One Day in December
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly 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 when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
Author: Josie Silver
Rating: 4/5
I picked this book up because in case you haven't noticed, everybody and their mother read it this month. It was catchy and sweet and surprisingly relatable. I sandwiched it between a couple of heavier books. It was a great lightweight read for winter.
We start with Laurie, who lives with her best friend Sarah in London and is working part time at a hotel while she works toward a career in magazines. She's on the way home, sitting on the upper level of one of London's red busses, when she spots a guy waiting below. They make eye contact and it's electric, but he can't get on before it pulls away.
She and Sarah search for him everywhere they go, but to no avail. Then Sarah starts dating a guy, and by the time Laurie finally meets him, Sarah is head over heels and has half-jokingly declared that she fully expects to marry him someday. Yep, it's the guy from the bus. Jack.
Now Laurie has to try to not be in love with him, because she wants to be a good friend. But she is in love with him. And he's in love with Sarah, to be sure, but he also kind of loves Laurie without quite knowing it. We get ten years of their story, flipping between Laurie and Jack's perspectives. During those ten years, all three characters go through major life events, love, loss, the whole nine yards.
Now Jack is a little bit of a jerk, especially in the beginning, and I'm not sure that Josie Silver goes quite far enough to convince us that he's not a jerk anymore. But the feeling that he's heading in the right direction is there, at least. And I'm not one for love triangles, ever, but she somehow did a great job of getting me to root for all three characters and really feel invested in the outcome. I wasn't sure how I was going to possibly be satisfied with the ending, but I was. (Well, almost. I could have done with another chapter or two to revel in the happiness.)
This was a fun, light, feel-good read. Perfect if you're in a reading slump or looking for something that feels watching a rom-com movie: Not the world's greatest piece of art, but a fun escape from reality that leaves you feeling good.