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.
THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP by ASHLEY POSTON
Series: n/a
Publication date: June 27, 2023
Published by: Berkley
Genre: romance, magical realism
SYNOPSIS
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 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.
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Praise for The Seven Year Slip:
“I ADORED this book. Ashley is such a talent. The worlds she creates are so warm and specific and beautifully rendered. The Seven Year Slip is a gorgeous love story from one of the finest romance writers out there. I laughed, I cried, I didn’t want it to end. Consider me Ashley Poston’s greatest admirer!”
—Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After
“Ashley Poston has again created a world that is off-kilter, romantic, and irresistible. If you love The Lake House but also want some top notch make out scenes, this is the book for you.”
—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow
“Warm, funny and heartbreakingly hopeful, The Seven Year Slip is a magical love story, a devastating portrait of grief, and a loving ode to what it means to grow, evolve and blossom.”
—Sangu Mandanna, bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Poston is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Dead Romantics.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s in English, she spent the last decade working in the publishing industry before deciding to pursue writing full-time.
When not writing, she likes trying various arts and crafts (she’s currently addicted to building miniature rooms) and taking long walks as an excuse to listen to Dungeons & Dragons podcasts. She bides her time between South Carolina and New York, and all the bookstores between.
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REVIEW
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley PostonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Over the last few years, I've noticed feeling a growing cynicism when it comes to reading. I can count on one hand the amount of five star books I've found over the last three years. I've read all of the common tropes in my favorite genres so many times that it's harder and harder to find a book that hits me perfectly in the feels. I can honestly say that I have read a lot of good books. A lot of great books too. But for me, a five star read has a completely different feeling than all the others. That warm glow-euphoric, dreamy...otherwise known as The Book Hangover™. You've been reading with razor sharp focus on those characters, staying up until the early hours of the morning with them as they try to overcome their conflicts, and cry when the ending hits you squarely in your cynical heart. (Okay, the cynical part is all me, but you get the picture.) I am now in the phase where I worry that the next books that follow will fall flat because my head is still stuck in Ashley Poston's fictional world.
I've got to be honest. In the beginning, Clementine didn't make a good first impression on me and I was fully expecting for that to affect my overall enjoyment. She comes off as a very closed-off individual, hyper focused on her career, and somewhat cold. That wall that she has up was off-putting at first, but the author does a wonderful job humanizing her flaws and quickly helping you understand them. Clementine had a very special bond with her aunt Analea, and losing her has had a profound effect on her life. Before losing her, she had a passion for life, chasing adventure across the globe with her aunt, and her future was filled with hope and endless possibilities. After...she used her job as a shield in her romantic relationships, and has forgotten what it feels like to be passionate about anything or anyone. Once you start to understand what's hiding underneath the surface with her, it's very easy to feel empathy for this broken woman. On the outside, she has a lot going for her: two best friends who she gets to work with, a job that she excels at with a possible promotion in the near future, and loving parents who support her. Inside, she feels shattered with grief because she lives in a world where her aunt Analea no longer exists.
Analea was the type of person that lived every day like it was her last. She appreciated each moment for the simple joy it could bring, and was the master at "fake it until you make it." She taught Clementine to seek adventure around every corner and if you didn't feel like you belonged somewhere, it was only a matter of convincing others until you convince yourself. Her aunt was quirky, yes, but also inspiring. If she thought that her apartment was magical, the elevator had a mirror that shows you your past self, and that immortal pigeons nested right outside her window, who was she to judge? It was all part of her distinctive charm.
She only ever had two rules in this apartment—one, always take your shoes off by the door.And two: never fall in love. Because anyone youmet here, anyone the apartment let you find,could never stay. No one in this apartmentever stayed. No one ever would.
Clementine no longer entertained the harmless "fantasies" that her aunt spun to her growing up. Her wondrous stories about the magical apartment that transports you seven years into the past is simply entertainment for a child. She is now living a cruel reality filled with loneliness and heartache-as harsh as it is, it leaves no room for risk or disappointment anymore. Everyone deals with grief in their own personal way, but Clementine is simply numbing herself rather than working through it. Now, faced with moving into the apartment that holds so many painful memories, she knows she's not going to have anywhere to hide anymore.
The apartment was foreign to me now, missingsomething terribly large, but it still felt like homein a way that nothing else ever could. Like a placeI once knew, but which no longer welcomed me.
I was eagerly anticipating the first time "slip" which would introduce Clem's love interest, Iwan. I loved the movie The Lake House that had a time slip connected to a home, and I was hoping for the feel-good angst of that story. The Seven Year Slip delivered on that. While this was actually time travel happening rather than communicating through time, that was actually a good thing. Clementine and Iwan's story is entirely theirs, and filled with their own brand of heart-wrenching moments. Past and present versions of Clem and Iwan meet and intersect and multiple points, but it's never quite the right moment for them to be able to be together. Even though Iwan has the ability to meet the Clementine of his time, she wouldn't know who he was for another seven years, and she would be a completely different person in that stage of her life. We are always changing and growing throughout life-they have a profound effect on each other when they first meet because those versions of each other connect perfectly. In the present time, things have changed between them. Things that haven't happened in the past yet (for her) have already been experienced by him. So they have a bit of a waiting game for her to travel back however many times she needs to in order to catch up to him. It's very easy to have plot holes with time travel books, and as much as I picked it apart in my mind the plot seemed airtight. It really made their romance come to life off the pages that much more.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention some issues I found. Yes, I loved the book to pieces, but it wasn't flawless by any means. Clementine mentions that her aunt told her about a book that writes itself, and an alleyway that leads to the other side of the world in addition to the mysteriously immortal pigeons and the time portal apartment. Those things never came up again in the story, which I found to be odd. In fact, the pigeons were never really explained. They were just there and seemingly always watching the habitants of the apartment through the window. It would have been helpful to get some backstory with them, but it didn't affect my feelings for the romance in the story. Also, at the end of the book, one thing that occurred was considerably frustrating regarding her last interaction with somebody in the past.
Even though there were things that could have been clarified better for my own satisfaction, I fell head over heels for this emotional love story and couldn't give it anything less than a full five stars. For me, the experience was just as magical as that century old apartment on the Upper East Side that brings these soulmates together through time. Even when they had "bad" timing, it was still right. Their brief interactions set one another on a path that would eventually lead them back together where they were supposed to be. It isn't often that a book can make me cry anymore...not just watery eyes, but tears falling-tight chest-heart clenching crying. That's what this book did to me, and that is why it deserves all the stars in the world. I can't recommend this one enough! Read it!
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