Evvie Drake Starts Over. Finished 7-14-20, 4.25/5 stars, fiction, pub. 2019

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.     from Goodreads

What a great summer read (or listen, in my case)!  What at first seemed like a fairly standard rom-com turned into something so much more authentic.  Evvie was leaving her husband, her bags were in the car, when she got a phone call from the hospital telling her to come right away.  As she played the part of the dutiful widower she felt like a fraud.  Enter Dean.  Once a star pitcher his career had stalled and he was not sure what to do about it.  I really liked that the friendship came first and that they didn’t hold back truth to be polite.  And the ending?  Not what I was expecting and I loved it.

This is a good one!