a really good read. lovely story about fate. can you fall in love at first sight ? a journey through the years of how love and fate collide. really enjoyed this book, look forward to reading more from this author.

Laurie has the whole meet/cute experience with a boy on a bus.... a boy on the bus next to hers, their eyes meet, their buses pass in the night and Laurie spends the next year hoping to bump into him again. Her best friend Sarah knows all about 'bus boy' and is just as keen for Laurie to find the boy of her dreams.

Laurie does find her bus boy again...on the arm of her Sarah, who is completely loved up with her new boyfriend, Jack and is totally oblivious to the fact that he is bus boy.

Laurie and Jack recognise each other instantly but don't let on to each other. The story then unfolds over 10 years with both Laurie and Jack fighting their own feelings at the risk of hurting those they love.

This was a nice read, found myself rooting for Sarah's character rather than Laurie and Jack though...

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion.

Josie Silver writes a romantic comedy that is absolutely going to be a big hit, with characters that tug at your heartstrings and packed with laugh out loud humour. It is perfect escapist fare that begins and ends in the festive season. It's December, Laurie doesn't believe in soul mates, but with her hair covered in tinsel, she is at a bus stop in London on a crowded bus heading to her parents home in Birmingham for Christmas. Through the misted window, she sees him outside and deep inside her she just knows he is the one. When he glances up and spots her, his reaction is mirroring her. However, Laurie doesn't get off the bus and he doesn't get on, and that chance for the two of them is missed. However, Laurie can't forget him, and spends the following year desperately hoping to come across him.

Laurie's best friend Sarah is as close as a sister to her, they laugh, have fun and support each other unconditionally. Sarah is head over heels in love with her new boyfriend, certain he is the man she will marry, and she is desperate for Laurie's approval. To Laurie's horror, Sarah's new man is Jack O'Mara, her bus stop man, the one. Laurie buries her feelings, her friendship with Sarah is too precious as she tries hard to rein in her feelings and not show her heartbreak. Through the following decade we follow Laurie, her new year resolutions, the kicks and bruises that life hands out that leave her broken, being a pink lady, her never tell a goldfish moments and meeting Oscar in Thailand. Will she and Jack ever get together?

If you are feeling under the weather, or if life is too much or is getting you down, this is a great book for giving you a lift. Josie Silver has written a gripping contemporary romantic fairytale with verve, wit and panache. A beautifully told story of love, of tears, of loss, of friendship, and regrets, with characters you cannot help but care for. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

So I am picturing the scene, in a few years time. Instead of settling down to watch 'Love Actually, 'The Girlfriend' and 'Bridget Jones' at Christmas, I’ll bet we will be watching the film adaptation of this beautifully written book, ‘One Day In December’. It's a lovely feel-good book that should be in every woman’s Christmas stocking across the globe this December. Some of the lines in it are genius, . . ."as if I'd been snogged by a Great Dane. In the rain."

And before you groan (you non-believers in love you), it’s not all slush and mush. It’s funny, thought provoking, well written and it made me laugh out loud.
Is it a new story?
Is there any NEW love story?
It’s the voice that works; Josie Silver’s voice.
Oh and her great characterisation.

Come on, let’s be honest, ladies? We all want that moment when our eyes meet the man of our dreams and you just KNOW he's the one. We all want to tell that story to our friends over a glass of prosecco, relishing the “Ooh’s” and “Ah’s.”

Read this book and you can!

And so, for a quick synopsis:

One December day Laurie stares out of the window of a London bus. Her eyes meet a man’s. She looks at him. He looks at her. They have A moment. But wait! As he is about to get on the bus, it pulls away.

Helped by her friend and flatmate Sarah, Lu desperately tries to find him, but to no avail. Eventually, she meets him again. The only problem is, he's her best friend Sarah's new man and as far as Sarah's concerned, HE IS THE ONE! The problem is Jack (because that’s his name by the way) seems to be just as keen on Sarah.

That’s all I'm telling you. I'll let you enjoy this fluffy, lovely, heart warming, toe tingling love story. Treat yourself this winter and curl up with Josie's book. Put on your jim-jams, a pair of fluffy socks, light the fire and grab your mulled wine.

Ah, and breathe!

Heaven.

I fully recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley as ever, for my pre-publication copy.

This book made me realise how much I like the name Laurel; it's a really nice moniker.

Josie Silver's first book is told from a dual perspective - Laurie and Jack and all their mistimings and god are there a lot! You go with it though as the pair are very likeable and the supporting characters, for once, don't fall into the age-old tropes we've become so accustomed to seeing. This was a real plus and I did end up reading the book over two (very late) nights just to see how it turned out, for all of them and not just the protagonists.

Very easy to read with a fluid style and smart dialogue, my only one niggle was the first few entries we got from Jack's perspective; they seemed overly female in nature and too similar to Laurie for me but that soon disappeared, whether due to getting to know Jack more or the writing slightly altering I can't be absolutely sure. And it's a tiny section of the book but it did stay with me and knock it down from a full-blown five star review. I love getting to know characters and if anything is a tiny bit off, it's like a glitch in the matrix!

Congratulations on a fun, cleverly plotted, not-too-sweet, and quite realistic romantic novel. It made a lovely change that the author didn't take the easy, more dramatic way out of most of the situations and gives her plenty of leeway when the fabulous, final (somewhat Hollywood) end scene plays out.

I look forward to the inevitable film of the book and what Ms Silver does next.

I didn't know what to expect with this. Except it would be a slower read, however I managed to finish it within a few hours.
It's a cute Christmas read. That I would recommend.
I found myself rooting for Laurie and Jack despite everything. At times I felt the story dragged a little at the middle. But it didn't really slow me down, maybe because I skim read it a little at that time.

I loved the premise of this book as soon as I read the blurb. Laurie and Jack meet each other's eyes - she's on the top deck of the bus and he's in the bus shelter reading his book. Each of them feels that thunderbolt, that sense of something momentous having happened. But fate isn't going to let them be together. Oh no, fate has many other things in store for Laurie and Jack.

Not least of which is that when Sarah, Laurie's best friend and flatmate, comes home with her new fella, well.....can you guess who it is? Yes, it's Jack. I so felt for Laurie at that point because she's an utterly lovely character. She's kind, a brilliant friend to Sarah and she's not going to do anything to jeopardise that friendship, even if Jack could be 'the one'.

So we follow the three of them over the course of almost ten years from that first meeting of eyes in 2008. There are the usual ups and downs that happen in everyone's lives, other relationships, earth-shattering moments that turn everything upside down. But still, the constant is the three of them around which everything else revolves.

At the beginning of the book I wondered if I was going to really gel with the early twenty-something characters that I had nothing in common with. But they're such lovely characters and this is such a gorgeous story that I couldn't help but become totally invested in their lives and the outcome of Laurie and Jack's story. It's so much more than a fluffy rom-com, it has a real depth to it and real emotion. As the end approached I did shed a tear and I closed the book feeling really happy and really satisfied.

This book has been called the novelistic equivalent to Love Actually which is quite an endorsement as I love that film. It is like that, with a sprinkling of Cold Feet where the relationship between the friends comes into play. It would certainly transfer well to the screen if that were to happen. I'd definitely watch the film!

One Day in December is full of warmth, feeling and love, but loss and loneliness is also in there. It's perfectly put-together to pull on the heartstrings but isn't too sentimental or cloying. I absolutely adored it. I'm really looking forward to more from Josie Silver.

A story about the friendship of Sarah, Laurie and Jack that spans over 10 years of emotional ups and downs.

It all starts when Laurie sees a man whilst on the bus and gets the thunder bolt telling her he is the one. Over the next 10 years loyalties and friendships are tested whilst she still puzzles over whether he was the one!

I really enjoyed this story, Laurie reminded me of the ultra nice friend all of us have that never quite puts herself first.

I found the pace slowed up a couple of times but that may have been my eagerness to know what would come next for this trio. A lovely warm fuzzy read that may provoke a tear of two that I would recommend.

I loved this book. The story takes place over a decade.
Laurie has a deep attraction to someone she noticed outside the Bus she was travelling on. She tries over 2 years to find this person because the connection she felt was so deep.
When she has just about given up, her flatmate introduces her new boyfriend: and it is the man she was attracted to.
She tries hard to hide her feelings over a long time and Jack denies the connection too, despite having felt the same thing.
Laurie goes on holiday and meets another man, who she also feels a connection with and they go on to marry. It seems to work for a while but slowly, the cracks with Oliver show and the marriage comes to an end.
By now, many things have happened, Jack has been inane out of relationships but they don't last. He has recovered from an accident and living in Edinburgh, where he is a successful DJ.
Coming up to Christmas, Laurie is lonely and realises she needs tor each out to Jack. She does this by phoning his talk show, using a pseudonym and revealing her feelings.
The public imagination is captured by this and eventually she goes to Edinburgh and the 10 years of waiting is no more.
Great story.

Oh my goodness – I laughed, I cried, I shouted at the characters and I absolutely loved this story.
I have already recommended it to friends and they are now recommending it to their friends!
Leave yourself plenty of time to read it – you will not want to put it down.

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?

What I Thought:
It seems perhaps a little early in the year to be on a blog tour for a christmas book but, rest assured, although Josie Silver’s debut novel is called One Day in December, there are lots of other days of the year to choose from, leaving December as the anchor point in a clever way to increase the span of this book to ten years.

This book is being billed as a book for fans of Love, Actually and I’d agree that it does have the same kind of feel and, in fact, even references that movie in the first few chapters but while that perennial christmas classic interweaves the lives of a number of couples over one christmas, this book focuses on Laurie, Jack and Sarah – the three sides of a heart-warming and heart-breaking love triangle over a ten year period.

Having the book set over such a long period of time and fitting into a realistic number of pages is a herculean feat that Josie Silver does really well, skimming over months at a time, but still dropping in on our main characters at crucial times in their lives. Despite them being scattered all over the world there is a genuine, deep and loving relationship between them all, aside from any romantic entanglements, and real love for the characters from the author definitely shows through.

There are moments of joy and moments of tragedy in this book, but it is quite uplifting in this supposedly cold, modern world and even an old cynic like me couldn’t help but adore the ending!

Save until christmas if you must, but One Day in December is – at the time of writing – only 99p on Kindle, so it would be criminal not to grab it!

‘One Day In December’ is Josie Silver’s debut novel and bloody hell what a debut novel it is. I absolutely ADORED it but more about that in a bit.
I didn’t find it hard at all to like or to take to Laurie. In fact by the end of the first few pages, she felt like a really good friend. She’s the sort of lass you could picture yourself having a good chat to over a cuppa or better still you could picture yourself getting hammered with. She’s a good laugh, she’s honest, she’s a good listener and she’s a good friend. Whilst she is on a bus she spots somebody waiting at the bus stop and she just knows that he is the one for her. She hasn’t so much as swapped numbers with him or even spoken a word to him. I suppose that when you know you have found ‘The One’ you know. Their eyes meet but the bus moves away from the stop before either one can do anything about it. Laurie literally looks for him wherever she goes and she enlists her best friend to help her too but to no avail. Despite her best efforts Laurie doesn’t find him and she begins to think that she should forget about him. However fate has other plans in store and she ends up seeing him again where she least expects him. What happens? Will Laurie end up with Mr. Right? Is he really Mr. Right or is he Mr. Wrong? Will Laurie get the happy ever after that she so deserves? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
It’s no exaggeration to say that I was addicted to this book from the moment I read the synopsis. I have read somewhere that ‘One Day In December’ has been compared to ‘Love Actually’. I loved that film and I just knew that I would love this book. I must be psychic because that proved to be the case. I binge read the book in a couple of sessions, which is very good going for me. Usually if I am reading a book, I have to keep putting it down because my mind wanders part way through the story or I send myself to sleep but that was certainly not the case with ‘One Day In December’. The author’s writing style is such that she reels you in like a fisherman reels in a fish and before you know what is happening, you are addicted. For me ‘One Day In December’ really is a book that perfectly fits the labels of ‘unputdownable’ and a ‘page turner’. The more I read, the more I got into the story and the more desperate I was to find out if Laurie got her happy ever after. The pages flew past in a blur and I was mightily disappointed when I finished the book. Don’t get me wrong I was pleased to finish because I knew how this chapter ended but I was enjoying the author’s writing style, the story and the characters so much that I just wanted the book to continue on and on. I just didn’t want this fabulous book to end. ‘One Day In December’ really is a magical, emotional and funny read that really got to me. The characters seemed so realistic that I couldn’t help but care about them and care about what happened to them.
In short, I absolutely ADORED reading ‘One Day In December’ and I wholeheartedly recommend it to other readers. Believe me this is one book that you will not want to miss. I can’t wait to read what Josie Silver comes up with next. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Lovely book. Hadn't read this author before but will look out for her books.
Laurie is on a bus going home on a cold December night. The bus stops and she looks out the window and sees a guy sitting at the stop. He looks up and their eyes meet and they just keep looking at each other. He attempts to get on the bus but is too late. Laurie keeps trying to find him as she thinks he's her soulmate. Won't say anything else as it will spoil the book

One Day In December while sitting on a crowded, stuffy bus Laurie spots a man sitting at the bus stop. Their eyes meet and all of a sudden, Laurie believes in love at first sight. For the next year she and her best friend and flatmate Sarah try to find a way to meet 'bus boy' again. So imagine Laurie's horror when Sarah introduces her to her new boyfriend Jack, the man she's convinced is 'the one' and it is bus boy! She can't say anything to Sarah and Jack doesn't either. Over the next ten years, we follow the three of them through various life events, new jobs, house moves, relationships, marriages even, as Laurie tries to convince herself that she thinks of Jack as no more than a friend.

The friendship between Laurie and Sarah is brilliantly portrayed. They have such a  strong bond and are always there for each other no matter what. Until suddenly something comes between them and at such an important time in Laurie's life. It was so sad to see how miserable this made Laurie especially when all she was ever trying to do was the right thing. It was almost like a bereavement. I was so desperate for them to get past this and make things right between them again. We all need that friend who is always there for us.

At the heart of the story was a love triangle which wasn't the usual kind of love triangle since two of the people weren't actual having a relationship. But as with all love triangles, it was an impossible situation. How could this possibly resolve in a positive way for all three? As Jack, Laurie and Sarah's lives moved on, I honestly didn't see how things could work out or even how I wanted them to work out. And that's why I had to keep on reading this late into the night, to find out where Josie Silver would take these lovely characters. As to how it ends, well you'll have to read for yourself. You may think it's all going to be straightforward but you might just be surprised by the various twists and turns in the story. You'll have a lump in the throat for sure at the final scenes.

One Day In December is a beautiful story for anyone who believes in true love. It's a wonderfully uplifting read for any time of the year, not just December.

This book was so much more than I expected & I loved the sound of it. Got through this in a day could not fault one thing about it, just perfect! Well done on an amazing debut!

A boy and girl catch each other's eye from afar but before they can meet the bus she's travelling on pulls away. This thwarted meet-cute haunts Laurie, who fears she's missed her chance with the man she's destined to be with. 'One Day in December' is a charming and addictive tale of boy doesn't quite meet girl, that is, until their paths cross again, when Laurie is introduced to her best friend's amazing new boyfriend. I was hooked from the beginning and read this in one sitting.

I loved the idea of this book and it sounded just my perfect romance read.  However it was so much more than I could have hoped for!  I read it in one sitting and found the lovely sunny day had gone dark and wet by the time I moved from the sofa - but oh! what a day I had in the world of this amazingly beautiful love story!

The story is told over a ten year period, beginning in December 2008 which is where the Christmas part comes in.  The story is told in sort of diary form from the characters perspectives and jumps many months at a time so you get the good bits whilst the story unfolds. 

It sounded like it could be yet another love triangle with the obvious difficulties however it is so unlike anything I have read before.  It is a book for all ages – no nasty double crossing, no detailed erotic sex scenes or nasty, bitchy comments we are so used to being part of daily lives – however, there  are many tear-worthy moments in this absolutely wonderful true love story. 

The author has found a way of telling a story in today’s times without having all the drama that we are so used to seeing in these types of situations.  Everyone deals with events in a very mature way and forgiving way which ensures that whilst reading you can live in a feel-good bubble.  I did plenty of bubbling while reading and many sharp intakes of breath at times too.  It is a story of love, heartache, friendship and the unbreakable bonds.

I can honestly say I will be recommending this to everyone I speak to in person, on twitter, Facebook and anywhere else that I can.  It’s amazingly beautiful – you really should go read it!

Thanks to Josie Silver, NetGalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read and review prior to the paperback release in October 2018.

Laurie is sitting on a bus when she first sees a man who she decides is "the one" but the bus moves on, the guy doesn't get on the bus and that's it - except she can't stop thinking about him. For one year she tries to track him down without success, until she meets him again. Only this time he's now the boyfriend of her best friend and he's called Jack.

She doesn't let on that he is "the one" she has been raving about for a year to her best friend and so begins a journey 10 years of being Jack's friend. With the story being told through both the eyes of Laurie and Jack so we get what's running through both of their thoughts as we progress through the story.

To begin with I felt this book was a little slow - I didn't connect with the characters and also couldn't see that Laurie and Jack were that connected either. I'm not a big one for romance per se - I do like there to be some sort of a back story and eventually that is what happened in the book. There was a story other than just Laurie and Jack and slowly I began to care about the characters in this book and felt a bond with them. Each new chapter brought changes in their lives and how the bond between Jack and Laurie evolved and grew with some very poignant scenes between them - still friends.

I devoured this book over a couple of days because once it took hold of me I had to know what was going to happen to everyone.There were also some great supporting characters in her best friend Sarah, Oscar and the MIL aka HRH Lucille. Great writing that was so easy to read.

The end of the book has to be up there with some all time great love scenes - I did shed a few tears and it was a corker of an ending. This has got to be made into a film, I think I would watch it again and again and of course my impatience for the story to get going would be easily resolved!

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars and my thanks to netgalley for an ARC to review.

I absolutely fell in love with this book by Josie Silver. I read it every second I could on the train and on my lunch-break, desperate to get to the end and find out what happened. I constantly had my heart in my mouth throughout. I am a true romantic at heart so I was willing Laurie and Jack to get together, though I will not reveal if they did. The book does have a sense of One Day by David Nicholls about it as you follow the characters for nearly ten years and as One Day is one of my favourite books, you’ll hear no complaint from me.
The characters felt so real to me and every near miss that they had made perfect sense, though it does make you want to shout at them sometimes to get their act together. That first glance is so realistic and at the same time feels like something out of a classic movie. I really look forward to reading more by Josie Silver and if you love love stories, I highly recommend this book.

This was such a delightful novel! Utterly perfect for a mid-week wind down. While romance/chick-lit is not my usual choice of genre, I do like it a lot when it's British. I'm kind of like that with my rom-com movies too. It's all in the humour, I find myself able to click better with British humour. And Josie Silver has a way with words too, an intimate style of telling her story that had me veering between laughter and tears – One Day in December really does have all the feels.

‘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.’

Laurie is gorgeous, a character I was able to relate to on every level. In her early 20s when the novel opens, she's still very much finding her way, actively looking for her dream job while keeping an eye out for her dream man. And then she sees him, love at first sight through a bus window, but he's not quick enough at getting up and jumping onto the bus, so they miss each other. Until months later, when he turns up as her best friend’s new boyfriend. But don't be mistaken in thinking that this is the beginning of a cliché love triangle – far from it. What unfolds is a story about friendship, loyalty, and missed opportunities. As Laurie and Jack get on with their lives, as friends, the next twelve years throw up many different paths, none of which see them on the same one at the same time. And the other big relationship within this novel, between Laurie and Sarah, her best friend, was awesome. They were a great pair, through the highs and the lows, and there's nothing better than a solid book friendship anchoring a story in my opinion.

‘I remember the day I first met Sarah, and the first time I saw Jack, and how very tangled and complicated our lives have become over the years. We are a triangle, but our sides have kept changing length. Nothing has ever quite been equal. Perhaps it's time to learn how to stand on our own, rather than lean on each other.’

One Day in December is a novel that wraps you up in a comforting embrace. In many ways it's more life-lit than chick-lit, the sort of novel I can see myself getting really excited about if it ever made it up onto the big screen. And that ending...incredibly wonderful. A truly perfect way to finish such a gorgeous novel. I highly recommend One Day in December.


Thanks is extended to Penguin UK via Netgalley for providing me with a copy of One Day In December for review.