An excellent read albeit quite disturbing in places. I read this in one evening, I just needed to know the ending. I enjoyed that the story went back in time and we could read how Maggie disappearing had an impact on her family as well as what happened to Maggie during her years in captivity.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

This book is sensational! The pace will whisk you off your feet and set your head spinning. The short chapters make the book a really easy read. A clever and gripping story that alternates between the present and the past twelve years giving a really comprehensive background. Excellent read.

This is the most gripping story I've read in a while. Maggie Cooper is taken aged 15 and held captive for 12 years. This is the story of the seven days leading up to the 3rd birthday of her third don Max - a countdown to the day when she knows "the man" will take Max from her. Her son is her only ray of hope in the small space she has lived in for 12 years. Present day is interspersed with flashbacks to the past - to Maggie's previous life, her family and the intervening years for each of them. I felt sick reading this yet I couldn't put it down. It's just as well the clocks went back this weekend to give me more time to get to the end before I had to sleep. We see the effect of Maggie's disappearance on her mum, dad and young brother who looks up to her. It is sickening to see the behaviour of her captor and I got nearer the end with a feeling of dread. I had no idea which way the ending was going to go. I got there with a full pack of tissues, and much holding of breath. A fabulous read.

Great book. Very dark and addictive with a plot that's quite unique. Tense throughout, and the countdown to Max's birthday only makes it all even more urgent. I would recommend this book very highly to fans of suspense and thrillers. An excellent read.

What a read! Couldn't put this book down once I had started it. The abduction of 15 year old Maggie 12 years ago is the beginning of her nightmare in captivity.. Present day and Maggie is desperate to keep her son Max . A gripping , shocking and emotional read.

This is a well written story, that really keeps you guessing, how she is going to escape. Read in more or less one sitting, so that says it all. Very enjoyable, if a little uncomfortable.

This book is so much more than the story of a young girl abducted and kept prisoner by a psychopath, who although perhaps considered to be delusional is cruel and has thought through things thoroughly. This also explores the effects of this act on the family of the girl abducted - how they struggle with the event at the time and as the years pass. The story does not dwell on the day to day but on the overall effects as the years passing and is a fascinating tale. The momentous moments are played out causing sadness, hope, horror and fear. An excellent read.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Alex Lake/HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

A gripping thriller that I couldn’t put down.
Maggie was kidnapped and held against her will. She has a little boy who is about to turn 3 and she knows he will be taken away on his 3rd birthday like the other ones.
She wants her son to be different.
The books has short chapters which keep you turning the page making it fast paced.
Easy to read
Really enjoyed it

And Breathe!!!!!!!

Seven Days by Alex Lake is one Book I highly recommend to read this year! A must read!!!

Alex's new book is a psychological thriller that was fast pace, gripping throughout with lots of twists and turns. Its shocking that plays with all your emotions and have you shouting out aloud! it will also have you in tears. What a roller coaster ride and You will feel so sorry for Maggie and her family especially Maggie, as she loses so much within a short time. .

The clock is ticking!

Maggie Cooper was walking to see a friend and stops to help a man in a car with directions to somewhere he want to go too. Before she knows it, he has abducted her! Maggie wakes up in a small windowless room that only has a thin mattress, 2 buckets and a bath........No mod cons in here! Where the hell is she!?!
Her parents, are Martin and Sandra, they are trying their best to keep what is left of their family together whilst James, their son who was 14 year old is having a rough time coping life without his sister Maggie.

That was twelve years..........Maggie is still being held by this man. Maggie was fifteen when he abducted her!

She still has no clue where she is, Why he took her and what day of the week or year it is! The only way Maggie knew what day it is, she had to asked for a piece of paper and a pencil so she could write the days down and cross them out when she thinks the day has passed! The only other way she knew they days had changed was by the food he prepared and bought down for her to eat!

Maggie has a son by him she has called him Seb. Seb will be three years old in seven days time...........In seven days her abducted will break her heart and take Seb away from her!!!

Where will he take Seb?

Will she see Seb again?

Maggie has another child, she calls him Leo..........Leo will be three in seven days time..........and in seven days her abducted will come and take Leo away from her............She has to find away to save Leo and he will not take another child from her!

Does she succeed? OMG My emotions are everywhere..............I so need to go to sleep!!!!! But its not going to happen I want to read the rest of this book to find out what happens to Maggie and OMG Leo!

Maggie has another child and she calls him Max.....he is so sweet a perfect little boy........But seven days time her abductor will come and take Max away! Max's birthday is here!!!!

OMG is Maggie going to save her beautiful son this time???? Has she got a Plan???

Well, you will just need to buy this brilliant book and find out!!!!!

All I can say is that I can get some sleep now..............Blimey what a roller coaster cracking read! Just Brilliant and highly recommend reading this book!!!

5 massive Stars for this book!!

Massive Thank You to AlexLake, NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK for an ARC of SevenDays in exchange for an honest review. Bloody Brilliant read!

I really enjoyed this book almost as much as it gave me a case of the creeps. The book is an echo of The Room, a favourite from years ago. Both books have a similar premise but are quite different in the execution. The book opens in shocking, dramatic fashion and I knew I was going to enjoy myself. I enjoyed the fact you don’t just get Maggie’s story as she struggles to find a way to change her awful circumstances and keep her son, you also get to spend time with her family and see how her disappearance affected them. Her family don’t know she was taken and she just vanished. You also get insight into the police officer investigating Maggie’s disappearance. I really felt for her parents, watching Maggie’s brother, James spiral further and further out of control. I found myself unable to turn away from this often harrowing book. I enjoyed the way the chapters moves back and forth from the present to Maggie’s disappearance and subsequent years in captive. Seven Days is powerful and unforgettable.

This is an a very well written thriller and study in family dynamics, it is extremely dark and tells the story of Maggie who was abducted as a teenager and imprisoned for years in a basement. I like the way the book focuses on how the kidnap has affected not just Maggie but the impact on her family. However I did find it hard to read in places and one scene in particular made me put the book down for a while and think did I really want to carry on with the book. This is just my opinion, the book was very well written and I wanted to know the outcome, usually with books I can appreciate them for what they are, fiction. But this one was so reminiscent of real life cases that I couldn't help thinking about women who have been through this and felt a bit uncomfortable about reading this kind of story as entertainment.
So all in all I am conflicted about this book!

Loved this book. I started to read it in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and ended up reading for hours!
The story starts with Maggie who is being held captive in a room by a man who’s name she doesn’t know. She’s been there for years and has been counting the days as she goes. Her son turns three in seven days time and she knows he will be taken from her, just like the others were.
The story then drip feeds us snippets from Maggie’s life before, as well as now, along with her family’s lives and the Detective Inspector running the case into Maggie’s disappearance.
I loved the way at the end the chapters got shorter and shorter so I was speed reading them to find out what was going to happen next.
A great thriller, for a change, one where the reader knew “whodunnit” from early on in the book but had to watch the story play out.
Will definitely look out for more by this author

This was an incredible read.

Absolutely terrifying from the get go. It describes the story from everyone's point of view and shows how one horrific event can cause a domino effect. The different emotions and feelings from all the characters were well described and I felt the emotions with them.

This book will give you hope and take it away in an instant. You feel everything is hopeless while you're reading it, but this novel teaches you that there is always a sliver of hope if you just believe there is.

I would definitely recommend this book.

A great story about Maggie and her fight to escape the room she's been confined in by her kidnapper, Was rooting for Maggie from start to finish and was aghast at the cheek her kidnapper had. Loved the way that the book delved into the lives of those left after she had disappeared. You won't be disappointed when you read this.

Literally a book I could not put down, it had me gripped wanting to know what would happen.

In seven days, Maggie’s son, Max, will turn three. But unlike most mums, Maggie is not planning a party and she won’t be buying presents, infact she is dreading it. Not because he baby is getting older, but because in the world she lives, those third birthdays are a living nightmare, a count down to hell - she loses her child.

Abducted at the age of 15, Maggie has lived as a prisoner in a basement. It has no windows, she has not felt the fresh air on her skin in all this time. Over the last 13 years Maggie has given birth to three sons - Seb and Leo who were both taken by her captor on their third birthdays. Now it is 7 days until Max turns 3 and Maggie has made a decision, her captor is not taking Max from her.

The book is told through the eyes of four people besides Maggie - DI Wynne who is being haunted by the disappearance of Maggie, every year a letter arrives taunting her over her failure to close the case. Then we have Sandra and Martin, Maggie’s parents who too are tormented by the disappearance of Maggie and then we have her brother James.

The book switches to the current day and back to before Maggie was taken to set the scene as we become entwined within a plot that twists and turns and leaves you on the edge of your seat. Will Maggie be able to save Max? Will she ever see her parents again? Will DI Wynne close the case? Will Seb and Leo be okay?

Wow. What a fantastic novel. Kept me hooked all the way through. Read it all in one sitting. Will be searching out more novels by Alex

Wow what a book. This is such a harrowing story but it is one that will keep you reading and urging for good to prevail over evil !!

Maggie is on her way to her cousins house when she is abducted. We then meet Maggie twelve years later where she is still being abused by her captor and kept in a dark cramped basement !! To add to Maggie’s trauma she also has a son Max, and it is seven days until he turns three. From past experience Maggie knows that her captor will take Max on his 3rd birthday and she will never see him again. What can Maggie do to save Max ? How can you carry on if Max is taken from her ?

This is such an amazing story that not just covers Maggie’s ordeal but we also see how her disappearance affects every member of her family. It really is a harrowing story but one that will have you loving Maggie and routing for her and her family to overcome everything that is chucked at them over the years.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this book.

OMG - WOW! What. A. Ride. I literally could not put this book down and cursed every moment that I had to! I just have one thing to say before I go on...

...go out and buy this book NOW! Read it! You won't regret it!

Maggie has SEVEN DAYS before her son Max's 3rd birthday. Seven days before he will be ripped from her arms, never to be seen again, just as her two other sons - Seb and Leo - before him were taken on their 3rd birthdays. Seven days to devise a plan to thwart the man's intentions. Seven days to save her son Max from an unknown fate.

Twelve years ago, the year is 2006, and 15 year old Maggie Cooper is a typical teenager. She has two loving parents, a young brother who annoys her, a circle of friends she confides in and a boyfriend she's thinking of breaking up with. She decides she will walk over to her cousin Anne's place on the other side of the village and talk things over with her. But before she does, her father confronts her with the extortionate phone bill to which she responds wouldn't be a problem if only they would allow her a mobile phone. "Not until you're 16!" her father tells her. But unlike typical teenagers, they agree to discuss things later and call out "I love yous" as she leaves. Her father offered to drive her to Anne's but after pondering Maggie decided to walk...that way she could sneak in a cigarette on the way.

When she doesn't return home for dinner that night, her parents aren't overly worried but think it strange that she didn't let them know a change in plans. They thought maybe it was her way of saying "it wouldn't happen if you got me a mobile!" But soon the hours turned into days and Maggie still hadn't returned. Friends had been called, her boyfriend, her cousin Anne who said she had never turned up, and the police were notified. No one thought this was a typical missing teenager case. Something had happened to Maggie. And yet she had disappeared without a trace.

And yet the reader is privy to Maggie's quandary throughout...even if her loved ones weren't.

On her way to Anne's, Maggie was abducted whilst performing an act of kindness to a stranger. She was sedated and awoke to find herself in a small basement with nothing but a mattress, two buckets, a bowl and a barrel. There are no windows so she cannot see the sun, the rain, the birds or the trees. She can hear nothing from outside. All she knows now is this basement...and the man who comes to her with breakfast and dinner...and sometimes later in the night, dressed in nothing but a blue robe. She soon learns what seeing him in that blue robe means.

As the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months then years, Maggie soon realises that this is her new reality. She will never see her family again - her mother, her father, her brother - or her friends. The man now keeps her prisoner - "for her protection" he says. Protection from what? She does not know; nor does she have any idea who he is, why he has taken her or where she even is.

Maggie was 15 when she was abducted and by the time she is 27 she has given birth to three sons - first Seb, then Leo and now Max. The man has kept her prisoner in this basement for twelve years. She has not seen the sun or felt the fresh air on her skin in all this time. Her sons have never known life beyond this little room...until their third birthdays, when they are taken from her, wretched from her arms and never seen again. But not Max. Maggie has vowed she will do anything she can to protect her son from whatever fate awaits him beyond that basement door. The man is not taking Max from her. She will die before he does.

In the wake of Maggie's disappearance, her family have become distraught by her sudden absence. Her parents, Martin and Sandra, are trying their best to keep what is left of their family together but James, their then 14 year old son, feels his sister's loss deeply. He grows up with severe trust issues and the only serious relationship he had ended after his obsessive behaviour, and constant need to know where his girlfriend was and who she was speaking to, tore them apart. But James was scared of losing another loved one just as Maggie had disappeared. He couldn't go through that again.

DI Wynne is the detective in charge of Maggie's disappearance. She has her suspicions but she is unable to act on them as the man she suspects knows more about her disappearance has had allegations made against him in the past that were never proven. Therefore, she cannot disclose this information in the course of her enquiries as that would be slanderous and she could lose her job. But determined to get to the bottom of Maggie's disappearance, she continues her investigation...keeping a close eye on her suspect as she goes.

Colin Best is cunning. He knows DI Wynne is watching him. He knows she suspects him. But she has no proof. And he enjoys toying with her every time he sees her.

As the world continues above her basement prison, Maggie has no idea if her parents are still alive or if her brother is married with kids. But she knows one thing for sure...that she has just seven days to save herself and her son. Before the man comes to take him from her too.

"The man", Maggie's captor, is a sinister and terrifying character. Straight from an episode of Criminal Minds, his delusions are the most frightening. He is so convinced that he truly believes that he had no choice - that imprisoning her and raping her for twelve years is saving her. And then his audacity in so many of his actions were incredibly infuriating that it made my blood boil! As was his toying arrogance that he would never be caught. He was malevolent and a fine example that evil can truly exist in masked form anywhere.

Told from multiple perspectives, the story unfolds in a very clever timeline beginning from 7th July 2006 - the day Maggie vanished - to the days following her disappearance. We are then taken to the days surrounding the anniversary every four years until we reach the present day, of which we are witness the the final seven days. Throughout the different stages of their lives following Maggie's disappearance, we see how it has affected her family and continues to do so. We also see Maggie at these different stages of her life in captivity, as she bears each son to having him ripped from her.

Although it is written in multiple POVs and timelines, it is very cleverly done and is not as confusing as it might sound. You are never confused with whose narrative it is or when it is taking place. It just flows seamlessly as each piece is cleverly woven together to create what essentially is the bigger picture. We know who has Maggie from early on and while that is never a secret, it cleverly gives you palpable tension with the suspense building as you wonder if it will indeed end well for those affected. It is like a Hitchcock film - that same tension, that same suspense, that same edge-of-your-seat thrill ride...even though you know who is behind it all, you are still scared witless for all those entangled within.

SEVEN DAYS is a psychological thriller of magnificent proportions. We are embroiled within everyone's lives as we see how they cope with their loss, the tragedy, their grief. Throughout every page we are entwined within a plot that twists and turns at every opportunity to leave us feeling breathless.

Will Maggie be able to save Max? Will she save herself? Will she ever see her family again? Will DI Wynne close the case? Are Seb and Leo OK and living happy lives? Will there be a happy end for all?

One of my favourite parts - along with just about everything else - is the short snappy chapters which keep the story moving along at a rapid pace and has you turning pages long into the night, devouring every word.

Highly addictive and heart-stopping, SEVEN DAYS is a dark, disturbing, twisted tale of masterful suspense. It is easily one of my favourite books - one of the best I have EVER read - and I guarantee you won't want to let this one pass by.

I've read Alex Lake's first book "After Anna" but it pales in comparison to this and it would take something momentous to outdo and outshine SEVEN DAYS. I doubt he could top this one it is THAT BRILLIANT!!

If I could give it more than FIVE STARS I would. It deserves a TEN STAR rating!!

I would like to thank #AlexLake, #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsUK for an ARC of #SevenDays in exchange for an honest review.

I huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and Netgalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for a unbiased review of these works

i had looked forward to this book for some time and i am thrilled to say i was not disappointed, this book kept me o the edge of my seat, i was just shocked to the core about the events and i devoured the whole read in the space of a flight to the USA!!

absolutely brilliant!

This is a really good read, reminiscent of Emma Donoghue's 'Room'. 15 year old Maggie is abducted and kept prisoner in a basement. More than 10 years later she has given birth to 3 sons, 2 of whom her captor has taken from her on their 3rd birthdays. It is a week until her little boy, Max, turns 3, and Maggie is determined the same thing is not going to happen again. In the meantime, her parents and younger brother are struggling to come to terms with her disappearance. This is a real page turner, which I thoroughly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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