Title: The Seven Year Slip
Author: Ashley Poston
Genre: Contemporary romance, romance
Publisher: Books On Tape
Publication Date: June 27, 2023
Format: Audiobook
Length: 10 hours

Read if you like: magical realism, forced proximity, one bed, foodies, time travel, stories of grief and grieving, books about books

Rating: 

This might sound dramatic, but I think The Seven Year Slip is the best contemporary romance novel that I’ve ever read. I’d seen a few bookstagrammers that I trust raving about this back in 2023, but it took ages for my hold to come in from the library. Now I wish I’d bought it a long time ago so I could have loved this story sooner.

Poston has created a story that feels like so much more than just a romance. It’s a visceral account of grief and grieving and a story of a woman trying to find her way and determine who and what will make her happy. The setting is a gorgeous NYC bookish backdrop, but the actual people still feel real and relatable in a way that I don’t always find is achieved in this genre. 

That said, I would still consider it a top-tier romance. Poston deployed some of my absolute favourite tropes impeccably and the story kept me guessing right until the very end. 

I can’t emphasize enough how enjoyable this book was. If you’re a romance reader or just a reader in the mood for some romance, pick this one up. You will not be disappointed.

The Book Synopsis: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

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.

The Review

What a BOOK. I’m writing this review weeks after I finished reading and I still can’t stop thinking about how good it was.

Let me start with the premise, which was adorable and perfect. Two people, falling for each other through a seven-year time slip, while also interacting in real life and trying to reconcile who they are versus who they were was so lovely and well executed. Combined with a New York City backdrop and careers in both publishing and the culinary arts and this was literally a recipe for all of my favourite things. I was hooked from the very first chapter and it only got better as it went on.

I loved Clementine as a lead. She was realistically flawed but not weak, and her grief was so palpable you felt it. It was easy to empathize with her and as details unfolded, who she was became clearer and clearer. Sometimes I find the career-centric, travel-heavy, no time-for-relationships FMC in romance novels comes across as cold or uncaring but that was never the case with Clementine. She just felt like a woman trying to find her way and learning that what was important to her could shift as time went on. 

And IWAN! UGH MY HEART. What a fate. I kept thinking over and over how of the two of them, he had it the hardest. To be the one seven years behind, with no concept of the future and no way to bridge the distance, was devastating every time you remembered it. And he had the harder time when it came to them coming together in the present, because why wouldn’t he? Seven years had passed for him. He’d grown and changed, and the woman he loved was exactly where she’d been when he met her. He’s such a warm and inviting character, the perfect love interest, and I was rooting for him the whole time.

Perhaps one of the most potent aspects of the story though was not the romance at all, but instead the palpable grief that Clementine feels for the loss of her aunt. I felt like Poston handled the issue of mental health and suicide delicately, but also with authenticity, and Clementine painted the perfect picture of what it is to be left behind, particularly in a circumstance that simply did not allow for any form of immediate closure. 

There were so many beautiful layers to these stories, and I loved that the sub-characters and plot lines ended up tying into the main narrative in delightfully surprising ways. The magical realism and time travel added a special quality to the story and made it feel ethereal in all the right ways. I also listened to this on audiobook and consumed it all within three days because it was that good. 

This was a 10/10 for me. I loved everything about it. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author and recommending this book as an all-time favourite romance.