Don't Let the Title Mislead You

TITLE: One Day in December
AUTHOR: Josie Silver
PUBLISHER: Broadway Books
PUBLISHING DATE: October 16, 2018

FROM GOODREADS: A love story about what happens after you meet, or rather, don't meet the one.

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.

MY THOUGHTS:  So as I've said, don't let the title of this debut novel fool you - this is not a Christs.mas tale.  Sure, it starts during the holiday, and even ends during holiday, but in between, there are ten  years.  Riding home from work one evening, Laurie looks  out the bus window and meets the love of her life.  But she doesn't get off and he doesn't get on.  She then spend, the next year scouring London for him, along with help from her best friend and roommate, Sarah.  When Laurie finally finds Jack, as we later finally get to put a name to the entity, she learns that her friend Sarah has fallen in love with him.  

So the remainder of the book is Laurie hiding her feelings, never admitting to her friend who Jack really is, meeting new people and working through all kinds of baggage.  I'm not a huge contemporary reader and will admit this book held more in store for me than originally anticipating.  In fact, I would say it's more a tale about friendship than a romance novel. Still, I struggled with it at times.  For one thing, the whole falling in love in a few seconds was hard for me to buy into.  And secondly, thought I've never been there, I'm sure London is quite populated (a recent Google search clued me in - 8,787,892. So the chances that Laurie would find Jack were slim to begin with, so we're to believe her roommate managed the impossible without even trying.  And lastly, this book is too long. It comes in at over 400 pages and even though I love long books, I think it was unnecessary.  And then, when it finally .did end, the ending felt rushed. How does that happen???

So if you are looking for a not-so-cute romance with strong themes of friendship, "One Day in December" is the book for you.  Just prepare yourself for the long haul and be open to some highly improbably things becoming probable.

RATING: 3 PAWS