The Seven Year Slip

In this heartfelt romance, overworked Clementine inherits her aunt’s magical New York City apartment — a place with a strange fold in time that allows people from different eras to occasionally cross paths. Inside those enchanted walls, she falls deeply in love with a young man who exists seven years in the past, back when her aunt was still alive.

The setting feels whimsical, the writing is charming, the characters are unforgettable, and the romance is genuinely beautiful. I wasn’t expecting this story to pull me in so completely, but it did.

This is not just a romantic comedy. Ashley Poston weaved in weightier themes such as grief and work contentment. In the hands of other authors, it could become pretentious, but this didn't. What brings you joy at work? Is it about achieving and climbing the ladder, or doing something you enjoy? Lemon was at the brink of promotion to the job she coveted but she realised her job wasn't bringing her joy anymore. Iwan was doing something he liked but the restaurant he built was nothing like what he had described to Lemon before he became a top chef. How do you find yourself again?

Clementine works as a book publicist, dealing with long hours and the difficulties of authors on tour, single-mindedly focused on one day heading up her department. Who has time for anything else? She and her boyfriend break up when she cancels one too many dates, claiming she has to deal with a work emergency. She didn't love him anyway, and after a few months the relationship had run its course.

What's really going on with her, though, is that Clementine's aunt Analea died recently -- the aunt she adored, who whisked her all over the world. They loved each other extravagantly, Clementine and Analea, and Clementine only has her aunt's apartment left. She almost reluctantly moves into the apartment, trying to make it her own, but it show more seems as unhappy a place as it's possible to be these days.

So imagine Clementine's surprise when she returns to the apartment one night to find a man there, younger than herself, someone her aunt offered the apartment to rent free while he finds his way in the New York culinary world. Only the summer for which she offered the apartment was seven years ago, and Iwan -- that handsome young man -- is five years younger than she is, just setting foot in New York after finishing up at the Culinary Institute and looking for a job as a dishwasher at a highly-rated restaurant as a way to get his foot in the door.

Clementine and Iwan have immediate chemistry, but Clementine remembers her aunt telling her about the time slip and how it was never a good idea to fall in love in that apartment. And then things get worse: Clementine meets Iwan in the present day, and he seems to very different from the young, vital, exciting Iwan in the apartment. How will this resolve?

The Seven Year Slip is a delightful book, one easy to get lost in as an evening wears on. I loved every minute of it, even though I'm not usually a contemporary romance sort of gal (Regency romance being my preferred flavor). Even better than the excellent plot and the lovely language, though, is the deep thinking that Clementine finds herself entertaining as the days go by. What is love, really, and how do we go on loving someone over the course of years? How does one let go of a dream about one's career? How does one go about being happy?

It's all so very well done that I will immediately dive into Poston's first novel, The Dead Romantics, which I missed when it first came out a couple of years ago -- and I'm already looking forward to what she'll publish in 2024. This is a fine author to add to your must-read list, I think, even though I'm going on the basis on a single novel -- she's just such a fine writer. show less

Reread July 2025
This book hits different after losing my mom. Just as heartbreaking and emotionally impactful. I love Iwan and Clementine just as much as I did the first time around and I remember why this has left such a deep impact on me.

“Sometimes the people you loved left you halfway through a story. Sometimes they left you without a goodbye. And, sometimes, they stayed around in little ways. In the memory of a musical. In the smell of their perfume. In the sound of the rain, and the itch for adventure, and the yearning for that liminal space between one airport terminal and the next.

Original review Jan 2024
Wow…. What an incredible story and journey Ashley Poston just took me on.

“Let’s go chase the moon, my darling show more Clementine.”

This was a beautiful, intriguing, heart wrenching, romantic book that travels through time to tell a story of love, grief and finding yourself even when you think you have it all figured out.

“You can just dance, Lemon. You can take the lead.”
“And you’ll follow?”
“To the moon and back,”

Her entire life, Clementine’s aunt told her how wonderful and magical her apartment was. Not just figuratively… but literally.

“My aunt only ever had two rules for this apartment. First rule, always take your shoes off by the door. Second, never fall in love.”

And one day, when Clementine wakes up to find a man, that she’s never met before, in her apartment she finds out just how magical the apartment really is.

“I told him a strange story, about a place between places that bled like watercolors. A place that felt, sometimes, like it had a mind of its own.”

I was taken on a journey with this book and somewhere between the past and present, I fell in love.

I loved Clementine and Iwan. I had so many guesses on how this story would go and some of them turned out how I had hoped they would… but I wasn’t expecting to feel the emotions within myself so deeply. Their story sunk its claws into me and wouldn’t let go.

I loved how food and the power it has in our lives was described. It isn’t just something to nourish your body but something to experience with the ones you love. The memories you associate with food even when it’s something as simple as a PB&J. It’s those memories, the feelings, the people that make the perfect meal.

“It all comes full circle,” he replied, the edges of his mouth twisting up in a smile. “Universal truths in butter. Secrets folded into the dough. Poetry in the spices. Romance in a chocolate. Love in a lemon pie.”

Even an hour later, I’m feeling so emotional over this book. I read it as a rec from my friend and oh man… I’m happy I did.

I don’t even know what I could possibly say to convey just how beautiful this book was. How eloquently it was written. How it felt like a love letter to my soul. But it was perfect.

And finally, I feel compelled to thank Ashley for the authors note. She opened up about something deeply personal to her and as a person who has experienced a similar loss, I appreciate the vulnerability it took to share something so personal. I know it would have been difficult for me to do the same ♡ show less

[4.5] this book was like pinterest board come to life, ashley poston's descriptions of the apartment, the characters, their feelings was INSANE, i could literally picture everything so clearly. i want to be friends with all of them, i want to read iwan's potential future memoir, i want to see clementine's paintings and i definitely want to live in the apartment. the concept of time and meeting each other without knowing was also GENIUS and done so well, i will definitely be back for a reread (after making said pinterest board).

This was a delight, a perfect blend of time-travel fantasy and romance. I think what I liked most was how the time slip aspect of the story kept Clementine and Iwan connected across the years, even when they were different versions of themselves at different stages of their lives. It wasn’t used as a gimmick or a trope but as a way to show how deep their bond truly was. There was also an element of grief in it that was sensitively handled and to me it made Clementine a more relatable character. Since I definitely plan to read more from this author it was nice to see she has several other books out to choose from.

Ashley Poston’s The Seven Year Slip has more gravitas than your average rom-com. In fact for me, rather than laughing out loud, I was charmed by the delicious banter between Clementine and her friends, but especially her love interest. And yes, that banter often involves food but this engaging romance novel could be described as mouth-watering in other ways too.

But back to the gravitas… The Seven Year Slip is just as much about the highs in life as the lows, and how one does not exist without the other. Poston has wrapped up in a highly compelling storyline, a poignant and layered consideration of passion versus obligation, the tension between love and hate, and navigating grief from unexpected departures.

For those who might be show more put-off by the time slip dimension… don’t be. This is merely a tool Poston employs to expand on the adage, “right person, wrong time”. Is it an air-tight construct? Not really, but that did not bother me because the focus of this story is not ‘science fiction’. Quite the opposite in fact. It is a deeply human story, with Poston (and her artistic and bookish lead character) seeing and painting the messy wonder of life in its full-colour spectrum. Continue reading: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2023/10/ashley-poston-the-seven-year-slip-b... show less