Reviews with content warning for Death - One Day in December

Reviews tagging 'Death'

One Day in December by Josie Silver

25 reviews

kelly_e's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Title: One Day in December
Author: Josie Silver
Genre: Romance
Rating: 2.5
Pub Date: October 16 2018

T H R E E • W O R D S

Slow-paced • Underwhelming • Multi-layered

📖 S Y N O P S I S

As Laurie sits on a crowed bus on a wintery day in December, she happens to look out the window and her eyes land on Jack. They share a magical moment, and then the bus drives away. Over the next year, Laurie will look everywhere for him to no avail. That is until, a Christmas party where her best friend Sarah introduces her to her new boyfriend, who just happens to be Jack.

💭 T H O U G H T S

One Day in December felt like a missed opportunity to me and I was actually disappointed because I really thought I was going to love it. At the start, I was invested in the story, and was curious to see where it was going to go. In my opinion it just went in the wrong direction. The plot was extremely slow to develop and I quickly lost interest. It's frustrating to me as a reader when a book is drawn out so much and when you get to the end, it feels rushed, which was the case here. Part of the problem with it could be that I did not like the characters, although Laurie did grow on me.

The portrayal of death and grief is the one thing that felt real to me in this novel, and for that reason alone I couldn't write the story complete off.

It was long. It was slow. It took me two tries to get through, and I ended up having to get the audio. It probably would have been a forever DNF if not for fulfilling a book club prompt. All that to say it wasn't my cup of tea. But do keep in mind I am in the minority here.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of Love Actually

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"I'm so very tired of swimming. Most of the time I feel like the tide is going to pull me under, but here in Jack's arms I feel as if he's just reached over the side of a life raft and hauled me to safety."

Content Warnings

xx_coco's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted a cute winter read, and after loving The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, I wanted to give this book by Josie Silver a chance too. I went into this one with high expectations and ended up a bit let down.

Laurie doesn't really believe in love at first sight, then one day as she's sitting on the bus home from work, she locks eyes with a handsome stranger at the bus stop outside. There's a momentary, inexplicable spark between them, and then the bus drives away. Laurie spends the next year scanning the streets of London in the hopes of finding her mystery man, but by an unfair turn of fate he ends up being her best friend Sarah's new boyfriend, Jack. What follows is ten years of friendship, growth, and plenty of ups and downs for the three friends as they navigate life in their twenties.

I'm all for far-fetched and fanciful romance, even the "fated soulmates" trope in contemporary love stories gets me right in the gut (can you tell I'm a romantic?). It was hard for me to connect with any of the characters in this story. It isn't that they were poorly written or awful people, well mostly they weren't, but I can't stand when characters make so many stupid decisions it gives you the desire to physically shake them. It's infuriating when missed opportunities are the product of two characters wanting to say something then refusing to do it over and over again. It felt like I should have been more sympathetic toward Laurie's pain when she finds out Sarah is dating Jack, but she literally knew nothing about him and was convinced they were meant to be together even after a year passes looking for him. All she needed to do was have one awkward conversation with Sarah about Jack being the same man from the bus stop and she would have saved herself a lot of trouble.

I felt like all of the characters were lying to themselves at many points throughout the book. None of them seemed overwhelmingly happy with their lives, maybe they were even a bit out of touch with themselves, and the dissatisfaction builds up to some crushing moments for Laurie, Sarah, and Jack. I commend this story for how it handles the loss of a loved one, relationships, and feeling adrift in your twenties. There's a lot of focus on the intricacies of relationships and how complicated it can be to maintain them. I wish this would have been more about Laurie and Sarah's friendship as they grow through their twenties together, instead of revolving around the brief interaction between Laurie and Jack at the beginning fo the story. There were too many plot points that felt forced, and this particular love triangle, if you want to call it that, wasn't thrilling or exciting. It just ended up hurting a lot of people.

This one was a miss for me. It had promise in the beginning, but I think the change in POV from chapter to chapter was a bit overwhelming and the love story didn't feel believable in the end.

Content Warnings