The Seven Year Slip
By Ashley Poston
Adult Fiction
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston was one of my favorite reads of 2022, so I was hoping for good things from her follow-up. I was not disappointed in this story of time slips and second chances.
Clementine always had a special bond with her artistic Aunt Analea. When the two of them weren’t off exploring the world together, Clementine spent a lot of time at Analea’s magical New York City apartment. Sometimes, one could walk in the door and slip into a moment seven years in the past, but Analea always warned Clementine never to fall in love there. Analea’s own apartment romance had ended in heartbreak when she’d found her partner years older and much-changed.
Clementine is still grieving her aunt’s untimely death when she inherits the apartment. She remembers the advice, but it proves hard to follow when she wakes up to find Iwan in her kitchen one morning. He is handsome and funny and full of plans for his future. The chemistry between the two of them is undeniable, but the timing is all wrong. Iwan lives seven years in the past and is subleasing Analea’s apartment for the summer during one of Analea and Clementine’s European tours. Things don’t get any simpler when Clementine bumps into the Iwan from her own time in the outside world. He seems like a completely different man.
Like its predecessor, this book uses fantastical elements to create an emotional story about the power of both familial and romantic love. I recommend it to contemporary romance readers who don’t mind mixing in the wondrous and weird with their love stories.
Reviewed by Lynn Heitkamp
Zauel Library
