I read The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston last year and highly enjoyed it, so when I saw this one announced I knew that I would eventually end up picking it up. When I think about the two together I do think that I prefer The Dead Romantics but I recommend and had a great time reading both.

The Seven Year Slip follows Clementine who recently lost her Aunt and inherited her apartment, but this apartment doesn't seem to understand time so one day Clementine finds herself 7 years in the past. While romance plays a key part in the story, so does finding yourself and friendship. I tend to enjoy any book that talks about books and has strong female friendships so this ticked many of my boxes right off the bat.

The food in this book! I was constantly hungry reading it. Iwan, the male love interest, is a chef, so there is always delicious food being made, eaten or discussed so I'd recommend reading when you have a meal you enjoy rather than a couple hours before that meal.

Clementine has two really good friends where she works and I just love how much they support her and try to make sure she's doing the best for herself that she can. They support her, often know what's best for her before she does and are just everything a girl wants in her friends.

The last thing I want to discuss is the romance that fits into the story. There are many parts that are really positive surrounding this love story, that I wasn't necessarily expecting. For a decent amount of the book the people they know each other as aren't living at the same time (if that makes any sense), which as you would expect leads to a lot of personal growth. This isn't the only reason for the growth or the only way it happened but it did kick-start a lot of it and this growth is essential to the story in many ways. The plot is an obvious one but I don’t think the book would have the same feel or be as enjoyable without it either.

Even ignoring everything other than the romance, it was really strong and did have me super hooked in. The ending made me super happy and I really did want to know what was going to happen to these two characters together and apart.

Highly recommend and am very glad to have now read. Ashley Poston has proved herself now as a fantastic romance author with magical elements sprinkled in and I'll read whatever else she publishes in the same vein.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

You guys. This book. Is SO so SO perfect. It's as tender as a home-cooked steak. It's as sweet as your 8th-grade birthday cake. It's as romantic as a honeymoon getaway through Italy. I've been a fan of Ashley Poston since her YA books, and she just continues to have hit after hit with her adult romances. I laughed. I cried. I immediately texted all my friends and told them they needed to cancel all plans and run to the store to pick this one up. It's just THAT good. It's emotional, it's tender, it's romantic, and it's exactly what I needed to get out of a reading slump. I loved Clementine and Iwan and my ONLY complaint is that I needed this book to be 400 pages longer.

Characters were both pretty meh (especially the male love interest = overly nice to the point he was boring like sure be nice but have a personality). Romance was lacking because of the flat characterisation. Premise was interesting but lacking execution.

Thanks so much for the arc of this one. I was so excited to read this as I loved The Dead Romantics.

Sadly, I didn’t enjoy this one. I really didn’t like the writing and although I liked the idea of the storyline, I don’t think it was well-executed and everything just felt a little all over the place.

I don’t feel like the characters were well-developed either. There wasn’t a lot of detail to their back stories and the info we were given felt like filler.

I requested this because I really loved The Dead Romantics so I think I came into it with expectations that it just didn’t meet.

There was definitely more that could have been done for this as I liked the concept behind Aunt Analea’s apartment but it just missed the mark for me.

I loved this book as much as the first one. The storyline kept me invested until the end. A lovely romantic read with twists and turns and humour along the way.

The Seven Year Slip seamlessly marries magic, books, food and romance in a perfect blend that kept me picking up my headphones to keep listening - I loved it! I loved the narration of the finished audiobook, and how Poston gives a tiny nod to The Dead Romantics. This is sweet, heartfelt, and so so fun to read!

Having read her previous book I thought I knew what to expect but I was wrong, The Seven Year Slip was everything and more! Heartbreakingly beautiful, filled with gorgeous writing that made me want to fall in love again. I’ve never read a book that made my eyes fill with tears and then make me laugh and smile at the same time. I can’t wait to see what Ashley does next.

I'm a little bit disappointed with this one. It wasn't completely terrible, but after having it recommended to me by someone on BookTok as “infinity stars out of five”, I was expecting so much more.

When I first sat down to read this, I was aware of the general setup so I knew that she was going to meet someone and slowly fall in love, but that they would be separated by seven years in time and this would be a HUGE dilemma.

That isn't what happened.

There was no “slowly” falling in love for a start, it was total insta-love and the author did not give the reader any time at all to come along for the ride. And then with the time slip situation…the solution to her problem presented itself within the first half of the book. Like…what was the problem? Where did the stakes go?
So after that, the whole rest of the book just seemed like manufactured conflict that wouldn’t hold up to any close scrutiny at all.

I also didn’t love the FMC And the banter was pretty cheesy at times.

3 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

I adored this book so much. The bits of magical realism were on point and so well done that it felt believable. I adored the main characters and was pulled into their lives. It was a really fantastic read.

“I tell them about a girl I fell in love with at the right place but the wrong time.”

•

I really liked this cute and quirky, will they won’t they, slow burn romance! It’s well written, well paced and playful - and deals with some challenging subjects like death and grief. (Do look up TWs if you feel it necessary)

This book has deconstructed lemon pie, a time travelling apartment, a job in books, and lots of good food - but GOOD GRIEF the sheer amount of times that the love interest’s very specific shade of eye colour was mentioned was LUDICROUS. SHEER LUNACY. Enjoyed the book otherwise! Read way past my bedtime to finish it 🥰

I was also lucky enough to be gifted @heyashposton first book ‘The Dead Romantics’ last year, and ‘The Seven Year Slip’ is definitely reminiscent of its comfort and light magical realism. It felt familiar. If this sounds like a bit of you - I recommend! 🍋❤️

•

1) Always take your shoes off at the door
2) Never fall in love in this apartment

BUT

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

•

Thank you to @hqstories @netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I honestly don’t know why I torture myself with books about losing a loved one, but I probably won’t stop any time in the future.

We follow Clementine, a book publicist who inherits her late aunt’s apartment. However, to Clementine’s surprise she finds a man in her kitchen, named Iwan. Although he has a valid reason for being there and he’s someone Clementine would probably fall for, he lives seven years in the past. This is a story of a magical apartment, grief, moving on, and doing what’s best for you.

Clementine’s story focuses quite a bit on her relationship with her aunt, followed by her relationship with Iwan, her work and best friends. I liked how the story painted a realistic picture of dealing with the grief of a loved one. It’s not easy and it’s not something one can overcome immediately. The slightest and smallest things will remind one of them and Clementine really embodied that. The story does this effortlessly while ensuring to keep a slightly light tone so as not to make this book too dreary. I loved how Clementine’s relationship with Iwan grew steadily and how her relationship with her best friends felt natural and unburdened.

The beauty in this story belongs in the writing. The author has a magical way to pull the reader into their story without revealing the ending. There are multiple puzzle pieces that need to be put together to pierce together the mystery of this magical apartment. I absolutely loved the little details such as the security guard reading the same book. The pacing, the well placed descriptions and the dialogue all made this book a story that’s hard to forget.

I loved how this book brushes the topics of mental health, moving on from losing a loved one and making decisions for yourself instead of for others. Honestly I didn’t mind it and it didn’t ruin the story for me, because it was interesting and felt like a part of Clementine I needed to know so I could understand her better.

Overall, this was a lovely story and kept me hooked since the first page. I feel like some will find the events in this book predictable but I think that’s the case with many magical realism stories. I really wish we had more pages about the other characters such as Drew and Fiona. They seemed like interesting characters and were really supportive of Clementine so I would have loved to read about them a bit more. I think adding a little more cast makes the story only more interesting.

Definitely a good read to pick up if you’re looking for a toned down romance, focusing on growth with a hint of magic.

I adored Ashley Poston’s ‘The Dead Romantics’. I’m a big fan of contemporary romance and also fantasy but I’m not really a ‘romantasy’ girly. The basis of the story was one that appealed to the contemporary romance lover in me as well as the fantasy fan without being too steeped in the tropes and settings that have become synonymous with ‘romantasy’.

When I heard Ashley Poston was releasing a second book with similar vibes and aesthetics to The Dead Romantics, I was sold. On a surface level The Seven Year Slip is a quirky contemporary romance with sprinklings of fantasy, a time travelling apartment. On a deeper level it’s the complexity of grief, the turmoil of meeting the right person at the wrong time and the reality of struggling with who you once wanted to be, who you are now and who your present self longs to be.

Don’t ask me how a book about romance and loss can become such a comfort read, because I honestly don’t know. Ashley Poston has an incredible way with the words that just hits right.

After being unexpectedly in love with Dead Romantics, my expectations were at all time high. The Seven Year Slip did not disappoint.

I really, really like how the story like was set up, the timing of a relationship being so important. I also appreciated a few unexpected twists thrown here and there. The relationship was well thought out and mature.

Already looking forward to the next one from Ashley Poston!

This is a fantastic book, by the same author of one of my favorite books last year, The Dead Romantics. This book made me smile, laugh, and cry. It’s beautifully written and I was sorry it had to end.

Clementine (Lemon) is still grieving the death of her beloved aunt Analea, with whom she travelled and lived with in a beautiful apartment that belongs to her now. Her aunt always hinted that there was something different about the place, but Clementine never believed her until one night she came home to find a young, good-looking guy named Iwan making dinner in the kitchen.

He said he was a chef and that his mother was friends with Analea. He’d be subletting the place over the summer, looking for a job in a restaurant, and he called her Lemon. Their chemistry was instant and very strong, and their relationship goes on from there.

The book brings up all kinds of existential questions. If this is the past, where is Iwan now? Her aunt is still alive in this timeline, is it possible for Lemon to see her?

I can’t say enough about the quality of this book, you have to read it. 5 stars.

I was really looking forward to reading this book after so many good reviews. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I liked the idea of the storyline and enjoyed parts of it, but it all felt quite predictable! I wanted to like the book and was waiting for more, but it just never got there for me.

I love love love Ashley Poston's books and The Seven Year Slip was no exception.
After reading and falling in love with The Dead Romantics, I was so excited to get my hands on this book and when I did start it, I could not stop reading and read the whole thing within a few hours.
I fell so deeply in love with this story. I loved Clementine and Iwan so much and they had so much chemistry and I could not help but root for them to fall in love.
This book definitely touches on a lot of harder topics, like grief and loss of a family member and I feel like it was all written so beautifully that I could feel every emotion that these characters were feeling.
The plot was a little predictable and I guessed what was going to happen within the first few chapters, but I just loved this book and this world that Ashley Poston had created that I could not put this book down.
I also enjoyed the little acknowledgement of characters from The Dead Romantics that happened further along in this book.
I love Ashley Postons writing and these unique books that she is publishing and I cannot wait to read and fall in love with more of her books.

I’m not a huge fan of time slip romances but I read Polson’s Dead Romantics and loved it so I was keen to see how she pulled this off. I wasn’t disappointed. Clementine West loves her eccentric and vibrant Aunt so when she dies and leaves her swanky apartment to Clem she has no intention of living there but Events occur that force her hand but Clem gets more than she bargained for when she finds a hot dude in situ, the only snag, they are on different time lines. He’s seven years behind and the apartment is inconsistent. Clem doesn’t know when or if he will turn up and love is for dummies anyway right?
This book was so sweet, I really enjoyed it. The timey-winey stuff was just complicated enough and Polson handled it so neatly it made sense even to me and the little twist at the end was so Awww inspiring it melted my little black heart. So good.

One of my most anticipated reads of the year. And boy did it deliver! I absolutely love the writing style in this one. I was drawn into the storyline and I loved the character's.

Magical apartment ✔️
Books about books ✔️
Time travel ✔️
Each character has too many names ✔️
Will make you want to eat fajitas ✔️

This book is very much what it offers on the tin - a contemporary romance drawing just enough on the paranormal to make its marketing stand out from the crowd. If you're looking for an easy summer/beach read, this might be the one. It requires some suspension of disbelief because there's little to no explanation for the time travelling apartment, but if you can get past that, read on

The book explores tough topics like grief, depression and suicide in a very light way - to the extent that the suicide actually took me by surprise so fair warning if that's going to be triggering for you. Though this is set in New York, the book tries to draw on the idea of wanderlust and experiences across the globe. That said, all its diversity is in background characters in relation to the main couple.

I struggled with the premise, I'm never great with time travel, but overall this is a solid, easy romance read. I do think The Dead Romantics was better though!

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC! I buddy read this with my friend Lana on Booktok as well!

This is a contemporary romance with magical realism elements which follows Clementine who is wracked with grief after the death of her Aunt. Her Aunt has left her her apartment which Clementine has always been told is magical. Sometimes, when you are at a crossroads especially, time gets lost and the apartment slips seven years into the past. One day Clementine comes home to find the apartment looking as it did seven years ago and a man called Iwan claiming he’s staying there for the summer while her Aunt is on holiday (with past Clementine). She realises then that her Aunt was telling the truth but she also knows how her Aunt’s love story ended. Now she’s falling for Iwan, seven years in the past while juggling the pressures of being a publicist for a publishing company and questioning what she really wants in life. Clementine will learn that love isn’t a matter of time, it’s a matter of timing.

This book really hit me in the feels. I am about to become an Aunt, my sister is pregnant for the first time and I am absolutely over the moon. I also have the same monster on my shoulder as Clementine’s Aunt so as you can imagine this hit me hard. Clementine and her Aunt have the kind of relationship I want to have with my niece/nephew. I absolutely sobbed let me tell you. I could see THAT SCENE coming and my god I just erupted. Full body wracking sobs.

My favourite part of this book was watching Clementine learning to put herself first and go after her passions. I enjoyed seeing her develop as a character and watching her rediscover the things she’d lost to grief. Her friendships were lovely as well, everyone needs a Fiona and a Drew in their lives.

If you like a lot of talk and descriptions about food then you will love this. I was so hungry while reading. Those fajitas sounded amazing. Although the romance between Iwan and Clementine develops really quickly I still felt their chemistry and I did root for them. Iwan’s character in the past was a lot more to my taste though. That’s all I’m going to say.

The reason this isn’t higher than a four for me is because the writing was to repetitive and at times the plot felt a bit discombobulated. I lost count of how many times Clementine told us her Aunt’s “two rules”, the amount of times Iwan “tsked” and the amount of times “and” was used in sentences. I can’t even put my finger on what exactly about the plot line felt off for me but it almost felt like this was two novels blended into one? If that makes sense? I also think there was so much potential for the “seven year slip” aspect.

Either way I definitely recommend this and it is worth the hype it’s getting in my opinion. Please check trigger warnings as this does deal with some HEAVY topics and grief is a main theme. If you like a romance that’s not afraid to delve into emotional topics then this if for you. It was released on 4th July so you can pick it up now!