Bonnie and Stan – Anna Stuart

Bonnie & Stan is a poignant, surprising love story set during the Swinging Sixties and the present day. Ultimately feel-good and full of emotion, Bonnie & Stan will make your heart sing.

About the book:

After 50 years together Stan still adores his wife… so why is he dating again?

Bonnie and Stan are soulmates. They met during the Swinging Sixties, to the soundtrack of The Beatles and the Merseybeat scene. Now they’ve grown up and grown old together, had children and grandchildren. They are finally building their dream home, when disaster strikes.

Stan is running out of time, and can’t bear the thought of leaving Bonnie alone. Alongside his teenage granddaughter Greya, he forms a plan to find Bonnie a new love of her life. And she must never find out…

About the author:

Anna wanted to be an author from the moment she could pick up a pen and was writing boarding-school novels behind the sofa by the age of nine. She made the early mistake of thinking she ought to get a ‘proper job’ and went into Factory Planning – a career that gave her some wonderful experiences, amazing friends and even a fantastic husband, but did not offer much creative scope. So when she stopped to have children she took the chance to start the ‘improper job’ of writing. During the baby years she wrote in those gaps provided by sleeps, play schools and obliging grandparents, publishing short stories and serials in all the women’s magazines. Her ultimate aim was to write longer fiction and several years ago she published a series of successful historical novels under the pseudonym Joanna Courtney. She will continue to publish under that name but is delighted, as Anna Stuart, to also be able to write Bonnie and Stan – a real-life romance set in both the present day and sixties Liverpool.

My Review

Where do I start?  I chose this book to read with my real life book club as I had arranged the blogtour and seen such amazing reviews from my fellow bloggers and suffering from FOMO it was an easy decision to select this book.

I don’t normally read romance or women’s fiction preferring a good serial killer than a weepy, but BONNIE AND STAN may have just changed my reading habits slightly!

Bonnie and Stan have been in love for over 50 years, nearing retirement and about to build their dream house when Stan is given the worst news and a diagnosis that turns everyone’s lives upside down.  Stan can’t stand the thought of Bonnie being on her own when he’s gone so together with his granddaughter they sign up to an online dating app to find Bonnie a new husband which results in some very amusing and often heartbreaking results.

The story is told through present day and flashbacks to the 50’s when Bonnie first met Stan in Liverpool.  She was studying Architecture in Liverpool University and he was a member of an upcoming band The Best Boys who dreamt of stardom and being the next Beatles.

BONNIE AND STAN is an emotional and heart warming read and whilst the story does centre around Stan, his terminal illness and impending death it never becomes morbid or uncomfortably sad.  It’s a character driven story and whilst Bonnie and Stan are the main leads, the supporting cast of family and friends were absolutely wonderful.  The bickering between their twin daughters, the relationship between Stan and Dave was so touching and Bonnie’s wonderful aunt Nancy and her wife Astrid are incredible characters which all give this story the added depth and layers to make the reader feel part of the family and the story.

I would definitely recommend this book.

 

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