Evvie Drake Starts Over

I hate it when a non-romance novelist gets a lot of buzz for writing what is basically a contemporary romance novel. And then I hate it even more when said novel is really, really GOOD. Evvie Drake Starts Over sounds a little too much like a podcast when it starts, but then Linda Holmes settles in and tells a really strong story about guilt, grief, beginnings and endings. As a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I couldn't help loving a hero who is at least a bit modeled on former pitcher Rick Ankiel, who notoriously lost his ability to pitch during a playoff game and left the game soon after (only to make a brief but memorable reappearance as an outfielder). And it's easy to root for Evvie to break out of the guilt, fear and anger that have built up over the decades of her marriage to an emotionally abusive but outwardly charming doctor (and have probably been there ever since her mother left the family when Evvie was a young girl). I have to say that Evvie's relationship with her neghbor Andy was arguably even more interesting than the romance; there aren't enough stories out there about platonic friendships between men and women and how that dynamic changes when one of the friends finds a significant other.

TL;DR - worth the hype. Dammit.