A poignant, heartwarming, life affirming and well written story that made me smile and moved me to tears.
Eudora and Rose are two great characters, I loved their friendship and I love them.
It's a story that can make you smile but will also make you think as it deals with issues like getting old, the right to decide of our life.
It's sad at times but also full of tender moments full of love and friendship.
An excellent story that I will surely re-read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Eudora Honeysett is 85 years old and tired of life. She wants to make her own decision how to die and contacts a clinic in Switzerland. Then a new family moves in next door with their effervescent 10 year old daughter, Rose. And Eudora's life begins to change.

The book is perfectly paced with chapters in between the present day and the past in which Eudora's long life is uncovered. Eudora's voice draws the reader in immediately and although I might have guessed the ending of the story it didn't detract at all from the telling of it.

I loved Eudora. I think lots of readers will also love her. It is a completely different story but affected me much the same as Eleanor Olphant did a few years ago. It's certainly one of my top ten books of the year. Thank you so much to NetGalley and One More Chapter for the opportunity to read and review her story. And thank you Annie Lyons for writing it.

I started this book thinking I was in for a lighthearted, quick, inconsequential read and what I got was a wonderful surprise.
Annie Lyons has cleverly written a brilliant, page turning book full of true to life humour mixed with the deeply saddening aspects of a life lived for other people.
The plot is set over two time spans which allows the writer to slowly reveal how the character of Eudora came to be her cantankerous, done with the world self.
It’s a lovely story of how friendships can be formed in the most unlikely of circumstances and that sharing yourself with your friends can be life saving. I couldn’t recommend this book enough.

With thanks to Netgalley, Harper Collins and One More Chapter for the book in exchange for and honest review.

Eudora Honeysett Is Quite Well Thank You Annie Lyons
I didn't want to finish this book, because I didn't want it to end. I loved every minute of it.
I am finding I love books with older characters, and Eudora Honeysett was just perfect. I loved the storyline, even though it was about the character ending her life in a Swiss clinic. I found myself will the doctors to approve her request, and hoping at the same time her request would be denied.
Oh how I loved Rose too, the little pocket rocket of fun and energy.
The friendship between these two characters was just beautiful.
My own grandmother, and my eldest daughter are similar ages to the characters, so i pictured them as i read this book, and perhaps that added to the humour.
I found myself constantly smiling reading this book, yet suddenly had tears pricking my eyes due to the sensitive nature of this story.
When I got to 30 minutes left, I stopped reading, just needing to savour every moment, and afraid my heart would explode with emotion.
I will remember Eudora and Rose for a long long time.
Easy 5 stars from me

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Eudora Honeysett is Quite Well, Thank You by Annie Lyons is a General Fiction/Woman’s Fiction novel. Eudora Honeysett is 85 years old. After a fall, feeling lonely and isolated, decides that she’s not interested in ending her life helpless in seniors care makes plans to go to Switzerland for an assisted death, so that she has control over how and when her life ends. Then Rose moves in next door a colourful whirlwind of a 10 year old who’s friendship becomes a bright spark in Eudora’s life. With alternating chapters between the past and present, this is a story that’s both heartwarming and thought-provoking. I enjoyed reading it very much. Publishing Date: September 17, 2020. #EudoraHoneysettIsQuiteWellThankYou #AnnieLyons #OneMoreChapter #HarperCollinsUK #WomansFiction #EudoraHoneysett #OMCReadAlong #bookstagram #bookstagramer #GeneralFiction #WWIIFiction #ContemporaryFiction

What a delightful book! 85 year old Eudora Honeysett meets 10 year old new neighbour Rose, who doesn't take no for an answer and wears whatever colours she fancies, whether they go together or not!
Eudora has nothing really to live for. She hates getting old with all the aches and pains that go with it. Everything and everyone annoys her and she decides she wants to go to a clinic in Switzerland to die.
She has memories of her childhood before her father was sent off to war and never came back. She loved her father and had happy times with him but on his departure, she had to look after a fragile mother and a wayward sister. The leap back in time gives you an insight into what has made Eudora the way she is now.
The story is a wonderful tale of Eudora, Rose and Stanley, a widower who misses his wife terribly and just wants someone to talk to. They all affect each others lives in some way and it is a joy to read.

This was such a cute read about an elderly women who finds a new outlook on life when she meets a young girl who moves in next door. It really gives you a a unique perspective on life and I am so glad I got a chance to read it!

I recieved this book via net galley and give it my honest opinion.
A story of love, laughs, life and death. I cried I laughed and it was an enjoyable read. Very heart-felt and warming, I truly recommend this book.

Thank you to One More Chapter (Claire) for the digital copy of the book.

I have to be honest and say that I nearly didn't read the book after reading the blurb as I lost my brother to depression 5 years ago and tend to avoid books where a character is considering suicide.

However I decided to give it a try a couple of weeks later, and I'm glad I did. This is the first book I've read by Annie Lyons and she has brought the characters to life beautifully. So much so, that I had tears in my eyes towards the end. The three main characters, Eudora (age 85), Stanley and Rose (age 10) are such a great combination and are all in need of some friendship in different ways.

If you enjoyed Saving Missy by Beth Morrey or Away With The Penguins by Hazel Prior, with a strong elderly female character, then I recommend this book.

Eudora Honeysett Is Quite Well, Thank You by Annie Lyons is the most beautiful novel about love, friendship and life. You will fall in love with all the characters as they take up residence in your heart.
Life is for living. At eighty five years old Eudora Honeysett thinks she’s seen it all but then ten year old Rosie moves in next door and life begins again for Eudora. Rosie opens her eyes to a new world of excitement as Eudora catches her enthusiasm for life. Rosie is a beautiful breath of fresh air that will light up the reader’s life too. Life for Rosie is an adventure with her new found friends Eudora and fellow octogenarian Stanley. I adored their outings, conversations and friendship.
The story is set in present day and also in the form of flashbacks over Eudora’s life beginning in 1940 when she was seven years old. The reader becomes intimately acquainted with her. Eudora is kind, caring and self-sacrificing. Her heart is always for others. She is her own worst critic as she looks in the mirror and passes the guilty verdict over her life.
Life should be idyllic as a child but it is not always the case. Rosie has experienced unkindness but between them, Eudora and Stanley show Rosie the love, kindness and beauty of friendship. The flip side is – Rosie shows them that you are never too old not to have fun and enjoy life.
For those who have read Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and also Elizabeth Is Missing (I have read both) you will love Eudora Honeysett Is Quite Well, Thank You – it will make you laugh, smile and cry. I adored it and am sad that it has ended. It is a totally beautiful book.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre,  however I wanted to take the opportunity to read something from outside my norm. And I am glad I did!! Thank you for  opening up my mind to something totally different. Characters were so well developed that I felt as though I knew them. I love when a book draws you into the story and it feels like you are living it with them.

Oh gosh. This was such a gorgeous, joy-filled and emotional read. Very honest about life and death but without being too sad. I absolutely adored Rose and thought she was a fantastic character. Eudora is complex and likeable. I would say this is perfect for those who loved All The Lonely People. It’s not quite as sad as that and feels very bittersweet

Eudora Honeysett is Quite Well, Thank You by Annie Lyons
Publication Date: September 17, 2020 - Out Today!
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Description from NetGalley...
“If I can choose how to live my own life, why can’t I choose how to die my own death?

Eudora Honeysett is done – with all of it. Having seen first-hand what a prolonged illness can create, the eighty-five-year-old has no intention of leaving things to chance. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland she takes her life into her own hands.

But then ten-year-old Rose arrives in a riot of colour on her doorstep. Now, as precocious Rose takes Eudora on adventures she’d never imagined she reflects on the trying times of her past and soon finds herself wondering – is she ready for death when she’s only just experienced what it’s like to truly live?”
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Thank you to @NetGalley @onemorechapterhc @harpercollinsuk for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
This was a really good read. The story goes back and forth to present day and to when Eudora was a young woman. Her history was gut wrenching at times. I have been enjoying novels lately with septuagenarian and octogenarian protagonists. They have been inspiring and great reads. This book is perfect timing during our current state of anxieties and worries. It was a feel-good read, positive, funny and witty. With the topic of “planning when to die” the story was also life affirming and highlighting the importance of being there for each other. I enjoyed Lyons’ writing style. I was hooked from the beginning. And, if we could only be just like Rose!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the copy in exchange for a review.

I thought this story of an older woman unhappy with her life was heartwarming and cute. Eudora Honeysett is 85 and feels like she is done With her life and ready to move on. She is alone and that’s the way it is. But once a young girl and her mom move next door, Eudora’s world changes.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but this was a good story and I love how each chapter ended with a glimpse into Eudora’s past to help tell the story of her life.

This book is beautiful. Beautifully written, beautifully told and just stunning overall. I absolutely fell in love Eudora and Rose, they are both such amazing characters. The story although focused around death is positive and full of hope. This book stays with you long after you finish turning the pages and I think will be with me for many years. This is one of my favourite reads, ever ! This will be a best seller and definitely should win awards, it’s that good. Thoroughly recommended read for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I think we could all do with some feel-good, life affirmation right about now and so this complete joy of a novel couldn’t really have been published at a better time. I am delighted that I had the privilege of being accepted for it on NetGalley because now I get to pass it on to you.

Eudora Honeysett has had enough of life. At 85, the world has changed beyond recognition since her childhood in the midst of World War Two. Having lived a life dedicated to other people, she is finally taking some control -of her own death. But then a young couple move in with their free-spirited, eccentric 10-year-old daughter Rose and now Eudora is forced to reconsider whether there actually may be a little more left to live for.

There is something about these wonderfully written novels with elderly protagonists (à la Three Things About Elsie, A Man Called Ove and Olive Kitteridge) that preaches truth in a way that only those voices can do. I’m always reminded of their generation’s cynical but wise perspective on contemporary society and although I am a product of the very world that they’re criticising, I agree with them wholeheartedly. Eudora was no different. Somehow I could relate to her in ways that I never expected to and as a result, I spent the majority of the narrative on tenterhooks as to what her final decision would be.

Eudora’s friendship with Rose is one of the most charming, wholesome things I’ve ever read and I can only hope that there are more of these unlikely, beautiful, chosen family connections in the real world than I suspect there are. When I learned that Rose has always struggled to make friends and when she seemed to be gravitating towards some suspicious characters, I found myself almost behind Eudora’s eyes, wishing nothing but absolute happiness for this strange delight of a girl.

The narrative switches between 2018 and various points of Eudora’s life. We learn about her earliest happy memories with her father, the tragedies that befell her family in her childhood, the incredibly dark and complex relationship with her younger sister Stella, her broken friendship with her lifelong best friend Sylvia and her various romances and missed chances. By the end, it felt like there was absolutely nothing that I didn’t know about Eudora. Her whole life had been laid bare for me and so it was impossible not to completely understand and empathise with her. She spent over 70 years living for other people. Why on Earth shouldn’t she finally have a say in how it all ends?

The book also champions kindness the whole way through it, which we could all do with a hearty reminder of, at the moment. It’s the one thing that Eudora values above all else and her ability to see it in certain people is what leads to the formation of the bubble of people around her at the very end. Of course, Eudora herself has been kind her life -perhaps overly so, at the expense of her own happiness. So the novel also serves as a stark warning against the consequences of putting the needs of others over our own, which is a vital lesson to empaths and anyone who cares for other humans.

I was reminded of the brevity and fragility of life at so many points while reading that it really made me think about how I’ve lived the first part of my own life. Like Eudora, I have a habit of putting the needs and happiness of my loved ones before my own. I’ve given up and deliberately missed opportunities for potential happiness, purely because I was afraid that me taking them would upset people. I was raised that way and now recognise that my own mother has always done the same and I’ve inherited it. However, lockdown has actually pushed me slightly away from this way of living. The pandemic has forced me to realise that my life is mine to do with whatever and however I like and actually my happiness should be the only thing that really matters. I couldn’t help but think that had I never had this revelation, Eudora would be a direct reflection of 85-year-old Alex.

You will go through many emotions with this book. You will laugh out loud with Rose. You will smile from ear to ear with Stanley. You will cry all of your tears with Eudora. You will scream in anger at Stella and Beatrice. You will spend the majority of the plot in constant fear and suspense that the end is rapidly approaching. There are some very clear echoes of Eleanor Oliphant and I just have the strangest feeling that it has real potential to reach that same level of success in a way that no other similar book has.

Oh god this book got me right in the feels 😩

When I was 10 I befriended my next door neighbour after her husband died, – unfortunately she died 10 years ago.

This story was like a walk down memory lane,

I felt Eudora’d loneliness which broke my heart, and I honestly saw myself in Rose, I was that annoying child who would walk into next doors house and say “hello it’s me from number 3”

I loved seeing their relationship blossom and experience rose slowly breaking down Eudora walls.

There was a completely heartbreaking element to the story that I honestly couldn’t get out of head, I was lucky enough to get the ebook and the audiobook from netgalley & read them at the same time, I was listening to the audiobook but I had my kindle in my hand reading along.

I hightt recommenced the audiobook, it added something special to the story. & I can honestly say that this story will stay with me for a long long time

🐧❤️

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for my copy.

Why have I never read a book by this author before? Kicking myself.

Oh Eudora you made me laugh, you made me cry and you made me mad. What a beautiful book this is. Eudora is a 85 year old bit of a curmudgeon who is tired of living and in contact with an End of Life clinic in Switzerland.

Eudora's life is thrown into turmoil by the new family moving in next door. Rose is the ten year old fashion guru and new Bff of Eudora's much to her consternation. The budding relationship between this pair and a widower down the road Stanley is just wonderful.

I loved the innocence of Rose who doesn't see two elderly lonely people just two friends to involve in her adventures.

In flashbacks we learn the story of Eudora and how she came to be living her lonely life. This is a book dealing with sensitive subjects and at times is very emotional.It is so full of rich characters and beautifully written and I thoroughly recommend this book. Definitely one of my top 10 books of the year.

85 year old Eudora feels that she has lived her life, she’s not depressed, she just wants to control her own death and decides to take things into her own hands and makes a call to a clinic in Switzerland.

With the arrival of new next door neighbours, ten-year-old Rose knocks on Eudora’s door in a riot of colour and with the prospect of friendship. As Rose takes Eudora on adventures she remembers the past and soon finds herself wondering if she’s squeezed everything out of life?

I will admit, initially I wasn’t sure if I would like this book because of the subject, but death isn’t the main focus of this story…in fact I think it’s all about living and not dying – it’s not at all morbid, and I absolutely loved it.
It is a gorgeously written story of cross generational friendships which are completely believable – my favourite character was Stanley – I so wanted him to be my grandad! I thought Rose was going to drive me insane, but she’s so endearing and a real pocket rocket that you can’t help smile at her, and the energy she injects into everyday situations.

I also had so many connections with this book…it is set in South East London where I live, and I always find that exciting as I try and figure out what streets the characters are walking and I can imagine they are living in my road!!! Also I used to work at Radio 2, so squealed with delight when Stanley, Eudora and Rose took part in Pop Master in the car and finally, I have a elderly dog called Stanley so it just felt as if this book was written just for me!!!!

On average it takes me a week to read a book, but this one I read in two days, even staying up to 1.30am to finish it- I absolutely loved it!!

Eudora is 85 and she's ready to die. So ready that she's reached out to Switzerland, Then a new family moves next door. Young Rosie is a breath of fresh air in Eudora's rigid little world, as is Stanley, a recent widower. These three built a bond across the generations. Does Eudora waver in her position? Well, no spoilers from me but Lyons slowly reels out Eudora's story, making this a little different from other recent novels about older women brightened by a child. Eudora's personal history- her relationship with her mother and sister- was troubled, making her an even more sympathetic character. It's a good read because of the storytelling. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's light but it will also make you think.