Book ~ "The Seven Year Slip" (2023) Ashley Poston

From Goodreads ~ Sometimes the worst day of your life happens and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone - she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time - but a matter of timing.

Clementine has worked for a publishing company for seven years ago and is poised to move into her boss' job. One day she comes home and finds a strange man named Iwan in her apartment. He is the son of her aunt's friend and apparently her aunt had let him stay there for the summer while she was away ... except her aunt passed away six month ago. Clementine realizes that Iwan's timeline is seven years in the past. She remembers her aunt had told her that the apartment is "magical" and this is what's happening. Clementine allows Iwan to stay but sometimes when Clementine comes home, Iwan is in her apartment and it's seven years ago and sometimes he's not ... she never knows when or how it will happen again. As she gradually gets to know Iwan, she starts to fall in love with him but not knowing when he'll appear makes it difficult.

I like reading time travel books and that's why this book caught my eye. I thought the writing style and story was okay (it was a bit draggy). I liked the concept but thought it could be carried out better. I found it a bit hard to believe that Clementine and Iwan would fall for each other so quickly considering they had infrequent random encounters. It's written in first person's perspective in Clementine's voice. As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.