Seven Days of Us

4.5/5 stars

“Only the most extraordinary circumstances can reunite the Birch Family for the holidays...”

The British Birch Family will be together, quarantined for 7 days, as the eldest daughter, Olivia has just returned from treating an epidemic in Liberia. Over the course of the week we experience the twists and turns of dysfunctional family relationships, awash with secrets, jealousies, misunderstandings, but also with humor and love.

Hornak's character development and dialogue kept me turning the pages. Looking forward to her next work of fiction!

I almost DNF'd this book in the first 20%, but I put it down for a bit, read another book, and came back to it. For some reason, I liked it so much more after that. I found it smartly funny at times, even laugh out loud, though it was also a bit dramatic at other times. Ultimately I found the characters interesting and their rich people drama was fun to spy on. It wasn't very surprising, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment. I think it might be more of a 3-star book, but the humor and family drama were quite enjoyable for me.

What a befitting book for our current world situation. The Birch family get together for Christmas but are in quarantine as their eldest daughter Olivia is returning from Liberia where she was treating Haag patients.

While in quarantine for seven days family secrets surface and there is some heartache. I loved the dynamic of this story, the family seems to be very closed off to each other and spending this time alone for seven days has opened up communication paths that were shut off years ago. It was a fun read and one I'd recommend to anyone who wants to see the positive side of quarantine.