Scan barcode
A review by skillyillian
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
4.5
Okay i'm not usually a romcom girlie but this one got me. The little bit of magic, wanderlust, romance, banter, and characters just pulled me in and held me tight.
Clementine is stubborn, but funny. Girl does not know the meaning of the word "relax" but she got there eventually. I loved that her job was realistic and detailed, and her hobby was too. It was a really unique, cool hobby, and I loved hearing about it. I wanted to actually see the travel guides. She spends a little too much time dwelling on the past, but that's part of her character development so I still feel like it fit her.
Iwan? Oh my god. obsessed. he's flirty and fun and also very wise? he was just everything. he carried this book without even flinching istg. clementine was great but seeing past iwan and present iwan and learning what got him from point a to point b was insanely well done. i loved, loved, loved his passion for cooking and the way he expressed it, both with words and with the skill itself. 10/10. i loved seeing things he did in the past and guessing how it would manifest in his future.
the characters are well written and feel realistic. clementine had some moments where i was kinda iffy on her, but it didn't ruin anything by any means. she was just a bit dramatic, but isn't that the point of these kinds of books? the big city backdrop was fun, i loved the travel elements too. it was present, like her aunt, but it didn't take the foreground and trample the city. Poston writes grief incredibly well, too. her grandfather passed away from suicide as she was working on this book and you can tell she put her whole heart and all of her pain into clementine's grief for the loss of her aunt. it made me cry.
the time travel, and timing, of the apartment was great. oh, and Mother and Fucker were a key highlight. i loved them so much lmfao. i also really enjoyed that both clementine's friends as well as iwan's had their own lives, their own stories and subplots, going on too. they weren't just cardboard cut-outs.
my only gripe really was that poston got repetitive with a few things here and there. her aunt's two rules for the apartment, the passport covered in enough stamps to make any world traveler jealous, and a few others like that. the flashbacks to her aunt's rules almost felt like they happened as often as a shonen flashback lmao. the characters made some goofy decisions sometimes but they weren't bad enough to ruin the book or anything.
overall, this is a great, fun, flirty read and i loved it so much. the apartment, the characters, the romance, are all really well written. i was giggling and grinning and at one point just screaming in my car because iwan was being,,,,,, WHEW. it was excellent. the narrator for the audiobook, brittany pressley, absolutely killed it with this. her character voices were spot on, to the point of me even forgetting a few times that she wasn't a dude when iwan was talking lmao. she did great. i'll be recommending this book to my friends for sure.
Clementine is stubborn, but funny. Girl does not know the meaning of the word "relax" but she got there eventually. I loved that her job was realistic and detailed, and her hobby was too. It was a really unique, cool hobby, and I loved hearing about it. I wanted to actually see the travel guides. She spends a little too much time dwelling on the past, but that's part of her character development so I still feel like it fit her.
Iwan? Oh my god. obsessed. he's flirty and fun and also very wise? he was just everything. he carried this book without even flinching istg. clementine was great but seeing past iwan and present iwan and learning what got him from point a to point b was insanely well done. i loved, loved, loved his passion for cooking and the way he expressed it, both with words and with the skill itself. 10/10. i loved seeing things he did in the past and guessing how it would manifest in his future.
the characters are well written and feel realistic. clementine had some moments where i was kinda iffy on her, but it didn't ruin anything by any means. she was just a bit dramatic, but isn't that the point of these kinds of books? the big city backdrop was fun, i loved the travel elements too. it was present, like her aunt, but it didn't take the foreground and trample the city. Poston writes grief incredibly well, too. her grandfather passed away from suicide as she was working on this book and you can tell she put her whole heart and all of her pain into clementine's grief for the loss of her aunt. it made me cry.
the time travel, and timing, of the apartment was great. oh, and Mother and Fucker were a key highlight. i loved them so much lmfao. i also really enjoyed that both clementine's friends as well as iwan's had their own lives, their own stories and subplots, going on too. they weren't just cardboard cut-outs.
my only gripe really was that poston got repetitive with a few things here and there. her aunt's two rules for the apartment, the passport covered in enough stamps to make any world traveler jealous, and a few others like that. the flashbacks to her aunt's rules almost felt like they happened as often as a shonen flashback lmao. the characters made some goofy decisions sometimes but they weren't bad enough to ruin the book or anything.
overall, this is a great, fun, flirty read and i loved it so much. the apartment, the characters, the romance, are all really well written. i was giggling and grinning and at one point just screaming in my car because iwan was being,,,,,, WHEW. it was excellent. the narrator for the audiobook, brittany pressley, absolutely killed it with this. her character voices were spot on, to the point of me even forgetting a few times that she wasn't a dude when iwan was talking lmao. she did great. i'll be recommending this book to my friends for sure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Pregnancy