Description
The utterly brilliant, life-affirming Christmas story for fans of One Day.
It's Christmas, and the Birch family is gathering for the first time in years.
Emma is elated at having everybody under one roof, but her oldest child, Olivia, is only home because she has nowhere else to go. She's just returned from treating an epidemic abroad and must stay in quarantine for a week - and so, too should her family.
For the next seven days, no one can leave the house and no one can enter.
It doesn't sound too hard. But a week with your nearest and dearest can feel like an eternity, especially when they're all harbouring secrets.
One of whom is about to come knocking at their door...
Review
After a slow start this book really reeled me in. To begin with I had no empathy with any of the characters and I felt like it was going to be a little cliched almost a farce, with all the ends being brought together in their seemingly inevitable fate.
However, all that changed when the first of the cliches didn't come true, in fact all the little red herrings that had been running in my brain didn't play out in the book at all. I began to like the characters, getting to know them and becoming invested in what was going to happen to everyone. I did have to suspend a little disbelief that Olivia would be allowed to quarantine at home, even if it is in deepest remote Norfolk. Especially as the strictness of the quarantine seemed to wane very quickly.
My perception of this book did change as I read it. I was expecting a little bit of a domestic cosy drama, but it was actually so much more than that. I did gasp a few times and raise my eyebrows - always the sign of a good story line.
So many secrets in this book. Some from the people themselves as they reconcile who they've become, with who they thought they were. Although it is set at Christmas I was fine reading it out of season. The Christmas element is not that strong, it's mainly a vehicle for the quarantine backstory which brings everyone together and it being easier to be separate from the world at that time of year.
I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC.
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