The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston (Review by Shay Tibbs)

5 stars

As a long-time Ashley Poston fan, I was thrilled to read her debut adult romance last year, The Dead Romantics, and after loving it, I was even more excited to read this book, THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP.

I fell in love with this title from the start, as our main character Clementine’s aunt gives us some wisdom to live by – from fooling everyone until you fit in, to always keeping your passport renewed, loving the work you do for your heart AND mind, and encouraging us to chase the moon. With this advice, I knew Poston was going to take us on a heartfelt journey, and I could not wait to get swept up in the magic realism of this second-chance romance that with every page had me wanting more.

Poston manages to perfectly balance grief and love in her writing, and this story promised to have it all with a fun NYC apartment setting as Clementine tries to move on from her aunt’s passing in her old apartment that keeps its own secrets. While excelling at work as a book publicist, Clementine’s friends who also work in the publishing industry keep her well-fed at trendy restaurants in the area as they search for their next big it book but she begins to wonder if it’s what she wants. As the pressure from work grows and the loss of her aunt weighs on her heart, Clementine one day opens the door to her apartment, suddenly transported seven years into the past, and finds a handsome stranger staying there as well.

I was swept up in the magic of the relationship between Lemon + Iwan, in the past and present immediately. While the book focuses on the present primarily, the way the characters would slip back in time was written so seamlessly and beautifully, it had me hopeful that their unlikely adventure would end in a happily ever after during every moment. (Aren’t the best romances the ones that grab your heart and make you think they may NOT end up together, even though by definition the romance read demands we get a HEA?!) Full of romance and what ifs, and a theme around timing that made the impossible, seem possible.

After meeting Iwan in the past, the present Clementine wonders where he is now, why he’s never found her, how their paths have never again crossed, and I felt like their discovery of one another in the now was one of the most meaningful, swoony moments I’ve ever read. The small details that come together to point them back towards each other had me melting, and I would be happy with all the Ashley Poston adult romances forever, if they keep being as good as this one. In finding each other in the present, I feel like they truly find themselves as well, and to me was so inspiring, after all, “it’s never a matter of time, but a matter of timing.”