Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Seven Days in June

Thank you Tia Williams for writing the first book club book I adored.

Seven Days in June is a story about Black love. It was poignant, humorous, and hot all at the same time. In this book, we follow Eva, an erotica writer, who is summoned to speak as a panelist at a book event where she unexpectedly runs into her high school fling? boyfriend? situationship? Shane, from fifteen years ago. As she rediscovers what actually happened between them all those years ago, recognizes that they've actually been writing about and to one another for all these years through their books, learns about the man he has become, and about her family's historical curse, she learns about who she is and how everything fits together.

This book did exactly what it needed to do. Each character was fully fleshed out and individualized. In Eva and Shane's partnership, they became the best versions of themselves for and through each other, without sacrificing their core values. Seven Days in June was indeed a romance, but it was so much bigger than just-another-fluffy-romcom (and I love me a fluffy romcom). In this book we explored the effects of chronic pain, substance abuse, domestic abuse and negligence, trauma, and racism on relationships.

Rumaan Alam got it right when he said, "The result isn't escapism (though the book is a delight) but a vision of life as it truly is: complications and difficulties punctuated by profound joy."

Content Warnings

staceysouldancer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

velorum's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I flew through this: the characters leap right off the page & scream “let me tell you about ME!”

There’s a ton of Internet jargon and pop culture references and slang, there’s generational trauma among a slew of trigger warnings and love and family and culture. There was so MUCH (please heed the trigger warnings) and yet so much silliness and lightness that framed this story. Maybe that speaks to the author’s point of how life can be jarring and full and sad.

I prefer my epilogues to be ADDITIONAL to the story. Here, the epilogue was doing all the work to wrap up loose ends.

This story between Shane and Eva (Genevieve) is melancholy and a rapid, all-consuming love story. It burns and burns out. Their second-chance encounter makes you want to know what the hell happed that week in June 15 years ago, and it all unravels as the story moves on.

I think what made me really upset was Ty’s storyline and around the 78%(??) mark, I just wanted to DNF, and pushed through anyway. His death felt senseless and was a lazy way to develop Shane’s character.

On second note, the last three chapters (epilogue included) were just a RUSH of plot and character development, and not in a good way…

TBC…

Content Warnings

rickireadss's review

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3.0

i went into this one with such high hopes, and i honestly think that was what ruined it for me. i loved the chronic migraines rep. i somewhat tolerated the fact that both mcs were writers - i feel like this is hit or miss with me, but usually a miss. i did not check the CW before reading, and that was definitely my bad, but most of the reviews i had seen on tiktok or insta hadn't mentioned it being a "heavy" book -- this one most defintitely was, and it was much heavier than i could have anticipated. i ended up soft-DNFing this like 50% in and left in untouched for almost a month, but i pushed through hoping it would magically get better (spoiler alert: it did not) this was just not my favorite, and one of my disappointments of the year.

⚠️: self harm, drug abuse, alcoholism, drug use, addiction, chronic illness, suicidal thoughts, mental illness, suicidal attempt, abandonment, gun violence, death, grief, injury/injury detail, child abuse, child death, violence, sexual assault, toxic relationship, blood, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, racism, medical content, car accident, medical trauma, death of parent, domestic abuse, physical abuse, bullying, panic attacks/disorders, murder, forced institutionalization, pedophilia, vomit, ableism, sexism, adult/minor relationship

Content Warnings

kjperry97's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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