Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Siedem dni w czerwcu

I heard about this book on BookTube and then listened to a podcast with the author, who was featured at a Book Festival. I don't read a lot in the Romance Genre and this one is really a stand out. The characters are well developed and real - this is no cozy, campy or predictable romance novel. Nor is it always easy to read as we learn about this history of Shane and Eva. These characters originally met in high school and had a whirlwind seven days of drugs, alcohol and sex. Fast forward, they are both authors and meet at a book festival to realize that their feelings for each other are hard to suppress. Eva writes erotic fantasy and Shane is an award winning author as well. The novel returns us to the past as well as the current day, as their relationship is described in great detail. On the steam meter, it's probably 9. But this book is more than that - it's an honest depiction of black life, poverty, foster care and homelessness, child abuse, motherhood, chronic health challenges and alcoholism/drug addiction (consider these trigger warnings, dear readers, and choose wisely). I was surprised and pleased by the depth of this novel and would read another by this author for sure. While it's a great read for Black History Month, it's not a steamy, fluffy Valentine's Day read. But it is a satisfying and important look at the challenges of relationship, parenting, success and family history.

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page1995's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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rickireadss's review against another edition

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3.0

i went into this one with such high hopes, and i honestly think that was what ruined it for me. i loved the chronic migraines rep. i somewhat tolerated the fact that both mcs were writers - i feel like this is hit or miss with me, but usually a miss. i did not check the CW before reading, and that was definitely my bad, but most of the reviews i had seen on tiktok or insta hadn't mentioned it being a "heavy" book -- this one most defintitely was, and it was much heavier than i could have anticipated. i ended up soft-DNFing this like 50% in and left in untouched for almost a month, but i pushed through hoping it would magically get better (spoiler alert: it did not) this was just not my favorite, and one of my disappointments of the year.

⚠️: self harm, drug abuse, alcoholism, drug use, addiction, chronic illness, suicidal thoughts, mental illness, suicidal attempt, abandonment, gun violence, death, grief, injury/injury detail, child abuse, child death, violence, sexual assault, toxic relationship, blood, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, racism, medical content, car accident, medical trauma, death of parent, domestic abuse, physical abuse, bullying, panic attacks/disorders, murder, forced institutionalization, pedophilia, vomit, ableism, sexism, adult/minor relationship

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taylorsevalia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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_inge's review against another edition

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hopeful

Plot- or character-driven? Character

When I picked this up I thought this would be a high literary, intense and depressing novel. When I started reading it and realised there was a lot of humour and love within its pages, I knew I’d have a good time reading it. I loved the disability rep, that this love story wasn’t cookie cutter and all perfect, yet the protagonists’ bond still felt really strong all the same.

That being said, their love not being perfect did mean I found the plot itself a bit confusing. Their past romance was a very intensive week together. It’s stated that their connection throughout this was imminent and perfect, so it was definitely believable it had such an impact, but it could’ve easily been perceived as a quick summer fling. I was so wrapped up in these characters that I didn’t really think about it as I was reading though! There’s some miscommunication at the end which could’ve clearly been avoided if people just… stayed in touch, and from the last few chapters the narrative structure really does feel like any other romance book. It felt really original and interesting at times, but still felt into romance tropes anyways. This meant I wasn’t sure if this book would put itself against other romances or if it was meant to be a criticism on them.

The writing style was infused with (black) pop culture references and brands, which got annoying quickly. People would wear Dior dresses which make them look like someone from a music video by Rihanna, people wouldn’t simply pick up their phone but their Samsung Galaxy…. I just opened this book at a random page to find examples, and I already got ‘Serena Williams fused with Wonder-Woman’ and ‘Morgan Freeman in that specific film’. It seems there’s got to be a reference to something on every single page.

Audre especially uses terminology and modern ideas about topics like race and gender in a way that felt jarring sometimes. There’s a segment where Audre sits with kids who she thinks are all ‘mentally ill’, because she thinks they’ve got disorders like OCD and ASD, and then wonders what’ll happen to these ‘psychos’ when they grow up ??? I never understood the purpose of these segments; they address actual issues, but the tone makes it seem like these segments are meant to be funny.

There’s also a lot of time shifts as well as perspective shifts, but they’re not clearly marked in any way and don’t happen within a set pattern. At certain times I was therefore unsure whether I was reading about a past event or not. When Eva calls her mum at one point I was certain this was a past event, until she discusses things which happened in the present.

A lot of these ‘issues’ I’m only considering in hindsight. I really wanted to keep reading this and didn’t want to put it down. The ending wasn’t fulfilling to me in any way, which is maybe why I’m considering other aspects of this novel now too. But I was hooked on this for a while, and for the most part I do think it did something interesting within the romance genre.

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The writing in this second chance romance is exquisite. I love reading about writers, and this romance is about two writers, so that was perfect. This was a 5 star prediction and I'm so happy that it turned out to be exactly what I wanted. THE CHEMISTRY between these two leads....it was everything. TO ADD ONTO THAT: i loved the representation in here for invisible disabilities / chronic pain. the main character is a migraine sufferer and it impacts her day to day so much and i found that extremely relatable.

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macknificent's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Seven Days in June is a second chance romance that follows Eva and Shane as they reconnect 15 years after a seven day fling that took place in their teens. According to the girlies, it’s a must read black romance that would leave me swooning. As much as it pains me to say it, the girlies are wrong.

Before I get into my beef with the book, let me be clear that I was entertained by this story. It was filled with big emotions and wit, two of my favorite ingredients for a good time. I found Eva's relationship with her daughter incredibly endearing. It was very “of the moment,” what with the zeitgeist so focused on healing generational trauma. In that same healing vein, Shane's ownership of his shortcomings was refreshing; we don’t usually get a reformed bad boy visibly
doing the work.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with the gripes. Firstly, there seemed to be some Eurocentrism and possibly colorism at play. On the cover of the book, both Eva and Shane appear to have darker skin but the text describes them as having traits that would typically be associated with those of a fairer shade, i.e Eva’s loose curl pattern, Shane’s light eyes. Tia Williams is excellent with dialogue but seems to have some issues creating full and nuanced characters in this book. The majority of the adult characters felt like Black Excellence stereotypes, that was disappointing and gave the story a dated feel. The young characters weren’t much
better, especially the disadvantaged children Shane mentored. The only time we hear anything about them is when it’s useful for showing some sort of positive character trait for Shane.

My biggest issue is in making this a romance. For the romance to work, you have to be sold on Eva and Shane’s initial fling being real love so you can buy into the second chance of it all. I couldn’t.

The behavior of the characters during their original entanglement makes sense, they are teens with actions dominated by their hormones and their traumas. Stumbling upon somebody who didn’t immediately judge their coping mechanisms was a rare point of light in a dark and confusing life; it’s no surprise they squeezed every last endorphin out of it.

But this story isn’t about teenagers, not really. It is about two adults that are doing the work to heal themselves, we are told this explicitly and repeatedly. Why then are we expected to root for Shane and Eva as they fall back into their maladaptive, codependent habits? Because this is a romance and we need our HEA.

Overall the book was giving Tyler Perry Production; the experience was entertaining and filled with potential, but nobody trusted the audience to enjoy nuance so it relied on stereotypes to get a lesser message across. Had this story ended with the break up I think it could have been a much better book. After sharing so many big emotions with the characters, a bittersweet ending would have been cathartic and made more sense to the characters’ histories. Alas, that isn’t what we got.

I read this book as part of my #soblacklove2022 series on IG and Tiktok.

https://instagram.com/macknificentreads?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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