The Seven Year Slip

The Seven Year Slip is a cute story with some depth, some magic, and a couple readers will fall for. 

This contemporary romance/time slip story has magical elements, but they stay in the periphery while the strength of the book is its messages about mental health, the importance of finding what makes you happy and the main couple, Clementine and Iwan (pronounced Ewan) who are oh-so-cute together.  

Iwan is a tattooed Southern sweetie who cooks, and Clementine works in publishing, mourns the loss of her aunt (whose *magical* apartment she now lives in) and generally has a lot on her proverbial plate. They meet in the apartment which forces them to time slip, creating interesting opportunities for these two to find out what they want out of life. They are adorable together - I just wanted more page time devoted to their growing connection and including Iwan's POV would have balanced things out.

This is a heartwarming story that will make you smile and may make you tear up. I enjoyed how Poston focuses on how people handle life changes and the emotional impact of grief as Iwan and Clementine go on their own journeys of self-discovery to find out what they each want out of life.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Ashley Poston

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Time Travel, Romance

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Publisher: Berkley

First Published: Jun 27, 2023

Book Description from GoodReads: Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.