dean agree to never discuss the elephant in the room... questions about her husband or his career. The book covers four seasons as Evvie and Dean slowly begin to realize that love’s blossoming. Thankfully, the author avoids all forms of melodrama and crafts a light and lively story using clever dialogue, realistic relationships and not a whiff of a love triangle. Yes, you can have a best male friend who you love in a platonic way. Watching Evvie and Dean’s growth and how they change each other for the better is engaging and inspiring. I also liked the author’s attention to relational shifts, such as Evvie’s reaction to Andy’s budding relationship, with local high school teacher Monica Bell. Evvie Drake would have been a home run with just a little more of a memorable plot.
• It was a book that was easy to slip into. The writing is gentle as it takes you through the seasons with Evvie. There’s humor and friendship and romance mixed in with growing pains. It was fun to take this trek with Evvie and escape for a while.