Genre: Contemporary romance, Black romance

Synopsis: Seven days to fall in love, 15 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 15 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.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Abuse, excessive drug and alcohol use, death, racism, self-harm, trauma

What a beautiful story. Seven Days in June was so much more than I anticipated it would be, and while it was immensely sad in many ways, it was also immensely wonderful.

First and foremost, I really appreciated the representation of chronic pain in a main character. But I also really loved the representation of the Black male role model and the incredibly smart, ambitious young Black girl (though I will say I wasn’t sure how believable her character was - kids seem so young to me and I don’t remember being any kind of way as a pre-teen).

But let’s talk plot. Incredible! I loved it so much. Teenage love that was always a little something more, a lifeline, and thread connecting two souls in need, years and years of writing love letters to each other through novels, then finding each other again. It was just so special - romantic isn’t even the right word here. This book was more than that.

But that’s not to say there’s not lots of trauma in this book. This is not the kind of book where a small, lack of communication situation tears two people apart (but there is lack of communication - it always boils down to lack of communication). This story features some really intense trauma, substance abuse, and lots of self-harm - honestly more than felt necessary, which is the reason this wasn’t a 5-star read for me.

This book is also wonderfully steamy. The sexual tension is intense and the build up is done so well, which makes it all so much more steamier. That scene at the pop-up nap room. Yowza!

Seven Days in June is a sexy, unexpected romance with flawed characters that are believable and easy to root for. I feel like there’s so much more I could say about this book, but just know it’s incredible. I absolutely enjoyed it, and think it’s a great read for anyone who’s interested in romance stories that have a stronger drama component.