Member Reviews
What a beautiful book! I’ve seen it all over bookstagram with rave 5 star reviews but I thought “no way can this legit up to the hype!” Well, my friends, not only did it live up to it - it exceeded it. I love the storytelling style and how we jump between different timelines. The depiction of the characters was warm, it was honest, it was raw, and it was perfect! I also loved that the two main characters were writers - something I aspire to be myself, so getting into their heads and seeing the creative process was phenomenal. If you love a second chance romance that will change your life and stay with you for a long time, this is that book!
I loved the core Romance between the hero and heroine, but the side characters were distracting. I wish I would have liked it more. My thoughts are better articulated on the episode of my podcast, Learning The Tropes, that is linked below.
Loved this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance e-copy. Will be happy to recommend widely to readers at the public library.
A smart, emotionally charged, second chance romance that was intense from page one. Shane and Eva are two incredibly successful best selling authors despite having every odd stacked against them from a tumultuous childhood.
I always enjoy a romance with flashbacks to when they fell in love as teens, and this one was no exception. Their chemistry was intense both then and now. The book managers to portray literary intelligence without feeling stuffy. And while it is definitely not a romcom, I found myself laughing a lot which kept the dark topics light. Eva’s daughter, Audre was a shining star in the book.
Seven Days in June is a fantastic read! It made me laugh out loud, cry, and swoon. I absolutely loved the pace of the story. I loved the relationship between Eva and her daughter. This book left me wanting more!
My expectations for this book were not equal to the quality of the story, the characters, and the writing. Eva is an author of an erotic vampire series, unique with Black main characters. Her relationship with her daughter Audre is opposite of what her relationship was with her mom, Lizette, in so many ways. Shane enters the picture, also an author, and their seven day relationship from fifteen years prior is set afire. Both Shane and Eva have broken, fractured and horrendous pasts, which brought them together initially. I loved the story, the depth of the characters, and everything about it. Read it, and thanks to NetGalley for this wonderful book.
In this novel, Shane and Eva met in high school and had an immediate connection, spending an intense week - 7 days in June - together before they were driven apart by tragedy and never saw each other again. Fifteen years later, Eva is a bestselling paranormal romance novelist and single mom to a precocious 13 year old, and Shane is a newly sober literary author when their paths cross again, leading to another seven days in June to see what their connection still is and whether they can move on from their past. But while that description might make you think this is a romance book itself, this is no light chick lit novel - it’s a pretty deep book which isn’t just about love, but also about trauma and pain, both metaphorical and literal as not only did both characters have difficult childhoods but Eva suffers from an invisible disability. The writing snd the characters in this book were wonderful - not just Eva and Shaun but Eva’s friends and especially her daughter Audre really came to life as well, and I was totally engrossed in the story. 4.5 stars.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing, the author, and NetGalley for the gifted copy of this book! All opinions in this review are my own.
Seven Days in June is phenomenal. If you are looking for a steamy summer romance, this book is everything you need.
Eva Mercy fell for Shane Hall fifteen years ago over the course of seven days in June. After their relationship came to an abrupt end, Eva has spent the last fifteen years building a best=selling writing career and raising her daughter. When Shane steps back into her life, Eva doesn't know if she should give into the feelings that come flooding back to her or finally cut ties with this part of her past.
I love how the book is divided into seven days and that Tia Williams plays with the timeline. While each section starts out in the present, almost each one ends with what happened on that day in the past. While Eva is struggling to decide what to do in the present, we are able to see what happened over the course of that week fifteen years ago.
Seven Days in June revolves around 2 main characters: Eva Mery, an erotica writer, and Shane Hall, an award winning literature author. These two were in love 15 years ago and fast forward to present day, where they cross paths again in New York City. 🗽
Their love story has beauty, but also heartbreak behind it. The author’s descriptions of their special bond and the struggles Eva and Shane face are unlike anything I have ever read. So many topics are discussed, to name a few there’s chronic illness, the celebration of Black History, and motherhood.
I finished this book a few weeks ago, but I cannot stop thinking about it! I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone and if you read it then I hope you loved it as much as me.
If the whole book had been like the epilogue, this would have been a 5 ⭐️ read for me. I thought the epilogue was beautiful: the main characters showed so much growth and healing. The bulk of the book, however, didn’t work for me. The characters were too dysfunctional. I’m far from a prude but I was not prepared for the language and sex scenes. 🔥🔥🔥. CeCe was my favorite character - I loved her power in the book world. And my heart broke for Ty - I wish we had more of his story. I did appreciate the attention this book gave to invisible illnesses - they are real and debilitating for many.
3.5 star rounded to 4
This smart, snappy #ownvoices romance is much more than your traditional romance (and is one of the best romances I've ever read!). It has incredible depth and is not cheesy at all (but it is steamy!). Eva and Shane both go on intense personal journeys over the course of this story, resulting in an empowering romance that enables both of them to be who they are. The romance is almost the cherry on the top of these personal journeys, not the other way around. Plus, lots of meta publishing industry commentary.
When they were 17, Eva and Shane had a drug-fueled torrid week that left them both emotionally scarred from their rapid-fire intense love. Fifteen years later, Eva is both the single mom of a precocious 12-year-old and the author of an erotic series of novels about the forbidden love between a vampire and a witch. Meanwhile, Shane is both the reclusive author of a handful of critically acclaimed literary novels and a recovering alcoholic. A chance meeting at an author panel kicks off a week of getting to know each other again, both the good and the bad.
What a refreshing addition to the romance genre. Shane and Eva are complex people with difficult pasts and a LOT of baggage to deal with. But these elements don't detract from their chemistry or the steamy love affair that they embark upon. Without giving anything away, I'll also say that I LOVE the way this book ended. Well worth a read, even if you're not a romance fan.
This novel is ah-may-zing. I laughed. I cried. I fanned myself. I read it in less than twenty-four hours because I couldn't rest until I knew what was happening with these characters. When it was over I had to take a nap. Shane Hall is EVERYthing. I love him.
“Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again...” Love the tag line!
Eva and Shane had an intense connection for seven days in June when they first met in High School, but something happened and that was all the time they were able to share together when they were younger. In the present time both Eva and Shane have grown up to be authors (and are reunited for the first time at a literary function in NYC some 15 years later.
Eva Mercy is the bestselling author of a vampire erotica series featuring a vampire and a witch love story. She’s struggling to finish book 15, dealing with a non-visible disability (i.e. the chronic pain/migraines she’s lived with her whole life), and she's trying to be the best single mom to her astute 12 year old daughter. Shane Hall is a prizewinning author who is an enigmatically private person. When Shane shows up again after all this time, their chemistry is still palpable, but the stakes are higher as Eva has more to lose than just herself if she falls in love with him again. Over the present seven days they will try to decide if being together is really the best thing for them both and if love is really worth the risk.
I think I enjoyed reading about the present day a bit more than the past, though the past timeline was necessary to provide much needed context and worked well to serve the story. I thought Tia Williams did a great job writing these complex characters. I appreciated the commentary on black authors and the publishing world's preference that black stories focus on a racially based trauma in order to be compelling reads. I loved the relationship that Eva had with her daughter, Audre, and really hope to have something like that with my own daughter in the future. It was a pleasure reading this contemporary romance and I look forward to my book club's discussion on it soon! Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #SevenDaysInJune. The opinions expressed herein are my own.
4.5 stars. I read this book in one sitting and loved it! I found it to be a unique romance novel as it explored a lot of complex issues you don’t normally see within this genre. My only feedback is that I felt a little frustrated in the last 20% of the book when the characters were fighting about a misunderstanding and thought the conflict was a little dragged out. Nevertheless, I 100% recommend this if looking for a funny, smart and powerful book.
One week can change your life.
The story follows two authors, Eve and Shane. You see how their lives become intertwined and their writing an outlet for memories from the past.
There are so many different and amazing layers to this book. I really enjoyed reading about Shane and Eve as their lives, both separate and together, tugged at my heartstrings.
Tia Williams made you feel all of the emotions for these characters. It was a powerful read, that will stay with me.
I really enjoyed Seven Days in June! It came highly recommended to me from a friend in my book club and it was worth the read. It was serious but also steamy, so best combo. Thank you to Netgalley for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked Seven Days in June. Tia Williams did a great job bringing her characters to life and the writing was great. I had a hard time putting the book down and thought about it in between reading times. I love the way the mother daughter relationships were shown and that you can break the chain with your own kids and that it doesn't have to be the same as it was for you. I also liked that she showed the harder, grittier parts of life without sugarcoating it.
I’d never call myself a romance reader. In fact, I generally avoid romance all together, but 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐄 by Tia Williams is the second romance I’ve reviewed this week! Sure, it’s different from a lot of romances in that it’s set in the world of Black publishing, featuring two wildly different authors reuniting fifteen years after their first intense week together as teenagers. Wait a minute! That’s really not all that different from most romances. In the true spirit of romance, Shane and Eva had been tragically separated, and secretly longed for each other all these years. Upon meeting again, sparks fly, and fly and fly!
Now, I am poking a little fun here, but I really did enjoy 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘋𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘐𝘯 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘦. I was drawn to both Shane and Eva, and adored Eva’s wise-beyond-her-years daughter, Audre. Williams convinced me that this couple could be “real” despite their obstacles, and I’m grateful to her story for helping to distract me during a really tough time. Books truly can be magic that way.
On a final note, I want to say, “𝘉𝘙𝘈𝘝𝘖!” to Williams for cleverly titling her chapters. I so appreciate when authors actually take the time to do so, and would love to see more follow suit.
Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for an e-galley of this book.
3.5 Stars
”How can I say I’m a plugged-in cultural force, when I’m surrounded by so much useless affluence?”
Seven Days in June is a gritty yet humorous second-chance romance between Eva Mercy and Shane Hall, two people with damaged pasts. The plot uses flashbacks and alternating POVs to explore the complicated relationship between these two damaged souls.
Lots of contemporary topics are explored in this book including family, friendship, addiction, parenthood and the details of life as a famous author. Even though there are some very weighty topics the author manages to keep a fairly light tone especially with Eva’s relationship with her extremely precocious daughter.
Eva and Shane are both well-known writers and cross paths after many years apart. I loved their reunion! Eva had believed they’d be together forever so she still has very deep feelings for Shane.
”One thing,” she whispered, her lips by his jaw. She didn’t want anyone to overhear. “Before I forget.”
“What’s that?”
“Stop writing about me.”
Eva and Shane must now explore whether they can make things work this time. Both of them have their own issues and I did like how the author created a believable ending for these characters. I thought Eva’s daughter Audre was not a completely realistic tween and acted more like a 21 year old than a young girl.
I enjoyed Tia Williams’ lively writing style so definitely pick this one up to see what all the buzz is about!