One Day in December

This was a tough one for me to review. Usually I really hate when books/films/etc embrace the whole “the end justifies the means” thing when it comes to cheating. Giving the characters a happy ending makes the cheating seem okay and worth it. But ultimately I felt that this book explored enough of the guilt and conflict that came from the indiscretion that it avoided this problem.

Some things I loved about this book: it wasn't obnoxiously Christmassy. Sarah and Laurie's friendship. The handling of Laurie and Oscar's relationship and divorce. Also, there's something to be said for the fact that I couldn't put it down and stayed up until 3am reading it.

Things I struggled with: how much time passed, yet how little of that passing we got to see. Hard to help, I know, but it affected how I felt about the characters. They didn't FEEL 30 at the end. And also I didn't particularly like Jack at any point. I don't like to hold unlikeable characters against the author too much as it makes it more real, but he is the romantic lead, so it's not ideal.

So, 4 stars from me. Objectively I think it was probably 3 stars, but reading isn't objective, and I think the author managed to hit that subjective sensibility inside me and make me care even if I wasn't always happy about it. Props for that.