Evvie Drake has been holed up in her big house in a small town in Maine, ever since her husband died in a car accident. Everyone assumes she's grieving. (It's complicated...)
Then her best friend Andy asks if she'd consider renting the small apartment attached to her house to an old friend of his who's also laying low: Dean Tenney, a Major League baseball pitcher (New York Yankees!) who's got a bad case of "the yips," has lost his mojo and is being hounded by the press about it.
Would you be surprised to learn these two gradually move from a landlord-tenant relationship to friendship to something more?? (Me either...)
Author Roxane Gay called this a "Hallmark movie" in her Goodreads review. She's not wrong. It definitely falls into the "rom-com" category -- and it's utterly predictable. (There's even a cute puppy, near the end.) The romance is the slow burn variety -- maybe almost a little too slow. On balance, it's a pleasant read, and it says some wise things about grief, near the end. I will admit I developed a bit of a crush on Dean. ;) And I would love to see/own Evvie's cottage by the water!
I will likely look at "Flying Solo" as a future read.
3 stars on Goodreads & StoryGraph.
ALI/CNBC notes (mild spoiler alerts): Evvie does not have children, but she does dote on Andy's two young daughters.
I got a shock of recognition in Chapter 31: Dean says some things about his career that, while not about fertility treatments, definitely gave me a feeling of deja vu. (If/when you read the book, you'll see what I mean...!) Points to the author for that!
This was Book #14 read to date in 2026 (and Book #4 finished in June), bringing me to 35% of my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind pace to meet my goal. :( You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."
No comments:
Post a Comment