One December Morning - Emma Davies - ★★

AUTHOR: Emma Davies

GENRE: Contemporary Romance.

PUBLICATION DATE: October 8, 2025

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A contemporary fiction with middle-aged characters. Promoted as a romance, but it barely meets the bill. Some decent characters, but a couple of annoying ones as well. Lacklustre character development, decent plot, slow pace, some good emotions. Attempts magical realism but fails. Might work better if you are looking for a contemplative story than a feel-good or romantic one. Suspension of disbelief required. This is an outlier opinion.

Plot Preview:

After visiting her old aunt, middle-aged Peg is on her way back home hoping to reach quickly, but an unexpected traffic jam blocks her progress on the highway. Stuck in the same jam is Henry, who is on his way to his son’s house for Christmas. The two had met coincidentally just some hours ago at the petrol station, so when Peg sees Henry, she strikes up a conversation. Their chat is mutually enjoyable and when the jam finally clears, both think that they won't meet each other again. But fate has other plans…

The story comes to us in the third-person perspectives of Peg and Henry.

I am not much into romances, but as this novel promised to be a love story with middle-aged characters, I thought of giving it a try. The book started off fairly well, but with almost every subsequent chapter, my rating kept dipping. A slight upward swing came when the promised “sprinkling of magic” came, but the ultimate execution of this was so disappointing that my rating swung downwards again!

Bookish Yays:

🎄 The start is really good, with a nice meet-cute for Peg and Henry. The author’s note states that a part of this incident is based in reality. No wonder it feels so genuine!

🎄 Blanche and Aunt Mim – the only two characters who know their mind and speak their heart. I loved them both. Peg’s daughters are also nice, though their role in the story is too brief.

🎄 The bond between Peg and her Aunt Mim, and also between Peg and her daughters – heartwarming. The scenes where these characters interact are the sweetest ones of the book.

🎄 The Cotswold setting. Beautifully explored.

🎄 The portrayal of Christmas. There’s the OTT materialistic side (courtesy Adam and Sofia) and the more sober approach (thanks to Peg.) A good study in contrasts, and hopefully makes readers understand that less is more, even during the festive season.

Bookish Okays:

☃️ Peg. Mostly a good character, she would have made it to my Yays list were it not for the final couple of chapters. I appreciated her kindheartedness and sensibility for the most way. If only she stuck to her earlier sentiments even at the end.

☃️ The pacing is quite slow, with a lot of plot progress reliant on extended conversations. The dialogues are written fairly well, and even include banter, but at times, the dragged feel is overpowering.

☃️ The story is divided on a day-wise basis, going from 22nd December to New Year’s Day. The progress across these days is written well and it is important to pay attention to the dates. However, the developments that happen (romantic or otherwise) seem far exaggerated for a ten-day period.

☃️ The lead characters’ ages aren’t immediately clear. The blurb mentions that Peg is fifty-five, but there is no reference to this in the book at all. We are just supposed to guess that she is middle-aged from the fact that she has two independent daughters. Henry’s age of sixty-two is hinted at only around at 21% mark. As this is a middle-age “romance”, their ages should have been clarified right at the start.

Bookish Nays:

❄️ The cover art portrays a cutesy Christmassy vibe, but a major chunk of the book is more emotional and contemplative than light and feel-good. I don’t mind this kind of Christmassy read, but I like to know it in advance.

❄️ Henry. Definitely a minority opinion, but I just didn’t like him! He’s judgemental and self-centred, and has no qualms dissing his family to strangers. And honestly, what was the basis for his obsession with Peg? It felt more like he wanted to be mommied by her with perks such as tasty food and loads of sympathetic pampering.

❄️ The “romance” – non-existent! Almost the entire story is, in turns, a family drama and a one-sided obsession coming from Henry. No genuine lovey-dovey feels.

❄️ Henry’s son Adam and his wife Sofia – written in such a stereotypical way that they have no redemptive qualities until almost the very end, by which time it is too late.

❄️ The sudden flip-around in character development: Four characters (including one posthumous) have their behaviour converted to the exact opposite in the last few chapters for no rhyme or reason.

❄️ The “sprinkling of magic” as promised on the cover and in the blurb. I wish I could go into details but this would be a major spoiler. So all I can say is, this is the most disappointing part of the book. When you promise magic and even offer it, you ought to develop it properly. No point leaving that arc dangling.

❄️ Plenty of lies and secrets and manipulation – ugh!

❄️ The needless preachiness. Who likes a holier-than-thou attitude in a Christmas story? (Okay, that sounds like an ironic query, but it isn't.)

❄️ So many unrealistic situations! I want to vent in detail, but again, spoilers! All I’ll say is, I felt really sorry for Peg because everyone seemed to be taking advantage of her goodness.

❄️ The ending is so very abrupt! Just as the “relationship” was finally starting, the book ended. It was at the 90% mark on my Kindle, so I just didn’t expect the sudden full stop. The remaining 10% turned out to be promos and other miscellaneous content.

Overall, this plot idea had great potential, but the execution didn’t work for me. With the farfetched situations, overdose of bad behaviour, poor character development, and abrupt ending, the book messed up the chance it had of portraying a mature love story in a mature way.

“An utterly uplifting and tear-jerking novel of second chances in the most unexpected of places” – Sorry to whoever writes such promotional captions under book titles on Goodreads, but you really need to stop! Not only are you setting up reader expectations to increase (Applicable to innocent non-Grinchy readers, not me), but even worse, you are making promises that aren’t kept by the book (“Utterly uplifting”, my foot!“ Utterly aggravating, more like!) It is always better to avoid captions altogether than to use stock hyperbole for every single new release.

Mine is clearly an outlier opinion. So please read through other reviews and take a call on this work.

Recommended to those contemporary fiction fans who read with their hearts and not their heads, and aren’t looking for a light-hearted, feel-good Christmas romance.

My thanks to Bookouture for providing the DRC of “One December Morning” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work better for me.