Book Review: Seven Days of Us

Seven Days of Usby: Francesca Hornak

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the free e-copy of Seven Days of Us by Fancesca Hornak.  All opinions expressed below are my own.

Synopsis:
Seven Days of Us tells the story of Birch family, who are quarantined together in the country one year between Christmas and New Years.  For a family who hasn't been together in years, this amount of togetherness is huge!  When forced together, how will the characters work through their personal drama and secrets?  Will the family unit come out stronger or will everything fall apart?

Review:
I requested Seven Days of Us (and also won a Goodreads Giveaway for an advanced copy) last year.  I was so excited to read it...then my morning sickness hit hardcore and my holiday reading was pushed aside to binge watch Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.  I've been trying to clean my Netgalley and ARCs up, so this was a natural choice for me to read this fall. 

It took me a while to get into this novel.  It wasn't bad in any way, just didn't have enough excitement to keep me interested in the plot.  As with many novels I've read recently, once I got about halfway through, I felt more invested in the characters and interested in how the novel would wrap up. 

While reading Seven Days of Us, I was reminded a bit of Cherise Wolas' The Family Tabor - mainly because of the family unit being forced back together for an event.  It may be more fair to say The Family Tabor reminds me of Seven Days of Us (due to publication order), but since I read The Family Tabor first, I stand by my thought!

I highly recommend reading this one during the winter holidays - while it does not necessarily ruin the experience to read off-season, I think it would add to the atmosphere to read closer to the holidays. 

Seven Days of Us is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.  I was surprised by the strong feelings I had for each of the characters by the end of the novel.  Overall, I rated the novel 3.5 stars and I would recommend this novel as a holiday read for those who like character driven novels, especially those about families.  If you are looking for a similar read, then I would recommend The Family Tabor (which was a five star read for me!).