PINTEREST
BLOGLOVIN
GOODREADS
Eddie Winston is ninety years old. He has lived and he has loved, but he has never been kissed.
A true gentleman and incurable romantic, Eddie spends his days volunteering at a charity shop, where he sorts through the donations of the living and the dead, preserving letters and tokens of love along the way. It is here that he meets Bella, a troubled young woman who, aged twenty-four, has just lost the love of her life.
When Bella learns that Eddie is yet to have his first kiss, she resolves to help him finally find love, sparking an adventure that will take them to unexpected places and, they hope, bring Eddie to the moment he has waited for all his life.
As Bella helps Eddie and Eddie helps, well, everyone, a soul-stirring story of friendship and kindness unfolds as we see how those we love are never forgotten and it is never too late to try again.
Publisher: Doubleday /Transworld
Format: Ebook, Audiobook, Hardback (15 August 2024) | Paperback (1 December 2024)
352 pages
Source: PDF copy received for review
MY THOUGHTS
My thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours for the tour invite. In 2021 I was fortunate to be invited to take part in the blog tour with my review of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by this same author. Eddie Winston is Looking for Love is another story with inter-generational characters and I must tell you – I loved Lenni and Margot but I absolutely adored Eddie Winston.
“Love is really just two people who can’t keep away from each other”
Eddie is 90 years old and has never been kissed. The reader discovers the background to this nonagenarian’s life and the story moves seamlessly between timelines of a younger Eddie when he was an academic in 1965 and the present day. It is a story that will bring a lump to the throat with its poignancy, regret and missed opportunities. Eddie is far from being a miserable man though. It was his sunny attitude, his love of quirky clothes and young at heart optimism that made the book so special.
Bella is 24 years old and dealing (not very well) with her own heartbreak. She comes across Eddie whilst he is working in a charity shop. She has several items to donate but Eddie senses that Bella may not be quite ready to relinquish all of the items just yet and saves them for his secret ‘Eddie Shelf’ at home. A place where he stores for safekeeping any donated personal items such as photographs, letters or ‘junk’ that have no monetary value whatsoever but have such a unique personal value that he simply cannot bear to throw them away.
“I sort through the donations made by the living and the dead and I put a price tag on the souvenirs of someone else’s life”.
The developing friendship between Bella and Eddie was lovely to see, the two just gelled with their shared lunches in Pigeon Park and Bella took it upon herself to find Eddie someone to love – so that he could have that first kiss. What follows is a humourous and compassionate tale involving dating apps and finding that elusive ‘one’.
Eddie and Bella were undoubtedly the stars of the show but there were several supporting characters deserving of a commendation. Eddie’s charity shop boss Marjie with her love of beef drinks was truly eccentric but very loveable, as was Cheese and Ham with his man bun and routines. And I couldn’t not mention Emmeline, a wonderfully brash and charismatic character.
Set mainly in Birmingham, this was a fairly quick read, although that was possibly because I was glued to the book at every opportunity. The book made me smile and I was willing Eddie to find that special someone, and if he couldn’t, then well, just someone to make him happy. Amongst the humour there were emotional tugs at the heart which nearly broke me.
Beautifully written with captivating characters this will definitely be on my list for favourite books of the year. I couldn’t have loved it more and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.
At the time of this post, Eddie Winston is Looking for Love is available to download from Amazon for 99p. An absolute steal!
MARIANNE CRONIN was born in 1990 and grew up in Warwickshire. After gaining her PhD in applied linguistics, she worked in academia until becoming a writer. Her first novel, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, published by Doubleday in 2021, was voted ‘most uplifting book of 2021’ by The Independent and shortlisted for a Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction. She lives in the Midlands with her family and her cat.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x