Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Seven Days in June

Oh wow, what can I say about this book? Tia Williams chewed me up and spit me out with this one. It was so devastating in all the right ways. Devastating hot. Devastatingly smart. Just…devastating, haha. I was sucked in from the very beginning. I didn’t feel like I was reading a book, I felt like I was living alongside Eva, Shane, Audre, CeCe, TY 😭.

My only complaint is that the ending felt a tab bit rushed. I wanted more. I needed at least two more chapters for “ Sunday “ but hey, tis is the way of life.

Everyone needs to read this. Just make sure you have your tissue box handy.

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mecmccann's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective tense 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

4.5

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."

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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…

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libellumartinae's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing tense medium-paced

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

4.5

alright, I'd like to say that this book is utterly fantastic.

I had been eager to start it and read it as it seemed quite an interesting and lovable readout it is much more, as it depicts many tough elements without being too heavy and although the relationships between the characters is tense and definitely darker at times as it held so many secrets and individual - and shared - trauma, it never seems like a tale of desperation. it's an hopeful outright out of life and starting again. probably one fo the best second chances romance - and romance - of the year and that I have ever read, also because there was the employment of the 'I am not enough' theme but in a way that wasn't stereotypical and neither annoying.

the sole thing I'd have liked to be done better is the ending as in some parts it felt too rushed. I also admit that it is a personal preference but I learned I much prefer finals in which they don't end up halfway through but with an epilogue. still, at parts, it seemed too fast to me and I'd like for it to be longer (if anything to stay with them a bit longer).

love yah!

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debbilynn42's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-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

4.5

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dwinn5's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful sad medium-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

5.0

Wow. I can’t believe this is only my second book of the year and I already have a 5 star-er.

This book had me in knots- I didn’t want to put it down until it was done, and even then I was in a bit of denial. There were moments of dialogue in this book that felt like pure genius. It had me giggling and kicking my feet one second and clutching my chest the next. Williams covered so many great topics in this book: family connections and history, race in the publishing industry, overcoming trauma, figuring out what we want from life and what we deserve- I could go on and on. The way that she weaved them into the character’s lives felt so seamless. All of the characters were a great addition to the story, but Audre and Shane were something special to me. I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.

And of course, the love story. All reading is subjective, but I feel like books with romance can be especially hard to rate because of how personal they often are. In a good romance book, the actual connection/romantic relationship almost acts as its own character in the story- an “x factor” that you either connect with or you don’t, and this one gutted me.

My only complaint was that at some points in the book, she would alternate between multiple points of view without a formal change, which occasionally took me out of the story/the emotions the character was feeling because it switched the focus.

Fantastic, amazing, heartbreaking. I’ll be coming back to this one for sure.

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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

nicole_defran's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

2.0

I’m not sure where to start. I feel a little overwhelmed honestly. I feel like I thought it was a romcom based on the blurb and quotes on the cover but after finishing it there was romance but it definitely isn’t a romcom. I probably should have read the content warnings but I never have before and while romance can include some more serious topics not to this level. I think it will stick with me for sure.

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