Evvie Drake Starts Over – Linda Holmes
Expectation: An inter-generational friendship between two unlikely people.
Reality: Age-appropriate romance versus friendship. The whole thing was predictable, but the darker edges made it feel unique. As someone who doesn’t usually read this genre, I liked it more than expected.
My Take:
“Evvie Drake Starts Over” is the type of story that’s comforting in its predictability. It’s the literary equivalent of a Hallmark Channel movie — small-town hijinks, new romance and family dramedy that all wraps up nicely in the end. While not my usual cup of tea, it was a good palate cleanser after some heavier reads.
My literary tastes skew character-driven and depressing, so what helped me enjoy this more than expected were the darker edges that Linda Holmes (an NPR journalist by day) worked into the story.
Evvie is a young widow, but she’s carrying a secret – she was planning to leave her physician husband on the day he died. The beloved doctor was emotionally and physically abusive to her for years, but to everyone in the town he was a hero. Evvie is tired of the “sad widow” charade when she wants to feel liberated.
Through memories of their relationship, Holmes presents a realistic view of different types of abuse and living with a narcissist. Her late husband was controlling and belittling, and the repercussions of that have been long-lasting for Evvie. Yet, she’s not portrayed as victim, rather someone that needs the encouragement to be happy – for the first time in her life.
That nudging comes form her best platonic friend, Andy, who encourages his childhood friend, Dean, to move into the apartment attached to Evvie’s house. Dean is a former MLB pitcher with a case of the yips, which I guess is included in every story about baseball I’ve read recently, and he needs time to plot his next move far from the watchful eye of sports journalists.
You know how this story is going to end — the broken people will fix one another — but that’s entirely okay. For every far-fetched plot point or super convenient situation, I was still charmed by Holmes’ snappy dialogue, quick pacing and deeper-than-expected musings on how you move forward when everything you’ve ever known no longer makes sense.
If you’re looking for a cast of quirky characters, you won’t find them here. Outside of Evvie and Dean, no one else is given much to do. I had high hopes for Andy, but he was simply a plot device in the end. If you want less romance and more multi-character development, I’d recommend Katherine Heiny’s “Early Morning Riser” instead.
The audiobook was narrated by all-star Julia Whelan, who does her typical fantastic job while still delivering the same performance she does for every other audiobook she narrates. It’s quality but not groundbreaking — just like the novel.
Rating (story): 3.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: September 8 – September 11, 2022
Multi-tasking: Good to go. I mostly cooked and cleaned while listening.
