Reading
Seven Days in June: #MonthlyTitles book review
Author: Tia Williams
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Quercus
Year: June 2021
Rating: 
Hey bookish people, we’re half way through the #MonthlyTitles book challenge (for more information, check my social media accounts to learn all about it). As you know, June was dedicated to Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, so here are my thoughts on it!
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams is one of those books that you read in one sitting. Her style of writing is so effortless and flowing, the way she tells the story feels very real and honest. A love story at its core, it’s also one of strength, finding the ability inside of you to succeed on your own in a world full of strangers. It’s also a book about heritage and keeping the past alive in the memories we create for the future generations.
If I could sum it up for you, it would go like this: Eva has already given up on love, when she is reunited with her teenage love, Shane, a troubled man with a magnetic charisma. She can’t stay away from him, even after all these years. But being a mother now, Eva has to think about her teenage daughter as well, while having an estranged relationship with her own mother. Besides all that, as if it weren’t enough, our heroine has to deal with so much more: chronic migraines, the way her background story as a single mother and a Black woman impacts her present. Shane, on the other hand, has to gain her love and trust all over again, after all the pain and hurt he has caused her. Both are writers and, hiding behind their own stories, they realise they have been writing about each other. Now they need to decide whether they could finish their own story together or both will continue their separate ways, the way it had been all those years.
Tia Williams makes the characters seem so real and full of life that you will start to wonder whether they really exist. Maybe they do, parts of them in each and every one of us. What is our story? What are we hiding behind the pages of our own book? Are we brave enough to face our story, to change it? These are just some of the questions this book made me think of, and I felt it was asking me all the right questions, too, in order to understand myself better and to understand the characters. I liked the bits of the creative process that the author depicted, represented in both Eva’s and Shane’s writing routines. It’s always interesting to learn how a writer thinks and what challenges they face even after they get published. We also get an insight into some of the problems in the publishing industry that authors have to deal with, and that’s a topic that can’t leave me indifferent.
What I really liked about the book was the boldness and strength of all the characters, their honesty in facing their biggest fears and the readiness to pursue their dreams no matter how much time has passed. I liked the way it was written—intertwining retrospective scenes with the present, which made the plot very interesting to follow. It was a very inspiring read, one that made me think about, among everything else I already mentioned, about true love, friendship and staying true to your true self and beliefs.
The love story in itself is very intense, sexy, romantic and raw. It will move you, will leave you breathless. The simplicity and proximity to the reality is what makes this story extraordinary. You will laugh and cry, and hope for the best, because these people in the book, they deserve it, after everything they’ve gone through.
There’s not much left to say, except that I really recommend this book and you won’t regret your choice if you decide to pick it up. Have you read it? What’s your reading experience with it? Let me know, and as always…
In case you need me… #owlbeereading!
