One Day in December by Josie Silver

"Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist. After all, life isn't a scene from the movies, is it? But then, through a misted-up bus window one freezing day, she sees a man she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away.

Laurie thinks she'll never see the boy from the bus again. But at a party later that year, 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?"

Secret Santa bought me this book for Christmas in 2018 and I'm ashamed to say it's taken me this long to read it!  My excuse - I wanted to read it in December because of the title and I finally got round to it in December 2020.  Boy, was it worth the wait!  I really should have known with a testimonial on the front cover from Marian Keyes!

I was hooked from the very first chapter and then devoured the remainder of the book as quickly as possible - my other half laughing at me as I wandered round the house and attempted to cook dinner with my nose in this book!

I love a pure movie-style fairytale romance and the first chapter of this book gives you hope for that when Laurie and Jack's eyes meet through a misted up bus window, however, the wheels very quickly come off the bus.  I genuinely couldn't work out how the story was going to pan out given the situation as someone was clearly going to get hurt.

Sarah and Laurie are university age when we first meet them, however, the book spans ten years which is unusual.  It allows the reader to really see the development of the characters through some crucial transition years from university into the real world.  To fit ten years into a book, of course, the story jumps on at various points but it doesn't ever feel disjointed and it is an incredibly impressive debut book from Josie Silver.  I will most certainly be getting myself a copy of Josie Silver's second book, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird.

I laughed and I cried.  I was torn as to how I wanted it to end.  But when it does end....it's wonderful.  Highly recommended and absolutely no need to read in December alone!

You can buy One Day in December on Kindle and in paperback here (prices correct at time of writing):