This is Poston’s sophomore adult novel and, like The Dead Romantics, she has crafted a beautiful love story that defies convention, time and space. She breathes life into her characters with lyrical dialogue, a vulnerability and honesty between them, and a willingness to suspend disbelief in order to get to the right time and place to be together. It has a similar premise as the movie, The Lake House, but is not quite so intense.
Although it is a romance, there is magical realism in the form of an apartment that has infrequent and unpredictable time slips, one in which Clementine’s Aunt Analea meets Vera, the love of her life, and another when Clementine first meets Iwan, the talented chef visiting NYC in the hopes of landing a dishwashing job in the restaurant his grandfather, an amateur chef, brought him to as a child and where he hopes to climb the ranks to top chef, making his grandfather proud. Little does she realize that he is seven years behind her in time.
The central theme is about following your passion, whether it’s in a vocation or in a person, and being open to change, because life isn’t stagnant, and love means embracing and supporting your partner’s growth and loving yourself enough to walk away from the life you thought you should want to discover new things about yourself and the passions that drive you. I enjoyed all of the lyrical prose, especially when Iwan was romanticizing food and his idea of “the perfect meal” and how serendipitous the path to romance is. Highly recommended!
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
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