The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston is a wisely charming novel exploring Love and passion, and their inevitable partners in life, loss and grief. Read our review.

The Seven Year Slip Book Synopsis

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 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.

Six months ago, Clementine West had the worst day of her life. So, she came up with a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, take no risks. And it’s been working.

That is until one day she finds a strange man standing in her kitchen. A man with kind eyes, a crooked smile, and a recipe for the perfect lemon meringue pie. The kind of man that, before everything, she could have fallen for . . . 

He’s perfect but for one thing: he lives in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact.

This should be impossible, but Clementine used to love impossible things. And maybe, just maybe, she will again. After all, love is never a matter of time – but a matter of timing.

(Harper Collins, August 2023)

Genre: Romance, Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction

Book Review

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.

“That was love, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just a quick drop — it was falling, over and over again, for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn’t something you could plan for.” 

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.

“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…”

For those who might be 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.

Related Reading: Contemporary romantic reads involving time travel

“I loved how a book, a story, a set of words in a sentence organized in the exact right order, made you miss places you’ve never visited, and people you’ve never met.” 

Ashley Poston’s The Seven Year Slip is a highly compelling and charming novel about love and loss, and passion regained.

My Rating: Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 4 / 5

Get your copy of The Seven Year Slip from:

More The Seven Year Slip reviews

“Ashley Poston has again created a world that is off-kilter, romantic, and irresistible. If you love The Lake House but also want some top notch make out scenes, this is the book for you.”
—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow

“An easily flowing and often unpredictable romance. The magical element adds a cool twist on the gradually building central relationship and Poston’s depictions of grief ring especially true and are sure to tug at readers’ heartstrings. This is an emotional delight.” — Publishers Weekly

“Warm, funny and heartbreakingly hopeful, The Seven Year Slip is a magical love story, a devastating portrait of grief, and a loving ode to what it means to grow, evolve and blossom.”
—Sangu Mandanna, bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

About the Author, Ashley Poston

Ashley Poston loves dread pirates, moving castles, and starry night skies. When not lost in a book, she’s lost in real life, searching for her next great adventure. She is the author of Heart of Iron and its sequel, Soul of Stars, the Once Upon a Con series, novels The Dead Romantics and now The Seven Year Slip. She can be found online at www.ashposton.com.

More books by Ashley Poston: