From the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast comes a debut about the unlikely relationship between a young woman who’s lost her husband and a major league pitcher who’s lost his game.
... pure delight. Linda Holmes weaves a coziness into the small-town setting and the characters that populate it, lending even the novel’s hard moments a kind of warmth. Evvie’s character is funny and real, and her friends, her family, and Dean are all drawn with detail and complexity that make them feel familiar and make the moments the reader spends with them feel like quality time. With humor and heart, Holmes tells a story about granting yourself joy and liberation, about building the kind of home you always wanted with the people you love.
...a nuanced, extraordinarily ordinary adult love story that is as romantic as it is real ... At first, these characters appear to be fictional stereotypes – the lonely woman and the jock – but with Holmes' deft talent, they evolve into subtly nuanced individuals. Once we get to know the real Evvie and Dean, and as they get to know themselves, we want to continue the journey with them ... With the effortlessly enjoyable Evvie Drake Starts Over Holmes proves herself a natural novelist...
... a charming and engaging story that also proves willing to look at loss and how that can mean different things to different people ... There’s a wonderful juxtaposition at play here ... this is a debut novel from Holmes, although it certainly doesn’t read like one. There’s a smoothness to the storytelling that is a great pleasure to read, a gentle persistence of plot that bears the reader forward with deceptive speed – it’s the sort of book that you might read cover-to-cover in a single sitting if you’re not careful. The characterizations feel very full; Evvie and Dean are well-realized in ways both large and small. Oh, and it’s pretty damned funny in stretches too ... an ideal summer read, the sort of breezy book that offers strong relationships and compelling characters while also providing a fluid narrative flow. Few things are as captivating as love born from loss; this book offers that and more. If this is how Holmes begins her career as a novelist, I can’t wait to see what she does next.
