Review of 'One Day in December' by Josie Silver

I was so looking forward to reading this - a hyped up romance is almost always going to be right up my street. Maybe I shouldn't have read an obviously Christmassy/wintery book in the summer last year (yes I am that behind on reviews and desperately trying to catch up as quickly as possible), but this just didn't hit the spot for me.

Laurie falls in love at first sight on a snowy London day in December. She confesses her need to find this man she locked eyes with to her best friend Sarah, but after months of trying to find him after their one encounter was her gazing at him from a bus, she gives up. Soon Sarah's excited to introduce her new boyfriend to Laurie: it's the man she fell in love with.

The book takes place over ten years, tracking Laurie's ever-growing love for a man that she can't admit to Sarah is her man from the bus. It encompasses friendship, other relationships for Laurie, and a big theme of missed opportunities. 

I'm still a bit disappointed that I didn't enjoy this? I felt as though the book really dragged and could have had the same exact plot whilst being 100 pages shorter. I also really struggled with not liking the characters and really not wanting the two main lovers to get together. In some books not liking the main characters is par for the course, but I just feel as though with a romance novel you really need to be rooting for them, and I just wasn't.

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"You Think You Know Me"* Review

It feels like forever (presumably because it has been!) since I've done a review. The last few weeks have been massively hectic - essay writing, seemingly endless amounts of family Christmas dos and illness meant that reading got put on the back burner. But, I'm back, and hopefully with more frequency. I was lucky enough to be sent You Think You Know Me by Choc Lit and I have to say it lived up to expectations! Suspense-filled, with a little bit of Bond-esque drama, you never knew who to trust .... Believe me, the quote above was how I felt for the majority of the novel.

Anna, a freelance journalist, moves to London in the hope of securing more work. Her university contacts triumph and she ends up securing an interview with Zachariah Shakespeare, an artist whose work is being shown at Seb Rice's (an old uni friend) gallery. However, when she attends a gallery showing she is watched by a mysterious man who provides a false name and appears to take a photo of her. She soon has to question everything: who is this man, and why is she so attracted to him? Why is her old friend Seb so interested in becoming close? And, most importantly, who can she really trust?

I really really cannot say very much about this one without providing a whole host of spoilers, and I want all of you lovelies to enjoy the book! But, I will say that if you have trust issues, beware: this novel will make you evaluate and overevaluate every impression of anyone you ever meet. However, it is a fab book; well-written, intense and hey, if good literature doesn't make you evaluate your life in a new light what does it do?

Have you read it? What did you think? 

Steph

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