Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver!

Hello fellow readers and happy Tuesday! I don’t know what ya’ll have planned but at 4:00 AM CST tomorrow me, my husband and one of my besties hit the road for New Mexico! We’re spending Thanksgiving in the mountains, getting the chance to ski and relaxing while we cook prime rib, drink cider and enjoy the snowy, crisp air. I can’t think of a better way to spend the holidays. Today, I’m bringing you a review for One Day in December by Josie Silver! I received a physical ARC of this read through the wonderful Traveling Sisters and we read it as a group! I’ve been falling behind on a lot of things in preparation for my husbands live liver donation to his father but Brenda and Norma are forever patient with me and I wanted to take this Thanksgiving week to express how grateful I am to have joined this group!

Among many other things, like my truly one of a kind husband, my hot mess of a dog, my fabulous friends and family I am so grateful for all of the positive feedback and support I’ve received through my GR groups and here on my blog! I never would’ve thought that this would be such a positive addition to my life but it has ceased to be anything but. So thank you dear readers for reading what I have to say and for posting so much great content to fill my days! Since we’ll be out of state I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in recipes this week but I’m hoping to get in a few more before the surgery so keep an eye out! I’ll still be posting reviews throughout the next few months but things are going to ebb and flow with everything we’ve got on our plate right now.

Anywho, on to the review – initial thoughts:

SO. KIEWT.

It all begins one day in December (I know, shocker, you had no idea). We start our story with Laurie, she doesn’t believe in love at first sight, she’s having a normal run of the mill day, then BOOM she sees a man outside her bus window. As their eyes meet, she feels an instant connection. Laurie’s brain shorts out and she does nothing as the bus pulls away, she then runs through endless possibilities of what she could have done, what she should have done in that moment.

From now on, if anyone asks me if I’ve ever fallen in love at first sight, I shall say yes, for one glorious minute on 21 December 2008. 

Even though it was just one fleeting moment between Laurie and Jack (AKA “Bus Boy”) she spends the next year looking for him everywhere she goes. She sees him in bars, at bus stops, in shops because she can’t even begin to fathom that it wasn’t destiny passing her by. Of course, fate had far bigger things planned for Laurie and Jack and they do reconnect. Only this time, it’s on the arm of her best friend Sarah.

This is told from alternating POVs between Jack and Sarah. As we receive Jack’s point of view, it turns out he actually did recognize Laurie – and he remembers the many times he thought about her after their chance encounter at the bus stop as well. However, nothing in life is ever easy and he genuinely does care for Sarah, so he attempts a friendship with Laurie, despite it’s difficulty.

You tread lightly through life, but you leave deep footprints that are hard for other people to fill.

There was an immediate cinematic quality to this and I will be truly shocked if it doesn’t get made into a movie in the near future. This story follows 10 years between Laurie, Jack and Sarah and their ever changing relationships with one another, along with people they meet along the way. While it’s a fairly traditional romance there was something effortlessly engaging here that keeps the reader attached to not just the story, but the characters as well.

I myself am definitely more of a “low and slow” kind of person when it comes to love – the most romantic things to me have to do with growing with another person, sharing experiences, life’s ups and downs together. So naturally, I was actually a *tad* turned off by Laurie when I first began this book because the idea of just making eye contact with someone and believing it could be love is just super far-fetched from what I think is realistic. However, what is great is that Silver took something fantastical and grounded it in a reality that I think anyone, from any walk of life could connect with.

Who was St Valentine anyway and what made him such an expert on romance? I’m willing to bet his full name is St Smugbastard-three’s-crowd Valentine, and he probably lives on a candle-lit island where everything comes in pairs, even bouts of thrush.

What’s great is that Silver doesn’t just rely on angst here, while it’s there in spades there’s also a levity and humor that carries throughout the story. This isn’t just about the dreaded love triangle, betrayal or friendships and relationships lost and found. No, it’s about life, about it’s triumphs and failures, about success and loss, about growth and learning who we are. While this ultimately fell just a bit short for me because it was quite predictable, I absolutely loved the story Silver wove and it’s a quick, incredibly fun read that I had a really fun time with.

Final thoughts:

Straight romancin’

Suggested For: Fans of romance or anyone looking for a cute, quick and cozy read.

Music Mood: You + Me by You and Me (I know, I kinda hate it too but it’s a really good song)

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Have you read One Day in December, what did you think? What are some romantic reads you’ve read lately? Drop me a note in the comments and let me know!