REVIEW: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

In The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston, Clementine West has always known she hit the jackpot when it comes to her family. Her parents might be a tad predictable, but they set the bar high in terms of loving relationships. Then there’s her Aunt Analea. Basically, the polar opposite of Clementine’s parents. She lived a life traveling the world, enjoying all the arts NYC has to offer, and even her apartment in the Upper East Side is (supposedly) magical. Not that Clementine ever got to experience it–until she lost her treasured aunt and inherited the apartment. Then all the stories Analea doled out over the years proved to be true when a handsome man named Iwan turns up one day in her kitchen. Only, he’s living seven years in the past.

‘She only ever had two rules in this apartment–one, always take your shoes off by the door.
And two: never fall in love.
Because anyone you met here, anyone the apartment let you find, could never stay.’

Clementine can’t believe that it took losing her aunt and moving into the apartment for her to meet the man of her dreams. But as she and Iwan slip in and out of a timeline that changes on a whim, she realizes that their story might not get a happy ending. Exactly as Analea warned over the years. Clementine still dreams of her Southern chef, though, hoping for the day fate throws them together in the present somehow. But as always, even with all her hard work and focus on her career as well as getting through the grieving process since losing Analea, things don’t go as planned. Although, this time, when Clementine looks deeply into what she truly wants out of life and love, the universe might just gift her with it after all.

He stepped away from me, a pained look across his face. “Always the wrong time, isn’t it, Lemon?”
“Yes,” I whispered, my voice tight–because he was right…

Can I just declare Ashley Poston the Queen of Magical Realism? Because wow…I was thoroughly captivated by her previous novel, The Dead Romantics, but I’m every bit as awed by The Seven Year Slip. Not only did it have mind-bending time travel where the apartment Clementine inherited from her beloved aunt decided at will to take its occupant(s) seven years into the past, but we also followed as our heroine grappled with loss, grief, and reexamining her life.

‘If I’d learned anything about living in a time-traveling apartment, no matter how much time you get, it’s still never enough.’

Content Warning: View Spoiler »Suicide, grief, anxiety attacks, dementia (mentioned). « Hide Spoiler

Some of the storyline was heavy, yes. And Poston absolutely had me in tears in the last couple of chapters as well as in her note at the end. But it was so worth it to feel that deep satisfaction of how everything worked out and with the tender, sigh-worthy romance itself. Plus, the cast was perfect. From Clementine’s coworkers to her family, they will make you smile with their good-natured humor, their support of each other, and how they all played their own part in helping her find her way through some tough situations.

But it was Clementine and Iwan together that made me swoon. Okay…Iwan himself was swoon-worthy enough. Watching these two wonderful people, both hard workers who were passionate about their careers–Clementine in book publishing, Iwan in the culinary arts–brought the pages alive with the obvious respect and care they had for each other right away. It was sad that their timelines didn’t match up more often. But Poston’s spin on time travel, with the time slips in the apartment happening out of the blue, kept me on my toes trying to wrap my head around how Iwan and Clementine could possibly coexist outside those magical walls. Although, when things finally lined up and all the pieces came together? *chef’s kiss*

QOTD: Clementine collected travel guides from places she visited around the world. Do you collect any type of keepsakes from your travels?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: June 27th, 2023 | Berkley |

“A gorgeous love story from one of the finest romance writers out there.” —Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After

A Most Anticipated Book by Harper’s Bazaar ∙ Real Simple ∙ BookRiot ∙ and more!

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 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.