The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

33.3k reviews for:

The Seven Year Slip

Ashley Poston

4.27 AVERAGE

asialitreads's profile picture

asialitreads's review against another edition

4.0
3.75 ⭐️

**** Possible Spoilers****

I enjoyed this book overall, although some elements didn't meet my expectations. Ashley Poston's writing is beautiful and had a strong impact on me. She created an engaging story despite some areas I wasn't fully engaged in.

The romance developed too quickly IMO. There just wasn't enough build-up for Clementine and Iwan to fully connect so early. I questioned why they were falling for each other. It felt rushed with no emotional foundation to root for them. As the story progressed, they both began to grow on me.

The idea that Clementine, given the chance to go back to a period (7 years back) when her beloved aunt is still alive, wouldn’t make every effort to reconnect with her is a tough pill to swallow, especially since the author has shown how much Clementine is grieving. I find it hard to believe that she wouldn’t prioritize contacting her aunt, given how real her grief seems. This left me feeling a bit unsatisfied but I'm also not sure how the story would've benefited if she did contact her aunt. If it were me, my focus would be on contacting my loved one after I established the handsome stranger is indeed not a murderer.

Despite a few frustrations, I enjoyed this book, especially the writing and humor. Poston's ability to weave in humor and time travel while exploring deep emotions such as grief elevated the reading experience. I would love to read more from this author.

loz98's review against another edition

4.5
emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
This book hit on a lot of reality in trying to find yourself as an adult. Wine being incredibly corny I loved the characters and the plot. It was a refreshing plot for a romance novel and I very much enjoyed the story. 

mariannamignani's review against another edition

3.0
emotional funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Overall, I did have a decent time with this. It was very readable and the chemistry between the characters was good. However, I had a few issues with it as well. First of all, the romance, even though individual moments were good, felt undercooked. They only spend a few days together in the past, not really enough for him to be obsessed with her for years. Moreover, he's immediately really nice to her, a real manic pixie dream boy, which gives the idea that that's just who he is as a person. It explains why she would like him, but not why he would be so in love with her he'd still be thinking about her 7 years later. She's not unlikeable (her internal voice is a bit grating to me but as a character, she's not as unremarkable or flat as others I've read), but there's no sense of why she'd be the one, right person for him. I got the chemistry, but not the love part. The author should have spent more time on developing it, especially to justify love persisting for the seven year gap in time. At the same time, although I get why the main character would like him a lot, it's not made clear enough why he's THE person for her; why she would fall in love with him after "failing" to fall in love before. Moreover, she says at the end that she chooses the older version of him to the younger one from the past as if that were an important character development, but it does not translate in practice because she does actually spend more time with the past version and I don't get a sense of her knowing and having reasons to like the older version of him more (apart from the fact that he is in the present, obviously, but the author is trying to make that it is about accepting change as well). This theme of her never having fallen in love generally feels like it was thrown in there casually for no other reason than to make their relationship/love special. There's no reason given for that, and she falls in love with him quickly and easily. This could have been fine if better handled. In general, a problem I had with this book was that the author had in mind some interesting themes, which unfortunately she might have lacked the skills to execute well in writing. They felt forced and shoehorned in the narrative and not integrated well into the characters' development, in my opinion. As she mentioned that she has experience with the type of grief described in the story, I am sure that she comes from a good place in including it in the book, and I definitely don't want to minimise her experience, but unfortunately it does come across as a superficial treatment of the matter if you don't know the context. I must, thus, infer that it's the writing and plotting that do it a disservice. It might have helped if she hadn't tried to juggle several different themes at once, and the story might have benefitted from focusing one only one. Importantly as well, the handling of the time travel element didn't feel well developed, ultimately. It was indeed engaging and a nice dramatic device for a love story; however, maybe the author did not know how to resolve it in a way that would justify him not finding her for 7 years? Fair enough, it does sound hard to do. Yet, it comes across a bit messy—I do sort of get what she's saying (they are at different stages etc.), but it feels forced. When they meet in the present he seems upset at first, but to explain why he rejected working with her he says that he thought she didn't want them to? It's unclear what he knows, thinks, or wants (was he waiting for her to meet him in the past to reunite or not?), and his motivations and following reactions come across as contradictory and ultimately unclear. The resolution seems at odds with had happened thus far and what it implied (had something happened in the past for him that explained any of this, did one of them hurt the other?). She might have wanted to stick to something simpler: for example, the main ch racter never returns to the past before meeting him in the present, and he never knows about the time travelling, so he is upset that she effectively ghosted him. Finally, I do admit that I found a lot of the internal monologue and some decisions in the story a bit eyeroll-y. In conclusion, I wished more from it but I had a good time, and individual moments between the couple were effective.
ftmc's profile picture

ftmc's review against another edition

4.0
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

alice06123's review against another edition

4.5
fast-paced

shabsough's review against another edition

4.0
The idea of the book is brilliant and unique, i loved it and enjoyed the book.
I think i would have loved it more if they didn't end up together, but that's just me loving realistic endings more than happy ones
ancyyyyy's profile picture

ancyyyyy's review against another edition

4.0
emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: Yes
“I have dreamed of this for years, I dreamed so much of you.” 😭🥰😍❤️
-Iwan

mooshareads's review against another edition

4.5
adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

phoenixess's review against another edition

4.0
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

julieburdick's review against another edition

5.0
5⭐️’s.. This is not my normal genre but damn this book was so good!! I wasn’t expecting the depth and feel-good vibes this book brought but I soaked up every second of it..

I loved the fantasy aspect of an apartment randomly switching to seven years in the past. it was an enjoyable twist and I haven’t read anything like it before.

The love story was beyond romantic. It also touched on grief and the process of moving through it to eventually gain acceptance.

My only gripe is the MMC was supposedly waiting 7 years to be reunited with the love of his life but then shuns her?? I really didn’t understand that at all. This man got a tattoo representing her nickname over his heart and he finally sees her again and doesn’t want to work with her, doesn’t want to kiss her.. Make it make sense?!?!

Other than his blip of a personality transplant I still ate this book up. It had me feeling all the feels and I love me a happily ever after. So yes.. Read the damn book!!