One Day in December by Josie Silver

One Day in December by Josie Silver is the tale of Laurie and Jack, a seemingly ill-fated couple who just keep missing their opportunity for love.  They catch sight of each other while he's at a bus stop and she's on a bus and then he starts dating her best friend and then she's married to this other guy and the timing is just never right for them.  

Interesting characters:

Hm. 

Hm.

I guess?

No.

Maybe?

Hm.

Laurie was a slow burn for me. She seemed like a bit of a whiner at first, to be honest. But by the end of the book, I just wanted her to be happy. She seems like the kind of person I am, really - struggling to figure out her place on the planet, making mistakes while doing so, and sometimes complaining a bit too much or feeling sorry for herself just a little long.  She's definitely a believable character and maybe watching her change over time is interesting in and of itself, but I thought there was a remove between Laurie and the reader when it came to Laurie thinking about any character other than Jack.  For instance, she marries this other guy (Oscar - who is basically perfect) and we never hear her thoughts about him except in relation to how he's not Jack.  

Jack is apparently a wonderful creature to look at.  He's also a borderline alcoholic, but I tend to think everyone in romance novels drinks too much, so what do I know?  He doesn't handle adversity very well, but who does?  He grows a lot in the book, and he's much better at the end than at the beginning, but Laurie gave up her husband, the aforementioned perfect Oscar, to be with this guy?  I mean, I guess love is individual, but she should have moved to Brussels or wherever so that she could have stayed with her husband and quit pining over Jack the Unattainable. 

Hm.

I don't know.

Believable conflict: 

It was a story of mismatching timing and I thought that Silver handled it nicely. 

The conflict between Laurie and her best friend Sarah felt absolutely real. So did their reconciliation. I almost liked the friendship storyline of this novel better than the romance aspect.

Emotional tension: 

Sure, even I was biting my nails at points. There were just so many missed opportunities for these two fools to get together. And then I was foolish enough to believe Laurie might just stay with Perfect Oscar because he was amazing and that she'd forget all about the boozehound.  And then it was getting really late in the book and they hadn't so much as spoken in months and I got nervous. Somehow it seemed like these two needed to be together, even as I didn't necessarily think that was the best thing for either of them.  Anyway. 

I was definitely invested in this book.

Happily ever after:

This is always up for interpretation, isn't it? I mean, there was Perfect Oscar and Laurie picked Manwhore Jack?  Whatevs. The ending was adorable and I'm not going to pretend I didn't let out a little sigh.   

In general, I thought this was a good book.  Not great, but absolutely solid.  I'd probably recommend it, especially if you're into books where everyone pines a lot.  

Notable quote:

“I’m hemorrhaging the people I love and I don’t know how to stop it. Is this just a fact of life? You have to grow up and shed your old friends like papery snakeskin to make room for the new.”

Does anyone else feel this way right now? The last year has been rough, my friends.  Rough stuff.