When Clementine inherits her aunt’s apartment she doesn’t expect to wake up one day and find a strange man in her kitchen. Iwan is an aspiring chef and Clementine soon finds herself falling for him. The only problem is that he lives seven years in the past.
I picked this book up because I loved The Dead Romantics and was super excited about this book. I didn’t like it quite as much as The Dead Romantics, but it was still a fun and charming story.
This book has a lot going on, besides the romance plotline. Clementine is grieving the death of her aunt and coming to terms with never seeing her again. She’s also at a crossroad in her career and is struggling to figure out what she wants to do with her life. And then all of a sudden, in pops Iwan who, courtesy of the magical apartment, seems to show up just when she needs him.
I loved all the bits of magical realism interspersed throughout the book. I do wish that there were more scenes that took place in the past. It seemed like Clementine and Iwan hardly spent any time together in the past for a real relationship to form.
I also wanted to know more about Clementine’s aunt. We learn that she quit her Broadway career after one show, but we don’t know what she did after that. She apparently has enough money to buy an apartment in New York (although I believe she bought her apartment in the 70s or 80s), as well as enough money to travel extensively every year. I would love to hear her story.
Finally, yes I had to google to figure out the correct pronunciation of Iwan. According to Google, it is pronounced [YOO] + [UHN]. Note that that is not the way I was pronouncing it in my head and I am so sorry to all the native speakers out there who are probably laughing at me right now.
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