The Seven Year Slip Review: Michelin Stars, Magic Apartments & A Romance That Took WAY Too Long To Hook Me ⭐⭐⭐
📚 Book Info
Title: The Seven Year Slip
Author: Ashley Poston
Genre: Romance, Magical Realism, Contemporary Fiction, Time Travel Romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
Suicide / implied suicide
Grief and mourning
Depression
Anxiety
Emotional trauma
Death of a loved one
🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨
This review contains FULL spoilers for The Seven Year Slip, including the ending, relationship developments, and all the magical apartment chaos. Proceed accordingly 😌
I Thought I Was Getting a Cute Rom-Com… Why Is There Time Travel?!
Listen. I went into this book expecting a fun little chick lit romance with quirky banter and maybe some emotional depth sprinkled on top.
Instead?
✨ TIME TRAVEL APARTMENT ✨
And honestly… my immediate reaction was annoyance 😂
I am extremely picky about time travel novels because they can go from “emotionally devastating masterpiece” to “this makes absolutely no sense” in about three pages.
So when the magical apartment element showed up, I got nervous FAST.
And unfortunately, the first third of this book did absolutely nothing to calm those fears.
The First 30% Was a STRUGGLE 😩
I’m not even going to pretend otherwise.
For a solid chunk of this novel, I was bored. Like:
checking page percentages bored
wondering if I should DNF bored
opening Goodreads to investigate whether I was being pranked by the internet bored
And when I checked the rating and saw a 4.15 average on Goodreads?!
I genuinely sat there like:
👁️👄👁️
“Wait… am I the problem?”
So I kept reading.
And then somewhere around the halfway mark…
…it got me.
The Mystery Finally Sucked Me In 👀
Once the timeline situation becomes clearer, the book suddenly gets WAY more compelling.
Because now we know:
Clementine is meeting Iwan seven years in the past
Present-day Clementine is clearly NOT with him anymore
Something obviously went wrong
But we have no clue WHAT happened
And THAT is what finally hooked me.
Not the romance.
Not the magical apartment.
Not the quirky vibes.
The DRAMA 😂
I suddenly needed answers. I needed to know:
Did they break up?
Did he leave?
Did he betray her?
Did somebody die?!
Why is present-day Iwan so emotionally muted compared to past Iwan?
That mystery element honestly carried the second half of the novel for me.
🍽️ Michelin Restaurant Talk? Inject It Into My Veins
One thing this book absolutely nailed for me was all the discussion surrounding food, fine dining, and Michelin-star restaurants.
Iwan being a chef honestly added so much personality to the story.
And yes… this book literally made me stop reading so I could count how many countries I’ve eaten Michelin restaurants in 💀
The answer is TWELVE.
Twelve countries!!!
Honestly that may have been my favorite personal side quest caused by this novel 😂
The restaurant scenes felt vivid and passionate, and those moments were some of the strongest writing in the book for me.
My Biggest Problem With Clementine 🤦♀️
Okay but can we TALK about this?
Clementine spends basically the entire novel devastated over her aunt Analea’s death.
We are repeatedly reminded:
how close they were
how much she misses her
how deeply this grief has affected her
SO WHY…
WHY…
when she gets magically transported seven years into the past…
…does she not immediately go searching for her aunt?!?! 😭
I could not get over this.
Your beloved aunt is ALIVE in this timeline and you’re just casually hanging around flirting in the apartment?!
Ma’am.
Be serious.
This bothered me throughout the entire book because emotionally it just didn’t feel believable to me.
Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained 📖
Clementine’s Grief & The Magical Apartment
Clementine West is a book publicist in New York who is deeply grieving the recent death of her beloved Aunt Analea, who likely died by suicide via overdose. Before her death, Analea leaves Clementine her Upper East Side apartment — an apartment she always claimed was magical.
According to Analea, the apartment occasionally slips seven years into the past.
Naturally, Clementine thinks this is nonsense.
Until she walks into the apartment and finds a strange man living there.
Enter Iwan 👨🍳
The man is Iwan, an aspiring chef who is subletting the apartment from Analea during one of her trips.
Except here’s the catch:
Clementine is in the present
Iwan is living there seven years earlier
The apartment basically overlaps timelines.
At first Clementine is skeptical and overwhelmed, but she keeps returning because:
She’s intrigued by Iwan
Being in the past means Analea is technically still alive
Clementine and Iwan slowly grow close despite Analea’s old warning:
Never fall in love in the apartment.
Which obviously means they are absolutely going to fall in love in the apartment 😂
Present-Day Iwan Is Completely Different
Eventually the apartment shifts back permanently to the present.
Clementine searches for Iwan online and discovers he DID become a famous chef — but he’s nothing like the passionate dreamer she knew.
Present-day Iwan feels colder, exhausted, and disconnected from cooking.
This becomes one of the biggest emotional conflicts in the book.
Clementine is grieving not only the loss of her aunt, but also the loss of the version of Iwan she once knew.
Meanwhile, Iwan has spent SEVEN YEARS remembering her.
Which honestly is kind of insane when you think about it 😭
Clementine’s Character Arc
Throughout the novel, Clementine realizes she’s been living cautiously ever since her aunt died.
She hates her publishing job but clings to it for stability.
Meanwhile, Iwan represents passion, risk, creativity, and change.
The apartment forces both of them to confront the idea that people evolve over time — and that loving someone means accepting who they become, not just who they once were.
The Ending 💕
At the opening of Iwan’s restaurant, Clementine finally confronts him about how much he’s changed.
They argue over whether change ruins people or simply transforms them.
Soon after, Clementine is transported back to the past one final time.
This time, she tells past-Iwan the truth:
the apartment is magical
they won’t see each other again for seven years
both of them will change during that time
Back in the present, Clementine finally realizes she’s been using fear and grief as an excuse to avoid living fully.
She quits her job despite having no future plans lined up.
Iwan later finds her and reveals he’s made changes to his restaurant after reflecting on their fight. He admits that while some changes made him lose parts of himself, other changes helped him grow.
The two reconcile and confess their love.
Clementine eventually leaves the magical apartment behind, accepting that memories and love can remain meaningful even as life changes.
The end 💫
Final Thoughts 💭
Overall, I did enjoy this book.
But I also think it was wildly overhyped.
The strongest part of the novel for me was the emotional mystery surrounding what happened between Clementine and Iwan across the seven-year gap. Once that tension kicked in, I was invested.
But:
the opening was painfully slow
the magical realism didn’t fully work for me
some character decisions made absolutely no sense
and parts of the story felt genuinely ridiculous if you thought about them for more than thirty seconds 😭
Still, the food writing was fantastic, the romance eventually became compelling, and I can absolutely understand why this worked emotionally for so many readers.
Just maybe not to the level TikTok promised me 😂
📖 Recommended Books If You Liked The Seven Year Slip
Similar Magical Realism & Emotional Romance
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
If You Want Better Time Travel Romance 👀
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
If You Loved The Food & Restaurant Atmosphere 🍷
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
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