From the publisher:
A New York Public Library Best Book of 2023
https://amzn.to/3u3FeHZ
A Most Anticipated Book by Entertainment Weekly ∙ Harper’s Bazaar ∙ PopSugar ∙ 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 safe: 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.
This was one of those books that I somehow overlooked last year, so when it showed up on some of the best books of the year lists, I dug around and found it on my Kindle. And here we are!
This is the sort of book I love - a good romance set in the publishing industry, with a touch of magic, or in this case, time travel. That is as close to sci-fi/fantasy as I usually get, and Poston does a bang-up job with it.
Clementine has inherited her beloved aunt’s apartment in New York City. Her aunt had always said there was something magical about the place, but it wasn’t until she found a good-looking man in her home that she started to suspect her aunt wasn’t lying. Iwan introduces himself and says he is subletting the apartment for the summer. But it isn’t this summer; it was a summer seven years earlier. A tiny bit confusing, at least for Clementine!
Her aunt had two rules:
1. Take off your shoes when you enter
2. Don’t fall in love in the apartment
Clementine starts to understand that second rule as they get to know one another. Strong feelings develop, but she never knows if Iwan will be in the apartment when she returns until she gets there. Then time shifts again to the present day, and Iwan is now an award-winning chef set to take Manhattan by storm in a new restaurant of his own. Clementine works for the publisher who is desperate to get his cookbook, sure to be a bestseller, but it seems like their past may get in the way.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, with interesting, well-developed characters and a plot line so good it should win over everyone. Highly recommend!
2/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP by Ashley Poston. Berkley (June 27, 2023). ISBN: 978-0593336502. 352p.