There are 2 books with the same title. And i had heard lots of people talk about one day in december. However it wasn't this one, it was the other one!
That didn't matter though as this book was really enjoyable. Good characters of course some to Love and some to hate. Set over the course of a day. Great story.

Four main characters and a number of their connections feature in this engaging women's fiction read. The action takes place over the course of one day with sufficient back story to give the novel some depth. The book begins with a character dying in hospital; it will only be at the end of the novel that the reader learns who this is.

As for the characters...Bernadette is married to surgeon, Ken, their union is not a happy one. She, Ken and their two children are one story line. Media obsessed Lila is another; she is involved with Ken and is half sister to the more likeable Caro. Both Caro and Lila's mothers were married to the same man but they have never met. Cammy wants to marry Lila but gets to know Caro as well. There are others in the novel including Caro's cousin, Caro and Lila's parents and an entire French football team! Each chapter follows one of the main characters.

I found this book to be an enjoyable read; one of those novels that is good for a time when you want to relax. There will be another book by this author coming out soon.

I loved this book!

It is one of those books that makes you step and think and it made me look at my life and how fragile it is! I found this book to be a real page turner and couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next. I felt the characters were well developed and some of them I adored (some I hate too but think you are meant too)

The perfect pre-Christmas book to start getting you in the mood

This book by Shari Low is a delightful and addictive read following four strangers whose lives are about to intersect over the course of one day - Bernadette who is about to leave her loathsome, cheating husband Ken, Cammy who is about to propose to his girlfriend Lila, Lila the afore-mentioned girlfriend who is actually having an affair with the loathsome Ken and Caro who has discovered that her father is hiding a very large secret.
Although told from all the main characters point of view over one day the style of writing makes it easy to follow and each character was beautifully drawn and distinctive if not always likeable! I particularly liked the character of Cammy who came across as a lovely, decent man and really disliked his girlfriend Lila whilst still being intrigued by her.
Overall a great read by a fab author and many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for review.

I loved this book it gave me the feel of a good soap opera storyline. Lots of twists and turns. The writing was beautiful and characters were likeabl

Really enjoyed this book. Lots of family dynamics to work out but love the interactions between the characters. Great reading!

This is a definite five star story. It's Christmas fiction with a twist. At the beginning of the novel, someone lies dying in hospital. We are then given a list and short description of all the characters in the book, they are the ones who write the story. They are all connected, some unknowingly. The story is set in Glasgow on 22nd December and starts adding each character when needed and providing their link to each other. I just had to keep reading to witness the big finale, its brilliant.

I loved this book and read it in a day which is something I rarely ever manage. The book is set over one day and the story progresses in 2 hour chunks during which we get to see the 4 characters make decisions and react to what is going on around them. This book is so well-written that these changes are clear and the story is easy to follow which is not always the case in stories with multiple main characters.
The characters are really well-written and come alive off the page. I was rooting for some of them and feeling bad for others. It certainly tugs at your heart-strings. It's a brilliant story which is well crafted and shows how decisions that people make can have unexpected consequences and not always go to plan. This is a book that I didn't want to end it was honestly that good.
I cannot recommend this book anymore than I have done already. I've struggled to write this review because I wasn't sure how to do it and do justice to this book. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

There are two types of book that I like more than most. One is the coming of age story and the other, the style that Shari Low has created with One Day in December, is what I refer to as the “Love Actually” style of story. One were the lives of the characters seamlessly interweave.

In this story we meet Caro, a girl who is confronting the abandonment of her father due to the imminent loss of her mother. Her potential sister Lila is a sexy vixen who is stringing two men along: Cammy, a man on the verge of proposing and totally unaware of his girlfriends philandering ways and her lover Kenneth, an arrogant and selfish man, cut from the same cloth as her father. Then there is Bernadette who is Kenneth’s long suffering wife who is trying to find her way out of a loveless marriage.

Basically it is an episode of Jeremy Kyle waiting to happen…except all the characters appear to have all their teeth (at least they did in my head) and don’t seem to want to air their dirty laundry on television.

Shari Low has created a wonderful cast of characters and a story that is just so very cleverly written that One Day in December was an absolutely joy to read. I wish it had been longer.

One Day in December by Shari Low is available now.

For more information regarding Shari Low (@sharilow) please visit www.sharilow.com.

For more information regarding Aria Fiction (@Aria_Fiction) please visit www.ariafiction.com.

Oh the things that can happen in one day! And to so many people who don't even realize they are connected.

I love Shari Low's books and one of the best things is how the characters reappear in different books. Cammy has been in trouble before, so I was hoping for good things for him, but geez, he really doesn't have great taste in women!

Lila was horrible, but I still felt sorry for her because everyone could see what was coming a mile away, but when you are young and beautiful, you just don't think the rules of life apply to you.

Following them all through the course of the day was a bit nerve wracking because you just knew the car wreck was coming and there was nothing you could do to stop it, and you certainly couldn't look away.

But it's a Shari Low book, so the people who deserve a happy ending got one! Love her books!

Current Goodreads Rating 4.18

Don't be put off by this book having December in the title, it's not a book that you need to wait till then to read. What is more important is that it is set over the course of one day - that day just happens to be in December. And what an action packed emotional day it is.

I adored this book. I loved the format of the way the story unfolded. It takes place, as I said, over the course of one day where we follow the four characters in blocks of two hours leading up to midnight. Each character has a chapter in each section of time so we hear from each what is happening. The characters are all loosely - or not so loosely  -connected and of course the reader knows more about the connections than the characters. I was slightly daunted by the large list of characters at the beginning of the book but actually, there are probably no more than in any book and I certainly had no problem keeping up with who was who.

I found this a really compelling book. Because we hear from each character in turn in every section, I was always desperate to find out what was going to happen next for them. Particularly as the time crept towards midnight, it was a bit like watching the end of thriller film - it was fascinating yet I almost wanted to hide my eyes as the four storylines inevitably came together. There were lots of interesting threads to the story and I definitely empathised with some of the characters more than others! Towards the end there were some emotional scenes which were perfectly narrated.

One Day in December is a wonderfully written story which I certainly found hard to put down. It's a perfect mix of romance, relationships, friendships and secrets. It will make you laugh, it might make you cry and the characters will definitely stay in your mind. In fact, I'd really love to find out what happens next for them. It's a book to curl up with as the darker nights draw in but don't wait until December! It's the first of Shari Low's books I've read and I'll definitely be looking out for more from this accomplished storyteller.

It's odd I had been looking forward to reading this book as I tend to love everything that Shari Low writes, but this just didn't work for me, for over half the book. Now I understand that everything needed to be set up to make the conclusion more interesting, but I had to read through the rest to get there.

It is in fact clever book, all the action takes place over the course of one day, but whereas in a thriller that would make it fast paced, I found the pacing rather sedate. For it follows the actions of four seemingly at first unrelated people, until you very early on work out how they may be connected.

Herein lies my first problem with the book, of the 4 focal characters, I was only engaged and interested in two of them, so every other chapter I was losing interest as I just wasn't as bothered about their stories.

Also at some points you were seeing the same action but from different perspectives which is nice, unless you aren't keen on repetition! I think the other small problem I had was the major turnoff of about 4 pages of characters at the start of a kindle book - had it been a paperback I would have referred back and forth quite happily to get my bearings quicker, but on the kindle I just got scared at how much I was going to have to remember if I read the list!

All that being said I found the book to be well thought out and cleverly crafted. It was not my favourite of Shari Low's books but I didn't hate it either, especially as I did finally become engaged in the whole story and was even feeling rather emotional at one point.

Thank you to Aria and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I love Shari Low's books, and was excited to see this one. We meet characters we have met before, but you don't need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one. I think I've missed one along the way, but I still got to know the characters perfectly well. The book is set on 22nd December and goes through the lives of several characters, and the developments in their day that affects their lives and we watch to see how they will be brought together. At the beginning, because of the date and the various locations used in their proximity to George Square I thought they were going to be involved in the Bin Lorry incident, but the time of that horrific event passed, so I breathed again! I do enjoy a book set in Glasgow where I can picture the places! I enjoyed this book and getting to know the characters and how their lives changed. The impact of social media was highlighted showing how one simple photo or comment can set in train a whole series of life changing events. A delightful read which I managed to cram into a flight to New York, I didn't want to leave the characters without finding out what had happened.

The story is told in segments of time in a particular day in December. We have several characters all very different and like a pack of cards Caro's search is going to bring all of them down. Heartbreak, deceit in spades, indifference of a parent (hurtful to the extreme) and friendship and love all in one package.

Caro is seeking her father. After many years she has discovered he is alive, well and living a full life with a wife and a daughter (of the same age as her). Her mother is dying and Caro seeks closure of a life of hurt and bewilderment how a parent could abandon both a wife who was ill and a daughter without any remorse. She also comes up again Lila her stepsister, a woman with a will of her own and only looking out for herself. Her love affair with Ken a cardiac surgeon she thinks is going to lead to a life of riches, respectability and security. His wife the mousy one discovers that she also has a will of her own after decades of verbal abuse and being submissive.

The story shows the highs and lows of several lives all packed into one day and was a book you had to finish naturally in a day.

Settings were lovely, characterizations were spot on.

Goodreads and Amazon reviews posted on 7/10/2017. Reviews on my blog posted on 8/11/2017. Also linked to my FB page.

I absolutely loved this book and could not stop reading. I loved the layout, how each chapter is from a different POV. I loved the voices, how different they all were. I would absolutely recommend this to a friend and I look forward to reading more by Shari Low.

I read this delightful book in an afternoon, relaxing on a lounge with a wine spritzer whilst in Croatia. The writer has managed to cleverly combine the lives of all the main characters into a single day. The four main characters’ lives are changed forever by the events that unfold during that day.

The day becomes a collision course with destiny as each character makes choices that will change the course of their lives forever. I was enthralled by the style of writing which portions the day into 2-hourly increments and I was compelled to keep reading as each story developed.

The writer herself has stated that she bases all her books on friendships and that she hopes that her readers feel that they have met with a friend when the last page is turned and that is exactly how I felt at the end of the book.

It is an absolute pleasure to read a book that keeps you turning the pages, wanting to discover the outcome.

Gillian

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

With a cast list as long as the one in Shari Low’s latest book, I was worried my poor, weary brain wouldn't be able to cope but One Day In December is so well written, engrossing and entertaining that I was more than able to keep up.
As the title suggests, the story follows a day in the lives of four different characters whose fates are intertwined – even if they don’t know it.
It is a proper page-turner, which gets all the more thrilling as it speeds towards its utterly perfect, highly emotional (seriously, real tears), conclusion.
There's a full character list at the start, which I actually found a little overwhelming, but once you begin reading it soon becomes clear who everyone is.
Shari is a master of characterisation and I was soon captivated by their different tales.
I even felt sympathy for Lila, who is probably the least likeable of the four, because we learn through her thoughts (and how other people view her) the cause of some of her behaviour.
The changes in narrator keeps things moving along at quite a pace and makes it really hard to stop reading (and I mean REALLY hard).
While it flowed beautifully, I can only imagine the planning that went into it to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together.
From start to finish, there isn't a single thing I would change about this book, it is perfection.

Immediately the prologue of this book grabbed me. I really wanted to know what was going to happen, what would lead to this, all in one night. I wasn’t disappointed.

As the story begins, the characters are all introduced. My first impression was that there were a lot of characters, and was this going to be confusing? But it wasn’t at all, the characters are introduced one by one, and they’re so well drawn that we get to know them very well.

The excellent characters are what makes this book such a success. I couldn’t wait to see how their lives were all going to intersect, all linked by this one night.

As the events of the night unfold, the story flows perfectly. There’s a real sense of tension as time goes on and the story develops. This was a book I couldn’t wait to go back to, I was so full of anticipation as to what was going to happen.

Captivating, fascinating, a true pleasure to read.

The Blurb :
By the stroke of midnight, a heart would be broken, a cruel truth revealed, a devastating secret shared, and a love betrayed. Four lives would be changed forever, One Day in December.
One morning in December...
Caro set off on a quest to find out if her relationship with her father had been based on a lifetime of lies.
Lila decided today would be the day that she told her lover's wife of their secret affair.
Cammy was on the way to pick up the ring for the surprise proposal to the woman he loved.
And Bernadette vowed that this was the day she would walk away from her controlling husband of 30 years and never look back.
One day, four lives on a collision course with destiny...

My Thoughts :
This book, set in Glasgow takes us on a journey for one day into the lives of Lila, Cammy, Bernadette and Caro, who are all strangers. We learn about their their hopes, their dreams and their fears. And how its a small world we live in. This story can easily sweep you up and it fast becomes a page turner.
I have enjoyed Shari Low's previous books and this was also a great read.
My only negative point of the story was the amount of charactors in it, for me I can easily lose track when reading about so many charactors and I need to jump back a few pages to familiarize myself with who is who. So for me, less would of been better. But overall another fab book by Shari Low.