Book Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver

“Despite the fairy-tale snowstorm out there, this isn’t Narnia. This is London, real life, where hearts get kicked and bruised and broken, but somehow they still keep beating.”

Released in 2018, One Day in December by Josie Silver sees Laurie fall in love through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day when she sees a man who she instantly knows is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic… and then her bus drives away. Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not until they “reunite” at a Christmas party when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend.

Rating:

A story of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities and destinies reconsidered, One Day in December sounded like the perfect story for me. Any story about roads not taken and whether they are worth the longing or destined for regret instantly get my interest. And while One Day in December definitely didn’t begin as I expected it to, I was completely invested in the characters and how their stories would play out.

It was a book that I didn’t want to put down. I’ve read a lot of reviews that say this is a slow book, but I didn’t feel that at all. I didn’t skim over anything and was so eager to find out how it ended that I read it in two sittings, staying up until the early hours of the morning to do so.

There are a few cringey moments and the “love at first sight” concept certainly has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but I thought that the cheesier moments were easily forgivable. The only thing that stopped me from loving it was that I wish Jack were a nicer character. When he wasn’t around Laurie, he was like a completely different person and acted like somebody who wouldn’t be worth the heartache. But whenever the two were together, my heart flickered for them.

This book made me feel equal doses of warm, hopeful, and sad, and it was a lovely Christmas read that I would definitely recommend with a blanket and hot chocolate.