There was something just so reassuring about books. They had beginning and middles and ends, and if you didn’t like a part you could skip to the next chapter. If someone died you could stop on the last page before, and they’d live on forever. Happy endings were definite, evils defeated, and the good lasted forever.
The Seven Year Slip is a magical book about timing, grief and taking risks in love and life.
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 safe: stay busy, 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.
I’m in love with The Seven Year Slip. This magical book found me right when I needed it. This is a time-traveling romance that deals with love and that whole idea about meeting the right person for you at the wrong time. Clementine inherits her aunt’s apartment after her death. Still reeling from her favourite person’s death, Clementine struggles to live in the place that once meant so much to her and is filled with so many memories, but never again her aunt.
Her aunt told her that the apartment was magic, so imagine her surprise when one day she finds someone else in her house. Clementine realizes that time does travel in the apartment, and this man actually stayed in her aunt’s place seven years ago while her aunt traveled with Clementine. So Clementine didn’t meet him then, but now she’s meeting him. Iwan is a delightful man who had just moved to New York and was establishing himself as a cook. He has a lot of dreams and ideas and woos Clementine with delicious food.
The only problem – Clementine remeets Iwan in her own time, and he’s not the same. Can they be together? Does Clementine even like who he is now? Is it the right time? Reader – you will fall in love with Clementine and Iwan. They are funny and smart and ambitious and modern and you will be rooting for them from the first time they cross paths in the past. They have a swoony and gorgeous love. Tucked in the privacy of the magic apartment they are incredible together. Warning – there is a lot of food descriptions in this book because Iwan is a chef.
I really loved this book. It is funny and charming and magical. It’s also serious and has some substance to it – it deals with suicide and death and the people left behind. Ashley tackles grief realistically and somehow also makes a magic, time-traveling apartment feel as if it makes sense. The magical element is a unique part of the story, but doesn’t overshadow the rest of the plot.
The Seven Year Slip needs to be on your to be read list this summer, best read with some lemon pie.
Thank you to Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
