This was my first Ashley Poston read, and I was pleasantly surprised by the slightly confusing, definitely satisfying relationship between Clementine, Iwan, and the seven-years-past version of himself.

In The Seven Year Slip Clementine “Lemon” West inherits her late aunt’s magic apartment, which occasionally throws her without warning into the past by seven years. While the world outside the apartment continues on, Clementine meets southern boy, wannabe-chef Iwan “James”, who is staying in her aunt’s apartment for the summer… seven years ago. While battling for Iwan’s attention and professional business in the modern day, Clementine feels herself slowly falling for the past version of him who keeps appearing in her apartment. Dealing with the grief of her aunt’s death proves to be even more difficult for Clementine, as she keeps slipping back into the past and discovering why her aunt always warned her to never fall in love in apartment B4.

The pros: As I always say, I loved the banter. I felt like the dialogue between modern-day Clementine and James was flirty and fun, and yet it did not take anything away from the differently flirtatious interactions between Lemon and past Iwan. The writing was easy to follow, and I appreciated the portrayal of different types of relationships as well as some of the details surrounding Clementine’s grief.

Too often, I do get bored of reading rom-com fiction where the leading lady self-sabotages before having a realization about her personal issues, leading her back into the arms of her lover. I liked seeing a more accurate description of what grief can do to a person’s mental state, and Clementine’s commentary about how people change over time was refreshing.

The cons: I don’t have many negative comments about this one, which is usually not the case when I try new authors. I did feel that the pacing took a while to get used to, and along the same lines, I would have liked to see more of the scenes with Lemon and Iwan inside the apartment. The development of their relationship felt pretty fast, but it did make a captivating read.

I would also have liked to see more involvement from Vera, since her character created such a small but unique plot circle. I felt that the description of Clementine’s aunt was really vivid and therefore could’ve been brought full-circle really well with some further involvement from Vera’s character in the present day.

Like with most romantic fiction, my final thoughts were that this was a cute read, but it had just enough plot line confusion to keep you interested. The character development veered slightly away from the predictable and typical rom-com tropes, which I appreciated, and I am happy to have discovered another author to love. I will be definitely be trying Ashley Poston again.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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