THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP by Ashley Poston – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Published by Berkley on June 27 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Magical realism, Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A feel-good romance with substance and just a touch of the speculative, The Seven Year Slip was a delight from start to finish.

Color me surprised. This horror, sci-fi lovin’ girl just fell for a contemporary romance, and I’m totally OK with that! I’ve enjoyed Ashley Poston’s YA series Once Upon a Con, so when I heard about The Seven Year Slip, I decided to request it. Sometimes a book hits you just right and all the elements work perfectly, and this is one of those happy instances. Romance fans are going to want to grab this, and even if you aren’t a fan of the genre, Poston’s story has a lot more than just romance to offer readers.

The story takes place in New York City and revolves around a senior publicist named Clementine. Clementine’s beloved Aunt Analea died six months ago, and she’s still mourning her loss. She’s inherited her aunt’s old apartment on the Upper East Side and is still trying to make it her own. Memories of her aunt are everywhere, including two important rules she instilled in her niece years ago: always take your shoes off by the door, and never fall in love. Clementine is too busy with her job at Strauss & Adder to worry about that second rule anyway. She’s next in line for a big promotion, and she pours her heart and soul into the authors and books she works with.

But one day she comes home after work, only to discover a strange man in the apartment. He claims his mother knows Aunt Analea, who offered to sublet him the apartment for the summer. Wait, what? The man—a young, aspiring chef named Iwan—acts as if Aunt Analea is still alive. As it turns out, she is, since Clementine has just stepped back in time. Her aunt told Clementine that the apartment was magical, but back then she didn’t understand. Now it hits her: the apartment appears to be a time portal of sorts that randomly takes you back seven years into the past. 

As Clementine and Iwan get to know each other, she begins to realize Iwan is exactly the type of man she could fall for. And when an up-and-coming chef approaches Strauss & Adder with a book proposal, she knows she’s in trouble. The chef, James Ashton, just happens to be Iwan—seven years older than when she met him in the apartment. And now her company is bidding on his memoir/cook book, and Clementine doesn’t know what to do. James (middle name Iwan!) is colder and more business-like than the Iwan she fell for, and she’s having trouble reconciling the two different men.

As the bidding process for his book heats up, Clementine and James realize they still have a lot of chemistry. If only the past weren’t trying to come between them.

This story is actually very hard to sum up, and a lot more happens than what I’ve described above. The time travel/time slip storyline is pretty cool, and there’s just enough of it to make things interesting without turning it into hard-core speculative fiction. I loved the idea of an apartment that can take the person who lives there back in time seven years. But it’s a random event, so Clementine never knows when she opens the front door whether Iwan will be there or not. It’s a fun concept that keeps the romance fresh and unpredictable.

Aside from that element, there is so much about this story that I loved. Clementine is surrounded by wonderful friends, each one with a fully developed personality. Drew is the rock star editor at Strauss & Adder, and Fiona works in the design department. The three friends are extremely close and do everything together. It reminded me a bit of the friendship between Carrie and her friends in Sex in the City. We get to know Aunt Analea through flashbacks and see glimpses of her and Clementine and their summer trips together. There’s also a love story between Analea and a woman named Vera, and even though it didn’t end well, Clementine wants nothing more than to experience the kind of love Analea and Vera had. 

Then of course, there is Iwan/James, the man who upends Clementine’s carefully controlled world. When Clementine meets him for the first time, he’s about to interview for a dishwasher position at a trendy restaurant, hoping to get his foot in the door and then move up the ranks. I loved his earnest personality and the way he calls Clementine “Lemon.” The dialog between the two is both sweet and hysterically funny. Ashley Poston is simply a genius when it comes to dialog! Of course there are lots of stumbling blocks along the way with their relationship, and Poston comes up with some great scenarios surrounding the seven year time jumps.

There’s also a lot of heart in this story. James introduces Clementine to the best fajitas in New York, courtesy of two culinary school friends who own a successful food truck. The relationship between Clementine and Analea was wonderful, and I loved the way Analea loved to travel the world with her niece. The publishing company, Strauss & Adder, specializes in travel guides, and I thought that was a nice touch, as it creates a connection to Clementine’s past exploits with her aunt. Poston adds some thoughtful moments to the story by exploring the idea of creating a life that you love, and learning how to recognize when you’ve strayed off that path. Both Clementine and Iwan do a lot of soul searching about their jobs during the story, and this more serious element was a nice contrast to the lighter moments.

If you’re a fan of movies like When Harry Met Sally or You’ve Got Mail—both set in New York, by the way—I think you’ll absolutely love The Seven Year Slip. I swear, if someone doesn’t make this into a movie, I’ll be very surprised, it practically screams “film adaptation”! I’m so glad I picked up this book, and now I need to go back and read Poston’s The Dead Romantics, which I hear is great. Highly recommended!

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.