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.
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: 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.
Title : The Seven Year Slip
Author : Ashley Poston
Format : eARC
Page Count : 352
Genre : romance / magical realism
Publisher : Berkley Books
Release Date : June 27, 2023
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★ ★
Hollis' 3 star review
I hate to say it but here we are again with another story by Poston where, for me, the concept is a win but the execution fails to totally dazzle. I think overall I had a better time with this than The Dead Romantics but somehow I'm rating them the same. What even is a rating, yo.
I think what really failed to spark for me here were the characters. I really didn't like anyone.. except Iwan's food truck buddies. Who we see a total of one and a half times. But everyone else, even Clementine's friends? Not really. And Clementine herself? Iwan? Eh..
But where this really did succeed, beyond the concept that hooked me so hard, was the grief. There are some incredibly moving passages about loss (please find some content warnings if you need them) and I definitely teared up. Poston wrote the hell out of that and I felt it. I truly did. I wish I had felt the same for the romance but..
It happens so fast. Even with the weird wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey hijinks, when Clementine first meets Iwan, out of time, it's so fast. Even despite the rules her aunt has instilled in her -- not to fall in love (even though there was another rule to always fall in love? inconsistent; unless that one was just for traveling? it's possible). First she is desperate to have him go, then she's desperate to have him back, and then the person she meets later, in her own time.. I don't know, I didn't really buy it. I didn't like that he went that route. I understood Clementine's own career-arc, this makes for another book I've read recently that works through the concept of being in a job that doesn't spark joy and what it means to consider something else after committing so much of one's life to a career, but that was the only part of her I connected to.
Personality-wise? Initially I found her offputting and totally unappealing and as time went on she got easier to bear but I never liked her. Iwan, initially, is perfect. Which makes him hard to dislike I guess -- though when propped up against him it made Clementine a very stark character, and it was mostly in those early scenes when it really hit home how much I disliked her. But maybe that's why he was the way he was later; for some flavour. For some conflict. Though, as I type this all out, I wonder if he was the other side of the coin; how you can still get lost when living your dream. I just, I don't know, his attitude was just strange. At least until it wasn't.
Also, on the topic of rules being instilled, there was just too much repetition. The same rules rehashed, the same bits of stories told, I swear sometimes it felt like c/p was being used throughout some of the dialogue or exposition. And I don't really know why. They weren't hard things to remember and I don't understand why the word count needed padding.
Anyway, some of my other little niggles have more to do with consistency bits that will likely get tidied up by the time release comes around so I guess that about rounds it up.
I do think this will be a win for a lot of readers, especially those who loved the author's last release, but it could be that I just don't get on with this author despite my best wishes. Not that a three is bad! But if I keep feeling that it's just running up just short of expectations, or potential, than maybe it's a me thing. I will be curious to see what she's got coming down the pipeline next but I might not be first in line for it like I was for this one.
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. **
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