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.
Copied to Goodreads.

Wow this book is not for the faint hearted!! It is not gory (mostly) but the malevolence that the writing portrays is both powerful and awful!

This is everyone’s worst nightmare - a 15 year old girl is abducted and 12 years later no one knows where she is.

The book looks at how everyone is affected by this, the victim, her parents, her brother, her children, the abductor and the police.

You hope this book could not possibly be true but sadly it probably is not far from reality. The desperation felt by Maggie who spends 12 years in a single, windowless room, with only the man’s visits and brief spells with her children for company, culminates in her taking extreme action in order to have a chance of escape.

After such a long build up, I feel the ending is quite twee and too neat - although after the horror of the book it is needed. I would like to know more about mr best’s sentence and Maggie’s parents guilt at having been friends with their child’s abductor but overall a gripping read for those with a strong stomach!

I loved this book, i was sucked in from the start and couldn't wait to reach the end to see how and if she managed to escape. Loved the short style chapters and it was easy to pick up and put down quite easily.

This story must be every parents nightmare. A daughter kidnapped; a family devastated. So well written that I could feel the girl’s fear and despair at her situation. It made me hate the perpetrator. It’s a good story teller that can create these very real emotions through their words. I felt claustrophobic at the thought of all the years locked in a basement with no window or contact with the outside world and really couldn’t put it down because I had to know, as soon as possible, what was her fate. Did she escape or was her life cut short by a monster?
A real roller coaster of a book. Almost hard to read at times because of the emotions it created. Would highly recommend it.

I read this with my hands over my eyes at times
This is every parents worst nightmare, your daughter goes out but doesn't come home ??
Where is she? Has she just stayed at her friends? Or is it worse than that? The answer is oh yes much worse than her parents could ever imagine

Alex Lake has done a brilliant job of making you think as you read this book, throughout my head was constantly buzzing with questions.
Seven Days is powerful and intense and the characters were fantastically written.
It's a chilling read that will have you turning the pages and staying up late at night to read more. With an incredible plot line and lots of tension, this is a book not to be missed.

It seems a bit of a cliche to say that my pulse was racing and my heart was pounding but I'm sure it actually was. I couldn't read it fast enough to find out what happened on the seventh day. Maggie was determined that history would not repeat itself and that Max would be safe. It had been such a long time since she had seen her beloved family and she sometimes wondered if they would still be around waiting for her. This is up with my best psychological reads, I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

A good read. Similar in premise to "Room" in that a young girl is kidnapped and has a son by the kidnapper that she is currently living with, imprisoned in a small space and existing at the whim of the kidnapper. That is where the similarities end. This story is told going back and forth between the time between the kidnapping and the present day. It is also told from various perspectives - the kidnapped girl, her family members and the police officer who has never given up on her. It kept me hooked until the end. Recommended.

Brilliant book! When I first began reading I felt it was going to be too reminiscent of Room, which also has a young woman kidnapped, living her life in a room with a young child, but I was wrong. Although they are about the same subject matter, this is completely different. I liked reading the back story, switching from when Maggie was first taken to the present day. Being a mother, it was all too easy to imagine if it was your child and to empathise with what her family was going through. I also felt anger and heartbreak for Maggie and what she went through with her children. I can’t wait for the next book by Alex.

WHAT. A. RIDE. The adrenaline raced through me as I read this jaw-dropping thriller. This is a book that grabs you by the throat and throws you to the ground speechless when it’s finished with you. Fast-paced and expertly plotted, I tore through this book; I would have read it in one sitting if not for that pesky thing called human interaction with my family. But I knew I’d not be able to sleep without knowing what happened so I stayed up until the early hours to finish. Boy was it worth it for that ending!

Maggie has been held prisoner in the basement for twelve years. In seven days her son Max will turn three and her captor will take him from her, just like her two other sons. She has to save him but has no idea how. We then follow the story in dual timelines and from multiple points of view, with flashbacks that start the day Maggie is kidnapped slowly unveiling the story of the past twelve years. In the present day she is desperately trying to find a way out and save her son, the seven day countdown adding tension and urgency to the subdued atmosphere.

Maggie was a great character. We watch as she not only goes from teenager to woman, but also becomes a mother three times. We see that behind her terror is a formidable woman determined to fight and protect her child. Her strength, courage and tenacity are phenomenal and she’s a character I grew to like, admire and care for. I quickly fell in love with little Max and my heart broke at what possibly awaited him. He was both a light relief in the dark basement and a cause of even greater despair for both the reader and Maggie.
Maggie’s captor was a sinister and terrifying figure, though it’s his delusions that are most frightening. He is so convinced of them and truly believes that imprisoning her in a basement and raping her is saving her and that he had no choice but to do it. His audacity in many of his actions - which I won’t detail because of spoilers- were infuriating, as was his arrogance that he’d never be caught.

I think what made the book so harrowing for me was it’s believability, part of which is because of the well written characters. Each is brought vividly to life as they share the narration of the story. Reading how Maggie’s disappearance affected her family brought a deeper sense of anguish, longing, heartbreak and terror to the story. I have a son the same age Maggie is when she’s abducted so I inevitably pictured the torment I’d feel if it were my child that was gone, living every emotion alongside her parents. But I think the hardest story to read was that of her younger brother James and how it ravaged not only his present, but also his future.

This is the first time I’ve read a book by this author but I can guarantee it won’t be the last. He knows how to captivate his audience, not letting go until the last page. I was gasping out loud and my heart was in my throat as I read the electrifying finale. This is a story that is perfect for the movie screen.

Highly addictive, heart-stopping, dark, disturbing and hopeful, this book is a masterclass in suspense. It is one of my favourite books this year and one you don’t want to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK and Alex Lake for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie's son Max turns three in Seven Days and she has seven days to work out how to stop him being taken away. She knows this because Maggie has been held captive for twelve years after she was abducted at fifteen and has given birth to two sons previously and on their third birthdays they have been taken from her.
The narrative jumps back and forth in time, something I don't usually like, but this time it really does work and the story is filled in.
While most of the story is told by Maggie, we also hear from Martin her father, James her brother and DI Wynne, whose case it is.
I couldn't put this book down, it really gripped me. How Maggie felt and how she coped. How her family did or didn't cope with the not knowing. We know people have been held captive before without people knowing where they are and so we know that happens.
For me the only part that didn't sit too well was the end, It was a little bit rushed and wouldn't quite have happened how it did, but a small point.

Thank you to the NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC in return for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this book. Of course there are obvious comparisons to be made to the book Room. Again, a young girl kept for many years, has a son, uses the son to escape. At first I thought it was just going to be a rewrite of the same story. But although it is clearly a variation on this, it is well written and this time also looks at the story in more depth in terms of the actual kidnapper, the family and what happens to them. You get more involved in the story and the main character is more sympathetic and likeable. I enjoyed reading it and read it in one sitting.

Wow! SPOILER ALLERT
How could this happen and be able to go on so long? Best really was a psycho. Imprisoning Maggie and raping her actually believing he was keeping her safe. Then taking 2 of her children on their 3rd birthdays and killing them (which we only find out at the end). Max would've ended up.the same way of Maggie hadn't fought back, even after all the years of being held captive she still manages to find the strength to fight back. I will purchase this book as a hard copy.

Thank you net galley for the opportunity to read this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of this publication in return for an unbiased review.
First publication by this author I have read and not remotely disappointed,
Don't wish to give away the storyline which is told over a period of a number of years and through the eyes of the characters. Not really a whodunnit as at a very early stage it is apparent who the guilty party actually is.
That however in no way spoils what is a really good read and resulted in me having a late night in order to finish it.

A disturbing storyline that had me equally gripped and sickened by it. I found it hard to read in parts but it was very well written. I would definitely read another by this author. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

Wow, what a book! I had to keep on reading and reading. The way the author went from Maggie's life to her families was amazing. Gave me the shivers knowing that there are people out there like him. What a gripping book. Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this. Just wow!

Words fail me trying to describe how great this book was. I spent a whole day just reading as I could not put it down. I loved the way that the story went from present day back to the beginning when Maggie went missing each part being told from a different narrator. I felt the pangs of depression that all the family felt and the pain of the policewoman investigating the disappearance of Maggie for all the years.
At the end I had tears running down my face - this was just a story but oh so well told it burst through my body and I was living with it happening now.
Thank you Netgalley for enabling me to read this book

Wow!!!! This was a book I had to read and read and read. I literally could not put it down and found myself picking it up for ‘just one chapter’. The chapters were short and fast paced. Initially I thought it would be confusing to jump backwards and forwards but it wasn’t at all.

I loved his Maggie’s story intertwined with what was going on in the real world at the sane time and the creepy way her kidnapper got himself in her family’s lives

I was rooting for all the characters - I loved Maggie and Max and couldn’t imagine the monotony I’d living the same day over and over for 12 years, her dad was wonderful - caring for both his children and never giving up on them and of course the detective who knew who had got her but couldn’t find a way to get to him.

I loved the ending of the book - my heart was in my mouth and I found myself wincing and gasping out loud. I’d love to see it as a film

This is the first book I have read by this author and I wasn’t sure what I was going to think - how much action could take place based on one room? It turns out quite a lot!

A great read - just make sure you have time because you won’t want to put it down

Very dark subject well covered. I was gripped from the beginning and a book im not likely to forget anytime soon