Seven Days in June by Tia Williams has been on my TBR forever after seeing booktuber, Lexi – AKA newlynova, recommend it a bunch. Well, I finally read it and it was my 20th read of the year!
Vague plot summary
The story goes back and fourth between the present and the past. Seven days in June, fifteen years apart. In the present Eva has a daughter, a thriving career as an author for a fantasy series that she’s gotten very burnt out writing but is potentially becoming a movie. When she bumps into Shane at a literary event she’s instantly thrown fifteen years into the past, when she was an angry, hurting and reckless kid in a new city, meeting another kid just like her, creating the perfect storm.
She agrees to meet up with Shane to hear him out after he hurt her all those years ago, and he is now sober, working as an English teacher and unable to produce another best-seller without alcohol. Eva suffers with debilitating migraines, has a way too smart kid to contend with and a book deadline on the way; so she doesn’t have enough space in her life for Shane Hall but their connection is just an intense as when they were teenagers and she can’t resist.
The storyline changes between Shane, Eva, her daughter and even her mom’s point of view, drawing the line of the Mercier women’s story through the years and the breaking of cycles.
My thoughts
Ohh I really enjoyed this story, it’s the perfect mix of burning passion, reckless young love and just yearning for one another. It touches on issues such as the life of young black kids in under-privileged schools, the failings of the system, the prejudices of the publishing industry against black authors, specifically black fantasy writers, chronic health conditions and being a single mom with a kid in a predominantly white private school.
But it’s also somehow beautiful in amongst all those incredibly deep topics, as in, the way the story is told feels like a long summer day, which I guess is the point with seven days in june theme. The love story is *chefs kiss*. I would definitely class this as more on the side of contemporary fiction/ romance, there is a little spice but it’s definitely not the focus of the story. This was a really enjoyable story and I have already ordered another book by this author, I’m completely sold on them and I want to read more!
Buy Seven Days in June for yourself
The paperback is only £4.99 on Amazon (at the time of writing), or you can get the Kindle version or Audible version*
*these are affiliate links, it won’t cost you any extra but it might just help me fulfil the dream of being paid to write this blog!
Antonia Bernardin 
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