It seems like I’ve been waiting forever for a book like Tia Williams’ Seven Days In June. Incredibly well-written, with three dimensional, fantastic characters set in a love story that left me breathless at times, this book will stick with me for a very long while.
Eva Mercy, formerly Genevieve Mercier, has a lot on her plate. The single mother of a firecracker of a daughter, she’s gained modest fame and success as a writer, penning the uber-popular vampire/witch erotica series, Cursed, all while struggling with the debilitating migraines she’s suffered her entire life. She copes with her disability the best she can, wishing she could walk away from her ongoing series to write about the colorful Creole women in her family. When her editor asks her to participate in a State of the Black Author panel, she reluctantly agrees. “I’m woke recreationally…the other panelists are woke professionally.” she tells her editor. But Eva manages to hold her own until the darkest part of her past appears at the back of the room and shakes her world to the core.
Shane Hall has lived a dreadful life. Tossed from foster home to foster home in between time spent in juvenile detention and prison, he’s spent most of his adult life in a drunken haze. Not that this has made him unproductive. During that time, he penned four critically acclaimed novels and gained a reputation for being elusive and mysterious. Now, however, Shane has gotten sober, and one of the first things on his make-it-right list is to apologize to the girl he never forgot, the girl who inspired his most popular character.
As might be expected, Eva wants nothing to do with Shane. She’s made a good life for herself, and she doesn’t need to go back to her troubled past in any way. Shane is determined to make amends, but he has no expectations that Eva will even forgive him much less allow him back into her life. But the attraction they’ve felt for each other from the first moment they spoke can’t be ignored.
Through flashbacks, we learn about the seven days in June fifteen years earlier when Eva and Shane spent an intense week together developing a relationship that would haunt them forever and inspire the very characters that have made them such successful authors. They’ve both changed and have made positive lives for themselves, but their troubled history gives them great doubts that they are whole enough as individuals to keep from hurting each other all over again.
I loved everything about this book. Eva and Shane just leap off the page. She is snarky and smart and so very real, and as far as heroes go, you won’t find a better one than Shane – he’s so charming and big hearted. Despite his horror of a past, he doesn’t wallow in self-pity or use it as an excuse for his failures. And I’ve stated often in other reviews how much I dislike children in romances, but Eva’s twelve-year old daughter Audre is a delight. Smart and precocious but not obnoxious or cutesy, she’s one of the best characters in the book. I especially enjoyed the relationship she and Shane share, and their conversations are fantastic.
The love story between Shane and Eva is of the soul-mates variety. Their chemistry is off the charts, and it is so clear that the love they shared as teenagers hasn’t diminished one bit through their fifteen years apart. Near the end there is a close call with a Big Misunderstanding, but Williams doesn’t let that derail things for too long. Too, the technical ending of the book nearly gave me a heart attack, but the epilogue left me more than satisfied.
If you haven’t read Seven Days In June, please do yourself a favor and find a copy. With its stellar writing and gripping story, I promise you won’t be able to put it down.
Note: This book contains depictions of self harm, drug abuse, alcoholism and mental illness.
Grade: A
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Publication Date: 06/2021
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