One Day in December…

About the Book:

Laurie doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Life isn’t a scene from Love Actually, after all.

But then, through a bus window one snowy December day, she sees him. There’s one glorious moment when their eyes meet…and then her bus drives away.

Laurie thinks she’ll never see the boy from the bus again. But at their Christmas party a year later, her best friend Sarah introduces her to the new love of her life. Who is, of course, the boy from the bus.

Determined to let him go, Laurie gets on with her life. But what if fate has other plans?

Following Laurie and Jack through twelve years of love, heartbreak and friendship, One Day in December is a life-affirming love story to escape into this winter.

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My Thoughts:

This was such a delightful novel! Utterly perfect for a mid-week wind down. While romance/chick-lit is not my usual choice of genre, I do like it a lot when it’s British. I’m kind of like that with my rom-com movies too. It’s all in the humour, I find myself able to click better with British humour. And Josie Silver has a way with words too, an intimate style of telling her story that had me veering between laughter and tears – One Day in December really does have all the feels.

‘Who was St Valentine anyway and what made him such an expert on romance? I’m willing to bet his full name is St Smugbastard-three’s-crowd Valentine, and he probably lives on a candle-lit island where everything comes in pairs, even bouts of thrush.’

Laurie is gorgeous, a character I was able to relate to on every level. In her early 20s when the novel opens, she’s still very much finding her way, actively looking for her dream job while keeping an eye out for her dream man. And then she sees him, love at first sight through a bus window, but he’s not quick enough at getting up and jumping onto the bus, so they miss each other. Until months later, when he turns up as her best friend’s new boyfriend. But don’t be mistaken in thinking that this is the beginning of a cliché love triangle – far from it. What unfolds is a story about friendship, loyalty, and missed opportunities. As Laurie and Jack get on with their lives, as friends, the next twelve years throw up many different paths, none of which see them on the same one at the same time. And the other big relationship within this novel, between Laurie and Sarah, her best friend, was awesome. They were a great pair, through the highs and the lows, and there’s nothing better than a solid book friendship anchoring a story in my opinion.

‘I remember the day I first met Sarah, and the first time I saw Jack, and how very tangled and complicated our lives have become over the years. We are a triangle, but our sides have kept changing length. Nothing has ever quite been equal. Perhaps it’s time to learn how to stand on our own, rather than lean on each other.’

One Day in December is a novel that wraps you up in a comforting embrace. In many ways it’s more life-lit than chick-lit, the sort of novel I can see myself getting really excited about if it ever made it up onto the big screen. And that ending…incredibly wonderful. A truly perfect way to finish such a gorgeous novel. I highly recommend One Day in December.

🍵🍵🍵🍵

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Thanks is extended to Penguin UK via Netgalley for providing me with a copy of One Day In December for review.

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About the Author:

Josie Silver is an unashamed romantic who met her husband when she stepped on his foot on his 21st birthday. She lives with him, her two young children and their cat in a little town in the Midlands.

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One Day in December

Published by Penguin (Viking)

Released in Australia:

eBook on 23rd August 2018

Paperback on 29th October 2018

Released in UK: 23rd August 2018