The Three Day Rule by Emlyn Rees and Josie Lloyd

Template:Infoboxsort The Thorne family gathers annually at Christmas, like most families do. But the Thornes like to make sure they bring not only the gifts and the plum pudding; they want to make sure they have included the hostilities, antagonisms, fisticuffs and petty resentments that have fuelled them through the previous twelve months, too.

Kellie Vaughan has it all: a great job that pays good money, beautiful clothes, a great love affair and fabulous sex. Kellie has never been happier in her life - Elliot Thorne is "the one" for her.

Elliot Thorne has more than "it all": Elliot has a great career as a partner in a leading law firm, plenty of money, the respect of his peers and a beautiful girlfriend. But Elliot also has a beautiful wife, Isabelle, a beautiful teenage daughter, Taylor and it would seem, a set of morals that live somewhere around the lowly levels of the fungus that feeds on pond scum. So far, so predictable, right? How come it's never the Isabelles and the Kellies who have strapping brain-dead bo-hunks in tow, prepared to paint their toenails and their houses at their very whim? Yeah, well, I'm still looking for that book too! Anyway, I digress.

Elliot Thorne and his family are spending Christmas at his father's house on remote Brayner Island off the coast of Penzance, with his sister Stephanie, her husband Michael and their two children, Simon and Natascha. Kellie will be spending her Christmas alone at the finest spa hotel in the country, which also just happens to be a short boat ride away from Brayner Island, in Penzance. Elliot wants his Christmas cake-and-eat-it-too!

On an exploratory sortie around Penzance, however, Kellie bumps into the gorgeous Ben. Ben is recently divorced and still reeling from the collapse of his marriage. Not reeling enough, however to not notice the lovely Kellie and invite her aboard his boat for a punt over to Brayner Island.

So the imaginable unimaginable happens. Kellie and Ben are cut off in a freak snow storm and beach on the rocky shores of Brayner Island's inhospitable side. They fight their way, death-defyingly of course, bonding like no two people have ever bonded, to safety through the storm and are forced to sit out the worst of the blizzard at the Island's one pub slash bed and breakfast.

Meanwhile, at the Thorne homestead, tempers are beginning to fray and goodwill to all men is a far-away concept. Tensions in the family home quickly reach a predictable, combustible head and you can guess who comes down to the pub to get away from the arguing, for a quick drink.

This tale is of squabbling families who have and have had more than their fair share of trials and tribulations, some self-imposed and some otherwise and if you are an only child, like me, you will turn each page, slightly morbidly fascinated that this kind of Christmas is the norm for some people. Or, you will turn each page and say "This is nothing! you should see Christmas in our house."

Lloyd and Rees latest effort is much of a muchness with their other work. Chick Lit has never been and is never going to be a challenging read. What this book does do, though, is give you all the ingredients for a lesson learned and a happy ending. And sometimes you can't say fairer than that, can you?

Read this if you like books written by people called Sophie, if you like books to be named after the lead character of the story or if you only want your stories to have a happy ending. The Three Day Rule is no trauma reading at its finest.

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