"In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn't correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy's childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the "yips": he can't throw straight anymore, and he can't figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button. When Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house, the two make a deal: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about Dean's baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken--and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. But before they can find out what might lie ahead, they'll have to wrestle a few demons: the bonds they've broken, the plans they've changed, and the secrets they've kept. They'll need a lot of help, but in life, as in baseball, there's always a chance--right up until the last out"--… (más)
Evvie Drake, a grieving widow, rents the apartment in her Maine house to a retired major league baseball player.
This is my favorite genre of wish fulfillment romance: the poverty isn't grinding but can be overcome, it takes only one try to find a therapist you vibe with, one drunken screaming match can bridge the damage dealt to a friendship from years of a perniciously bad relationship. The grief is well-written, especially the spilt rice scene (that is indeed a very common expression of grief, where you make it through something truly awful and then lose your sh*t over something trivial).
This book was the result of me requesting something that was light-hearted but real, that wouldn't give me nightmares if I read it before bed, and it hit the mark. ( )
Very good book. Glad I read. KIRKUS REVIEWA 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 fatherÂ¥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?Â¥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 friendsÂ¥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.
I really liked the storyline of a widow and a baseball player with the yips but I got annoyed with some of the writing and the banter between characters - to me in a lot of cases it felt forced. It would probably work better in a movie. ( )
It was exactly what Andy had always said---that someday, the press would long for Dean to fight his way back. They'd want to forgive him, and it wouldn't be because they were merciful. It would be because the flavor had gone out of hating him like it goes out of cheap gum, and now they needed to taste something different.
When she started to cry, the upside was as it always was: the shower cry takes the logistics out of it. Crying has to be dealt with---it makes a mess, it swells up your face, it creates a little pile of tissues that are a tell. But the shower cry is the superspy's cry, Evvie had always thought. It was between you and the tile walls, and everything that hurt turned into water, and the water went away.
"In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn't correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy's childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the "yips": he can't throw straight anymore, and he can't figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button. When Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house, the two make a deal: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about Dean's baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken--and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. But before they can find out what might lie ahead, they'll have to wrestle a few demons: the bonds they've broken, the plans they've changed, and the secrets they've kept. They'll need a lot of help, but in life, as in baseball, there's always a chance--right up until the last out"--
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This is my favorite genre of wish fulfillment romance: the poverty isn't grinding but can be overcome, it takes only one try to find a therapist you vibe with, one drunken screaming match can bridge the damage dealt to a friendship from years of a perniciously bad relationship. The grief is well-written, especially the spilt rice scene (that is indeed a very common expression of grief, where you make it through something truly awful and then lose your sh*t over something trivial).
This book was the result of me requesting something that was light-hearted but real, that wouldn't give me nightmares if I read it before bed, and it hit the mark. (