Quick Synopsis

Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award‑winning novelist, who, to everyone’s surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that 15 years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again…

Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award‑winning novelist, who, to everyone’s surprise, shows up in New York.

When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that fifteen years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. While they may be pretending not to know each other, they can’t deny their chemistry—or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books through the years.

Over the next seven days, amidst a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect—but Eva’s wary of the man who broke her heart, and wants him out of the city so her life can return to normal. Before Shane disappears though, she needs a few questions answered…

With its keen observations of creative life in America today, as well as the joys and complications of being a mother and a daughter, Seven Days in June is a hilarious, romantic, and sexy‑as‑hell story of two writers discovering their second chance at love.

Book Review

Seven Days in June is an Own Voices contemporary romance about second chances, finding yourself, and black joy. This book is so poignant and covers so many important topics, including invisible disabilities.

Let me start with Tia Williams’s writing. Seven Days in June is witty, funny, and powerful thanks to Williams’s writing. The characters jump from the page and settle into your soul. I loved that she was able to do this without a ton of internal dialogue. The conversations in this novel are so rich and deep – think a more currently relevant and smart Gilmore Girls. I desperately want to be part of their world.

I commend Williams for her depiction of an invisible disability. It was refreshing and raw. I related so much and felt seen. I cannot emphasize how amazing this is. Williams did not use Eva’s disability as a crutch or plot device as is so often done. I cannot really put it to words, so just trust me and read it.

I often find romance novels annoying because they are all romance without context, plot, or other things occurring in the characters’ lives. Seven Days in June was none of these things. I was completely absorbed in the story. I stopped reading to go pee and was so surprised to find that 2 hours had passed. I became totally invested in Eva’s story. I laughed, I cried, and I loved.

My only real criticism is that the whole seven days concept could have been stronger. It was easy to breeze over, and it was not fully carried out in parallel which made it further lose its effect. It also made for a weirdly long epilogue.

Overall, I loved Seven Days in June and thought it was brilliant. That is not a word I would have thought I would ever use to describe a romance, but here we are. If you are not a fan of steam, you may want to tread lightly, but I thought it was exceptionally tasteful and not too graphic. And from reading other reviews, if you are not progressive, you may apparently be offended? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Rating

Overall Rating

Writing

Plot

Character Development