I loved this story about Clementine, a frazzled publicist, who is grieving her Aunt Analea's death. Analea left her unique apartment to Clementine - the apartment has a secret. It also has 2 rules, 1. remove your shoes, 2. don't fall in love in the apartment. After an evening out with her friends, Clementine heads to the apartment to find a young man, Iwan, there. He says her aunt allowed him to sublet it. Clementine knows her aunt died 6 mos. earlier, then she realizes that it is actually 7 years earlier! She and Iwan almost instantly mesh, he calls her Lemon. They tell each other about themselves and fall in love. But, when she leaves the apt., Iwan is gone when she returns. In the present day, they meet again. He is now the famous chef, James Ashton, and has changed dramatically. Are they able to make it work when they live in the same time? Love, grief, and being true to oneself-are all in this beautiful story. ( )

Clementine has inherited her beloved aunt’s NYC apartment, and as she unpacks her boxes and tries to figure out how to come to terms with her grief, she soon finds herself also trying to remember – and life by – the two rules her aunt set down for her about the apartment (which, by the way, if magical): 1) Always take your shoes off, and 2) Never fall in love with whomever you may find when you walk in the door. It only takes a few days before Clementine needs to put Rule #2 into practice, when she comes home to find a strange man in her apartment and quickly realizes that the magic has happened to her: the apartment transported her back in time 7 years. Can she keep herself from falling in love with a man she knows she’ll lose again very soon, and if he loves her, then why hasn’t he tried to find her in the present? And would he be the same person?

A sweet little romance with a neat premise. No real depths here, but the story is fun and decently written. If you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this. ( )

This had me smilling to myself like a fool. ( )

Clementine has inherited her aunt Analea's apartment after her unexpected death. It was a magical place when she was a girl, made more so by a vivacious aunt to who loved to take her travelling, inspired her painting and told her about the magic in the apartment. One day, a young man turns up in the apartment to stay for part of the summer, his mom being an old friend of Analea's. Clementine notices the furniture and the fun begins as Iwan continues to show up seven years in the past. There are pigeons, lots of good food as Iwan starts his journey to becoming a chef and book talk from Clementine's job as a book publicist. It was good and a lot more emotional than I thought it may be moving from the past to the present day of Clementine's life, where she is grieving her aunt and at a crossroads with work. ( )

What makes this truly a fantasy novel? A fantastic rent-free apartment in NYC! This modern magical realism romance is filled with love of art, travel, books, and food, set alongside a messy on-the-cusp-of-thirty career crisis. Clementine has inherited a magical apartment from her beloved aunt and travel companion. Occasionally, when she enters the apartment, instead of her unpacked boxes, her aunt’s peacock chair is back in it’s corner, and the apartment has slipped seven years into the past. One day when Clementine comes home, there’s a handsome, tattooed, stranger there, the son of her aunt’s friend who was granted use of the apartment while Analea is in Europe with her niece. A dishwasher and aspiring chef who wants to make memories with food in a warm, cozy restaurant of his own one day, Iwan charms Clementine with pie and nickname for her (both lemon).

In the present timeline, Clementine is now a book publicist, potentially up for a promotion that will alter her life–or possibly leave her with NO life apart from her work. She discovers that the celebrity chef author her imprint is trying to acquire is none other than Iwan, but he is greatly greatly changed, going by James and making fussy food that is nearly impossible for home cooks to recreate. James creates a cooking challenge to help narrow down his choice of publishers, and they reconnect. He’s hurt from their relationship, but his past hurt is not in Clementine’s timeline yet, and their reconciliation is delicate as a mereguine.

In addition to the past/present timeline, the mystery shrouding Aunt Analea’s death and the relationship she had that could not withstand a literal test of time is brilliantly juxtaposed with the burgeoning relationship between Clementine and Iwan. Supporting characters are diverse and richly constructed. The narrative is witty, lusciously detailed, warm, raw, honest and unputdownable. I read it TWICE. Truly, every word Ashley Poston writes is luminous. Like The Dead Romantics, The Seven Year Slip involves supernatural elements and lots of poignant longing; the appearance from the protagonists from The Dead Romantics is icing on the cake–or the whipped cream topping a slice of pie.

I received a free, advance reader’s review copy of #TheSevenYearSlip from #NetGalley.

https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/2023/05/29/the-seven-year-slip-by-ashley-posto... ( )