Tag: linda holmes

Back After This by Linda Holmes (Rom-com)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Story: 5/5

I really enjoyed this (very) funny, well-written, and actually insightful rom-com written by the author of Evvie Drake Starts Over. I like rom-coms when they are clever, witty, and most of all — NOT STUPID. I can’t stress that last quality enough. This was a perfect, read-in-one-sitting exemplar of exactly what I love in a rom-com and perfect for this stressful season.

Cecily is a podcast producer who agrees (think forced, bribed, coerced) to star in a podcast about modern dating with the help of a dating guru / popular Influencer. An introverted audio nerd by nature, this takes her so far out of her comfort zone that she feels impending implosion looming everywhere. Plenty of (well-paced, well-written) comedy follows, but I was impressed that she gained some real insight into aspects of her own personality that were getting in the way of her getting more of what she wanted from life. While I can’t bear to read about physical makeovers, psychological makeovers — are fascinating.

As an aside, I learned interesting components of podcast production (and marketing) which were new to me and described with a depth that showed true understanding on the part of the author (pet peeve: I hate when characters have a huge passion for something but then never do or think about it in any meaningful way).

A cross between Lori Gottlieb and Curtis Sittenfeld — the best of them both!

Some great quotes:
“I wondered exactly where that research had been done. Presumably the University of Unsupported Hunches, where I was guessing she was a tenured professor.”

“He took me to an ax-throwing bar on our first date, and he was very good at ax-throwing, which I suppose impressed me, because you never know when you might need a guy who can kill a monster in a cartoon dungeon.”

“But we finally agreed on a loose top that fell off one of my shoulders and a pair of pants that had just enough stretch to accommodate my newly emphasized hips without making me look and feel like a vacuum-sealed pork shoulder, ready for a sous vide bath.”

“He had the facial symmetry and the perfectly shaped dark hair of a Lego prince.”

“I tried to dig my smile out of the recesses of my personality.”

“It made for a long dinner, learning quite that much about Andrew’s gym routine.”

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 25th, 2025.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (Women’s Fiction)

A feel-good, heartwarming, story about the unlikely relationship between a woman whose husband died just as she was (literally) leaving him and a star Yankee pitcher who “loses his stuff” in a spectacularly public way.

Well-written with great banter, an array of likable characters, and plenty of humor. The premise is plausible enough and I enjoyed the social commentary and details of every day life in this small town on the mid-Coast of Maine. There is a lot more depth to the characters than is usual for a women’s fiction offering of this sort.

The author is the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast — I haven’t heard of this (I’m not a big podcast person), but I like the title, and I can guess that this explains a lot about the great character interactions!) Interesting to note that in two of the primary families, it is the mother that left, leaving the father to raise the children alone. I’m noticing a trend of this kind of gender role swapping which is always interesting!

One small annoyance for me personally — a (pretty humorous) diatribe on the part of one character about a woman who was destroying their book club because she wanted people to actually read the books and didn’t accept that book clubs were just for socializing. I am that woman, and I stand by my demands!!

Great for fans of Kristan Higgins.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 25th, 2019.