A Romance for Romance Novel Haters! by Theresa Gauthier

     Ashley Poston’s Seven Year Slip took me by surprise. One part time travel, one part introspection, and one part rom-com, I didn’t expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. Romances don’t sit well with me. I never quite believe them as much as other people do, and never enjoy them. Not so Poston’s book. It was the premise that got to me—an apartment that randomly sends its occupants 7 years into the past it too delicious a thought for me not to be willing to dive into it even if it did have elements of romance in it.

Maybe it’s her protagonist, Clementine, and her easygoing acceptance of the apartment’s time travel tendencies that make it so easy to go along with the idea. Her memories of spending time in the apartment that once belonged to her aunt and learning about the time travel—wishing to be transported into the past every time she walked through the door, being disappointed every time she found herself in the present just like any normal apartment—the way she didn’t quite understand what was happening when it happened—these things combined to anchor the book in reason even as it’s being unreasonable. 

Clementine’s acceptance encourages the reader to accept it as well. Each time she slips back into the past, she becomes more and more engaged in things that happened 7 years ago. She’s found a man whose company she craves whenever she slips back into her present.

The reader learns more and more about Clementine, her aunt, her friends, and this new man in her life—who she met seven years ago. The most admirable accomplishment here is the brilliant and believable tying together of both timelines.

There’s a lot going on for Clementine even before the time travel. The pressures of her career as she struggles to get a promotion, the grief she’s battling because of her aunt’s death—grief with which she hasn’t come to terms for several reasons. Her time-travel relationship is about more than finding a long term partner/love interest. It becomes about learning to trust herself, learning to be open to possibilities, and accepting the things that have happened.

Her aunt’s past comes full circle as Clementine begins to learn more about the relationship her aunt chose to give up rather than take a chance. Discoveries like this, as well as the little idiosyncrasies of trying to live half in her present and half in her past make for interesting reading.

The final few chapters do make you wonder how in the world this will end, and whether or not it could have a happy outcome. It’s by no means obvious, and that, in the end makes the book far better than one of those predictable must-end-happily novels. 

Overall, this was a far better story than I imagined. I just sample Ashley Poston’s other work.