Tuesday, March 10, 2020

I Want More - My Review of In Five Years by Rebecca Serle



Title: In Five Years
Author: Rebecca Serle
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: 3/10/2020
Source: ARC from publisher through Netgalley



Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.



Rebecca Serle is an author and television writer who lives between New York and Los Angeles. Serle most recently co-developed the hit TV adaptation of her young adult series Famous in Love, now on Freeform. She loves Nancy Meyers films, bathrobes, and giving unsolicited advice on love. She can be found on twitter: @RebeccaASerle 


Oh Wow! When it started, it reminded me strongly of One Day in December by Josie Solver and I was pissed off because I really loved that story. Well, I’m happy to report that this is NOT the same. In Five Years is such a unique love story and is beautifully heartbreaking.

I simply cannot say enough words about this story. It is now more than a month since I read it and it still affects me physically to think about it.

Dannie has a dream in which she wakes and she is with a man that is NOT her fiancee. When she wakes in her real life, Dannie attempts to move forward as if nothing happened. That is until she runs into her dream man in real life. Is this a premonition? Is this man her future? How could her dream possibly come true without destroying the lives of EVERYONE around her, but really how could Dannie turn her back on the possibilities her dream presented?

This story is so incredibly moving. The characters are sooooo completely relatable. Dannie could be any one of us. Bella is definitely the kind of best friend we would all be blessed to have.

While there is some romance in the story, it is not center stage. Unless you count the romance the author obviously has with the city of New York. She constantly takes us on a lovely journey to what I have to imagine are her favorite locations within the city. This is definitely a love letter to The Big Apple.

Dannie has spent years camouflaging herself, fitting into her surroundings and with those closest to her. She has done this for so long that she has lost a lot of herself. Running into her dream man stirs up her real self and causes her to begin living her true life. Lives are disrupted and feelings are hurt, but this is a journey that Dannie has to make before she loses herself completely.

This is not the story you think it is nor is it the love story you might wish it to be, but it is nonetheless the love story that needs to be told. I was so grateful to receive an advanced copy of In Five Years from the publisher.

5 out of 5 Stars



Kaleo - I Want More

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