I really enjoyed reading The Great Unexpected by Dan Mooney. One of my favorite parts about this book were the characters. They were so well developed and felt like real people. I immediately connected to them and that did not change throughout the story. I also loved that this book had a great balance of emotion and humor. There were times I thought scenes felt a little rushed, but overall I liked this book a lot.

I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Dan Mooney did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would highly recommend it!

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

This book is meant to be savored not rushed through. It is indeed bittersweet. Grumpy old man living in nursing home seeks death rather than living in “prison” like environment of a resting home. Eccentric new roommate gives him a new outlook on life. It makes me think of the old man from the movie “Up,” if he had been forced to move into the retirement community instead of the great escape with the balloons.

The two main characters were enjoyable, but I just could not get into the book itself. It was too slow for me, but I'm sure someone who loves this troupe would love this book.

Joel does not have much to be happy about, especially given his current living situation. Control of his life has been shunted off to the administrators of the nursing home in which he lives, a fact that makes Joel grumpy. Will a new roommate and unexpected ally change Joel's perspective?

Readers who like A Man Called Ove and Eudora Honeysett is Quite Well, Thank You will find The Great Unexpected to their liking. The author does a good job of developing the characters, despite the fact that they mainly spend their days in a nursing home. The loneliness and boredom that can result from having so little control over your own life comes through clearly with Joel. The situations in which Joel finds himself, along with the other residents, seem genuine. Having worked in a nursing home myself, the overall feeling of the novel definitely has its place in reality. I would definitely recommend The Great Unexpected to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Great Unexpected by NetGalley and the publisher, Park Row. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book, although I think that was more a reflection of my life at the present than a reflection of the book. At about the halfway mark it picked up for me, and yes, I may have sniffled a little.

Joel is tired of his life in a retirement home, and is especially tired of being treated like a child. He is grouchy to everyone, including his family. Joel gets a new roommate named Frank, who is flamboyant and fun, and the two men eventually develop a deep and moving friendship.

There were some humorous parts, but I think mostly the book had a lot to say about some deep topics - end-of-life care, mourning, etc. I suspect I'll be thinking about it for awhile.

This book was an absolute delight. It was equally funny, charming and poignant. The unlikely friendship of Frank and Joel was so original and real, I really grew to love these men. I also liked tho see the way Joel’s character developed through the story as he came to grips with his own mortality. This book is a wonderful commentary on growing older and how we as a society need to honor and value our senior population. Highly recommended reading.

I initially struggled with this book, nearly abandoning it less than a third of the way through. I uncharacteristically sought out reviews to see if I was missing something or if the community felt the same way. I found there were so many 5 star reviews, I was nudged into continuing and did complete it. I can’t say I liked it – perhaps I am too close in age to the characters and the story line was, in many ways, quite depressing – but it did make me stop and think. Which is, to me, a mark of a good read. But the content of the story is perhaps not for everyone.

So, what did I think about? Mostly about how some of our family members living in care might feel, and, should the time come, how I might react in this situation. I am not that many years younger than Joel, the main character, but this is not something I had really considered before.

The loss of privacy, control and dignity that come with living in a nursing home/care environment were really well portrayed, The despair that drives Joel to contemplate suicide is fueled by loneliness and loss of his wife, and is not assuaged even when he makes friends with his new roommate, Frank. However, Joel does get a sort of second lease on life once they pair up, and the relationship that develops is heartwarming and hopeful.

I don’t think this rises to the 5 star level, but it is a solid 4 stars and I would recommend it to many of my friends.
I want to thank NetGallery, Harlequin and the author, Dan Mooney, for a copy to read in exchange for my honest review.

What an unexpected and pleasant surprise! These characters were so endearing and while the book has sad moments, they are poignant and accurate. Aging, loss, grief, family estrangement, and growing old gracefully (or not so gracefully) are all tough subjects to read about. But somehow I found myself laughing, crying, and enjoying every moment of this book.

This book broke my heart and made me look at the elderly in a whole new light. This book is about friendship and family, loss and grief, and visits the question of ending one's life. The Great Unexpected definitely deals with some heavy topics but there are jut enough funny, light hearted moments to keep you smiling throughout the book.

Joel Monroe lives in a nursing home waiting for his turn to die. After watching his wife die and then his second roommate pass as well, Joel is done. He has decided to quit waiting and to end his life. Enter his new roommate, Frank de Selby (Adams). These two gents seem to have nothing in common yet they still manage to form a friendship that neither has experienced before.

This was such a special book and I can't believe I haven't seen it around Bookstagram. A very solid 4.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy.

Joel was able to bear the nursing home when his wife helped him through each day. When she dies, Joel can't see a reason to continue living. He hates having no control over his life and being told what to do when. His new roommate Frank is a retired soap opera star who loves to charm the people around him. The two men frequently clash, until Frank suggests that they might make some bold choices and take a trip outside the nursing home. Frank and Joel become unlikely friends and decide to have as many adventures as possible in the time they have left.

Dan Mooney does an excellent job of showing the pain and frustration of losing control over your own life. The staff at Joel's nursing home are not cruel, but they are people who are overworked and have to ensure that certain things happen each day. The story was somewhat predictable, but it's always wonderful to read a book that focuses on friendship, especially when those friends are septuagenarians!

The Great Unexpected
By Dan Mooney
Park Row June 2019
368 pages
Read via Netgalley

I must admit that I was unable to finish this book. Based on the summary I felt certain I would love it however the story just didn't move quickly enough. If I find free time I may try again as the two main characters were enjoyable.

I really loved this book. Following two men who escape a nursing home together, this story is an adventure from the start. I loved our two leading men, Joel and Frank, and they made me smile throughout my entire reading experience. Really hard topics were handled with such grace and compassion, and I just left this book feeling really glad that I read it. I want to read many more books like this one!

Well this book was an unexpected surprise; it really is unexpected by name and unexpected by nature as I laughed, smiled and cried my way through this beautiful story of growing old disgracefully.

I am still trying to get through this book. I will probably finish it, but it is not a page turner at all. I also do not like to read about someone thinking about contemplating suicide. I get that he is already at the end of his life and he doesn't see much reason to continue to go on. I just don't really like the idea. I am enjoying the friendship that is developing between Joel and Frank.

Dan Mooney’s The Great Unexpected is a gift full of lively, memorable characters and excellent writing. “She picked her mobile phone from her pocket and buried her consciousness in it.” I could picture many delightful scenes, yet no scene was ever over-cooked. After one funny scene, I noted, ‘I so want the movie!’ Or better yet, a mini-series - so that it will last longer.

The great Unexpected is an adventure; two old gents escape the Hilltop Nursing Home to celebrate life and more. It has serious subject matter – aging, death, contemplating suicide, child abuse, broken family relationships, all handled with grace. “The neglect he saw was so much more than the building or the furniture, it was the people. The nurses didn’t neglect them. Society did.”

The subtle humor made me smile out loud. “Joel had found that the older he got, the higher he raised the bar before he considered someone an adult.” Astute observations peppered the novel. “He preferred the landline at reception, an old Bakelite with its spinning dial. There was something about the feel of a landline, the weight of it, the realness. The fact that it still worked, still existed was tantamount to the sense of permanence it had. Not like the mobile phones, transitory things, gone and replaced by something better as soon as you had it in your hand.”

Banter between Joel and Frank was very natural. “’Well, I’m still spry. You, on the other hand, are secondhand parts.’ Joel felt like he was secondhand parts, rusty one that didn’t quite fit together the way they should, but Frank didn’t have to put it so bluntly.” Though they hadn’t known each other long, the two old friends grew through their adventures and eventually offered each other pure acceptance.

Things do not always go as we want/ plan. The Great Unexpected had a great unexpected turn at the end. Tears rolled. I felt X’s pain deeply. (No true spoiler here, we are after all, dealing with terminal old people.) “A final gift from his old friend, a community that he didn’t know he had.”

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this inspiring book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Dan Mooney for sharing Joel and Frank’s funny, tender story.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

Make some new bff’s with these 5 great summer reads about friendship

By Sarah MurdochSpecial to the Star
Tues., July 23, 2019timer2 min. read
Friendships — between young women, old men and everyone in between — are at the heart of these new novels.

The Great Unexpected, Dan Mooney
Joel Monroe is 76, a recent widower who is fed up with life – until the arrival of his new roommate. His name is Frank de Selby, aka Frank Adams, an irrepressible former actor (the word “popinjay” springs to Joel’s mind when they meet); soon, the newcomer is cheering up the residents of Hilltop Nursing Home, including, reluctantly, Joel. When Joel tells him he has decided to kill himself, Frank pronounces this a fine plan, so long as the exit is “profound, theatrical, wonderful, encapsulating.” A tale of love, survival and finding meaning in old age.
Ask Again, Yes, Mary Beth Keane
This is the story of two families, the Gleesons and the Stanhopes. The men, Francis and Brian, are Irish cops, working at a Manhattan precinct and living next door to each other in a town north of the city. The wives — Lena lonely, Anne volatile — do not bond. It is their children, Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, who find each other in early childhood and become best friends. When they are teens, a violent event sunders their families. A story of resilience, constancy and forgiveness, and a reminder that the past is always present.
The Summer Demands, Deborah Shapiro
Emily and her husband have moved into the director’s house of a former summer camp with the vague idea of reopening it as a retreat for adults. Instead, he has found work and she, on the edge of 40 and grieving a miscarriage, is feeling at an in-between stage. Then she meets Stella, a young woman who has been squatting in one of the cabins. Emily removes a splinter from Stella’s hand. Stella paints Emily’s nails. Slowly, a bond forms – unsettling, sensual, mutable.
The Nap-Away Motel, Nadja Lubiw-Hazard
The Nap-Away Motel is on the Kingston Rd.’s motel strip, a near-derelict artefact from the days before the 401. Orianthi (or Ori, who is sometimes a girl, sometimes a boy) lives in Rm. 11, in Toronto to find her twin, Carter, who left their foster home shortly after their 17th birthday. Suleiman, in Rm. 6, misses his wife, Khadija, from whom he’s separated. Tiffany (or Iff) is a mixed-race child who lives with her mom in Rm. 5. Ori, Iff and Suleiman form a bond, a result of adjacency, loneliness and the discovery of a litter of abandoned kittens.
Please Send Help…, Gaby Dunn, Allison Raskin, St. Martin’s Press
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We first met Ava Helmver and Gen Goldman in 2017’s I Hate Everyone But You, an epistolary novel that unfolds through texts and emails when the L.A. best friends are attending colleges on opposite coasts. Please Send Help … continues the correspondence: Ava, the straight one, is an intern at Mind the Gap with Halona McBride, a late-night TV show out of New York; aspiring journalist Gen is a web designer at The Fernandina Beach Centennial, a Florida newspaper. A YA story that speaks amusingly and bluntly to young women. Gen and Ava are much like besties Dunn and Raskin, whose shtick can be sampled on their YouTube channel Just Between Us.
Sarah Murdoch is a Toronto-based writer and a freelance contributor for the Star. Reach her via email: smurdoch49@gmail.com

Joel and Frank make for unexpected and wonderful partners in this likable story. I think fans of cantankerous old men (think Harold Frye or a Stewart O'Nan oldster) will enjoy this too.

This book took me a while to get into, but once I was in, I was hooked and read about three quarters of the book in less than 24 hours.

I was drawn in by the comparisons to A Man Called Ove, and because I always love a story with a grumpy, old curmudgeon with a hidden soft side. I got all of that and more! Joel has had a lonely life, and while we don't get too much insight into his backstory, I felt for him as he learned to really trust and find friendship with someone. Dan Mooney does a wonderful job of balancing the moments where I was shaking my head in annoyance and silently rooting on Joel.

Frank is such an opposite character to Joel at first, but we learn that they are more alike than either believes. Frank added some necessary levity to a story that otherwise could have become too sad and dragging on with sadness. Because of this levity, the inevitable sad moments hit even harder. The sadness was like a gut-punch because of how much you cared about these characters and their friendship.

I look forward to reading more from Dan Mooney as he seems to have that special skill of developing such fully real characters that you can't help but be sucked into their world and want to stay there forever.