Book Review: ‘The Seven Year Slip’ by Ashley Poston (magical realism, romance and fate)
Reading ‘The Dead Romantics’ last summer was a highlight of my failed attempt to read 30 books in 30 days last summer and it’s stuck with me so firmly that I pre-ordered the paperback and snagged a NetGalley proof of Ashley Poston’s new magical realism romance, ‘The Seven Year Slip’, as soon as I physically could.
Just like ‘The Dead Romantics’, it was a swoon-worthy treat.
Here’s the deal:
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 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.
Six months ago, Clementine West had the worst day of her life. So, she came up with a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, take no risks. And it’s been working.
That is until one day she finds a strange man standing in her kitchen. A man with kind eyes, a crooked smile, and a recipe for the perfect lemon meringue pie. The kind of man that, before everything, she could have fallen for . . .
He’s perfect but for one thing: he lives in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact.
This should be impossible, but Clementine used to love impossible things. And maybe, just maybe, she will again. After all, love is never a matter of time – but a matter of timing.
Ashley Poston does the most wonderful job of blending genres and striking the right balance between magical realism and romance to not only tell the best story possible, but also to make sure fans of either genre can meet in the middle with this book.
I was a little worried at first that it wasn’t quite going to work for me because of the mixing of the ways those things were melded and I think I struggled with projecting how this love story in a time slip could work without the characters getting too sad or too tangled (trauma response to reading ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ too young, anybody?), but then I looked up, realised I’d already devoured 20% of the book and it was nearly 1am on a work night… Safe to say, it wasn’t an issue in Poston’s capable hands…pen? typing?
Just like in ‘The Dead Romantics’, ‘The Seven Year Slip’ really explored grief and loss with Clementine having lost her beloved aunt six months before we meet her. The apartment she is left has a little bit of magic in it, spontaneously transporting it’s residents to seven years in the past whenever it fancies. Since her aunt died, Clementine has just…stopped. She no longer feels the urge to create or to travel or to advance her career, she’s stuck in a whirl of grief. That time jump aspect really highlights the non-linear aspect of grief - you never know where and when it’s going to hit you over the head with too many feelings. There’s a moment towards the end where the “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff” made me cry and I wasn’t expecting that to happen at all. It was a moment that I only wish everyone who has lost someone could experience in the real world. Anyway. Before I start crying again…
I really don’t want to say much more about Clementine’s relationship with her aunt, the apartment and the man she meets there as it’s so special to experience it for yourself, but I hope that taunted you into picking it up.
Something else that’s starting to become a pattern in Poston’s novels is books and publishing and I am here. for it. Especially if it means we get a surprise cameo from the one and only Benji Condor like we did here. Most book people love it when books are in books and I’m no exception to that. Clementine lives in NYC and works at a small non-fiction publisher with her two best friends, one of which is vying for a book from an upcoming chef who’s opening a restaurant of his own - but what does that have to do with Clemntine’s love story? Well….
‘The Seven Year Slip’ is a funny, romantic, and touching look at love, loss and trusting in yourself to go after what you want. I already can’t wait for another novel from Ashley Poston.
‘The Seven year Slip’ is release in paperback in the UK today, 7 July 2023, by HQ.
If you want to grab a copy for yourself, using our bookshop.org affiliate link below will help us out and support independent bookshops, without costing you anything extra.
Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for the review copy.
Written by Sophie
