Ever since her aunt's death, Clementine has put her head down to work harder toward her goals at her publishing company. Living in her late aunt's apartment, one day she finds herself shocked to find a man in her kitchen. With kind eyes and a seductive Southern drawl, he's the perfect man for Clementine. Except for the cosmic mistiming: he actually exists seven years ago. When Clementine encounters him in the modern day, she is shocked by how much he has changed.

I haven't read The Dead Romantics, Poston's big hit last year, so I wasn't sure what to expect from The Seven Year Slip, especially since I'm not much of a romance reader. To my pleasant surprise, I fell in love with Poston's nuanced love story, which reminded me of a few of my favorite Josie Silver's writing. This twist on a time travel story keeps you guessing, for every time Clementine slips into the past, it affects her interaction with the present. Poston takes the concept of right person/wrong time to a whole new level, giving you an engaging and enjoyable summer read.

⭐️: 4.5/5

Still coming to grips with her aunt’s sudden death, Clementine moves into her old apartment. Her aunt’s old apartment has a secret though: sometimes it and its inhabitants will travel 7 years forward or backward in time, putting the residents in contact with people just when they need it most in their lives. In this way, Clementine meets Iwan, an aspiring chef, subletting the apartment 7 years in her past. As she grows closer and closer to him, she finds that she’s in danger of breaking one of her aunt’s cardinal rules: don’t fall in love with people the apartment brings to you, because a lot can change in 7 years.

I loved this book. I was a little skeptical going in, having not read The Dead Romantics due to a similar skepticism of the fantastical nature of the plot. Boy was I wrong though, I really loved this book, from the characters, down to the tension, to the way that at 50% I couldn’t see how the resolution would come about. I couldn’t put it down the whole way through, because I had to see how everything would turn out, and how everything would (or if it even would) have a HEA. This was such a clever idea for a romance, and I loved the way that timing was a key plot point throughout the whole book. It really resonated with me how a lot of finding lasting love with a person you connect with is down to the timing, and whether you’re in the same place in your life as that other person, and whether the circumstances of your lives allows you to build that connection into something more. The mental health and suicide representation was also a great addition, because visibility is so, so important when it comes to those type of conversations. However, that is certainly a trigger that is present in this otherwise pretty fun rom-com. I really enjoyed this book, and will definitely be picking up The Dead Romantics now as well!

Thank you to @netgalley and @berkleypub for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Ashley Poston writes the most gut wrenchingly beautiful magical realism romances. She left me an absolute wreck despite the happily ever after in The Dead Romantics and now she did it again with The Seven Year Slip. Her writing is so immersive I dread leaving her universes.

The Seven Year Slip takes right person wrong time to a whole other level with time travel. Yeah you read that correctly and you’re going to read this and absolutely love it because it’s phenomenal. Clementine is still in the harsh stages of grief when the universe brings her an optimistic Iwan out to chase his dreams—he’s 7 years in her past, but who will she find when she stumbles into him in the present?

This is a single POV romance told from Clementine’s perspective. We get the opportunity to experience her move through her grief and grow quite a bit as a character. While we don’t get Iwan’s POV (honestly it’s a time travel novel, we can’t take the POV of the guy we meet across time and space because hello —spoilers) we do get to see how time can shape us when we’re not looking and not listening to that guiding voice. They’re both stunning examples of chasing the moon and finding what fills not just your heart but also your head.

OMG YES!!!!!!! I love this book so much! I LOVED The Dead Romantics and was worried this wouldn't live up to my expectations, but Ashley delivered. Clementine and Iwan were such a cute couple. I was rooting for them so much. Ashley does a truly phenomenal job of writing magical realism romances that don't seem super far=fetched or super far out there. Her writing captivated me from the start, and I flew through this book. I wanted it to keep going.

What makes this truly a fantasy novel? A fantastic rent-free apartment in NYC! This modern magical realism romance is filled with love of art, travel, books, and food, set alongside a messy on-the-cusp-of-thirty career crisis. Clementine has inherited a magical apartment from her beloved aunt and travel companion. Occasionally, when she enters the apartment, instead of her unpacked boxes, her aunt’s peacock chair is back in it’s corner, and the apartment has slipped seven years into the past. One day when Clementine comes home, there’s a handsome, tattooed, stranger there, the son of her aunt’s friend who was granted use of the apartment while Analea is in Europe with her niece. A dishwasher and aspiring chef who wants to make memories with food in a warm, cozy restaurant of his own one day, Iwan charms Clementine with pie and nickname for her (both lemon).

In the present timeline, Clementine is now a book publicist, potentially up for a promotion that will alter her life–or possibly leave her with NO life apart from her work. She discovers that the celebrity chef author her imprint is trying to acquire is none other than Iwan, but he is greatly greatly changed, going by James and making fussy food that is nearly impossible for home cooks to recreate. James creates a cooking challenge to help narrow down his choice of publishers, and they reconnect. He’s hurt from their relationship, but his past hurt is not in Clementine’s timeline yet, and their reconciliation is delicate as a mereguine.

In addition to the past/present timeline, the mystery shrouding Aunt Analea’s death and the relationship she had that could not withstand a literal test of time is brilliantly juxtaposed with the burgeoning relationship between Clementine and Iwan. Supporting characters are diverse and richly constructed. The narrative is witty, lusciously detailed, warm, raw, honest and unputdownable. I read it TWICE. Truly, every word Ashley Poston writes is luminous. Like The Dead Romantics, The Seven Year Slip involves supernatural elements and lots of poignant longing; the appearance from the protagonists from The Dead Romantics is icing on the cake.

I received a free, advance reader’s review copy of #TheSevenYearSlip from #NetGalley.

Read if you like:
🚪 Magical Apartments
⏳ Split Timelines
♥️ Falling in Love
🌮 Tattooed Chef MMC
✍🏻 Book Publisist FMC
💔 Love after Loss

“Never forget to fall in love whenever you find it because love is nothing if not a matter of timing”

This book was my most anticipated read of the year and it did not disappoint one bit. I smiled, I laughed, I felt my heart breaking, I cried, but ultimately I fell in love with this story.

The quote I pulled felt so correct to my experience with this book because timing would have dictated I would not have read this one yet, in favor of other books I said I would read first, but I couldn’t take the wait and dug in, and so glad I did because this book was absolutely everything I needed and everything I didn’t realize I needed all in one.

It’s more than a love story, but also a story of processing grief and loss, and also learning to open your heart to happiness and remembering who you are regardless of the path you may have gone on for the right reasons at one time.

I don’t want to say too much because truly I think everyone should go in blind as possible and fall in love through the pages of a book while your heart processes the love and grief of Clementine aka Lemon all at once as it was so powerful to be tugged between love and grief throughout the book.

Thank you a million times over Berkley for my ARC and to Ashley Poston for this beautiful story of Lemon and Iwan.

The Seven Year Slip is a lyrically beautiful romance. Clementine is an overworked publicist dealing with grief over losing her aunt when she is surprised to find a temporary, charming roommate, only to find he lives seven years in the past. The writing is beautiful and easy, there’s so much heartache and brightness mixed together. The story is romantic and lyrical. Clementine is so complex, she’s dealing with such heavy grief, a crazy busy career, and really complicated feelings with falling for Iwan. And she’s so likable and Iwan too is so sweet and charming. There’s magic in this plot and writing and the characters just sparkle. There’s a lot of growth and heart and I just really love Ashley Poston’s writing!

The Dead Romantics was my favorite book of 2022 - I still recommend it all the time - so I was absolutely thrilled to read an early copy of Ashley Poston’s second adult romance, The Seven Year Slip. The blurb promised a hint of magic like TDR and it really delivered.

Clementine West is a successful book publicist climbing the ranks at a smaller publishing house. She’s also mourning the loss of her Aunt Analea who died six months earlier and left a magical apartment to Clementine. The apartment has the ability to bring one back seven years to the past.

I won’t say much more about the plot to avoid spoiling any of the magic. Instead I’ll focus on how this book had me smiling and tearing up from beginning to end. One of the things that TDR did so well was explore complicated feelings of grief, and Seven Year Slip picks up this theme from a different perspective but equally tenderly and moving. The book also explores what it means to grow into new versions of ourselves, while still chasing the dreams and goals a previous version of ourselves created. The relationship and chemistry between Clementine and Iwan was so great, my only complaint about this book is that I wanted more of them together on the page.

Content warnings: references to death by suicide

I voluntarily reviewed an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I am finding it difficult to put into words how much I loved The Seven Year Slip because James and Clementine's story is lovely beyond words.

Their story begins when Clementine, who is heartbroken over the loss of her aunt, moves into the apartment she left her, and somehow travels back seven years in time where she meets Iwan. Iwan and Clemetine feel an instant connection; he's a young aspiring chef hoping to make his grandfather proud and she's a bit lost. Clementine knows that love and time travel never end well. Still, she cannot help but feel attracted to Iwan and being with him is the first time Clementine has felt happiness in a long time.

However, her travels to the past seem to be dictated by the magic within the apartment and she believes she's seen the last of Iwan after it fails to take her back. Until she meets present day Iwan who is now known as chef extraordinaire James Iwan Ashton, and he remembers her. Through subsequent meetings in the past and present Iwan and Clementine must overcome the obstacles keeping them apart and decide if present day Iwan and his Lemon are truly meant to be or if it was just a fluke in time.

The Seven Year Slip involved a bit of magical realism that required a bit of suspended reality, but it was done beautifully. A lovely story about love, grief and finding happiness.

This is Ashley Poston's second book to absolutely hit it out of the park for me. She has become an instant read. I can't wait to see what she destroys me with next.

This book was pure magic ✨

The real treasure in this book is Aunt Analea. I think we all need someone like her in our corners. When she first lets Clementine in on her apartments little secret of time hopping, I was very nervous how it would all play out. Will it be realistic? Cheesy? Not make sense… I suspended my beliefs and let the magic take over and I’m so happy I did. The Monroe Apt. no. B4 is now one of my favorite settings in a book!

I went into this one with a small glimpse of what it would be about and finished it feeling so surprised. You get glimpses of what grief can look like day to day hour to hour. A romance that can flourish over a good meal and how food can bring people together. Another take away you can always pick up something you set done, and for that I’m thinking of Clementine’s love of painting there is a scene that felt so relatable, coming back to something that your passionate about.

This is a truly special book and I didn’t think it could get anymore special until the authors note. She did a fabulous job. Also the book pairing list at the end! I need this in all books ASAP!

Thank you Berkley for this gift ARC

A cute story about how important timing is in relationships but also about growing as a person and finding out who you are outside of other people's expectations.

I think I loved this even more than her debut. I’m officially a forever fan. Give me a story about grief any day but add in time travel, romance and food and I’m head over heals. This story is pure magic! Lemon & Iwan forever. I’ll be raving about this to book friends. Grab the tissues too.

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
*********************************************************
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 she 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 watercolours. 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.

This is a cute little read that I absolutely devoured! A sweet story that was an easy read and that I will recommend far and wide to my casual readers. There are some serious Back to the Future vibes here if you are in that age bracket or if you have discovered those movies for the first time on demand.
It was well crafted and its characters and plot will hold your attention for hours: if you take it to the beach (or back yard, fire escape, porch, etc.) don't forget to reapply your SPF as you will lose track of time. Enjoyable even if just sitting in front of the a/c or fan during what is supposed to be a record-breaking HOT summer (oh, yeah ... not) as it is a wonderful little book to pick up and add to your TBR pile.
#shortbutsweetreviews

Rating: 3.5

I liked the romance for the most part, but the overall pacing of the story felt off and it was predictable. Other than that, there wasn't really anything wrong with it, I just didn't have much feelings about it.

Clementine is very good at her job in book publishing. But the spark that was in her eyes is missing since the death of her aunt Analea. She always told Clementine that magic lived in her apartment. But now, when Clementine could really use some magic, she thinks her aunt was just making up stories.
But magic has a way of happening when you need it most. Suddenly, Iwan appears, but not in Clementine’s present, but seven years in the past. How can she reconcile who she is with who she once was? Will the magic last, or will their future only lie in the past?
A heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story of love and loss, and realizing that sometimes you meet the right people at the wrong time. I love loved The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip was a close second.
Oh and I really liked Clementine’s friends, Fiona, and Drew.👍

I inhaled this book in less than 24 hours. I liked Ashley Poston when I first read Geekarella as an intern at the publisher. I haven't read her since 2016, and I'm glad I've started again.

Clementine thinks she has it all together, and then fate pulls the rug from under her. Her aunt dies with no warning. She inherits her aunt's apartment, but it has a catch. You can come across people you may or may not know, but you're in the present, they're seven years in the past.

My previous experience with the whole "sliding door" timeline phenomenon was with an early Taylor Jenkins Reid, and it read less than savory (cooking pun semi intended). This read much better. It's short and sweet. While I wish we had more of Clementine and Iwan, I'm glad there was not much angsty pining or miscommunication. For once, I'm glad I didn't become furious with the characters. Sometimes I got confused as to which timeline we were seeing Iwan, but I think that also sort of adds to the whole idea of Clementine never really knowing which Iwan she would see.

I absolutely loved this book. Ashley Poston is now a must buy author for me. The Dead Romantics was one of my favorites of last year and this was such a wonderful, smart, heartwarming and heartbreaking delight. I laughed and cried and my heart feels full. I cannot WAIT to sell this at our store—I want everyone to know how talented and incredible this author is.

“You can take the lead.
And you’ll follow?
To the moon and back..”

This book is pure magic and I loved it.

Short Synopis:
Clementine moves into her aunt’s apartment after her aunt passes. Her aunt has always said this apartment was magical. Clementine doesn’t believe it. Until one day a man walks in from seven years in the past.

My Thoughts:
Oh my heart just burst. The longing and the waiting was just top notch. My heart hurt for both Clementine and Iwan as they both develop feelings and realize that they can’t be together. They do meet in the present. But seven years has passed for Iwan. A lot can change in seven years.

Read if You Like:
🍋 The Dead Romantics
🍋 Romance with a bit of magical realism
🍋 Second Chance Romance
🍋 Food
🍋 Witty side characters
🍋 Laughing in books

Clementine "Lemon" recovering from the grief of loosing her aunt moves into her old apartment. Only to be met with the cutest man. The only problem is he living 7 years in the past. Their relationship quickly evolves. Iwan is an aspiring chef but working as a dish washer at his favorite restaurant. Lemon works for a publishing house. In present day Lemon and Iwan's lives are about to be more connected than than they realize. Ashley Poston really knows how to write a captivating, complex story is full of whit and romance. I loved every moment of it! A must read!