The Seven Year Slip

"I loved how a book, a story, a set of words in a sentence organized in the exact right order, made you miss places you’ve never visited, and people you’ve never met."rating: 4.5 🌻this was a sweet yet touching story about a woman, successful but a bit lost and dealing with grief, meets a man who's at the start of fearlessly chasing his dreams, and how they fall in love. the only problem? they're seven years apart.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. No one in this apartment ever stayed. No one ever would.i was vaguely aware of the premise going in so i was very intrigued to see how this would be executed. time travel can sometimes get too heady or conceptually ambitious, but i think the magic in this book is its simplicity in that respect. by focusing on a specific weekend at a time between clementine and iwan, there's an organic build to their relationship and keeping it in the apartment doesn't muddy timelines too badly. their separate timelines also weave together seamlessly at a few points and overall i think it was very well crafted.“New things are scary.” “They don’t have to be.” “How are they not?” “Because some of my favorite things I haven’t even done yet.”“I think,” he finally said, choosing his words carefully, “that nothing lasts forever. Not the good things, not the bad. So just find what makes you happy, and do it for as long as you can.”i loved that the heart of this story was about understanding your own happiness and taking the chance to chase after it. career burnout is a commonality between clementine and iwan at both their present; the way you chip away at yourself to fit what's "successful" or what you think is the "right" choice. but really it's authenticity and honesty in your work and pursuits that's what's going to fulfill and reinvigorate you."He might have been the most handsome man I’d ever seen. But especially when he blushed.""Here I was, sitting on the floor in front of my coffee table in my aunt’s apartment, furiously clicking on every link about a man who was seven years older, seven years farther away, seven years stranger, than the one who had kissed me over a lemon pie."the romance was ADORABLE. i felt like clementine meeting younger iwan was almost necessary bc of the idealistic beliefs in his younger self. she's able to bring that back to him in his present self, but not in that "girl saves the guy bc she's the manic pixie" trope-y kind of way. i think poston did an excellent job at writing and developing the intimacy between them in past and present scenes so that the idea of falling in love with someone over and over again, with every version of them, really rings true for these two."Sometimes the people you love don’t leave you with goodbyes—they just leave.""I hated her for leaving, and I loved her for staying as long as she could."this was additionally a touching story about grief. the painful new adjustments of it, the way it slips back in at every turn of a familiar corner, bringing back old memories unbidden. the complicated mix of feelings that comes with knowing someone who died by suicide; the sorrow, the anger, the guilt. while it doesn't go too deep to be overwhelming, it touches on this enough to bring not only sympathy for clementine and analea, but perhaps someone you know irl (i thought a lot about anthony bourdain reading this bc of the cooking theme and his traveling - similar to analea).“I am disrespected! Humiliated! I have to see him in the elevators in my building. I’m going to have to look him in the eyes and know that he thinks Dune is the best sci-fi book of all time.”"The kind of guy who would look at the meme phrase 'she breasted boobily to the stairs' and nod and go, Yes, yes, this is indubitably quality literature."there were some great moments of comedic relief. i think the contemporary cultural references might irk some readers but it felt like a wink and a nod for me personally. i thought both clementine and iwan's friends were fun characters to add to the mix.overall, i definitely recommend this if you're looking for a romance read that's mostly fluffy and sweet but can handle a little tart. kind of like a lemon meringue 🍋✨"Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together.""Because the things that mattered most never really left. The love stays. The love always stays, and so do we."

I really enjoyed this book! I’ve always been a sucker for time travel stories, and The Seven Year Slip offered a fresh twist on the genre. The story was unique, and it hooked me right from the start.The characters were a standout for me—their interactions were witty, charming, and just plain fun. Underneath the lightness, though, was a thoughtful and moving story of grief. The emotional depth surprised me in the best way—I could really feel the weight of it through Poston’s writing.If I had one complaint, it’s that I wanted more of the "slip" aspect. The transition back to real life came a little too soon for my taste. I loved the grounded parts of the story, don’t get me wrong—but I craved more time in that magical in-between space.That said, I’ll definitely be picking up more of this authors work. The story moved at a great pace and flowed effortlessly. A heartfelt, fun read that left me wanting just a bit more—in the best way.

I don't even know how to describe the way this book made me feel and has thus impacted my whole week- in the BEST way possible. I am really mad at myself for putting off reading this. I started it and honestly got a little disenfranchised with it- I got distracted. I jumped back in this week determined to get hooked and just wow. I felt such an array of emotions reading this book. I felt awe, happiness, giddiness, grief (so much grief) and saddness but then happiness and inspiration. Having been someone who has lost someone close to me to suicide- I could relate to EVERYTHING that Clementine was feeling. I am not really an underliner or highlighter of books, but I couldn't help myself with this one. The way that Ashley was describing grief and the aftershocks was just too on point for me.I loved everything about this book. I loved both of the main characters. I loved their journeys and how different but alike they were. I liked how they helped each other more than they could admit (at first). I liked the mystical aspect with the magical apartment. I liked the unpredictability. I liked the side characters, but as I said before I loved how this book made me FEEL. I must have told every person I saw this week how much I liked it. I would highly recommend checking out the TW as it does speak heavily of grief and loss specifically around suicide.Clementine is at a low point. Her aunt has just passed away and given her her apartment. The apartment holds soo many memories, and Clementine is having a hard time only focusing on the good ones. She can't help continuing to think about why she has the apartment. The cool thing about this apartment is that at any point, it can travel back in time by 7 years. And what do you know this happens to Clementine. She comes home one day from work, where she is about to land her dream job, to find a man in the kitchen. Not just a man but a handsome man. He is cooking and setup like he owns the place. Come to find out she has gone back in time and this man, Iwan, is her aunt's really good friends son. He is in NY to take a stab at being a chef. She decides to roll with it and has a wonderful night. She finds herself being able to open up to this stranger who knows nothing about what is going on in her life. She finds herself looking forward to tomorrow. They have another great night together and then he is gone. She finds herself sad and wishes they had more time together because she felt something towards him. A connection of sorts.Now that she is back in today's time, her company is working towards nailing down the hottest chef in town because he is coming out with a cookbook. Well it turns out this hot chef happens to be HER Iwan. Except he goes by James and when they see each other, she doesn't know how to act. So she acts like he doesn't know her. They reconnect and she finds herself noticing how different this Iwan is from the one she met 7 years ago. He is more bottled up. Less carefree. She finds herself wondering what happened to him. She wants to dig and in the process finds herself brought back to the past and then back to the present a few times. Her and Iwan have a connection- that she wants him to remember. She wants to remember. She is ready to make some big decisions in her life, and she wants him to be there with her. The question is will he want to do this after everything? Will he support her big decisions?It was really interesting to see the changes in Iwan and how life had affected him. And when he finally opened up to Lemon as he calls her, it was so beautiful. I thought it was cool that even though there was no time difference for Clementine, she truly had an awakening after meeting carefree Iwan. He made her want to do more things and be more. I can't say enough about how much I loved this book!! If you haven't read it- pick it up!! I went ahead and preordered her next release and am hoping it is just as good. The bar has been set LOL.

This book is a chill romance book, but it's not my favorite. I think it's a little too fictional with "time traveling". I need a more realistic book. I never really understood the aunt's house and how sometimes she went back to it; he was there, and other times he wasn't. During the book, you would just randomly be back 7 years ago and we never really know how it ends because she left him to get him a job but then that jumped back in real time. I was confused half of the time. It's sweet in parts but just not my favorite type of storyline.