In Five Years is about Dannie, a corporate lawyer who has her whole life planned out. Within the next five years, Dannie knows that she will become partner at her law firm and marry her fiancee, because that is her plan and her plans always work out. One night Dannie falls asleep and wakes up five years in the future, living in a different house and engaged to a different man. But the next time she wakes up, she is back to her original life and writes the whole thing off as a very vivid dream. Yet it didn't feel like a dream at all. It felt like a sneak peek at her future. Things get more complicated when her best friend Bella introduces Dannie to her new boyfriend, who just happens to be the same man from Dannie's "dream."

As the story plays out, I was expecting this to be a romance about Dannie's love life and which man (her real life fiancee or the man of her future/dream) she chooses. It seemed to have a One Day in December vibe at the beginning, and I assumed the book would be focused on Dannie's love life. And while that does play into the storyline, this book is more about Dannie's growth as a person and the central relationship is about the friendship between Dannie and her best friend Bella not the men in her life. It was a refreshing, unexpected twist to what I assumed would be another typical love story.

Dannie is not the most likeable of characters, but I was okay with it. She seemed realistic to me, and I liked how she changed through the book. She grows, matures and softens as the story goes on and as she learns that life does not always cooperate with even our best laid plans.

The ending will probably be divisive with some people loving it and others hating it. I really liked the way the story ended. As was the case with much of this book, the ending was a bit unexpected, but it felt right. I think it would have been frustrating if it had ended differently. Overall, this is a solid 4 star book. I really liked it a lot!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Where do you see yourself in five years? The lingering question we often struggle to answer. Serle writes a story of a type A woman who seems to have everything planned properly for the next five years, but what happens when life throws unexpected narratives at you? This book is not entirely what I expected, but it was well written. It was thought provoking and left me questioning my own five year plan. You never really know, but when you know, you know!

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 seeking who she really is inside. 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 not is it the love story you might wish it to be, but it is notheless the love story that needs to be told. I was so grateful to receive an advanced copy of In Five Years from the publisher.

Top Five Reasons You Should Read In Five Years:

1. A thought provoking read that will make you question all the what ifs in life.

2. Relatable characters you can't help connecting with.

3. Rich in detail and a plot line we can all relate to.

4. A setting that will make your heart pitter patter at.

5. Beautiful writing that draws you right into the story and makes you think about it long after you've put it down.

I had been interested in checking out In Five Years as soon as I read the synopsis. I love anything having to do with time travel and this definitely sounded like it would be up my alley. The story definitely lived up to my expectations.

This novel was incredibly well-written. It was a captivating story that kept me turning pages and not wanting to stop. I had no idea where the story was going and just when I thought I might have guessed something correctly, I was completely thrown off and surprised once again. It's a beautiful testament to the power of friendship. The time travel situation was haunting to think about after the fact because of where the story went.

If you enjoyed You Were There Too and/or One Day in December, you will love this novel, as well. I loved it and still keep thinking about it. I really need to go back and read The Dinner List soon.

Movie casting suggestions:
Dannie: Lyndsy Fonseca
Bella: Candice King
David: Dan Levy
Aaron: Aaron Tveit

3.5 stars

When I read the synopsis of In Five Years, I was immediately intrigued and couldn't wait to read it. I was expecting an epic love story, and I did get one, just not the one that I thought I would. I do not consider In Five Years a romance and would categorize it more as women's fiction. Readers should not expect a light and fluffy love story. There are romantic elements, but to me it was more a poignant celebration of friendship and sisterhood.

I really enjoyed Rebecca Serle's writing overall, but I did feel that the pacing of the book was a little slow at times and overly detailed in certain areas. It made the book feel too long, and took away some of the emotional impact. The flash forward scene was done extremely well though and I loved how everything came together in the end. I'm still not really sure how to feel about the pseudo-love triangle that developed and how it concluded, but I can understand how grief and emotion could contribute to that outcome. Dannie, Bella, David, and Aaron were all likeable characters, but I didn't truly connect with or love any of them. I was invested enough in the story though to read this book in one sitting. I appreciated the message/theme that we cannot control life no matter how much we may want to and that there's a peace in letting go. Overall, an enjoyable read, but not quite what I was expecting.

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

WOW! This is one unique storyline if I do say so myself. One I have not read in the past. Dannie nailed her interview for a dream job and got engaged to her boyfriend David. Later that day Dannie woke up from a nap five years forward in a different apartment, with a different fiancé, and a different ring on her finger. It was an intense out of body experience and after an hour she fell back to sleep. When she woke up again it’s back to present time. Dannie was confused but she filed the unusual event in the back of her head. Dannie went on with her life as planned until nearly five years later, she meets the same man from her vision. Without revealing too much with spoilers I will say this book is beautiful, emotional, and heartbreaking. For the most part, we already know from Dannie’s vision there is a man other than her fiancé, in her bed. I don’t exactly empathize or agree with Dannie and the mysterious man’s relationship. Let’s just say there will be tears, the plot thickened and is quite complicated. Over all, I think this book is less of a romance but rather a touching story about friendship, love, loyalty, and destiny that will pull on your heartstrings. Beautifully written and a page turner.

What a clever idea for a story .... and thank goodness for tissues!

I love this concept so much and it was unlike anything I've read before. A secret glimpse 5 years into the future is something I'm not sure if I would want... and it definitely makes you wonder what you would do with the information you would find. Would you laugh it off as a silly dream or would you live differently in order to change it or ensure it didn't happen?

When Dannie wakes up in the year 2025 she is shocked to find so much wrong. She's in the wrong apartment. She's wearing the wrong ring. She's in bed with the wrong guy. But almost as quickly as she ends up in this strange future, she's thrown right back into her RIGHT life. The safe life. With the "safe" man. But nothing seems right, once again, when she meets that wrong man in this RIGHT life ... and he just happens to be dating her best friend. Follow me?

Guys, this one is sad. It's sad in the way that makes you want to call all your best friends and propose immediate drinks and girl talk. It's a wild story that is so oddly, but beautifully strange - a bit predictable - but lovely all the same. I found myself afterwards wishing it had ended differently. Something irked me about the way it "turned out." But I'm pretty sure if it had turned out the opposite - I'd want the other ending! So conflicted!

In Five Years makes your brain swell with 'what-ifs'. While it warms your heart - it just as quickly breaks it. It grabs you by the feels and doesn't let go. And I'm still not sure it has yet.

We all have a rehearsed answer to the oh-so-asked question: Where do you see yourself in five years? Dannie Cohan, a lawyer in Manhattan, is asked this question during the most important interview of her career. Of course she lands the job. Then accepts her boyfriend's marriage proposal. It seems Dannie is on the right track with her five-year-goal.

Then a vision changes her whole life. She drifts off to sleep after saying "yes" to marriage (how romantic, right?) and wakes up in an unfamiliar apartment, a different engagement ring on her finger and an entirely different man beside her. The date on the TV news scrolls by: December 15, 2025! The very detailed vision continues until Dannie wakes up back in 2020, chalking it up to a weird dream.

Should she live differently knowing what may come in five years? Or should she continue down the path of where she wants to be? And what does it mean when she meets the mystery man in real life? All of this plays out in the new chick-lit novel, In Five Years, by Rebecca Serle.

I expected something cute, cliché, and very similar to a book I read almost nine years ago titled 29. Oh, was I wrong! It was more substance than I expected with a dose of irony. I predict this new novel will be on bookshelves everywhere for readers pondering where their own lives will be in five years. Anything can happen!

Happy Early Pub Day, Rebecca Serle! In Five Years will be available Tuesday, March 10.

LiteraryMarie

{ @atriabooks #partner}

Where do you see yourself in five years? How often do we hear this? I find myself to be a goal oriented person and found some of the same traits as Dannie in myself. This book hooked me from page 1 and stomped on my heart until the very end 😭

This book is about true friendship and trials that can happen. It’s about stepping outside of your comfort zone and trusting yourself. To relinquish control. To not settle for less because you see yourself in this perfect world. Life happens and things change and it’s okay if you do too.

I absolutely loved this book. It was short but also had so much meaning. Have tissues ready when you read this one. 5 ⭐️

This book was my addiction today. I was hiding in the bathroom and sneaking off to the corners of my house to sneak a chapter in. I inhaled it! The friendship between Dannie and Bella grounds the book and I will not say much more about the plot. Don't want to spoil it for anyone else. Don't read this without your tissues! If you loved "The Dinner List," I am confident this will also be a satisfying read. Read alikes for this title include: "Maybe In Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid, "You Were There, Too" by Colleen Oakley, and "One Day in December" by Josie Silver.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A dream about five years in the future throws everything in Dannie’s life off kilter. As the years continue as normal she begins thinking it may have just been a very vivid dream, until her best friend introduces her to her new boyfriend. This man happens to be the one from her dream just over four years ago.

She has to battle thru her emotions as her best friend faces a critical diagnosis that pulls some apart and pushes others together.

A beautiful story of the hardships of life and love for friends.

Wow what a read. This book really gets you thinking. I know it is a fictional story but all the what if’s kinda hit you here. I loved it!!

Dannie is a young lawyer living in Manhattan with her boyfriend, David. Their lives and careers are just beginning to pick up steam when Dannie gets the opportunity to interview for her dream job, the one she’s coveted her entire life. She’s confident that she aced the interview. That evening, David proposes to her. Dannie falls asleep that night, secure in the knowledge that she’s on course to achieve her five-year plan for herself.
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When she wakes up, Dannie is in a completely different apartment, wearing a different ring and in her vision, she’s living with a different man who she’s never met. Shocked and disoriented, Dannie manages to see the date on the TV. December 15, 2025. Exactly five years in the future. And that’s all I’m gonna tell you! I went into this book completely blind. I just knew I wanted to read it.
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What I loved: This book is told from Dannie’s perspective and takes place in NYC, a setting that I love and adore. I couldn’t stop reading this and it’s almost entirely different than what I thought it would be. I loved Rebecca Serle’s previous book, The Dinner List, and this book was just as wonderful for me. I will probably read anything by this author now. It broke my heart 💔. It is about love in one of its purest forms. It’s poignant and has a special resonance for me, though to tell you the reason why would spoil the experience of reading this book for yourself.
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What didn’t quite work for me: The ending. I felt a bit confused by it. Was it just me? If you’ve read this one, let me know!
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Would I recommend it? Absolutely! Every reader is different and I know this seems like a love-it-or-hate-it book. Personally, I loved it. It was the right book at the right time for me. 4.5 🌟/5. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for my copy. 💗
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#InFiveYears #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #RebeccaSerle

I really wanted to love this book. At first I really did, and then there were some twists and turns and like life, it got messy and I wasn't really sure where it was going. I do appreciate the views it put on love, relationships, friendships, making plans for the future, living in the present and just figuring out who you are and what you want. It made me think and I enjoy that in a book. Was it my favorite book? No. Was it the worst book I ever read? No. I was a bit let down, a bit confused, but overall it wasn't a bad read. It was good, I was just hoping for more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books, for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Dannie is a corporate lawyer with a job she loves and a wonderful man, David, who has just asked her to marry him. She falls asleep and suddenly is in a different apartment with a different man five years later. What is her destiny? To be with David or this new man? Four and a half years later, Dannie actually meets the same man and he is her best friend's new boyfriend. I loved this premise and found the author's writing was very enjoyable.
I kind of feel like the summary for this book is misleading, though. This book is so much more about friendship--the lifelong friendship and strong bond between Dannie and Bella, and not Dannie's romantic life. I am not upset as to where this story went, though. I actually thought the very ending was perfect for Dannie. This was a very easy read for me and I wanted to know what was going to happen with all the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

After reading the synopsis, I was 100% sure I knew where this plot would go. Color me surprised when I was completely wrong! I thought I was right up until we meet the hero five years later. After meeting him, I kept thinking how is this going to work out the way I’m assuming. But you know what they say about assuming. The plot unfolding not as I expected is one of the things I LOVED about this book. This is a phenomenal story of friendship, and how those closest to you knowing what you need even when you don’t. It’s also a lesson in no matter how much you try to plan out every facet of your life, life will throw you a curveball and knock you on your butt. I was in a book funk till I opened this one and I’m glad I did. It made me laugh and it made me cry hysterically, and an amazing cry it was. I can’t wait to see what’s next from Rebecca.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I could not put this one down! Rebecca Serle writes such heartwarming and heartbreaking stories, and this new one does not disappoint.

Dannie is a Manhattan lawyer who has her whole life planned out. She interviews for a position at a highly prestigious law firm when she was asked where she saw herself in the next five years (an interview question that I hate). She has a wonderful career, boyfriend, New York life, and was following the path she had planned for herself. But the thing about plans…fate often has a different one for us. Dannie has a dream that makes her question what she thought she wanted.

I love how the events of this story come together. It’s smooth and makes you wonder and breaks your heart and makes you angry and makes you smile.

I definitely recommend this book!
Available March 2020

I started this book with high hopes. So, you are planning your life, getting engaged, getting your dream job. And then you wake up and it is exactly five years in the future. You are not in your home and you are not with your fiancé. The next time you wake up, you are back in your normal life. And? Everything goes back to normal. Yup. And 4 1/2 years just go by.

Nothing much happens for a long time. By the time anything does, it feels forced and manipulative. I wish I could like this book as much as everyone else did. I just couldn't connect with it.

I have no idea if I can accurately describe this book and how I felt about it, but I must give it a go. First of all, let me say that I used to be staunchly against looking at book reviews before starting or finishing a book because I didn't want to be influenced by anyone else's thoughts or opinions. I would check out the ratings but not the content of people's reviews. But since I've been burned by so many books (as in not getting a happily ever after, not the happily ever after I wanted, or just generally disliking the book), I've gotten to a point in my reading life I thought I would never see. I do now read reviews (or skim them) before picking up a book if it's an author I'm not familiar with or if something else leaves me feeling unsure (description, cover, etc). I'm looking for unexpected content being mentioned in reviews. I'm looking for information about any of my deal breakers (things I know myself well enough to know I don't enjoy reading about) as well as certainly how the reviewer felt about the book. Sometimes this does affect my expectations of a book and my expectations can influence my overall feelings as well. But I find this risk of influence to be acceptable over DNFing more books or trying to force myself to read something I'm not enjoying.

All of that being said, I checked out a few reviews before I picked up In Five Years because I was in a little bit of a slump. The reviews I saw basically said the book was nothing like they expected, there was a romance but again not what you expect, and that everyone was in tears at the end. In the case of In Five Years, I think my attempts at lessening any stress associated with the process of reading this book backfired, and I ended up more anxious and stressed.

The reviews were right. This book isn't at all what you expect. There is a love story but as was said, not how you would expect. Although I didn't cry. At all. Or even tear up. But to be fair it takes a lot for me to cry. I was too wrapped up in figuring out how this was going to work.

In Five Years was written in a way that had me devouring it. I finished it within 24 hours which is a feat these days. But I felt like I was reading a train wreck...in a good way. It's funny because that's the 2nd time I've felt the train wreck analogy so sharply within a 3 book span. It just so happens the first time the train was wrecking I knew there was no hope, but I did feel hope with In Five Years somehow.

Ugh this review is all over the place. I can't talk to you about the events of the book because EVERYTHING is a spoiler, but I can tell you how it made me feel. I was hooked. I read it quickly as I've said. Call me cliche but I was hoping for the outcome that the description and beginning hinted at even though the reviews said not to. I guess I just hoped it would come about in a way I didn't expect. So I felt like I wasn't able to connect to side characters as much as I would like. I don't know. I didn't dislike the book, but it wasn't what I wanted at the same time.

For as long as this review is, I know I haven't actually said much. I just know that I was left wanting. In Five Years was good, but definitely not what I hoped it would be. It's a book that will suck you in and spit you out. I'm giving it 4 Stars. Have you read In Five Years? What did you think? Let me know!