Stevie‘s review of Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
Women’s Fiction published by Berkley 17 Oct 17
Much as I love my family, I struggle to spend more than a couple of days with them without being driven up the wall. At least I can usually escape to the village pub (and being a community shareholder, I have the excuse of checking on my investment). With that in mind, I was distinctly intrigued by the concept of a dysfunctional family forced to spend the week from Christmas to New Year in each other’s company and with no escape or respite in the form of casual visitors (so they think…). Three family members carry secrets that could impact on everyone’s ‘enjoyment’ of the secluded festivities, while the fourth is starting to harbour doubts about her recent engagement, even as she begins planning the engagement of the decade.
Overindulged twenty-something Phoebe gets engaged to her obnoxious Hooray Henry boyfriend in the run-up to Christmas. She’s unhappy with the ring he bought her in that it was part of an expensive hotel’s ‘proposal package,’ but is certain that he’ll do better at buying the earrings she wants for Christmas. They’ll be spending the season at their respective families’ country homes a few miles apart, since Phoebe’s older sister Olivia is returning from treating victims of a new virus in Liberia and must spend her first seven days at home in strict quarantine.
Olivia, meanwhile, has just begun a new relationship with a fellow aid worker, but is unable to tell anyone about it due to the strict no-contact rules they’ve been working under. She isn’t looking forward to spending her quarantine with her over-privileged family, and is keen to see her boyfriend again as soon as the New Year celebrations are over.
Olivia and Phoebe’s parents also want the quarantine over as quickly and smoothly as possible. Emma has decided not to tell any of her family about her recent cancer diagnosis until after the Festivities, though her best friend has heard all about it, while Andrew has yet to reply to emails received from a son conceived as a result of a one-night stand he had early in his relationship with Emma. That son is actually closer than he thinks, having journeyed from the US to Norfolk in the hope of receiving a favourable reply to his request that he and Andrew meet up.
I wish I could say that at least one of these characters has some sort of redeeming feature, but they don’t. Andrew’s son is possibly the least dislikable of a bad lot, and while Olivia’s boyfriend seems a nice enough bloke, other than his reckless ignoring of protocols along with Olivia, we barely get to meet him before he disappears off to become a statistic in the news reports. As for the rest, I was hoping they’d all be struck down by plague after the first ten or so pages, but it’s not one of those books. Nor do they trigger a major apocalypse through their disregard for the meaning of total isolation, or die only to come back as zombies. Either plot possibility has distinct merits, but this book is firmly in the AGA and butler-sink drama category. Not an author I plan to explore further, although the writing itself wasn’t that bad.
Grade: C
Summary:
It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family.
For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems.
As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down.
In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive…
No excerpt available.
