The Shape of Starting Over: A Spain, Maine Novel

Evie Hart came to Spain, Maine for six weeks. Six quiet weeks to recover from the end of her marriage, edit cookbooks from a furnished guesthouse apartment, and figure out what came next without anyone expecting her to explain the ruins. She did not plan on becoming a regular at the Mad Moose Café. She did not plan on community suppers, pottery lessons, KC nights, or a town that noticed people without demanding their stories. And she definitely did not plan on Marina Mitchell. Warm, steady, and impossible to dismiss, Marina feeds half the town through the Mad Moose and shapes clay in the studio next door. She understands rebuilding better than most people, and she can see immediately that Evie is still speaking about her life like it is temporary. As Spain slowly makes room for her, Evie begins to realize the life she lost may not be the one she wants back. The real question is no longer how to recover. It is who she is allowed to become. The Shape of Starting Over is a heartfelt midlife sapphic romance about divorce, community, chosen family, small-town healing, and the quiet courage of building a life in the present tense.