Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 4 stars
One Day in December is the charming holiday romance that everyone is talking about this December. Although this book starts and ends at Christmas, it’s a story that could happen at any time, in any month. But I just loved that it happened amidst the hubbub and magic of Christmas.
This is a unique spin on a love triangle as Laurie spends a year looking for the man she held earth-shattering eye contact with on the bus. As she and her truest friend and roommate (Sarah) search yearlong for him to no avail, she is resolved to give up the idea of him. As in all romance stories, nothing goes planned. That Christmas, Laurie is introduced to Sarah’s new boyfriend, Jack, from work, I’ll let you guess who it is. Yep, it’s the “bus boy”.
What follows is a tug o’ war of emotions as she is forced by her roommate to hang out with them. How do you forget the idealized man when he is even better than imagined? Jack loves Sarah and Sarah loves Jack, can Laurie ever tell Sarah that he’s the “bus boy”? This book was a bowl of hit and misses between the three characters.
As the book moves along, Laurie considers her life to rom-com British movies such as “Love Actually” or “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. I loved these references, as this is exactly how the book played out. Especially with the English accents and terminology. Words like brilliant, mate, shag, snog, bee’s knees, fancy a drink and knackered just tickled my fancy!
I had no idea who was best suited for Jack. Selfishly I rooted for Laurie, but Sarah seemed so happy. Is having a friend that is like a sister to you worth risking your friendship? This story places a lot of “what would you do” moments to think about. The characters were well developed; each had their own baggage and flaws. There was no easy answer to their conundrum except to remember that good things often come after trials and some dreams are worth holding onto.
Quotes I liked:
I’m not a bitch though; or maybe I’m just a quiet one inside my own head. Isn’t everyone?”
– “I won’t dwell though, because Christmas should be a time of hope and love and, most appealing of all at this very moment, sleep.”
– “You tread lightly through life, but you leave deep footprints that are hard for other people to fill.”
– “That’s the thing about flowers, isn’t it? They’re lush and extravagant and demand your attention, and you think they’re the most exquisite thing, but then in the shortest time they’re not very lovely at all. They wilt and they turn the water brown, and soon you can’t hold on to them any longer.”
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