Book Review of Eddie Winston is Looking for Love

Kim Shute • July 15, 2025

Director of Community Relations Kim Shute shares with us her thoughts on the most recent book that she has read.

I have a dear friend who is extremely anti-spoiler for books, tv shows, and movies. When I write these reviews I try to keep her at the top of mind. It is a tricky thing to write a review that gives just the right amount of information to intrigue. I want you to read this review and then run right over to the library or bookstore and get a copy, as I think it can bring your heart some much needed hope and restoration. This month I am so in love with this book and the characters who populate these pages I want to tell you everything about it and them! And yet I do not want to ruin your experience so I will try to give you just enough but not too much to pique your interest.

For this month’s review I listened to Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin. You are in for a treat should you decide to pick up a copy of this charming, uplifting, and often funny story. The protagonist is Eddie Winston, a delightful, 90-year-old human being who continues to grow and change to live his best life. He has worked in a charity shop for 12 years and he finds it compelling and always changing.

Each month we focus on a book that has a theme about loss, grief, and/or dying. On the surface that might seem like a downer or a bummer and yet I hold the opinion that looking at and keeping an awareness of death and dying allows us a chance to deepen our appreciation of and dedication to life and living. That is what Eddie does. This book made me feel much the same way as watching Ted Lasso from Apple TV (I hope you have watched that!)

At the charity shop many of their wares come from donation after a person has died. Eddie helps to catalog the donations that come in. He has a tender habit of taking some items home that would have no monetary value, only value for the people who had them previously. He has a theory that at some point the donors will regret letting go of love letters and other one-of-a-kind items like hand painted converse sneakers. He pockets those items and puts them on his “Eddie Shelf” in his flat. 

When people make donations he often makes a personal connection with the individuals or at least he learns a bit about them if he can. Through one of these connections he meets Bella a young twenty-something who we learn has suffered the death of her young boyfriend Jake. Bella becomes very near and dear to Eddie. When she discovers that he has never been kissed among other intimate details about Eddie’s life, she encourages him to start online dating, insisting it is never too late to look for love. It seems Eddie engages in the activity as a distraction for Bella from her own grief.

As the book continues they go on some adventures together and we learn that Eddie did have a person who meant a lot to him for more than 60 years. This story has many layers and offers a glimpse into the mind and heart of a nonagenarian with all his hopes and dreams whether realized or not.

This book is about intergenerational friendship, love, and life. I invite you to give whimsical Eddie and his friends a chance to enrich your life and possibly ask yourself questions about how you live your own life. Let us know what you think of Eddie and crew.

I hope you love it as much as I did!

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