Review: Seven Days of Us

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof, but for a very specific reason. Elder daughter Olivia, a doctor has been treating victims of an epidemic in Liberia and upon returning home for the festive period, the entire family must now spend a week in quarantine. The decision is made to leave their London pad and spend the festive season in their run-down country pile, Weyfield Hall in Norfolk.

Cut off from civilisation and forced to spend time with each other, they soon discover their differences. Younger sibling Phoebe is obsessed with her recent engagement to George and life for her becomes mood boards and seating plans. The two sisters seem miles apart in personalities and interests.
Dad Andrew is a restaurant critic who longs for his former career as a war correspondent, but he is harbouring a dark secret that he hopes to keep from the family. Mum Emma is also hiding something and promises herself that she will reveal all after the Christmas period but until then, it’s keep calm and carry on.

But when a family is thrown into close proximity how long can secrets stay secret especially when unexpected guest turns up?
I really liked this story, it wasn’t a light and fluffy Christmas read, it was quite hard hitting, and although there were certain parts of the story that I’d guessed quite early on, there was another part that was so unexpected I was completely shocked and caught unawares! Initially I really didn’t like Olivia, I thought she was hard character who wanted everything her way and got the hump when people didn’t see life the way she did, but by the end of the book I had warmed to her and ended up adoring her when she showed her vulnerable side.
I felt the end of this book has lined up another one when we get to learn Andrew’s back story.

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