3.5 stars

I received an e-copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maurice Hannigan is 84-year-olds and raising a toast to some of the most important people in his life. From his brother to his son, Hannigan tells the story of his life during five different drinks, and eventually will come to rest on the reason he's decided to finally share his stories by the end of the night.

This book is very much sitting beside a lonely old man in a country pub and accidentally becoming the ear for all of his tongue wagging. At first, you're a bit disgruntled as you'd rather just enjoy your pint rather than have to listen to him but eventually, before you know i,t, you're completely invested in his story and you want to know how everything ends (imagine as well, the people sitting at Forrest Gump's bus stop).

Maurice was a character I had to warm up to. At first I did find him a grumpy, slightly selfish oul sod but the more I read, I could see the good parts of him as well - how much he loved and cherished his wife, and how he behaved with Noreen. I do think the storyline around the gold coin was a bit of a non-story, and one that seemed to take a way a bit from the main storyline of Maurice's life tales. I honestly didn't care about the coin and the ending result of it all was disappointing and an anti-climax to say the least.

I did end up enjoying this story though, and people like a good chinwag then you may just enjoy Maurice's voice.