Book Review: One Day in December

Do you believe in love at first sight? That spark, that connection that one feels upon seeing that person who could potentially be “the one” for you? What if, even if you both feel that spark, life gets in the way and you don’t end up together? The book One Day in December is about that dilemma.

Cover credit: Broadway Books

I discovered this book by Josie Silver when I saw Reese Witherspoon recommend it on her Instagram. It was a perfect read for the holiday season since Christmas plays a big role in the book, so I had to get a copy. I read the entire thing in two days and I loved it. I could not put it down!

The book starts during the holiday season when Laurie locks eyes with a guy while she was on the bus (and he was sitting at the bus stop). She feels this spark between them and even this guy stands up and attempts to get on to the bus (to try to introduce himself, most likely) but he misses it. For an entire year, Laurie tries to find the guy because she can’t get him out of her mind only to find out during the holiday season (again) that her best friend Sarah’s new boyfriend is that very same guy, Jack. This development starts the complicated relationship Laurie has with Jack for the next decade. 

I fell in love with this book because the characters are all so relatable and they are portrayed in a very realistic way. Other authors, given the complications of their story, would have made these characters out to be overly dramatic. I think that in this book all of them are presented as people like you and me. People who are trying to do their best with what life throws at them even if sometimes their decision of what is best for everyone end up being a complete disaster. There are no villains in the story. It was just about people sometimes making the wrong decisions or people in relationships who discover that they were not right for each other or that they have grown apart.

I loved that One Day in December tackled so many kinds of relationships: friendships, romantic relationships, platonic relationships between a man and a woman, parent-child relationships, marriage, and families. It wasn’t just about romance. It was about the life that the romance was involved in and the people who revolved around it. 

The book reminded me a bit of Cecelia Ahern’s Love Rosie, where the two lead characters had strong feelings for each other, but each had their lives pulled in different directions. I also liked how, in this romance, it wasn’t all about the sex. I’ve read way too many romance novels where the bond and the relationship revolved around the sexual chemistry of the characters. With this one, it was a growing relationship that was truly about each other’s feelings and how they cared about one another. The enduring love involved is something I can only wish that I could have (although I’d rather have that enduring love WITH the person instead of each of us being with someone else).

One Day in December is something I would recommend for romantics like me. I hope that Reese Witherspoon can option this book and turn it into a movie because I think that this would be a good one to watch. I can picture Jack Turner (My Summer Prince, One Winter Weekend) as, oddly enough, Jack. I know that characters are presented well when I can picture them in my head, so Josie Silver did a good job of that in this book. 

If you are still on a Christmas holiday hangover and would love to have the feels, you might want to pick up this book and give it a read (and maybe give it as a gift for the next Christmas season).