Publication Day: 19th October 2017
Book Description:
Seven Days of Us is the only family drama you need to read this Christmas. It will warm you up, make you cry, but ultimately leave you feeling fabulous. For fans of One Day, Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
A week is a long time to spend with your family...
It's Christmas, and the Birch family are coming together at their second home in Norfolk. Emma and Andrew's daughter, Olivia, is back for the first time in years, and while Emma is elated, her younger, more frivolous daughter Phoebe is braced for inevitable clashes.
But aid worker Olivia is only home because she has nowhere else to go. Having recently returned from Africa, where she's been treating a life-threatening virus, she has been instructed to stay in quarantine for a week, and so, too should her family.
For the next seven days, no one can leave the house, and no one can enter.
It doesn't sound too hard. But a week with your nearest and dearest can feel like an eternity, especially when they're all harbouring secrets.
One of whom is about to come knocking on their door...
My thoughts:
An interesting insight into the relationships between family members once the innocence of childhood has been outgrown, I wasn't sure whether this would be a book I would enjoy. I am very pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it right from the start.
The Birch family are outwardly very successful, with mum Emma inheriting a large family home in Norfolk from her parents, dad Andrew is a restaurant critic who writes for a high profile publication, elder daughter Olivia is a doctor fighting a humanitarian cause in Liberia and youngest child Phoebe newly engaged to well-to-do George. With Olivia needing to be kept in quarantine on her return from Liberia to ensure any health risk is contained the family have decided to lock themselves away together in Norfolk over Christmas. A potential pressure cooker situation for any family, let alone one with skeletons ready to come knocking on closet doors (pardon the pun!) from all angles. Health issues, a newly discovered ghost from the past and with there being no opportunity to get away from each other the tensions build steadily as the days wear on. I loved the way George and his posh friends were described, and really felt for mum Emma as she tried to put her family's needs before her own when she really needed their support. I didn't warm to dad Andrew at first, finding him rather self-centred and condescending but found that once his past came back to haunt him and he was forced to confront the issues he had been trying to ignore he became far more approachable and likeable. Youngest child Pheobe I found to be typical of the baby of most families, indulged by both parents to the point of being rather spoiled. The character I empathised most with was Olivia. Always having felt like she had to work twice as hard to be noticed by her parents in order to feel worthy she is fiercely independent and has a streak of her father's apparent selfishness running through her. It's not until the façade comes tumbling down that we realise just how alike she and her father actually are.
With a great cast of diverse characters I feel that the author has managed to portray how as adults we are all individuals within a family but at the end of the day blood is thicker than water and it is that same family we ultimately rely on in times of trouble. I really enjoyed this completely different Christmas novel.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Little, Brown Book Group for the advance copy of this book.
A week is a long time to spend with your family...
It's Christmas, and the Birch family are coming together at their second home in Norfolk. Emma and Andrew's daughter, Olivia, is back for the first time in years, and while Emma is elated, her younger, more frivolous daughter Phoebe is braced for inevitable clashes.
But aid worker Olivia is only home because she has nowhere else to go. Having recently returned from Africa, where she's been treating a life-threatening virus, she has been instructed to stay in quarantine for a week, and so, too should her family.
For the next seven days, no one can leave the house, and no one can enter.
It doesn't sound too hard. But a week with your nearest and dearest can feel like an eternity, especially when they're all harbouring secrets.
One of whom is about to come knocking on their door...
My thoughts:
An interesting insight into the relationships between family members once the innocence of childhood has been outgrown, I wasn't sure whether this would be a book I would enjoy. I am very pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it right from the start.
The Birch family are outwardly very successful, with mum Emma inheriting a large family home in Norfolk from her parents, dad Andrew is a restaurant critic who writes for a high profile publication, elder daughter Olivia is a doctor fighting a humanitarian cause in Liberia and youngest child Phoebe newly engaged to well-to-do George. With Olivia needing to be kept in quarantine on her return from Liberia to ensure any health risk is contained the family have decided to lock themselves away together in Norfolk over Christmas. A potential pressure cooker situation for any family, let alone one with skeletons ready to come knocking on closet doors (pardon the pun!) from all angles. Health issues, a newly discovered ghost from the past and with there being no opportunity to get away from each other the tensions build steadily as the days wear on. I loved the way George and his posh friends were described, and really felt for mum Emma as she tried to put her family's needs before her own when she really needed their support. I didn't warm to dad Andrew at first, finding him rather self-centred and condescending but found that once his past came back to haunt him and he was forced to confront the issues he had been trying to ignore he became far more approachable and likeable. Youngest child Pheobe I found to be typical of the baby of most families, indulged by both parents to the point of being rather spoiled. The character I empathised most with was Olivia. Always having felt like she had to work twice as hard to be noticed by her parents in order to feel worthy she is fiercely independent and has a streak of her father's apparent selfishness running through her. It's not until the façade comes tumbling down that we realise just how alike she and her father actually are.
With a great cast of diverse characters I feel that the author has managed to portray how as adults we are all individuals within a family but at the end of the day blood is thicker than water and it is that same family we ultimately rely on in times of trouble. I really enjoyed this completely different Christmas novel.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Little, Brown Book Group for the advance copy of this book.
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