One Day in December

Silver explores the different kinds of love men and women create and share in this sweetly romantic novel. Laurie and Jack spot each other at Christmas while she’s on a bus and he’s out on the street, but the bus drives off and they don’t meet. She spends the next year looking for “bus boy.” When they finally connect, he’s already her best friend Sarah’s boyfriend, so they decide not to acknowledge that first encounter, starting a decade of lies of omission and bittersweet friendship that eventually blows up in their faces. Laurie always puts everyone else first until some interesting choices lead to hard-won independence and self-respect. Plenty of stereotypes and tropes here, with Laurie and Jack’s alternating first-person points of view illustrating their Love Actually missed opportunities, complete with second-guessing and could-have-beens on both ends. Family members and friends round out a well-developed and necessary cast of supporting characters.