This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. And eerily apt for our own pandemic (COVID) with no one really taking the consequences seriously.

I cried, I laughed but overall I felt that some of the characters could have been better written.

It was a good read, but maybe not during a pandemic.

This was a good book, but not exceptional. The characters were believable, which was good, as was the situation. It was well written, only a few things seemed a little unlikely, and I cared enough about the characters to want things to work out. Few adoption reunions go as well as portrayed in literature/tv, so that seemed a little unlikely, but this is no different to the rest.

Unfortunately I could not get into this book and did not finish it. Other readers may enjoy this more.

Sounded great but actually fell flat for me. Characters were unlikeable and the story dragged. Finished it but didn't enjoy.

A relateable story about a family of parents Andrew and Emma, and two rivalling adult sisters being forced to quarantine together at Christmas time. Olivia has returned from Liberia treated Haag virus patients and needs to quarantine on her return to the UK and her parents (and reluctantly her sister Phoebe) suggest they all go to their country house in Norfolk for seven days.

A refreshing family Christmas drama with just a sprinkle of romance, but mostly concentrating on family relationships where everyone is either trying too hard to get along, or not try at all.

The usual secrets within a family eventually leak out, and the family deal with the aftermath, still stuck in same the house together (luckily it was a large house and not a 3 bed semi!).

I really enjoyed it, but felt the last few chapters spoilt it for me. I would have been happy for it to end on the 30th December and avoid the New Year's Eve chapters altogether, so only 4* for this reason.

Unfortunately I was unable to get in to this story and had to put it down, however, I'm sure it is a highly loved book and appreciated by the right readers.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I really enjoyed it, it had a good story and the characters were well written. There were a couple of twists as well which added to the story.

A sharply satirical, yet at the same time, life affirming novel that begs to be made into a Christmas rom com movie! I absolutely loved it!

After a slow start this book really reeled me in. To begin with I had no empathy with any of the characters and I felt like it was going to be a little cliched almost a farce, with all the ends being brought together in their seemingly inevitable fate.

However, all that changed when the first of the cliches didn't come true, in fact all the little red herrings that had been running in my brain didn't play out in the book at all. I began to like the characters, getting to know them and becoming invested in what was going to happen to everyone. I did have to suspend a little disbelief that Olivia would be allowed to quarantine at home, even if it is in deepest remote Norfolk. Especially as the strictness of the quarantine seemed to wane very quickly.

My perception of this book did change as I read it. I was expecting a little bit of a domestic cosy drama, but it was actually so much more than that. I did gasp a few times and raise my eyebrows - always the sign of a good story line.

So many secrets in this book. Some from the people themselves as they reconcile who they've become, with who they thought they were. Although it is set at Christmas I was fine reading it out of season. The Christmas element is not that strong, it's mainly a vehicle for the quarantine backstory which brings everyone together and it being easier to be separate from the world at that time of year.

An interesting Christmas read, a funny tale with plenty of twists, an enjoyable read! Believable characters and a great plot

A strong family story where Christmas turns into an involuntary quarantine after one of the adult children comes back from an Ebola-type zone. Family secrets are revealed and relationships are realigned. Satisfying story.

I really enjoyed this. It's not normally what I would go for but the description and cover appealed to me and I am so glad I did. The characters were believable and I found it hard to put down. In some ways t was a cosy drama but many twists and turns too. Great book.

A refreshing idea for the traditional Christmas chick lit/ family style of women’s literature. Unexpectedly moving and some interesting character development. Well written and difficult to put down, you will find yourself rooting for all members of this family to find happiness!

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.

I read Seven Days of Us over the Christmas break, rather belatedly as it happens because I'd had it for a while, but it was set over Christmas and so I wanted to read it over Christmas because that's a thing for everybody right: you don't so much want to read a book (or watch a film) set at Christmas in the middle of August.




So I had it, and I thought it sounded marv, and I waited to read it.

Turns out that was the right choice because this is such a good Christmas read.

It's about a family - Mum, Dad and two daughters - who for the first time find themselves under the same roof over Christmas. The elder daughter has just come back from treating a deadly epidemic abroad and has to spend seven days in quarantine so the whole family trek off to their country house in Norfolk to begin their festive house arrest.

You just know, don't you, that it's not all going to be plain sailing. You know this because who wants to read a whole book about a family spending seven days eating cheese and telling each other how smashing they are? Not me. So of course there's drama, and of course it's in the form of secrets. They all have secrets and there must be something about being forced to spend all this time in each other's company which means some of these secrets can't stay hidden and so secrets are revealed and feelings come to the surface and people fall out and make up again and it's a wonderfully tense look at family dynamics and a brilliant festive read.

There's the whole quarantine storyline and all that entails with regards to the Haag virus that they're hoping the oldest daughter hasn't brought back with her especially when it turns out the doctor she was sleeping with has it - that's all over the news (that he has it, not the sleeping together. Nobody knows that) and then there's the youngest daughter who's quite possibly the most selfish person I've read about for a while and who I quite frankly wanted to slap across the face who has her own seemingly petty but a big deal to her dramas going on. Their Mum is such a Mother hen, desperate to please everybody and make sure everybody is ok, but harbouring her own secret and struggling to keep a smile on her face whilst her husband, disillusioned restaurant critic wanders about being a bit of a cynical asshat and wondering how to keep his own mahoosive secret from his whole family.

It's a split narrative - the four members of the family, and American Jesse who inadvertently gatecrashes the quarantine and then of course can't leave. I think I've said before that I love that format if it's done well. Which it is. All the voices are distinct and clear and well fleshed out so the switch between them never felt awkward or forced and it worked so well getting to see what was going on in this one house through the eyes of everybody in it. I really enjoyed the whole thing actually - Hornak did an excellent job of making me care even about the characters I didn't like and her writing style makes for a really easy read which is just what I wanted given that I was reading it in the mountains after a hard days skiing and often after a vin chaud.

I could see this as a film, actually, I think it would translate really well to the big screen. It's the perfect festive read and ok I know it's only January but seriously: get this on your Christmas reading lists for this year.

I really struggled with Seven Days of Us. I persevered as I hate not reading books to the end but I was just not enjoying it so I gave up. Sorry not for me.

It is my new favourite book! I absolutely loved it. I started to read on Christmas day and I just could not put it down.
When Emma finds out her cancer and goes to the airport and meets with Jesse, I was a bit scared the story will turn somewhere, what I don't like and it becomes dull..... No, it did not. Twist after twist all the time there was something that I had to concentrate. The whole story came together in the end, even though it was very sad but happy as well bc of Olivia,

The book starts with a love story and it ends with one. Not the happy the ending, but it is still a beautiful connection between the beginning and the end of the story.

Seven Days of Us is my ‘recommended by a reading buddy’ book in the Read with RD Challenge. It’s Simon Mayo’s Christmas recommendation.

I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but I was interested in this because it has a pretty cover. It’s also set in Norfolk which, being the county I live in, is also pretty cool. It’s fun to spot your home in print, right?

The basic premise is that Olivia Birch is the oldest daughter in a Berkshire family who’s been off saving the world from an infectious disease. She’s coming home for Christmas and because she’s contagious, needs to spend seven days in quarantine. Her family are spending it with her, in their family pile in Norfolk. So far, so first world problem. Emma is her mother, a flapping hen who needs something to do with her time. Andrew is her father, a thwarted war journalist tied down by his baby daughters, 30 years previously. He’s now a bitter food critic who takes joy in pulling down local pubs and restaurants in print. Phoebe is the younger daughter, spoiled and wants a perfect insta life, and pouts when her big sister ruins it all. Olivia is the holier than thou, medic on he frontline who lectures everyone on sanitisation but has had sex with a fellow medic who turns out, got Haag disease. Cue many pages of teeth gnashing as she waits to see if she’s infected her family.

Well. Turns out, I’m not a fan of the family!

I actually enjoyed the book, and reading the story. Each person in the family has a secret and the point is around what happens when everything comes out in the open, basically. I did like the relationship between the girls - it felt like it came from a place of experience. The character arcs were good too, if a little bit predictable.  I was genuinely surprised at some of the plot twists, and the story ticked along pretty well.

A couple of small irritations which pulled me out of the story - there’s no mobile phone signal in deepest, darkest Norfolk which is a source of much irritation within the novel. There is wifi though, even if it is a a bit flaky. What was annoying about this was that the characters kept complaining that they couldn’t WhatsApp because there was no phone signal. WhatsApp works by connecting to the internet, it’s not tied to phone signal.

The other thing is the not-Norfolkisms. They’re in a place called ‘Blakenham’ which I think is a mash up between Blakeney and Fakenham, but it’s not quite in the right location. Norfolk actually isn’t that far from civilisation but it’s depicted as such, which is a bit tiresome.

The complaints about having to handle a huge house, bequeathed from a titled family, is a bit tough too. Oh no, a beautiful old mansion which would hold all of you family twice over, a bolthole to escape London to, and all they seem to do is moan about how dusty and cold it is so they have to have the big fire going all of  the time. Yawn.

Basically, there is a sweet story in there, of family and secrets being better out in the open. If you can ignore the minor grumbles I have, then it’s a nice, light read with a Christmassy feel.

For the first time in years the Birch family are spending Christmas together, isolated in the family home in Norfolk on account of daughter Olivia's return from Africa where she has been working with victims of a deadly virus, this means the family is quarantined for a week. For Phoebe her recent engagement is cause for celebration, for mother Emma, a recent diagnosis is worrying her and she wants to celebrate to forget. For Andrew a disturbing set of emails have forced memories to the surface. Over the week the members of this dysfunctional family will each have to face the truth and reassess their future.
In many ways this is the sort of book that I would avoid but I decided to take a risk and I'm happy I did. This book is the perfect reading for Christmas week as it is very heartwarming and life-affirming but in a non-schmaltzy way. For every sugary chapter there is a counterpoint and, whilst there seems to be a happy ending for everyone, no-one escapes unscathed. For that reason I found Hornak's writing a cut above every other 'feel-good' novel that I've come across, of course the time of year did help!