Cover Image: One Day in December

One Day in December

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Member Reviews

Laurie sees a stranger through a bus window, makes eye contact and knows he is The One... and waxes on about him to her best friend Sarah over the course of a year... and then, at a Christmas party, who do you think Sarah's new boyfriend turns out to be? TEN YEARS of mutual longing follows. The writing is powerful, beautiful, and emotional, and the story will tug at your heartstrings and have you routing for Jack and Laurie's happily ever after. This left me almost as frustrated as 28 Summers, where you're wondering WHY the couple standing in the way of true love doesn't get out of the way for someone else's happiness.

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Tough to review… I overall liked this book and liked seeing the characters grow and mature… life is messy sometimes and this book embraces that.

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It was so underwhelming and it felt like it was taking forever to get through it. The characters were flat and you had no one to route for.

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I think I was expecting something else when I read this book. I like the premise of the love at first sight connection with a stranger, but when it turned out to be the boyfriend of the best friend it just lost my interest. It makes for great drama and intense situations, but it wasn't my type of romance. If you do like these types of romances where the MC is in love with the best friend's boyfriend (such as Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin), then you may enjoy this one.

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A very enjoyable read. A light read that set the tone for Christmas. Great for curling up by the fire.

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Great holiday rom com read about love at first sight and then realizing that person belongs with someone else. What choices and chances do you make?

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This was the perfect book to read this Christmas season. I’ve had it on my TBR for so long and am so happy I decided to finally dig in. Laurie looks out the window of her bus one December day and her eyes connect with the most perfect boy... but sadly there is not enough time for her to get off or him to get on. For a year after, she searches everywhere for her “bus boy”. She ends up finding him - when her best friend and roommate introduces her to her new boyfriend, Jack, the bus boy. The book follows along their lives over the next ten years, through highs and lows.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

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Do you believe in love at first sight? Have you ever made eye contact with someone and knew they would be important in your life? What if you fell in love at first sight, lost sight and looked for a year only to see that person walk into your apartment as your best friends new boyfriend? This is what happened to Laurie on a double decker bus one December day, then one year later. Laurie takes the road she thinks is safest for everyone and keeps the fact that Sarah’s boyfriend Jack is her long last “bus boy” to herself, even after Jack and Laurie become very close friends. One Day in December follows this unique three way friendship over several years where they each have to face choices and come to cross roads that could let out the truth and destroy the life Laurie has built around this secret.

A few chapters in I was so angry that fate would lead Laurie and Jack back together in such a complicated way, but Josie Silver develops a beautiful story out of that crazy start. Friendship is important and is a definite theme through the book, but can friendship outweigh love and should it? What I really loved when it was all over is how realistic yet comforting and light this read was. Jack and Laurie could have ended up together from the beginning and that would have been a great story but the meat of a relationship comes in the trouble of finding out who you really love, who that person is when choices need to be made, when other people’s feelings are at play. Well done Josie!

Thank you to Netgalley, Josie Silver, Crown Publishing and Ballentine Books for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Really wasn't a fan of this one. The characters were too one-dimensional and I felt like the narrative was pretty stagnant. I had to DNF because it just didn't grip me, even 100 pages in.

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very cute, holiday atmospheric book. I loved the relationships formed in this story and liked how everything turned out. can't wait to read more from this author.

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Not the typical light-hearted romance I was expecting, but it was so much better because of that. With raw emotion and real characters, this story pulled me in and did not let do until I was crying through the last few chapters. This author is quickly becoming one of my favourites.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Good book, nothing really special. Didn’t keep me that interested. I did like the ending. I felt it was a little too drawn out and it didn’t really suck me in.

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It feels like a serendipity kind of love story and it's oozing cuteness and butterflies-in-the-stomach effect.

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This is a great British Rom Com. The characters were so like able and I didn’t want their story to end.

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This book follows a woman who falls in love at first sight with a man she spots on the street from her seat on a bus! After searching for him, she discovers that he is her best friend’s boyfriend. This book had a perfect balance of fun fluffy British chick lit and dramatics for me. It often reminded me of how I loved Sophie Kinsella’s books, but it managed to be more emotional as it follows Laurie and her friends through years of relationship tangles. This book is so warm and perfect for holiday reading.

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The romance that should have been… but wasn’t. A missed connection that spurred a decade of heartbreak, friendship, moving on, and second chances.

Laurie saw the man of her dreams from the window of a bus. They locked eyes, the connection was there, but before she could get off the bus it pulled away. And she watched as the man faded into the distance. After a year she still hadn’t forgotten him. When she finally saw him again, it was as her best friend’s new boyfriend. Unwilling to jeopardize her friend’s happiness, Laurie kept her feelings to herself and stood by as the relationship blossomed.

Told through Laurie and Jack’s alternating points of view, Josie Silver delivered a story that was filled with so much yearning, but was balanced perfectly with laughter and friendship. It would have been so easy for Silver to paint Laurie’s best friend as “the bad guy”, paving the way for Laurie to make her move and claim the man who was meant to be hers. But instead of caricatures and cookie cutter characters, Silver made sure no one was villainized, making it easy to empathize with their situations and their emotions.

I fell in love with both Laurie and Jack as they navigated the changes in their lives over the span of ten years. Through good times and bad, missed opportunities, bad timing and near misses, I loved their journey. One Day in December was sweet, funny, emotional, and it made me an instant fan of Josie Silver.

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When I picked up One Day in December, I thought I was in for a cute Christmas-y rom com...which this book is not. Instead, we follow Laurie and Jack from the moment they glance at each other at a bus stop through ten years of missed opportunities, friendship, and everyday life. I really enjoyed this book- it turned out to be a really great look at how friendships and relationships change over a decade. Definitely a great read.

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I received a reviewer copy of One Day in December by Josie Silver from the publisher Crown Publishing through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Laurie is on a bus one day and sees a man outside, when there eyes meet, there are sparks and Laurie desperately wants to find him. She eventually finds him, but unfortunately it is when we her best friend introduces him as her future husband. This story follows the three of them for ten years.

What I Loved: This book is a sweet romance that follows three characters as they grow up and in and out of love. The characters are imperfect and they make mistakes and its believable. And the whole book reads like a, when will they get together? The couple have chemistry and the two friends: Sarah and Laurie are so lovely and have a beautiful friendship. It was a pleasure to read.

What I didn’t like so much: At times based on the nature of the book, there are a lot of frustrating portions when the characters do things that make you groan. The main male character is largely unlikeable in my opinion.

Who Should Read It: People who want a winter romance read. People who like a slow burn romance. People who love Love Actually.

General Summary: A slow burn romance with major winter vibes.

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Does love at first sight happen? While riding a bus Laurie spots a guy and she swears she is destined for this guy and she is sure that he spots her too. He will enter and exit her life over a course of a few years, but the question remains, will they eventually find each other at the right time and fall in love?

What a great story. I love reading as these two wove in and out of each other's lives and the ups and downs they had, it made the ending (trying not to spoil!) so satisfying. The timing of them meeting often in December gave it a little something extra and I am so glad I read it in the middle of all my Christmas romance reading.

If you enjoy those tv shows or movies where it is all a will they, won't they, then this book is right up your alley and you will read this one so fast! I recommend picking this one up during the holiday season, it is so quick and easy to read during the craziness this season can be.

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Oh so very good. I bought copies for friends at holiday time because it was such a well written tale.

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