Showing posts with label One Day In December. Show all posts
Showing posts with label One Day In December. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Book Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver





One Day in December


by Josie Silver







Paperback: 400 Pages

Publisher: Broadway Books (October 16, 2018)


Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic…and then her bus drives away.

Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.

What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

“Josie Silver writes with a warmth so palpable her characters sneak their way into your heart and stay for a long time.”—Jill Santopolo, New York Times-bestselling author of The Light We Lost (a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick)


My Rating:




Favorite Quotes:


‘I’ve got a date next week… I met him in a lift. I held him to ransom with the stop button until he agreed to ask me out.’  I really need to take life lessons from Sarah… I need to make ‘What would Sarah do?’ my life motto.

I’ll have to take a rain check. I’ve got a double date tonight with Ben and Jerry. They’re sweet… We’re going to work our way through the Karamel Sutra. It’s going to be a thrill a minute.

If I tell you something, do you promise to never tell another living soul, not even a goldfish?

I’ve only met Oscar’s brother once before. All I can recall is that Gerry doesn’t seem to be much like his easy-going younger brother, and his poker-thin wife, Felicity, looks as if she exists on fresh air and Chanel No. 5.

… 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.

My Review:


A pair of strangers shared a fleeting connection when their eyes met and locked at a bus stop.  Laurie was on the crowded bus, while Jack was sitting at the bus stop.  They did not speak to each other but their profound gaze left a deep and lasting impression before the bus pulled away and parted them yet again.  Neither ever forgot that interaction and though they had each searched, they did not meet up again until Laurie’s roommate, Sarah, introduced Jack as her new boyfriend a year later.  Oops, what a mess… but what to do about it?  Denial and avoidance was apparently the unspoken plan. 

This engaging tale covers a decade of unfortunately bad timing in the life these two conflicted soul mates as well as their small group of friends.  Written in my favorite dual POV, this clever scribe’s writing was crisp and sparkled with wit and levity during the first half, although, to my consternation, grew steadily heavier with angst and conflict as the characters matured and struggled with various life stressors, relationships foibles, family, and work issues.  I was running out of pages and hope for resolution when the crafty author pulled a sly and smooth move, which provided that much desired and highly satisfactory HEA.  This was my first exposure to the delightful Josie Silver – what a trickster!


New additions to my Brit Vocabulary List include squiffy which Mr. Google said was a stuffy or overheated room; naff - which apparently has several meanings such as tacky, lame or uncool, and go away; and my new favorite of cock-a-hoop which means highly pleased or excited.  I’m cock-a-hoop to have found a new author to fangirl.  


Empress DJ



About Josie Silver

JOSIE SILVER is an unashamed romantic who met her husband when she stepped on his foot on his twenty-first birthday. She lives with him, her two young sons, and their cats in a little town in England called Wolverhampton.


Connect with Josie



Monday, September 4, 2017

Book Review: One Day In December by Shari Low



One Day In December

by Shari Low


Goodreads

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2vfcgBj
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2wyrmpQ
iBooks: http://apple.co/2vojzFU
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2voCsIK


By the stroke of midnight, a heart would be broken, a cruel truth revealed, a devastating secret shared, and a love betrayed. Four lives would be changed forever, One Day in December.
One morning in December...
Caro set off on a quest to find out if her relationship with her father had been based on a lifetime of lies.
Lila decided today would be the day that she told her lover's wife of their secret affair.
Cammy was on the way to pick up the ring for the surprise proposal to the woman he loved.
And Bernadette vowed that this was the day she would walk away from her controlling husband of 30 years and never look back.
One day, four lives on a collision course with destiny...



My Rating:




Favorite Quotes:



She despised him. When he walked out, she’d thought she couldn’t hate him more. Now, looking at these images, she realised there was a whole pool of hate she hadn’t even dipped her toe in yet.



What started as a temporary post in the blokes’ section led to a couple of promotions until he claimed his self-penned accolade, Manager of Sack and Crack Support Services.


Argh, the aging process is bollocks. I think every time I pee I lose brain cells. My memory is shot.


‘Although… wouldn’t have minded that in my day. It would be good to have photographic evidence of how I looked before I went gray, developed wrinkles and my baps headed south.’ A woman at the next table froze, unsure if she really had just overheard that correctly. Couldn’t have. Not from that elderly lady.


‘We’ve come to tell you that we’re running away together. We’re lesbians,’ Sarah replied, deadpan, making Bernadette splutter. Stuart’s eyes widened so much she worried that he’d do himself a permanent injury. ‘I’m kidding! Although, she does have great legs,’ Sarah added, grinning.


I can’t tell you how much I hope you’re related to this lot because I need this kind of drama in my life. I love them already. It’s like having your own Lifetime mini-series.



My Review:


I giggle-snorted and smirked my way through this delightful and addicting tale.  This was my first encounter with the mega talented scribe that is Shari Low, but I am positive she has already become an extremely necessary habit.  The author and her ingenious storyline were based in Scotland, a land from which sprouted some of my ancestral DNA, so I plan to claim my reading time indulging in Ms. Low’s highly entertaining work as supporting possible relatives.  Ms. Low’s writing was crisp, witty, engaging, observant, and cleverly amusing.  I adored her well fleshed out characters, was captivated by her well-plotted storyline, and I relished the witty bantering of the shrewd and meddlesome aunties.  One Day In December was a toy chest full of delicious secrets just begging to be exposed. 

Empress DJ



About the author



Shari lives in Glasgow and writes a weekly opinion column and Book Club page for a well-known newspaper. She is married to a very laid-back guy and has two athletic teenage sons, who think she’s fairly embarrassing, except when they need a lift.

Follow Shari

Website: www.sharilow.com   Twitter: @ShariLow  Goodreads     Amazon


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