Publication: 10th June 2021 – HarperCollins
TWO PEOPLE
Simon Sparks is the man you know from behind the counter at the local Prince Burger (‘hold the gherkin!’), fry shovelling, shelf stacking, hiding away from the world. And Jodie Brook is the single mum you see crossing the street with her son Zak – always chasing a dream she can’t reach.
ONE LIFE
What if life could be so much more? When Simon and Jodie’s worlds collide, it upends everything they know. But in chaos comes opportunity. And for every person who’s ever doubted them, they find someone who’ll finally believe…
ONE ORDINARY DAY AT A TIME
From the award-winning author, Sarah J. Harris, comes a warm, uplifting story about ordinary people, extraordinary tomorrows, and all the ways that life can surprise us…
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One Ordinary Day At A Time is the beautiful and memorable new novel by Sarah J. Harris. I really enjoyed it and I read it in two days. At times, it is fun, at times emotional and heart-breaking, and there is also a bit of suspense that kept me on edge. What I loved most about this incredible story is the two – and a half – protagonists: Simon, Jodie, and her seven-year-old son Zak.
I loved the friendship between Simon and Jodie. They couldn’t be more different and yet, very similar. Simon is genius. At work, his colleagues call him “Prof”, his IQ is higher than Einstein and Stephen Hawkins, he went to Cambridge when he was 15 years old, his social skills often offend people, and he loves math, pub quizzes, and his goal in life is to solve the Riemann Hypothesis, but his day-job it to make fries at Prince Burger. Here he meets Jodie. A single young mother with a seven-year-old son, Jodie needs the job at Prince Burger to support her and her son Zak, but she dreams to get into Cambridge to study English Literature and assure her son a better life. Jodie asks Simon to tutor her for the entrance exam at Cambridge, while she will help him with his social skill and slowly but steady they form a beautiful friendship, but they keep from each other secrets and a troubled and difficult childhood. Simon’s childhood was spent with his nose into a book under the close and hard scrutiny of his father and the only person who showed him love was his mother. Jodie was raised in the foster system, going from home to home, neglected by everyone except Lizzie, the librarian who introduced her to literature and Charles Dickens.
One Ordinary Day At A Time is an incredible story and I am still thinking about it days later after finishing reading it. The characters are authentic and relatable. I felt for them, for their dreams, their hopes, their regrets, their guilt, and I rooted for them to have their happy ending. The story is brilliantly-written and it captured me from the very beginning. I couldn’t recommend it more!
A huge thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.
Book After Book 