"I loved how a book, a story, a set of words in a sentence organized in the exact right order, made you miss places you’ve never visited, and people you’ve never met."
rating: 4.5 🌻
this was a sweet yet touching story about a woman, successful but a bit lost and dealing with grief, meets a man who's at the start of fearlessly chasing his dreams, and how they fall in love. the only problem? they're seven years apart.
She only ever had two rules in this apartment—one, always take your shoes off by the door. And two: never fall in love. Because anyone you met here, anyone the apartment let you find, could never stay. No one in this apartment ever stayed. No one ever would.
i was vaguely aware of the premise going in so i was very intrigued to see how this would be executed. time travel can sometimes get too heady or conceptually ambitious, but i think the magic in this book is its simplicity in that respect. by focusing on a specific weekend at a time between clementine and iwan, there's an organic build to their relationship and keeping it in the apartment doesn't muddy timelines too badly. their separate timelines also weave together seamlessly at a few points and overall i think it was very well crafted.
“New things are scary.” “They don’t have to be.” “How are they not?” “Because some of my favorite things I haven’t even done yet.”
“I think,” he finally said, choosing his words carefully, “that nothing lasts forever. Not the good things, not the bad. So just find what makes you happy, and do it for as long as you can.”
i loved that the heart of this story was about understanding your own happiness and taking the chance to chase after it. career burnout is a commonality between clementine and iwan at both their present; the way you chip away at yourself to fit what's "successful" or what you think is the "right" choice. but really it's authenticity and honesty in your work and pursuits that's what's going to fulfill and reinvigorate you.
"He might have been the most handsome man I’d ever seen. But especially when he blushed."
"Here I was, sitting on the floor in front of my coffee table in my aunt’s apartment, furiously clicking on every link about a man who was seven years older, seven years farther away, seven years stranger, than the one who had kissed me over a lemon pie."
the romance was ADORABLE. i felt like clementine meeting younger iwan was almost necessary bc of the idealistic beliefs in his younger self. she's able to bring that back to him in his present self, but not in that "girl saves the guy bc she's the manic pixie" trope-y kind of way. i think poston did an excellent job at writing and developing the intimacy between them in past and present scenes so that the idea of falling in love with someone over and over again, with every version of them, really rings true for these two.
"Sometimes the people you love don’t leave you with goodbyes—they just leave."
"I hated her for leaving, and I loved her for staying as long as she could."
this was additionally a touching story about grief. the painful new adjustments of it, the way it slips back in at every turn of a familiar corner, bringing back old memories unbidden. the complicated mix of feelings that comes with knowing someone who died by suicide; the sorrow, the anger, the guilt. while it doesn't go too deep to be overwhelming, it touches on this enough to bring not only sympathy for clementine and analea, but perhaps someone you know irl (i thought a lot about anthony bourdain reading this bc of the cooking theme and his traveling - similar to analea).
“I am disrespected! Humiliated! I have to see him in the elevators in my building. I’m going to have to look him in the eyes and know that he thinks Dune is the best sci-fi book of all time.”
"The kind of guy who would look at the meme phrase 'she breasted boobily to the stairs' and nod and go, Yes, yes, this is indubitably quality literature."
there were some great moments of comedic relief. i think the contemporary cultural references might irk some readers but it felt like a wink and a nod for me personally. i thought both clementine and iwan's friends were fun characters to add to the mix.
overall, i definitely recommend this if you're looking for a romance read that's mostly fluffy and sweet but can handle a little tart. kind of like a lemon meringue 🍋✨
"Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together."
"Because the things that mattered most never really left. The love stays. The love always stays, and so do we."
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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more
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Popular Highlights in this book
That was love, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just a quick drop—it was falling, over and over again, for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn’t something you could plan for. Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together.Highlighted by 4,731 Kindle readers- I loved how a book, a story, a set of words in a sentence organized in the exact right order, made you miss places you’ve never visited, and people you’ve never met.Highlighted by 4,365 Kindle readers
- My aunt used to say, if you don’t fit in, fool everyone until you do. She also said to keep your passport renewed, to pair red wines with meats and whites with everything else, to find work that is fulfilling to your heart as well as your head, to never forget to fall in love whenever you can find it because love is nothing if not a matter of timing, and to chase the moon.Highlighted by 3,100 Kindle readers
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Thoroughly enjoyed it!!
This book had a touch of magic, romance, grief and heart, friendship, and lots of food! I’m not a foodie but I enjoy reading about people’s passions and food was the passion of one of the main characters. It was really the perfect book with several elements done well. The first 40+ pages were nothing special, and that’s too bad but the rest was everything I wanted it to be. Just when I craved some depth, it brought that too. Just finished it and I wished I could read it for the first time again.
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Beatriz Prado
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Reviewed in Brazil on April 14, 2024
Beatriz Prado
Reviewed in Brazil on April 14, 2024
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