MY BOOKS
NewZealandWoman’sWeekly 79
Suddenly
SINGLE
EVVIEDISCOVERSTHEEND IS JUSTTHEBEGINNING
EvvieDrakeStartsOver
byLindaHolmes
(Hachette,RRP$37.99)PaulCleaveis a Christchurch
crimewriter.Hislatestnovel
WhateverIt Takes(Upstart
Press,RRP$37.99)is outnow.
Myfavouritebookeveris...
“TheCatcherin theRyeby
JDSalinger.There’ssomething
aboutthisbookthathasalways
stuckwithme.I thinkit’sthat
theprotagonist’svoiceis
capturedin a waythatmakes
mefeellikeit’smyown– like,if
I wasfloatingaround 70 years
agoandwanderingthrough
NewYorkasa teenager,I’dbe
seeingthingsthesameway.”
Mybookofthemomentis...
”TheNanny”byGillyMacmillan.
Gillyis a friendofmine,anda
fantasticauthor.I haven’tread
thisyet,butI’mexcitedto.Her
lastbookshavebeenincredible.
She’suptherewiththebest.”BOOK
WEEK
ofthe
NickyPellegrino
BOOKSEDITORreadingCORNER
About the author... Linda Holmes
starts living a lie, not even
admitting to her closest friends
the truth about the marriage
they all assumed was happy.
Then Evvie meets a man who
is hurting just as much as she
is. Dean Tenney was a baseball
star until a bad case of
the yips meant his
career nose-dived.
While he tries to
work out what to
do with his life, he
rents the apartment
at the back of Evvie’s
house. The pair make a deal;
neither will talk to the other
about the things in their pasts
that have broken them. But
it’s a deal they struggle to keep.
Set in small-town coastal
Maine, this is a big-hearted
book that will make you smile.
It is tinged with darker
themes– grief,emotional
abuse,anxiety– butthey never
overwhelmthestoryormake
anyless
scapist andI
f you’ve ever heard of the
Danish term “hygge” then
you will probably know it
means a feeling of cosiness
and contentment found in the
simple things of life.
This novel is pretty much
“hygge” in book form. It is the
ideal read to snuggle with
under a rug and completely
unwind. Evvie Drake Starts Over
is a love story and a light read,
but not a shallow one.
It opens as Evvie is on the
brink of leaving her husband.
Literally, she is packing her
car when she gets a call to
say that he has been in a
serious car accident.
For Evvie, his subsequent
death makes everything more
complicated. Now she is a
widow, how can she admit to
those who adored her husband
thatshehadfallenoutoflove
withhim?
Suffusedwithguilt,Evvielovable for the reader.
Evvie is a character who is a
pleasure to hang out with. She
seems very real and human,
and while the plot doesn’t really
go anywhere you don’t expect
it to, the journey is a very
pleasant one.Life after loss!
She is a former Minnesota lawyer turned
broadcaster and podcaster, specialising
in pop culture. This is her debut novel.
This novel was inspired by... “My love
of baseball and the vacations I spent in
Maine as a kid. I think in a more subtle
way,it wasinspiredbythe time I’ve spent
workingthrough questions
about how to be the
person I want to
be, and how to
build a life for
myself that’s
the one I want.
It’s happened
in very different
circumstancesthan Evvie’s, but to some degree,
looking for the right future for
yourself is universal.”
The most challenging thing about
writing it was... “Being confident I
could finish since it’s something I’ve
wanted to do for many, many years.
There was part of me that had lost
all confidence that I could complete
a project of this magnitude. It
was very hard to push through
those moments.”
My writing habits are... ”Adaptable.
I’ve had a day job the whole time
so I write early in the morning, late at
night, on weekends, on vacation and
plan in my head when I’m driving.”overwhelmthestory
it
esSuffusedwithguilt,EvvieWant to make Evvie Drake
Starts Over your next book
club read? Here’s a talking point
to get things going: Discuss
Evvie’s dilemma – how should
she grieve someone she had
such a complicated
relationship with?YOUR
BOOK CLUB