The Seven Year Slip
Reviews
This book was so special and that surprised me. It was so much more than just a love story. It took me a while to get there but once the pieces came together I realized it was a journey through the complex grief of losing someone who was a bright spot in your world to the darkness in theirs. Stories like this are important and need to be told.
Rarely do I enjoy magical realism, but in this instance I was a fan. I loved how it framed Clementine and Iwan’s story, adding tension and depth to their emotions. Combined Clementine’s characterization of Analea the magic and whimsy of the apartment felt perfectly reasonable to me.
This was a highly emotional, but overall uplifting read. I recommend it to those in mood to not just laugh and cry, but to wonder quietly about the paths that their life has taken.
idk man. this shit is boring so i DNFed. also, i get vehement shakes at the thought of the main characters' names.
clementine? it would be a good name if she was like a goat or if this was set in the 40s. like her nickname is probably clem. which rhymes with phleghm. omg i would've bullied her ass in school. and don't get me started on iwan. iwan-t nothing to do with this boring ass man. and every time i keep picturing him as gary walsh from veep.
Wow… my feelings are still fresh because I literally just finished it. This was beautiful and truly magical. It’s a gateway that will always make me pick up Ashley Poston books from now on. The romance here was warm and hugged me like a blanket. I never wanted so much for the characters, and I’m just happy they’re all in the places they deserve.
Can’t say anything more or I will cry!!! READ THIS NOW <3
Enjoyed the last 1/3 of the book!! Sweet message
i love the writing so so much (the book is HEAVILY annotated by me for sure). it has magical realism yet the plot seems realistic for me: the way the main characters solve things & how the story goes toward ending. i had a great experience with this!
This was just okay for me
I feel like the writing was sooo clunky for me and kind of confusing - I don’t feel like the time hopping was well done.
4.5/5⭐️
Well damn, I’m eating my words with this one. It was a really good story. To explain my thought process to my rating. I did figure out the entire plot of the story at 15% so it did go to a 4, but I loved the writing so I went up to a 4.25. But then I listened to the Author’s Note and I never felt so seen after finishing it. So that alone went up to 4.5⭐️. There was a part of me that was apprehensive about the magical realism and while I don’t think I would like the other I did really like one. So yeah, my friends were right and if you were putting this off for whatever reason that you aren’t sure about, take my word for it and pick this book up.
OH MY GOD!! This is how I felt while reading this book! It's perfect. Ashley wrote knowing that it'd be perfect and people would have fallen in love with it, because how can anyone not to?!
While I was reading I put my hands on face wanting to scream at Clementine telling her that Iwan was at that restaurant, wanting her to run to him to tell him how much she loved him!
The two songs I felt that would be perfect for this book of they turn it into movie are "wings" and "close to you" like this song would be in the head of Iwan when he thinks of Lemon "l burn for you & you don't even know my name"
Thanks to everyone on TikTok who recommended this book. Thanks Ashley for writing this book so miraculously perfect!
i loved everything about this book. at first i was a bit confused with the concept but as i read further i realised how painful but wonderful the story was.
and all i can think about are these seven quotes from the book:
“I kept him at arm’s length because at least there he wouldn’t be able to see how broken I was. I could keep lying. I could keep pretending I was fine—because I was fine. I had to be. I didn’t like people worrying about me when they had so many other things to worry about. That was my allure, right? That you didn’t need to worry about Clementine West. She always figured it out.”
“Find fulfilling work, fall in love, and chase the moon.”
“Food is a work of art. That’s what a perfect meal is—something that you don’t just eat, but something you enjoy. With friends, and family—maybe even with strangers. It’s an experience. You taste it, you savor it, you feel the story told through the intricate flavors that play out across your tongue . . . it’s magical. Romantic.”
“There was something just so reassuring about books. They had beginnings and middles and ends, and if you didn’t like a part, you could skip to the next chapter. If someone died, you could stop on the last page before, and they’d live on forever. Happy endings were definite, evils defeated, and the good lasted forever.“
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
“Change isn’t always bad, Clementine”
“I think,” he finally said, choosing his words carefully, “that nothing lasts forever. Not the good things, not the bad. So just find what makes you happy, and do it for as long as you can”
um livro que me fez sentir uma mulher solteira e 30 anos (li em um fds muito bom parabéns)
first book of the year did not disappoint! super quick, cute read. any free time I had went towards this book which felt amazing since I fell into the worst reading slump of my life last year. perfect book to get you out of a slump!
If you need a good cry, this one feels like a hug.
book so good it got me out of my reading slump, i was seated
wow. this book is so beautifully written. i am so obsessed with the word choice and style and i will be SPRINTING to read more of poston’s books. not only was the wording beautiful, but the way she writes about grief and happiness is just so real. being in my late 20s, recently laid off and struggling with grief this book was like wow. yeah just so well written, and felt very authentic to those emotions of grief and just overall feeling lost in life.
im glad the magic wasnt explained. normally magic in realistic roms is weird and i hate it. but i enjoyed it and loved that the message was just tied to the theme of staying true to yourself. ugh the rom aspect was also great. idk everything was just so good. this is def my favorite book ive read this year.
the love stays. it always does.
(lovely n charming)
This made my heart warm and also tear in two
My second ever 5 star book
light read. one of the book that can make me feel the romcom vibes <3
!!!!!!
I really didn‘t expect to enjoy this so much! Made me feel all warm and fuzzy
Ashley Poston needed a thesaurus
I would give this infinite stars if I could. It was beautiful and incredibly creative. I loved every second of it and the ending made my heart feel so full
Absolutely loved this one. Poston did a wonderful job taking such a unique idea and making it the perfect mix of funny, sweet, serious, sad, and touching.
I absolutely loved the concept of this book. It was such a unique, new idea!! Great writing and character development! I absolutely loved Iwan. A+!
Highlights
“I didn’t find out who I wanted to be until I was almost forty. You have to try on a lot of shoes until you find some you like walking in..."
“You could never be a bad idea, Lemon.”
You never commit a mundane moment to memory, thinking it’ll be the last time you hear their voice or see their smile or smell their perfume. Your head never remembers the thing your heart wants to in hindsight
I think,” he finally said, choosing his words carefully, “that nothing lasts forever. Not the good things, not the bad. So just find what makes you happy, and do it for as long as you can
Change isn’t always bad, Clementine
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
There was something just so reassuring about books. They had beginnings and middles and ends, and if you didn’t like a part, you could skip to the next chapter. If someone died, you could stop on the last page before, and they’d live on forever. Happy endings were definite, evils defeated, and the good lasted forever.
Food is a work of art. That’s what a perfect meal is—something that you don’t just eat, but something you enjoy. With friends, and family—maybe even with strangers. It’s an experience. You taste it, you savor it, you feel the story told through the intricate flavors that play out across your tongue . . . it’s magical. Romantic.
Find fulfilling work, fall in love, and chase the moon.
I kept him at arm’s length because at least there he wouldn’t be able to see how broken I was. I could keep lying. I could keep pretending I was fine—because I was fine. I had to be. I didn’t like people worrying about me when they had so many other things to worry about. That was my allure, right? That you didn’t need to worry about Clementine West. She always figured it out.
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.
I didn’t need to be fixed. I needed… to be reminded that I was human
You are who you are, and you are what you like he replied and there was no sarcasm in his voice. You are you, and that’s a lovely person to be
she also said to keep your passport renewed, to pair red wines with meats and whites with everything else, to find work that is fulfilling to your heart as well as your head, to never forget to fall in love whenever you can find it because love is nothing if not a matter of timing, and to chase the moon
Because his favorite color was the same as mine.
Because the things that mattered most never really left. The love stays. The love always stays, and so do we.
i love this so so much 🥹
There was never grief without love or love without grief, and I chose to think that my aunt lived because of them. Because of all the light and love and joy that she found in the shadows of everything that plagued her. She lived because she loved, and she lived because she was loved, and what a lovely lifetime she gave us.
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. I hated her for leaving, and I loved her for staying as long as she could.
🥹
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. Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together.
For shaving off parts of myself, over and over again, to squeeze into the expectations I thought I needed to set for myself.
hits too close to home 🥹
...because if l'd learned anything about living in a time-traveling apartmnent, no matter how much time you get, it's still never enough. And I wanted to start living my life like I was enjoying every moment that I had it.
I ruined a lot of things, it seemed, while I tried to be something permanent.
absolutely not kidding when i say clem is me & i am clem
Like I wasn't merely some girl to kiss and remember fondly in ten years, but someone to be kissed in ten years.
the fact that he waited for 7 years... 🥹
It ached for something warm. For something good. For something that maybe, just maybe, could stay. A smile and a bittersweet story over lemon pie.
clem u are just like me 😞