Summary:
In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future.
When he 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. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out.
My take: 3 looks
Evvie Drake has kept a secret for a long time, and when her life changes in the first few pages, she starts piling more secrets on top. Her life is perfectly managed on the outside, but the fragile web of her outward existence starts to break down when her best friend starts dating, a dreamy washed-out baseball player comes to town, and her estranged mother wants to pop in for a visit. Add the fact that she is a fixer/people-pleaser, and you have the perfect beach read.
Light and airy, this is a nice rom-com that is pretty straightforward with just enough tense moments to keep those pages turning.
On a side note, I must have read too many thrillers lately because I kept waiting for something horrible to happen, to ruin everything I wanted the story to be. This is the opposite of a spoiler, and a note for everyone with biblio-anxiety (I just made that up, but feel free to use it because it’s an awesome term): the other shoe does NOT drop. So, read with confidence that you will not want to throw the book against the wall.
I enjoyed the characters, Evvie’s best friend being a man, the unapologetic benefit of therapy, and the emotional growth evident in Evvie from beginning to end.
Recommended
