Book Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist. After all, life isn’t a scene from the movies, is it? But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic…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?

One evening, just before Christmas, Laurie is on the top deck of a London bus. When it stops, she sees a guy sat at the bus stop and they have a moment.

Before he can get on the bus/before Laurie can get off, the bus leaves the stop and Laurie misses her chance.

Despite looking for him for a year, Laurie is convinced that she will never find ‘bus boy.’ That is until her best friend introduces her new boyfriend.

One Day in December is not a typical boy meets girl story and this is one of the things I liked most about it (not that I am not a fan of the more conventional love stories.)

Told from the point of view of Laurie and Jack, I liked how I could get to know them and see the different thoughts, feelings and opinions.

The plot is compelling. The story builds at a good pace – it’s very much about the characters. All the twist and turns revolve around their story and behaviours.

Laurie, Sarah and Jack are wonderful characters. Josie not only shows the good about them but the flaws too; all the aspects of their personalities. They don’t always act in a heroic way. They seemed very realistic and with the story being set over ten years, I felt as though I really got to know them all. (Actually, the only two characters I didn’t like were Lucille and Cressida.)

I can never resist books with any kind of Christmas setting and this was a lovely book to curl up with in the evening with a cup of warm tea. It made me feel very festive and I loved that. I think this book is perfect if you like a good love story. In my opinion, it reminded me of One Day and Where Rainbows End in its themes which includes love, loss, friendship and having the courage to seize the opportunity for love when it presents itself. I think that these the overall messages of the novel.

I don’t want to say anything else about it as I don’t want to ruin it. I loved this book. It does what a book should do which is to send you on a rollercoaster of emotions. I very much recommend it. Oh and the cover is absolutely beautiful.

About Josie:

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.

Say hi to Josie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JosieSilver_

One Day in December is available electronically now from Amazon. The price is currently 99 pence, (price correct at time of post publication.)

It’s due to be released in paperback from Penguin in October 2018.

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.