Seven Days in June
Two writers get a second chance at love in this romantic, sexy-as-hell New York Times bestselling novel.
Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer. Shane Hall is a reclusive, award-winning novelist. When the two meet at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that when they were teenager, Eva and Shane spent one crazy week madly in love. They can pretend they've never met, but they can't deny their chemistry--or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books through the years. With its keen observations of creative life in America today, as well as the joys and complications of being a mother and a daughter, Seven Days in June is a hilarious starcrossed romance. A Best Book of the Year: NPR - Kirkus - Marie Claire - PopSugar - New York Public Library - Bustle - Reader's Digest - Literary Hub A Best Book of the Summer: Harper's Bazaar - Oprah Daily - Shondaland - The Los Angeles Times - CBS News - PureWow - Good Housekeeping - BuzzFeed - theSkimmA Best Romance of 2021: The Washington Post - USA Today - Vulture - Goodreads - BookPage - BuzzFeed - Happy MagBUY THE BOOK
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Community Reviews
Vastly different from other romances I normally read, but very well done. I really enjoyed it and think that the book group discussion in October will be good! I'm glad that I read something different than I normally would, even in the genre that I mostly read.
Best second chance romance I've ever read - still some attributes of it made me a bit uncomfortable, particularly how quickly the daughter was involved in her mother's relationship. I will be reading the author's next book though and really enjoyed the centering of a black romance. Female empowerment and discussion of chronic pain was welcome and gave a lot of dimension.
NOPE! UGH!! There were parts that were great and others that were so awful. Just when I thought it was getting better..nahâ¦eye rolls, or big sigh or what??or Can I keep reading this without screaming? High expectations were definitely crushed. The writing and the characters were good, but the plot, the discussions between characters and the on/off was totally a no-go for me.
And so glad it is over.. :(
And so glad it is over.. :(
1.5/5
When Eva was a teenager, she had a wild and passionate week with Shane. It was wild, drug fueled, and life changing. But that's all in the past, and she is now the successful author of an erotic book series and the mother of a precocious daughter. However, when Shane returns, now also a famous award winning author, and they cross paths for another seven days Eva will have to reckon with her past and consider if maybe this time is the right time for the two of them.
I knew I was doomed to dislike this from the moment I read the opening lines, but I persevered since this was a book club read. There's just something about the way this is written that never clicked with me. The writing is too reference heavy in a way that already makes it dated and lackluster. Tia Williams has this odd habit of describing everything with brand names that was distracting and embarrassing. Here's an example: "... when his phone vibrated on his arm (where it was slotted in his Nathan iPhone armband, rated Best Accessory of 2019 by RunnersWorld.com).", like am I reading a novel or is this Vogue magazine trying to sell me overpriced shit I don't need.
Then there's the characters. Eva and Shane are the only ones who seem realistic, and sure they're the protagonists and we get to see their pasts and inhabit their minds, so the contrast with everybody else in this book is huge. Everyone else was caricaturesque, the closet to a stereotype the author could get her hands on. You have these two broken people trying to reconnect and be emotionally honest only for a side character to pop and talk about wacky shit regarding vaginas or something else wildly out of place. And what was up with the mega cringe fans and NPCs being full on tiktok braindead? Excruciating to read. Speaking of which... AUDRE. I have a personal beef with that fictional child. She was supposedly twelve years old but read like a much younger kid, she was not funny nor endearing but closer to a conservative parody of gen z kids. In fact I was CONVINCED that the author was childless and had never interacted with a small human being and was flabbergasted when I read her thank you at the end to her actual in real life daughter.
That's what haunted me while reading this book, the tone. It swung wildly like a turnstile, and the discrepancy soured me on the whole matter. The opening lines have a funny jokey tone, they're light and cheeky, only to grow dark when we revisit the past and then back to the jokes and the caricatures and raunchyness. I wish the author had just focused on the main couple and deleted all the extra povs from side characters, the brand mentions, the annoying child, because the core relationship could have been good. Then there's the seven days gimmick that didn't come across all that well to me, I feel like it was a mistake to gloss over the seven days in the past even if you can excuse the narration growing hazy due to the drug use and trauma.
And my last big complaint has to do with the ending. There was no need to kill Ty off, we didn't know him well enough for his death to be devastating (plus he was getting mentioned a bit too much for my drama senses not to tingle) and had no time to really sit with the grief his death cause Shane considering it happens when there's only 10% of the book left. It also leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth after the author has a scene explicitly calling out publishers for only wanting books that exploit black characters' situations. It wasn't really satisfactory to me.
And maybe that was what real, adult love was. Being fearless enough to hold each other close no matter how catastrophic the world became. Loving each other with enough ferocity to quell the fears of the past. Just fucking being there.
When Eva was a teenager, she had a wild and passionate week with Shane. It was wild, drug fueled, and life changing. But that's all in the past, and she is now the successful author of an erotic book series and the mother of a precocious daughter. However, when Shane returns, now also a famous award winning author, and they cross paths for another seven days Eva will have to reckon with her past and consider if maybe this time is the right time for the two of them.
I knew I was doomed to dislike this from the moment I read the opening lines, but I persevered since this was a book club read. There's just something about the way this is written that never clicked with me. The writing is too reference heavy in a way that already makes it dated and lackluster. Tia Williams has this odd habit of describing everything with brand names that was distracting and embarrassing. Here's an example: "... when his phone vibrated on his arm (where it was slotted in his Nathan iPhone armband, rated Best Accessory of 2019 by RunnersWorld.com).", like am I reading a novel or is this Vogue magazine trying to sell me overpriced shit I don't need.
Then there's the characters. Eva and Shane are the only ones who seem realistic, and sure they're the protagonists and we get to see their pasts and inhabit their minds, so the contrast with everybody else in this book is huge. Everyone else was caricaturesque, the closet to a stereotype the author could get her hands on. You have these two broken people trying to reconnect and be emotionally honest only for a side character to pop and talk about wacky shit regarding vaginas or something else wildly out of place. And what was up with the mega cringe fans and NPCs being full on tiktok braindead? Excruciating to read. Speaking of which... AUDRE. I have a personal beef with that fictional child. She was supposedly twelve years old but read like a much younger kid, she was not funny nor endearing but closer to a conservative parody of gen z kids. In fact I was CONVINCED that the author was childless and had never interacted with a small human being and was flabbergasted when I read her thank you at the end to her actual in real life daughter.
That's what haunted me while reading this book, the tone. It swung wildly like a turnstile, and the discrepancy soured me on the whole matter. The opening lines have a funny jokey tone, they're light and cheeky, only to grow dark when we revisit the past and then back to the jokes and the caricatures and raunchyness. I wish the author had just focused on the main couple and deleted all the extra povs from side characters, the brand mentions, the annoying child, because the core relationship could have been good. Then there's the seven days gimmick that didn't come across all that well to me, I feel like it was a mistake to gloss over the seven days in the past even if you can excuse the narration growing hazy due to the drug use and trauma.
And my last big complaint has to do with the ending. There was no need to kill Ty off, we didn't know him well enough for his death to be devastating (plus he was getting mentioned a bit too much for my drama senses not to tingle) and had no time to really sit with the grief his death cause Shane considering it happens when there's only 10% of the book left. It also leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth after the author has a scene explicitly calling out publishers for only wanting books that exploit black characters' situations. It wasn't really satisfactory to me.
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