CBR Bingo Square: Pajiba
Linda Holmes is one of my favorite people I don’t actually know, but I feel like I know because see is the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. She is warm and funny, and when I found out she was writing a book (a kissing book) I knew I had to read it.
https://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/on-the-spectacular-evvie-drake-starts-over-and-the-time-nprs-linda-holmes-twitter-shamed-me.php (Dustin’s review of the same book, which he talks about the time Linda Holmes shamed him on Twitter. I am always happy I have about 7 followers when I hear things like this. You can delete your posts, but SOMEONE is going to screen shot things when you show your ass on social media.
Anyhoo, this books is really great. Evvie Drake is on the verge of leaving her abusive (yes, I said it) husband with the perfect veneer, when he dies in a car accident. Dean Tenney is a former professional baseball pitcher whose career suddenly flames out hard. There is a bit of conflict between the two of them to get to the HEA, but even that is very gentle and resolves in a lovely way that made me cry. Dean moves into the apartment attached to her house to get away from New York, and Evvie promises not to talk about baseball if he promises not to talk about her husband.
The small town in Maine is it’s own character and there is also a best friend (NOT modeled after Linda’s best friend and fellow podcaster Stephen Thompson, as she says) and his girlfriend. They were nice characters too, and the girlfriend is a fully fleshed out and awesome person in her own right. Evvie’s dad is sweet and cranky.
The romance is a sloooooow burn. They don’t even get together at the moment you think she is setting them up to get together. These are two somewhat screwed up people who belong together. I really enjoyed it, and will read whatever Linda Holmes comes up with next.