\~One Day in December\~
One Day in December follows Laurie James as she makes her way through her twenties in contemporary London. Laurie lives with her best friend, worries about the distance between her and her family, is looking for love, and is trying to leave her temporary hotel receptionist job for her dream job in magazine publishing.
One day, Laurie spots a man from inside her city bus. Their eyes meet, and they have an instant connection, love at first sight. The bus drives away, and Laurie spends the greater part of a year obsessed with finding the mystery man. She and her best friend Sarah hunt for him. One day, Laurie meets him again: Not known to Sarah, Sarah’s new boyfriend is none other than Jack O’Mara, the man from the bust stop.
Laurie keeps her feelings for Jack a secret, but as the years go by, she develops her own deep friendship with Jack. In one encounter, she tells him the first time they met, referring to the bus stop; although Jack knows she is the woman from the bus stop, he acts ignorant, avoiding a moment of recognition. Still, the two wind up kissing.
Racked with guilt and in need of a change, Laurie leaves to travel in Thailand, where she meets Oscar, a young banker from London. She and Oscar begin a relationship that continues when the two return to England, and they later get married. Just before the wedding, Laurie admits to Sarah that Jack is the man from the bus stop.
Sarah, angry that Laurie has kept the secret all this time, does not come to the wedding. When it is time for speeches, Laurie suddenly realizes that Sarah is not there to give her toast as maid of honor. Jack realizes this, too, and he steps in to deliver a speech and save the moment, leading many to suspect that he has feelings for Laurie.
Jack, now broken up with Sarah, moves to Edinburgh for a job opportunity while Oscar accepts a promotion that keeps him in Brussels three days a week, leaving Laurie, who has yet to repair her relationship with Sarah, alone and isolated.
While Sarah and Laurie manage to rebuild their friendship, Laurie and Oscar’s marriage soon fails, and for the first time, both Jack and Laurie are available to start a relationship.
In a grand romantic gesture, Laurie calls into the radio station where Jack is a host and reveals her true feelings, and Jack admits for the first time that he has known all along that Laurie was the woman from the bus stop. Laurie travels to Edinburgh, and the two reunite and kiss in a happily-ever-after moment.
Discussion:
Why didn’t Laurie tell Sarah that Jack was the person she’d been looking for?
If Laurie had just told Sarah at the very start, it would’ve kept the girls together and I’m sure they would’ve fixed the situation with Jack, right??
Why doesn’t just Jack admit to Laurie that he remembers her from the bus stop?
Was he in love with her too from the beginning? Or did he love Sarah too and not want to hurt her?
This was a great book and I loved it, I just felt it was a bit of a cliche here and there. Simple things could have been avoided and it was a little over complicated.
by Novel_Wish_4543