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Winter Day #2
Another Day in Winter
One day, four lives, and a wintery web of secrets and lies.
On a chilly morning in December forever friends Shauna and Lulu touch down at Glasgow Airport on a quest to find answers from the past.
George knows his time is nearing the end, but is it too late to come to terms with his two greatest regrets?
His grandson Tom uncovers a betrayal that rocks his world as he finally tracks down the one that got away.
And single mum Chrissie is ready to force her love-life out of hibernation, but can anyone compare to the man who broke her heart?
After the success of the No1 best seller ONE DAY IN DECEMBER, comes the second unmissable read in Shari Low’s Winter Day trilogy.
Perfect for the fans of Jojo Moyes and Marian Keyes.
426 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 2, 2018
2385 people are currently reading
717 people want to read
About the author
Shari Low
76 books1,453 followers*No1 Best Selling Author*
In January 2001, Shari Low's Low's first novel, What If? was published. Since then, Shari has published over 35 books, and sold three million copies around the globe, hitting the best seller charts in many countries including UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Australia. In 2023, she had three consecutive #1 best sellers - One Day With You, One Moment in Time and One Christmas Eve. Her first release of 2024, One Year After You, also hit the #1 spot.
In late 2020, her first novel, What If?, was updated and re-published, followed by the sequels What Now? and What Next?. All three novels became international best sellers.
Shari has also co-written three Hollywood thrillers, The Rise, The Catch and The Fall, with LA-based TV presenter and actor Ross King.
In real life, once upon a time she met a guy, got engaged after a week, and thirty-something years later she lives near Glasgow with the one they said would never last. Their children have now grown and scattered across the world, so she spends an inordinate amount of time on video calls and aeroplanes.
For all the latest news, visit her on Facebook, twitter, instagram or at www.sharilow.com
In January 2001, Shari Low's Low's first novel, What If? was published. Since then, Shari has published over 35 books, and sold three million copies around the globe, hitting the best seller charts in many countries including UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Australia. In 2023, she had three consecutive #1 best sellers - One Day With You, One Moment in Time and One Christmas Eve. Her first release of 2024, One Year After You, also hit the #1 spot.
In late 2020, her first novel, What If?, was updated and re-published, followed by the sequels What Now? and What Next?. All three novels became international best sellers.
Shari has also co-written three Hollywood thrillers, The Rise, The Catch and The Fall, with LA-based TV presenter and actor Ross King.
In real life, once upon a time she met a guy, got engaged after a week, and thirty-something years later she lives near Glasgow with the one they said would never last. Their children have now grown and scattered across the world, so she spends an inordinate amount of time on video calls and aeroplanes.
For all the latest news, visit her on Facebook, twitter, instagram or at www.sharilow.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
October 15, 2018
Enchanting, absorbing, and exceptionally touching!
In this latest novel in the Winter Day series, Another Day in December, Low once again transports us to Glasgow, Scotland for one chilly day in winter when four lives will cross bringing closure for some, forgiveness for others, new family, old loves, and friendships that will last a lifetime.
The writing is vivid, eloquent, and fluid. The characters are complex, quirky, and authentic. And the plot is a series of engaging, at times humorous subplots that unfold into an amusing, unputdownable story about life, loss, love, familial drama, secrets, misunderstandings, friendship, romance, acceptance, hope, and unconditional love.
Overall, Another Day in December is thoughtful, emotive, funny, festive, and endearing and with its rich characterization and beautiful storyline, it's another stunning example of why Shari Low is one of my favourite authors of all time.
Thank you to Aria for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
In this latest novel in the Winter Day series, Another Day in December, Low once again transports us to Glasgow, Scotland for one chilly day in winter when four lives will cross bringing closure for some, forgiveness for others, new family, old loves, and friendships that will last a lifetime.
The writing is vivid, eloquent, and fluid. The characters are complex, quirky, and authentic. And the plot is a series of engaging, at times humorous subplots that unfold into an amusing, unputdownable story about life, loss, love, familial drama, secrets, misunderstandings, friendship, romance, acceptance, hope, and unconditional love.
Overall, Another Day in December is thoughtful, emotive, funny, festive, and endearing and with its rich characterization and beautiful storyline, it's another stunning example of why Shari Low is one of my favourite authors of all time.
Thank you to Aria for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
October 3, 2018
This was a pretty good book and even though I had a hard time keeping all of the characters straight, I did really enjoy it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy for my honest review.
December 20, 2018
I have always loved Shari Lowe's books. She writes beautifully and always warms my heart with her words. This is book 2 in the series so it was wonderful to meet the characters. Each one of them was so well developed that it almost felt like I was meeting a real friend.
The entire plot of the novel was set in a day, 24 hours, and I loved to see their lives come together at the end. Shari has this unique ability to tie the threads in a beautiful way that always has me longing for more.
A writing where the stories flow like a river coming together to the end, with warmth in the heart and lovable characters makes this book a wonderful read. I enjoyed it totally. This can be read as a standalone but it is always better to read book 1 just to get to know and love the characters a bit more.
The entire plot of the novel was set in a day, 24 hours, and I loved to see their lives come together at the end. Shari has this unique ability to tie the threads in a beautiful way that always has me longing for more.
A writing where the stories flow like a river coming together to the end, with warmth in the heart and lovable characters makes this book a wonderful read. I enjoyed it totally. This can be read as a standalone but it is always better to read book 1 just to get to know and love the characters a bit more.
September 30, 2018
This book is charming, realistic atmospheric romantic and also has humour here and there.
Well-fleshed out characters and I felt so sad about George. His chapters were very powerful.
I don't have a favourite character, everyone plays a role in the story. It's so rich and multi-layered yet had me hooked all the way through.
Shauna and Lulu are really laid-back and hilarious at times (especially Lulu). They are a great example of friends who have a whale of a time together, cocktails and all. I loved their journey and fell as if I were there with them. I've never been to Glasgow or Scotland and the emotional depth of this novel makes me want to go,
The level of detail and emotional plot and/or language is what I think makes this book so amazing. Shari Low is such a gifted author. I felt sadness happiness anticipation tension and just so many emotions while listening to this book.
I was engrossed in Flora and Annie's story and all the backstory of every character. I found the list of characters at the beginning of the book useful in understanding who was who. Great idea.
It's not my first title by Shari Low and I enjoy all her books I have reviewed so far. 5 well-deserved stars for Shari!
Thanks to Shari Low and Aria for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review and my spot on the blog tour for this title.
Well-fleshed out characters and I felt so sad about George. His chapters were very powerful.
I don't have a favourite character, everyone plays a role in the story. It's so rich and multi-layered yet had me hooked all the way through.
Shauna and Lulu are really laid-back and hilarious at times (especially Lulu). They are a great example of friends who have a whale of a time together, cocktails and all. I loved their journey and fell as if I were there with them. I've never been to Glasgow or Scotland and the emotional depth of this novel makes me want to go,
The level of detail and emotional plot and/or language is what I think makes this book so amazing. Shari Low is such a gifted author. I felt sadness happiness anticipation tension and just so many emotions while listening to this book.
I was engrossed in Flora and Annie's story and all the backstory of every character. I found the list of characters at the beginning of the book useful in understanding who was who. Great idea.
It's not my first title by Shari Low and I enjoy all her books I have reviewed so far. 5 well-deserved stars for Shari!
Thanks to Shari Low and Aria for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review and my spot on the blog tour for this title.
April 2, 2025
Wow! Another fantastic addition to the series. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found the characters to be very well developed. I loved seeing how their relationships evolved as the story progressed. The storyline had me gripped,l and now I can’t wait to read the final book in the series!
November 3, 2024
Oh this one got me right in the feels! I’ve probably never mentioned how much I love Shari Low 😂 I would’ve liked to see a few characters from book 1 in the series, but no matter I enjoyed it as much as I always do. I related with a lot of the story.
Written over 24 hours Shari presents us with a story jam packed with humour and heartache along with the Friendship’s, family, love, heartache and found family we expect from the author
Beautiful. I really enjoyed the narration.
Onto the next ………..
Written over 24 hours Shari presents us with a story jam packed with humour and heartache along with the Friendship’s, family, love, heartache and found family we expect from the author
Beautiful. I really enjoyed the narration.
Onto the next ………..
December 1, 2018
Another fantastic story, that can be read as a standalone or as a follow up to One Day in December. I had loved the first in the series and this is just as brilliant! Emotional, heart-warming and incredibly moving. it kept me glued to the screen until the very last page. I am so glad there's going to be a third in the series!
November 12, 2020
Wow, these books by Shari Low have got to be amongst the most emotional reading experiences I’ve ever had.
One Day in Winter, Another Day in Winter and The Last Day in Winter are all set on the Friday before Christmas one year apart. One Day in Summer follows the year after in early summer.
Each story is told over a 24 hour period in Glasgow and focuses on three or four main characters whose lives have somehow become entwined or estranged. Each book has different characters, but some appear in each story, especially the eccentric duo Josie and Val.
Reading the introductory page, I wasn’t too sure that these books were going to be for me. There seemed to be an awful lot of characters, and I wondered if I would be spending too much time trying to get my head around who’s who.
However, from the very first chapter, I was hooked. Each book is very cleverly written, and the words flow effortlessly as more and more secrets unravel. I found them gripping and addictive.
I found that these books evoked so many emotions in me. The storylines cover death, betrayal, friendship, family, love, deceit and so much more. They show both the good and the bad in mankind.
As is so often the case with me and new authors, I started with the last book first 🙄 but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the others.
I read a couple of these books in one day, with the others spanning two days when work got in the way of my reading 😂. They really are that good – I just couldn’t put them down and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
One Day in Winter, Another Day in Winter and The Last Day in Winter are all set on the Friday before Christmas one year apart. One Day in Summer follows the year after in early summer.
Each story is told over a 24 hour period in Glasgow and focuses on three or four main characters whose lives have somehow become entwined or estranged. Each book has different characters, but some appear in each story, especially the eccentric duo Josie and Val.
Reading the introductory page, I wasn’t too sure that these books were going to be for me. There seemed to be an awful lot of characters, and I wondered if I would be spending too much time trying to get my head around who’s who.
However, from the very first chapter, I was hooked. Each book is very cleverly written, and the words flow effortlessly as more and more secrets unravel. I found them gripping and addictive.
I found that these books evoked so many emotions in me. The storylines cover death, betrayal, friendship, family, love, deceit and so much more. They show both the good and the bad in mankind.
As is so often the case with me and new authors, I started with the last book first 🙄 but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the others.
I read a couple of these books in one day, with the others spanning two days when work got in the way of my reading 😂. They really are that good – I just couldn’t put them down and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
December 24, 2018
I read Shari Lowe's first book in this series and really loved it. I jumped at the chance to read this one as soon as I came across it.
The story takes place over 24 hrs. There are several characters that we are following. The main character is Shauna who has found some letters of her late grandma's which reveal some secrets of the past and decides to go to Scotland to find the answers. There is George who is dying, his grandson Tom & Chrissie who is a single mum ready to start dating again.
I felt that in this book it was a lot more predictable than her last book and I thought that it was a lot more obvious how the characters connected which made the ending really obvious. I did enjoy it but I didn't get that Christmassy feeling that I was looking for.
The story takes place over 24 hrs. There are several characters that we are following. The main character is Shauna who has found some letters of her late grandma's which reveal some secrets of the past and decides to go to Scotland to find the answers. There is George who is dying, his grandson Tom & Chrissie who is a single mum ready to start dating again.
I felt that in this book it was a lot more predictable than her last book and I thought that it was a lot more obvious how the characters connected which made the ending really obvious. I did enjoy it but I didn't get that Christmassy feeling that I was looking for.
August 18, 2025
Another fabulous book by Shari Low. An emotional and heart warming story of 24 hours with Shauna, Tom, Chrissie and George. A story of family rifts and finding and rebuilding the relationships years later. I have read quite a few of Shari's books and some of the characters overlap into other stories, which I enjoy.
This book is the 2nd in her Winter series. I will definitely be reading book 3.
This book is the 2nd in her Winter series. I will definitely be reading book 3.
December 1, 2018
Another great read from Shari Low.
I was hoping/expecting something a bit more christmasy, but I wasn't disappointed in the story or characters.
I was hoping/expecting something a bit more christmasy, but I wasn't disappointed in the story or characters.
December 14, 2022
Weer een geweldig boek van Shari Low. Dit is deel 2 van de Winter-serie. Net als bij deel 1 vinden de meeste gebeurtenissen plaats op een dag. Er zijn een paar personages uit deel 1 die terugkomen in dit deel en er zijn een aantal personages uit een andere serie die in dit deel voorkomen. Ook zijn er een aantal personages die in een later boek nog terugkomen. Shari Low’s boeken zijn dus op verschillende manieren met elkaar verbonden. Ik vind dat erg leuk. Al was het wel even puzzelen in welke volgorde ik de boeken het beste kan lezen. Het is leuk om te lezen hoe de levens van de verschillende personages met elkaar samenhangen. Al vond ik het op het laatst soms iets te ver gezocht, toen bleek dat de verpleegster van George ook weer een nichtje van Val bleek te zijn. Maar dat is ook het enige minpunt. Ik heb verder erg genoten van het boek en ik kijk alweer uit naar deel 3.
November 6, 2024
Another amazing book by Shari Low.
The second book in the Winter Day trilogy by Shari Low is another delightful and enjoyable read. Although the events in this twenty four hour period appeared to me to be slow paced, that was because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Val and Josie from One Day in Winter provide much of the continuity and connection to the previous book. The new to this book characters, especially Tom and Chrissie, were wonderfully detailed and appealing. Shari Low does an amazing job of drawing the reader into the lives and story of both the principal and secondary actors in her tales. I can’t wait to catch up with some of these fictional characters in the next book of the trilogy.
The second book in the Winter Day trilogy by Shari Low is another delightful and enjoyable read. Although the events in this twenty four hour period appeared to me to be slow paced, that was because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Val and Josie from One Day in Winter provide much of the continuity and connection to the previous book. The new to this book characters, especially Tom and Chrissie, were wonderfully detailed and appealing. Shari Low does an amazing job of drawing the reader into the lives and story of both the principal and secondary actors in her tales. I can’t wait to catch up with some of these fictional characters in the next book of the trilogy.
December 14, 2025
(4.5) I enjoyed this second book in the series much more than the first. It uses the same 24-hour concept, but the new characters have deeper, more engaging stories that pulled me in right away. You don’t need to have read the first book to follow along, which makes it easy to jump straight into.
The novel is charming, realistic, and layered with romance, humor, and emotion. The characters are well developed, with George’s chapters standing out as especially powerful. While some parts felt a little far-fetched, overall it’s a rich and moving story of love, loss, and reconciliation that kept me hooked throughout.
The novel is charming, realistic, and layered with romance, humor, and emotion. The characters are well developed, with George’s chapters standing out as especially powerful. While some parts felt a little far-fetched, overall it’s a rich and moving story of love, loss, and reconciliation that kept me hooked throughout.
November 10, 2023
Loved it
September 22, 2018
Another Day In Winter by Shari Low a five star read that will warm you on a cold day. I have read and loved One day in December so was excited to get my hands on this one and although it wasn’t as good, it was still brilliant in its own right and made me feel so many different emotions. This author has a great way of bringing so many characters in and giving you so many stories it could easily get confusing but somehow Shari Low manages to keep you hooked and understanding you get enough detail to know the story and the characters. Each time the characters interact they reveal another detail of the story and makes you fall more in love with each of them. The story is essentially told over a 24-hour period but the back stories go back years and each story is more compelling and heart-warming than the last, some characters you will like more than others but overall a great bunch of people you will adore.
September 28, 2018
Shauna's discovery of a packet of old letters sets off a chain of tales that weave among each other until the end, when you realize how entranced you've been by this novel. Low has a knack for writing characters who want to heal old wounds. In this case, George, Tom, and Chrissie all have to overcome their secrets and pull it together. Shauna and Lulu are lovely people. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, I read this as a standalone and thoroughly enjoyed it.
September 16, 2018
The mark of a good book is its ability to evoke emotion and make you care about what happens to the characters. Another Day in Winter definitely did that for me. I sat reading with a lump in my throat and tears running down my face.
After the death of her Grandmother Annie, Shauna finds a bundle of letters that show that her Grandmother had been keeping a secret. With her friend Lulu, Annie heads off to Glasglow for the weekend hoping to discover more about her Grandmother and her family. She meets Flora, her Grandmother's sister, and George, her brother, and his grandson Tom, and uncovers the story behind the letters she found.
I loved this book and will be searching out more books by Shari Low to read.
After the death of her Grandmother Annie, Shauna finds a bundle of letters that show that her Grandmother had been keeping a secret. With her friend Lulu, Annie heads off to Glasglow for the weekend hoping to discover more about her Grandmother and her family. She meets Flora, her Grandmother's sister, and George, her brother, and his grandson Tom, and uncovers the story behind the letters she found.
I loved this book and will be searching out more books by Shari Low to read.
September 17, 2018
I have found my new favourite author. Shari Low instantly captures your attention from the start with a few characters that you get to follow their story over 24 hours. Some of their stories link towards the end, It reminds me of reading a book of a film in the style of 'Love Actually' . Just wonderful and cosy and I was even reading through tears at some parts of the book. I am off now to read the authors other books - just love them and the characters she creates are very easy to identify with.
I received an ARC copy from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a honest review
I received an ARC copy from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a honest review
September 14, 2018
I love Shari Low and this book is just fantastic! It tells the story of several characters who meet up at various points over 24 hours on a winters day, with all their lives being changed in different ways. The Glasgow setting is fabulous and extremely familiar, I love being able to picture where the characters are and the action is set! It is great to revisit familiar and well loved characters who we have been introduced to in previous books, but this book can definitely be read as a stand alone. Funny, touching, heartbreaking and ultimately life affirming, Shari certainly knows how to tell a story and to leave me wanting more. Can't wait for her next book.
September 14, 2018
How can so much happen in just one day?
Shauna journeys to Glasgow in an attempt to find estranged members of her family in this beautifully told heart breaking story of family rifts.
The characters are cleverly crafted with a mix of comic, obnoxious, charming and friendly.
The main story is told over twenty four hours but the background stories are much older.
A delicately woven story with some memorable characters.
Shauna journeys to Glasgow in an attempt to find estranged members of her family in this beautifully told heart breaking story of family rifts.
The characters are cleverly crafted with a mix of comic, obnoxious, charming and friendly.
The main story is told over twenty four hours but the background stories are much older.
A delicately woven story with some memorable characters.
November 5, 2018
I absolutely loved Shari Low's book One Day In December last year and I was delighted to hear there was to be another in her Winter Day trilogy. I should say straight away that it can totally be read as a standalone novel, with a welcome glimpse of some of the characters from last year's novel.
Like the previous novel, Another Day in Winter is told from the points of view of several characters and takes place over 24 hours, a day which will change all their lives and bring them together in ways they could never have predicted. Knowing this restricted time scale made it quite a fast paced novel, particularly as the hours ticked by. Shauna and her friend Lulu are in Glasgow for one day only, to enjoy a day's shopping along with a few cocktails but also to try to find the brother and sister of Shauna's Granny Annie. She had died a few years previously but Shauna had only recently come across some letters revealing that her Granny had a brother and sister Shauna hadn't been aware of and hinting at some major family rift.
From the beginning I really connected with Shauna and Lulu and felt their excitement at being in Glasgow for a day's shopping. It's just along the road for me but I would experience similar excitement with a day in York or Bath or London. The fact that there was a family mystery to be solved and secrets to be uncovered had me completely hooked! I must make a special mention for their taxi driver John who, although a relatively minor character, added something a little special to the story for me.
Tom is spending as much time as he can with his Grandad George who is the palliative are ward in hospital. His grandfather had cared more for Tom that his own father, who was a rather selfish and self-centred man.
I found the scenes told from the points of view of George and Tom particularly moving having very recently lost my dad. It was comforting to think that George, although not able to respond, was aware of what was happening and who was around him. It was also very touching to know that George, like my dad, was surrounded by love at the end of his life as he had been throughout his life.
Chrissie is a young single mum who lost touch with her son Ben's dad through a mixture of well-intentioned and not so well-meaning interference. She has been persuaded to go on a date for the first time since Ben was born but her date is not going to turn out at all as she has planned and the day has a lot of surprises in store for her. I did so love her friends Josie and Val who made me laugh a lot. Her dedication to and love for her son was so evident and I somehow felt proud of how she had coped with what life had thrown at her. I was really keen to see her get the happy ending that she deserved.
Shari Low has written another completely absorbing book. I loved all the characters and the way the story moved smoothly from one point of view to another. I was completely caught up in their lives for this one day. Shari Low has a gift for writing about thoughts, feelings and emotions so that you are right there with her characters living each moment with them. She has woven together another enchanting story which is a really uplifting and heart-warming read for any time of year, not just winter.
Another Day in Winter is a book about missed opportunities, secrets, lies and second chances but above all a novel about love. I loved every page and raced through it. Do I really have to wait another year for the last in the trilogy?
Like the previous novel, Another Day in Winter is told from the points of view of several characters and takes place over 24 hours, a day which will change all their lives and bring them together in ways they could never have predicted. Knowing this restricted time scale made it quite a fast paced novel, particularly as the hours ticked by. Shauna and her friend Lulu are in Glasgow for one day only, to enjoy a day's shopping along with a few cocktails but also to try to find the brother and sister of Shauna's Granny Annie. She had died a few years previously but Shauna had only recently come across some letters revealing that her Granny had a brother and sister Shauna hadn't been aware of and hinting at some major family rift.
From the beginning I really connected with Shauna and Lulu and felt their excitement at being in Glasgow for a day's shopping. It's just along the road for me but I would experience similar excitement with a day in York or Bath or London. The fact that there was a family mystery to be solved and secrets to be uncovered had me completely hooked! I must make a special mention for their taxi driver John who, although a relatively minor character, added something a little special to the story for me.
Tom is spending as much time as he can with his Grandad George who is the palliative are ward in hospital. His grandfather had cared more for Tom that his own father, who was a rather selfish and self-centred man.
I found the scenes told from the points of view of George and Tom particularly moving having very recently lost my dad. It was comforting to think that George, although not able to respond, was aware of what was happening and who was around him. It was also very touching to know that George, like my dad, was surrounded by love at the end of his life as he had been throughout his life.
Chrissie is a young single mum who lost touch with her son Ben's dad through a mixture of well-intentioned and not so well-meaning interference. She has been persuaded to go on a date for the first time since Ben was born but her date is not going to turn out at all as she has planned and the day has a lot of surprises in store for her. I did so love her friends Josie and Val who made me laugh a lot. Her dedication to and love for her son was so evident and I somehow felt proud of how she had coped with what life had thrown at her. I was really keen to see her get the happy ending that she deserved.
Shari Low has written another completely absorbing book. I loved all the characters and the way the story moved smoothly from one point of view to another. I was completely caught up in their lives for this one day. Shari Low has a gift for writing about thoughts, feelings and emotions so that you are right there with her characters living each moment with them. She has woven together another enchanting story which is a really uplifting and heart-warming read for any time of year, not just winter.
Another Day in Winter is a book about missed opportunities, secrets, lies and second chances but above all a novel about love. I loved every page and raced through it. Do I really have to wait another year for the last in the trilogy?
September 6, 2018
A day of misunderstandings, secrets and lies!
After the death of her nan, Shauna discovers some old letter from the 1950's, she decides to go in search of any family that she may not have known about... this journey takes her to a mission.
George is dying; he wants is to put right mistakes he made in the past.
Tom is George's grandson who last saw the love of his life at age 18, he finds out she's back in the area and his world is turned upside down.
Chrissie is a single mum who has had it hard, but after 12 years she's looking to date again, that is until a face from her past makes an appearance in her life.
A hilarious at times story of lost love and reconciliation.
Thank-You Netgalley for my ARC.
After the death of her nan, Shauna discovers some old letter from the 1950's, she decides to go in search of any family that she may not have known about... this journey takes her to a mission.
George is dying; he wants is to put right mistakes he made in the past.
Tom is George's grandson who last saw the love of his life at age 18, he finds out she's back in the area and his world is turned upside down.
Chrissie is a single mum who has had it hard, but after 12 years she's looking to date again, that is until a face from her past makes an appearance in her life.
A hilarious at times story of lost love and reconciliation.
Thank-You Netgalley for my ARC.
October 17, 2018
In her latest book, Another Day In Winter, Shari Low gives a masterclass in how to seamlessly weave multiple plot lines into one exciting, charming and emotional story.
Just as she did in the first book in this series, One Day In December, she takes four characters, in this case Shauna, Tom, Chrissie and George, and tells their stories over a 24 hour period.
Opening the book is like being pulled into a whirlwind; once the words start spinning around you, there's no way out of the vortex - at least until you reach the end, feeling slightly windblown but very happy.
It again starts with a long cast list but I've learnt not to be daunted by this and to put my faith in Shari's skills as a storyteller. She’s never let me down. I would love to see how she plans her books. I imagine something like the police investigation boards you see on TV sometimes, with little photographs of suspects and lots of red squiggly lines which eventually all point toward the same conclusion. And that's what ultimately happens, the individual tales nearly touch, converge, pull away again but the reader knows where it is heading - or at least they hope they do. The only trouble is, it creates a battle between wanting to read it as quickly as possible to find out the ending and slowly savouring every page.
Her characters feel real, which means I laughed and cried along with them. While the main four are all new, it was lovely to see some familiar faces from book one return - a bit like meeting old, cherished friends again.
Not to jinx anything but this engrossing tale has all the makings of a best-seller. I really hope there is at least one more in this series (and then spring, autumn and summer follow). That's not asking too much, is it?
With thanks to Aria (via NetGalley) for the ARC and the opportunity to be part of the blog tour.
Just as she did in the first book in this series, One Day In December, she takes four characters, in this case Shauna, Tom, Chrissie and George, and tells their stories over a 24 hour period.
Opening the book is like being pulled into a whirlwind; once the words start spinning around you, there's no way out of the vortex - at least until you reach the end, feeling slightly windblown but very happy.
It again starts with a long cast list but I've learnt not to be daunted by this and to put my faith in Shari's skills as a storyteller. She’s never let me down. I would love to see how she plans her books. I imagine something like the police investigation boards you see on TV sometimes, with little photographs of suspects and lots of red squiggly lines which eventually all point toward the same conclusion. And that's what ultimately happens, the individual tales nearly touch, converge, pull away again but the reader knows where it is heading - or at least they hope they do. The only trouble is, it creates a battle between wanting to read it as quickly as possible to find out the ending and slowly savouring every page.
Her characters feel real, which means I laughed and cried along with them. While the main four are all new, it was lovely to see some familiar faces from book one return - a bit like meeting old, cherished friends again.
Not to jinx anything but this engrossing tale has all the makings of a best-seller. I really hope there is at least one more in this series (and then spring, autumn and summer follow). That's not asking too much, is it?
With thanks to Aria (via NetGalley) for the ARC and the opportunity to be part of the blog tour.
December 26, 2018
A bit predictable
While I didn’t expect a lot of twists and turns from this, I found the book a little dull in it’s predictability. Many of the characters are familiar from previous novels but they are all two dimensional and occasionally, sickening in either their whole hearted “goodness” or “wickedness”. An easy read but not a particularly good one!
While I didn’t expect a lot of twists and turns from this, I found the book a little dull in it’s predictability. Many of the characters are familiar from previous novels but they are all two dimensional and occasionally, sickening in either their whole hearted “goodness” or “wickedness”. An easy read but not a particularly good one!
September 13, 2025
Shari Low’s Another Day in Winter is, on its surface, a piece of contemporary “chick lit”: light in tone, humorous in places, centred around love, misunderstandings, and the minor catastrophes of ordinary people. That was certainly my expectation when I picked it up — and I admit that I very rarely read books marketed in this way. I am not the natural audience for pastel-covered novels promising secrets, lies, and reconciliation over cups of tea. Which is why it surprised me so much that I enjoyed this one, and why I think it merits a proper reflection. Beneath its breezy prose and Glasgow-set intertwining stories, it contains something more substantial: an exploration of grief, responsibility, and the search for meaning in the small, almost ordinary events that nonetheless alter lives.
The structure is deceptively simple. Over the course of a single winter day, we follow a cast of characters — Shauna, Chrissie, George, Tom — each carrying burdens from the past, each confronted with decisions that could change their trajectories. Shauna, having lost her nan, discovers letters from the 1950s and embarks on a search for estranged family. George, near death, longs to right old wrongs before it is too late. Tom, George’s grandson, is suddenly reconnected with his teenage love, a woman who once defined the limits of his world. Chrissie, a single mother scarred by hardship, tentatively opens herself to romance again, only for her past to resurface. The premise is clear: in the span of twenty-four hours, secrets unravel, lies are exposed, reconciliations are attempted, and lives are redirected.
This is where Viktor Frankl comes in. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl argues that even in suffering, especially in suffering, humans retain the freedom to find meaning. We cannot choose the fact of loss, illness, death — but we can choose how to respond. Frankl, who survived the camps, insisted that the task of each individual is to find meaning in the specific circumstances of their life, however banal or tragic. Low’s novel, while hardly aiming at philosophical profundity, nonetheless enacts this principle narratively. Each of her characters is caught in a small crucible of suffering or dislocation, and each finds meaning not in grand gestures but in small acts of reconciliation, responsibility, or acceptance.
Shauna is perhaps the most obvious case. Grieving her nan, she could retreat into passivity. Instead, she treats the discovery of old letters as a responsibility: to uncover estranged family, to reconnect what was broken, to carry the legacy of the past into the present in a constructive way. This is pure logotherapy: the act of making meaning out of grief by turning loss into a project, by finding purpose in restoring what was once lost. Freud might describe this as mourning, the gradual detachment of libido from the lost object and its re-investment in new attachments. But Frankl’s account is more fitting here: Shauna does not simply “let go” of her nan but honours her by seeking meaning in the traces she left behind.
George, too, embodies Frankl’s principle in the shadow of death. Knowing his time is short, he seeks to make amends. For Freud, this could be understood as a form of working-through, a final attempt to resolve guilt. But in Frankl’s terms, it is the exercise of the last freedom: even when all else is taken, one can choose one’s attitude. George chooses responsibility, however belatedly, over denial. That this comes only at the end of life is both poignant and authentic. How many of us wait until too late to put things right? Low’s narrative refuses to turn this into grand tragedy; instead, it acknowledges the small dignity of such acts, the way even minor reconciliations matter.
Tom’s story, meanwhile, dramatises the question of whether meaning can be reclaimed from lost love. His encounter with his teenage sweetheart after decades apart is not just sentimental coincidence. It is an exploration of whether the past can be integrated into the present, whether deferred possibilities can still be realised. For Frankl, this too is a kind of meaning-making: love is not reducible to romance but is the recognition of another’s unique humanity. Tom’s rediscovery of love is therefore not escapism but an ethical act, an affirmation that it is never too late to live authentically.
Chrissie, the single mother, represents perhaps the most subtle case. Scarred by years of hardship, she hesitates before opening herself to love again. Here Low captures the small psychological detail of grief’s afterlife: the way disappointment calcifies into self-protection, the way suffering tempts us to shrink from risk. Freud would see this as melancholia, an incomplete detachment from lost attachments, still binding her to the past. Frankl would see her tentative willingness to try again as the turn to meaning: the decision to accept risk, to embrace responsibility, to acknowledge that even after suffering, life remains open to possibility.
What unites all these arcs is the novel’s temporal structure. Everything unfolds within twenty-four hours, yet those hours are saturated with decades of backstory, with wounds from the 1950s, the 1960s, the long echoes of past mistakes. This compression is not merely narrative gimmick but a meditation on the way time actually works in the psyche. As Freud observed, the unconscious does not know time; past and present coexist, repetition compulsion drags old traumas into current events. Low, perhaps unwittingly, captures this with precision. The twenty-four hours contain half a century because that is how lives are lived: the past erupts into the present, and every decision carries the weight of decades.
The setting of Glasgow matters too. It is not exotic, not Ladakh in the shadow of the Himalayas, not an escape into the “other” as Liz Harris offered in The Road Back. Instead, it is ordinary, familiar, textured with the rhythms of everyday life. And yet, it is precisely in this ordinariness that meaning is found. Where Harris leaned into exotic setting to aestheticise grief and left me frustrated at the sentimentality, Low situates grief and reconciliation in recognisable streets and pubs, letting the humour and banality of Glasgow life ground the drama. It is more convincing because it is more ordinary. Tragedy and comedy exist side by side.
This is the crucial contrast with Liz Harris’s The Road Back. Both novels are about generational rifts, family trauma, and the attempt to reconcile past wounds. But Harris aestheticised grief, clothing it in Himalayan landscapes and archetypal romance, and in doing so flattened it into melodrama. The exotic scenery functioned as a kind of spectacle — dazzling, yes, but distancing, removing the rawness of grief into the realm of the picturesque. The result was sentimentality: a narrative that gestured at suffering but never let us feel its weight.
Low does the opposite. She anchors her story in Glasgow, a city rendered not as postcard but as lived environment, ordinary, familiar, sometimes comic in its banality. Her grief is not aestheticised but humanised, entangled with humour, coincidence, and awkward reconciliation. Where Harris reached for spectacle and fell into melodrama, Low embraces ordinariness and achieves authenticity. The lesson, for me, is clear: grief does not need mountains to be moving, nor does trauma require exoticism to be convincing. It requires recognition of the ordinary. And that is precisely what Another Day in Winter provides.
It would be easy to dismiss Low’s book as mere entertainment. Certainly, the prose is unpretentious, the coincidences plentiful, the resolutions sometimes too neat. But to do so would be to miss what Frankl understood: that meaning is found not in abstraction but in the concrete decisions of ordinary lives. The novel affirms this by showing how a day of misunderstandings, lies, and secrets can be transformed into a day of honesty, reconciliation, and love. It insists that even small acts matter: a letter discovered, an apology made, a risk taken. This is logotherapy in narrative form.
I did not expect to enjoy this book. I do not usually gravitate toward contemporary romances or “chick lit.” I rarely have patience for misunderstandings stretched into drama. And yet, I found myself compelled. The humour worked. The poignancy landed. The grief felt authentic enough to move me. Above all, the novel surprised me in how it balanced lightness with seriousness. It made me laugh in one chapter and reflect soberly in the next. That, to me, is worth noting.
Why four stars and not five? Because the novel is still limited by its genre conventions. The coincidences are too convenient at times; the narrative arcs resolve a little too neatly. Amy in The Road Back struck me as unconvincing because she was a device rather than a character. Here, a few characters occasionally slip into the same category: functions of the plot rather than living presences. And the prose, while perfectly serviceable, lacks the stylistic ambition that would elevate it to literature. This is not Dostoevsky or Toni Morrison; it is not meant to be.
But within its frame, it succeeds. It delivers a story that is funny, touching, heartbreaking, and life-affirming. It makes the ordinary meaningful. It surprised me. And that is, I think, the highest compliment I can pay.
Four stars, then — not because it is flawless, but because it achieves more than I expected, and because it embodies in narrative form what Viktor Frankl insisted upon: that even in grief, even in banality, even in misunderstandings and lies, life remains open to meaning.
The structure is deceptively simple. Over the course of a single winter day, we follow a cast of characters — Shauna, Chrissie, George, Tom — each carrying burdens from the past, each confronted with decisions that could change their trajectories. Shauna, having lost her nan, discovers letters from the 1950s and embarks on a search for estranged family. George, near death, longs to right old wrongs before it is too late. Tom, George’s grandson, is suddenly reconnected with his teenage love, a woman who once defined the limits of his world. Chrissie, a single mother scarred by hardship, tentatively opens herself to romance again, only for her past to resurface. The premise is clear: in the span of twenty-four hours, secrets unravel, lies are exposed, reconciliations are attempted, and lives are redirected.
This is where Viktor Frankl comes in. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl argues that even in suffering, especially in suffering, humans retain the freedom to find meaning. We cannot choose the fact of loss, illness, death — but we can choose how to respond. Frankl, who survived the camps, insisted that the task of each individual is to find meaning in the specific circumstances of their life, however banal or tragic. Low’s novel, while hardly aiming at philosophical profundity, nonetheless enacts this principle narratively. Each of her characters is caught in a small crucible of suffering or dislocation, and each finds meaning not in grand gestures but in small acts of reconciliation, responsibility, or acceptance.
Shauna is perhaps the most obvious case. Grieving her nan, she could retreat into passivity. Instead, she treats the discovery of old letters as a responsibility: to uncover estranged family, to reconnect what was broken, to carry the legacy of the past into the present in a constructive way. This is pure logotherapy: the act of making meaning out of grief by turning loss into a project, by finding purpose in restoring what was once lost. Freud might describe this as mourning, the gradual detachment of libido from the lost object and its re-investment in new attachments. But Frankl’s account is more fitting here: Shauna does not simply “let go” of her nan but honours her by seeking meaning in the traces she left behind.
George, too, embodies Frankl’s principle in the shadow of death. Knowing his time is short, he seeks to make amends. For Freud, this could be understood as a form of working-through, a final attempt to resolve guilt. But in Frankl’s terms, it is the exercise of the last freedom: even when all else is taken, one can choose one’s attitude. George chooses responsibility, however belatedly, over denial. That this comes only at the end of life is both poignant and authentic. How many of us wait until too late to put things right? Low’s narrative refuses to turn this into grand tragedy; instead, it acknowledges the small dignity of such acts, the way even minor reconciliations matter.
Tom’s story, meanwhile, dramatises the question of whether meaning can be reclaimed from lost love. His encounter with his teenage sweetheart after decades apart is not just sentimental coincidence. It is an exploration of whether the past can be integrated into the present, whether deferred possibilities can still be realised. For Frankl, this too is a kind of meaning-making: love is not reducible to romance but is the recognition of another’s unique humanity. Tom’s rediscovery of love is therefore not escapism but an ethical act, an affirmation that it is never too late to live authentically.
Chrissie, the single mother, represents perhaps the most subtle case. Scarred by years of hardship, she hesitates before opening herself to love again. Here Low captures the small psychological detail of grief’s afterlife: the way disappointment calcifies into self-protection, the way suffering tempts us to shrink from risk. Freud would see this as melancholia, an incomplete detachment from lost attachments, still binding her to the past. Frankl would see her tentative willingness to try again as the turn to meaning: the decision to accept risk, to embrace responsibility, to acknowledge that even after suffering, life remains open to possibility.
What unites all these arcs is the novel’s temporal structure. Everything unfolds within twenty-four hours, yet those hours are saturated with decades of backstory, with wounds from the 1950s, the 1960s, the long echoes of past mistakes. This compression is not merely narrative gimmick but a meditation on the way time actually works in the psyche. As Freud observed, the unconscious does not know time; past and present coexist, repetition compulsion drags old traumas into current events. Low, perhaps unwittingly, captures this with precision. The twenty-four hours contain half a century because that is how lives are lived: the past erupts into the present, and every decision carries the weight of decades.
The setting of Glasgow matters too. It is not exotic, not Ladakh in the shadow of the Himalayas, not an escape into the “other” as Liz Harris offered in The Road Back. Instead, it is ordinary, familiar, textured with the rhythms of everyday life. And yet, it is precisely in this ordinariness that meaning is found. Where Harris leaned into exotic setting to aestheticise grief and left me frustrated at the sentimentality, Low situates grief and reconciliation in recognisable streets and pubs, letting the humour and banality of Glasgow life ground the drama. It is more convincing because it is more ordinary. Tragedy and comedy exist side by side.
This is the crucial contrast with Liz Harris’s The Road Back. Both novels are about generational rifts, family trauma, and the attempt to reconcile past wounds. But Harris aestheticised grief, clothing it in Himalayan landscapes and archetypal romance, and in doing so flattened it into melodrama. The exotic scenery functioned as a kind of spectacle — dazzling, yes, but distancing, removing the rawness of grief into the realm of the picturesque. The result was sentimentality: a narrative that gestured at suffering but never let us feel its weight.
Low does the opposite. She anchors her story in Glasgow, a city rendered not as postcard but as lived environment, ordinary, familiar, sometimes comic in its banality. Her grief is not aestheticised but humanised, entangled with humour, coincidence, and awkward reconciliation. Where Harris reached for spectacle and fell into melodrama, Low embraces ordinariness and achieves authenticity. The lesson, for me, is clear: grief does not need mountains to be moving, nor does trauma require exoticism to be convincing. It requires recognition of the ordinary. And that is precisely what Another Day in Winter provides.
It would be easy to dismiss Low’s book as mere entertainment. Certainly, the prose is unpretentious, the coincidences plentiful, the resolutions sometimes too neat. But to do so would be to miss what Frankl understood: that meaning is found not in abstraction but in the concrete decisions of ordinary lives. The novel affirms this by showing how a day of misunderstandings, lies, and secrets can be transformed into a day of honesty, reconciliation, and love. It insists that even small acts matter: a letter discovered, an apology made, a risk taken. This is logotherapy in narrative form.
I did not expect to enjoy this book. I do not usually gravitate toward contemporary romances or “chick lit.” I rarely have patience for misunderstandings stretched into drama. And yet, I found myself compelled. The humour worked. The poignancy landed. The grief felt authentic enough to move me. Above all, the novel surprised me in how it balanced lightness with seriousness. It made me laugh in one chapter and reflect soberly in the next. That, to me, is worth noting.
Why four stars and not five? Because the novel is still limited by its genre conventions. The coincidences are too convenient at times; the narrative arcs resolve a little too neatly. Amy in The Road Back struck me as unconvincing because she was a device rather than a character. Here, a few characters occasionally slip into the same category: functions of the plot rather than living presences. And the prose, while perfectly serviceable, lacks the stylistic ambition that would elevate it to literature. This is not Dostoevsky or Toni Morrison; it is not meant to be.
But within its frame, it succeeds. It delivers a story that is funny, touching, heartbreaking, and life-affirming. It makes the ordinary meaningful. It surprised me. And that is, I think, the highest compliment I can pay.
Four stars, then — not because it is flawless, but because it achieves more than I expected, and because it embodies in narrative form what Viktor Frankl insisted upon: that even in grief, even in banality, even in misunderstandings and lies, life remains open to meaning.
December 31, 2024
It is Friday, December 21. The year is 2018. One year has passed since the events in Book One. One of the regular features of a Shari Low book is the cast of characters at the beginning. Josie and Val are back with a cameo or two from other folks in the first book. The Glasgow setting is ever present and feels familiar.
My favorite perspective in this one is George Thomas Butler (85). He is a brother and grandfather with regrets. As the day unfolds we learn more about what has happened in his past. Shari Low takes us back to the past as our present characters search for answers. Will this dear man be forgiven?
Shauna, Tom, and Chrissie will help tell the story of this day along with George. In each two hour increment, we see bits and pieces of how their paths cross and how they are all connected -- sometimes we know before they do. Shari Low is a masterful storyteller and you will be glued to the pages of this second book in the Winter Day series.
My favorite perspective in this one is George Thomas Butler (85). He is a brother and grandfather with regrets. As the day unfolds we learn more about what has happened in his past. Shari Low takes us back to the past as our present characters search for answers. Will this dear man be forgiven?
Shauna, Tom, and Chrissie will help tell the story of this day along with George. In each two hour increment, we see bits and pieces of how their paths cross and how they are all connected -- sometimes we know before they do. Shari Low is a masterful storyteller and you will be glued to the pages of this second book in the Winter Day series.
October 28, 2024
Day 2 and book 2 in this series, I literally couldn't wait to start listening. Thankfully, Shari has used the same narrator but there are so many new characters I wondered if this was related to book 1 at all. It's only when my old friends Josie and Val come on the scene that I found my first link.
Don't get me wrong, this book is absolutely outstanding in its' own right. This storyline is much more emotional than the first in my opinion and it had me ugly crying more than once. From family feuds and horrible misunderstandings to the sad loss of a much loved man.
Luckily bolshy Josie and outrageous Val are here for the laugh out loud moments though and love is definitely in the air for a possible relationship. I didn't realise I had been holding my breath.
I literally never want this series to end. Bring on book 3
Don't get me wrong, this book is absolutely outstanding in its' own right. This storyline is much more emotional than the first in my opinion and it had me ugly crying more than once. From family feuds and horrible misunderstandings to the sad loss of a much loved man.
Luckily bolshy Josie and outrageous Val are here for the laugh out loud moments though and love is definitely in the air for a possible relationship. I didn't realise I had been holding my breath.
I literally never want this series to end. Bring on book 3
October 11, 2018
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I thought that this book was fabulous, it was a gorgeous story to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
The characters are brilliant I warmed to them straightaway and the author has excellent characterisation, they really help bring the story to life.
This is the second book in the Winter Day trilogy and whilst it does read fine as a standalone, the first book, One Day in December is also excellent so I would recommend reading them in order if you get the chance.
I have given the book a well earned 5 stars – very well written and very highly recommended!!
I thought that this book was fabulous, it was a gorgeous story to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
The characters are brilliant I warmed to them straightaway and the author has excellent characterisation, they really help bring the story to life.
This is the second book in the Winter Day trilogy and whilst it does read fine as a standalone, the first book, One Day in December is also excellent so I would recommend reading them in order if you get the chance.
I have given the book a well earned 5 stars – very well written and very highly recommended!!
October 15, 2018
I haven't read the first book in the Winter's Day series, so I read this as a standalone and it is a lovely, poignant read, with a festive flavour, complex characters and a web of secrets to explore.
There are many characters whose lives are intertwined; each character has a story to tell which adds to the main storyline and illustrates their reason for being there on this particular Winter's day. The beauty of this story is its unashamed emotion, the characters' experience many feelings and because of their inherent honesty, it's impossible not to empathise.
Something to warm you on a cold Winter's day, a lovely, heartwarming yet realistic festive read.
I received a copy of this book from Aria Fiction via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
There are many characters whose lives are intertwined; each character has a story to tell which adds to the main storyline and illustrates their reason for being there on this particular Winter's day. The beauty of this story is its unashamed emotion, the characters' experience many feelings and because of their inherent honesty, it's impossible not to empathise.
Something to warm you on a cold Winter's day, a lovely, heartwarming yet realistic festive read.
I received a copy of this book from Aria Fiction via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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