Review of One Minute to Midnight by Amy Silver

** What it’s about **

Nicole Blake's New Year Resolutions, 1990:

1 Start keeping a journal;

2. Lose half a stone;

3. Kiss Julian Symonds

If there are two things Nicole can guarantee about New Years Eve it's that there are always fireworks and Julian Symonds is always there.

Since she was thirteen, no New Year has been complete without Jules. Through school, university and beyond, as friends come and go, Nic and Jules are at the centre of every party.

Until one year everything changes...

Now, as another New Year approaches, Nicole has ghosts to lay and bridges to build - with her husband Dom, with her best friend Alex, and with Aidan, the man who broke her heart.

Life is about to change again for Nicole, and once the fireworks are over and the dust has settled, this time she is determined it will be for the better.

** What I thought **

After all this year’s Christmas-themed books, One Minute to Midnight, was just thing I needed to get me thinking about the New Year.  This book is set between Boxing Day 2011 and New Year’s Day 2012 interlinked by chapters focusing on previous New Year’s Eves, starting with 1990.  Amy Silver delivers well with the fabulously unique way of telling each characters backstory.

This isn’t just any old chick lit; it covers an estranged father-daughter relationship, the fear of being stuck in a safe relationship and not knowing which the right direction to go in is, death and the closest of friendship bonds imaginable.  Alongside this there is a vast array of wonderful characters who you’ll adore.

When you turn the last page, you’ll be satisfied, yet left wanting more.  This book will make you think about the choices you’ve made and those you’ll make in the New Year, and it might make you realise that the good guy can’t always win…..!