Olivia, the eldest daughter, has returned from treating an epidemic abroad and must go into quarantine for seven days. Her mother has decided it's the perfect opportunity to spend some 'special time' together. Her youngest sister wholeheartedly disagrees. Her father isn't allowed an opinion.
When no one can leave the house, seven days for the Birches feels like an eternity.
Especially when they're all harbouring secrets. One of whom is about to come knocking at their door...
I'd like to thank Beth Wright at Little Brown for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and for sending me a copy of Seven Days of Us to review.
Seven Days of Us is a classic 'locked room' story, although in this case we're talking about a rundown ancestral home in Norfolk, where the Birch family have to bunker down after eldest daughter Olivia returns from volunteering overseas and needs to be quarantined for seven days. I don't know about you but that would be my idea of a living hell as even though I do enjoy spending time on my own, or with friends and family, I would hate the fact that I would be unable to leave at any point if I wanted to.
Right from the offset we as readers are aware of hidden secrets that could effect the family dynamics and relationships, especially one deeply hidden skeleton in the closet. At first I couldn't understand why Emma especially didn't want to reveal the news about her health diagnosis to her husband Andrew and daughters Olivia and Phoebe, but at the same time could understand that she wanted to have the 'perfect' family Christmas as with both daughters now grown up the likelihood of them spending more than a day here or there together is pretty low.
As suggested in the title the main storyline covers the seven day period between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve and is narrated from each of the characters perspectives which gives us a real insight to each of them as individuals and allows us to see how they are coping and feeling as secrets start to be revealed. We see first hand the tension that is building, and also the simmering resentment at times, with being confined together for so long and everything else that is unfolding.
I'm not normally a fan of stories being narrated by more than two or three characters, in this instance we hear from five as there's another character's story waiting to be told as well, but actually the short snappy chapter format worked really well and didn't feel overcrowded. I think if this had only been told from a couple of characters viewpoint then we definitely wouldn't have gotten the full impact as to how everyone was dealing with the situation they were in.
My one little minor niggle with the concept of this story was the quarantine aspect so I had to suspend belief and just go with the flow as typically I would imagine that anyone who has been in contact with a contagious epidemic like Olivia had would be quarantined in a medical facility and not be allowed to go home. But putting that minor qualm aside Seven Days of Us was a fascinating read that had so much going on within its pages.
As Seven Days of Us is set at Christmastime I decided to buy a copy for today's 12 Days of Festive Giveaways prize.
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