Seven days of togetherness along with secrets and tension make up the Birch family's Christmas holiday this year.

Emma has a health secret.

Andrew has a really big secret from his past.

Olivia has something she has to keep secret while in quarantine.

Phoebe really doesn't have a secret but is very self centered.

Staying in Emma's family estate is a bit challenging since Emma doesn't like to change anything from when she spent time there as she grew up. Things are old and decaying, and the technological side of it is very slow.

I wasn't sure what this book was going to be like at first, but once each chapter began to reveal things about each character, it became a very good read for me.

I laughed a lot as well as worried a lot. The funniest thing was that each year they planted the Christmas tree back in the same spot and uprooted it again for the next Christmas. The worries about their secret were intense for some of the characters, and I worried along with them.

SEVEN DAYS OF US was well written and a light read even though some of the issues were not light. The family grew on me to the point that I would have liked to be quarantined with them.

An enjoyable read that will have you wondering what decisions you would have made about your secrets and situations. SEVEN DAYS OF US also has some heart wrenching events.

Excellent debut novel - marvelous writing and detail as well as a great story line. 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Also participating in the reviews for Great Thought's Ninja Review Team.

They say it is hard to come back home and stay as an adult, but what could be so hard about being cooped up in a house for only 7 days over the Christmas holidays with Mom, Dad, the 25 year old daughter recently engaged to a man her family despises, and the 32 year-old Peace Corp sister who is returning from Liberia where she has been helping residents with a Haag epidemic that is highly contagious? The answer is rough -- to say the least. Oh yes, and then throw in the daughter's fiancé who drops in to wish everyone Merry Christmas, only to find himself quarantined with the rest of the family while they watch and wait for any signs of their daughter coming down with the near-fatal Haag virus. Oh, and did I also mention the son that the Dad never knew was conceived from a one-night stand 30+ years ago, who decides to show up to introduce himself and is also now confined to the quarantined quarters?

Enough of the story line -- you get the gest. Suffice it to say it was an interesting read and with everyone holding secrets and no where to run, all truths are bound to surface.

Hours after finishing this book the reality of the story hit me -- it IS hard to return home. We grow, we become independent, we develop our own thoughts, opinions and routines. And parents never lose that innate maternal instinct to "parent", to give advice freely and without consent. But in the end if you really examine your life you realize that as much as you have grown into your own individual person, you are merely a shadow image of those who helped shape and mold you with a bit of individuality sprinkled in. You have the empowerment and resolve of your father; you have the nurturing and compassionate traits of your mother; you carry the talents and genes of all your ancestors before you, many you have never heard or thought of. The end result is that as much as we fought for our independence in our youth, we find that it is actually our family that defines us -- grounds us. Like Scarlet and her red earth of Tara, it is our family ties from which we get our strength.

This was a good book to read at Christmas and an inspiring book (at least for me) to read at the close of the year.

Jumping around to different character's perspective of the same period slowed down the book and made it trickier to follow and to stay invested.

This book goes way beyond its premise of forcing a family into a weeklong quarantine with little connection to the outside world. It develops a completely foreign family dynamic for the parents, two grown daughters, a fiance, and a new, unknown family member. I thoroughly enjoyed unwrapping the story with some well written dramatic irony (I knew things that the characters did not). I look forward to Francesca Hornak's next foray into fictional writing.