This is the second book I've read by Rebecca Serle and I'm here to say that I truly enjoy her writing and books.

In Five Years, at its core, is about friendship, loyalty, and connection. It explores the messiness of relationships and causes the reader to meditate on the ideas of fate and destiny. Once again, I connected with Serle's easy, yet profound, writing style and she quietly put me in a position to contemplate the "what if?" scenario.

This is a quick read, but one that will stick with you for a long time.

Dannie and David are on the five-year plan...marriage, an apartment in Gramercy Park and their careers right where they want them to be. She's a corporate attorney, he's in finance. They get engaged and that night, Dannie has a dream/premonition that she's with someone who isn't David in 2025. Dannie has a hard time shaking that dream.

Fast forward 4.5 years, Dannie and David are still engaged and living in their dream apartment in Gramercy Park, when she meets the man from her dream...he is the new boyfriend of her best friend, Bella.

I really enjoyed this unique story that's unlike anything I've read before. I would have never guessed it would have played out the way it did, but the ending was perfect!

Last year when I read Rebecca Serle’s The Dinner List, I was really intrigued and inspired but frankly the book left me wanting more. I am naturally one of those people who, when I like something I want as much of it as I can get. So when I saw In Five Years up for review on Netgalley, I jumped on it.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be. I expected something light and along the lines of a You’ve Got Mail. Girl dreams boy, boy appears, sparks fly... the end. This book is that and totally not that. This story is about the depth of relationships. It’s about a woman who is used to control in her life, including in her relationships and she realizes that she hasn’t been truly present and engaged in her relationships. She loves without depth and when her world is shaken up (no spoilers but this one will have you reeling) she has to find a way to her feet again. As a very controlling person who struggles with personal relationships, I really identified with Dannie.

I really enjoyed the premise and the writing and had I not had a 6am flight this morning I probably would have read it straight through last night. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (Half a star only because I again wanted more - there’s a part early on where there is a jump of four and a half years and it made me really frustrated).

I absolutely loved this novel! I was hooked from the very first page and it kept me incredibly entertained from start to finish. There were laughs, tears, and so many emotions running through me and I didn’t want it to end. Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend this read! It’s perfect for a book club!

**4.5 Stars**

In Five Years was not what I was expecting, but it was a delightful, tear-jerking surprise in a multitude of ways. With a first chapter that immediately grabs and hooks you into the story, I spent much of the book engrossed in this woman's story and anxious for what was to come after her glimpse of the future. This story has much to take away and is heavy with heart because of it, but its focus on female friendships, forgiveness, and love made it a great read.

I loved the element of getting a glimpse into the future and the mystery behind wrapping your brain around how it could change so drastically from the present. It created this dual sense of doom and intrigue that Dannie similarly felt and battled with making it easy for the reader to relate to her every response. I could never have predicted the direction Serle took this story, and how many complications were wrought from every little ripple. Dannie was so easy to connect with; her career and relationship ruts, the conflicted feelings involved in all relationships. She's the kind of character that any woman can find a piece of themselves in and that made it easy to ride the waves with her. It never fell victim to feeling predictable and kept me on my toes through every turn of the story. In Five Years was a moving read that truly hit me hard.

There is no one better at writing about New York than Rebecca Searle. This book was SO easy to read and I finished it in less than 48 hours. That being said it moved so quickly I don't feel like I got as investing in the characters and their relationships. I did really enjoy the ending and the "twist" on the standard love story.

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. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind... until she can no longer ignore it. review: After reading The Dinner List last year, I was excited to read the author's latest book. I'm going to try and review this without giving away any spoilers, but just know this book is phenomenal and definitely a must read! The premise is original and the execution is thought provoking. I put myself in Dannie's shoes numerous times asking myself "what would I do in this situation?" and attempting to figure out how this was all going to come together. As much as this is a love story, it's also about the power of friendship. I think this would make a great book club discussion book! rating: 4.5 out of 5 ⭐️

Hated It!

Of course I have to be the person who didn’t love this!

In Five Years is the story of a woman who has it all: the perfect fiancé, the perfect apartment, and the perfect job. But having it all doesn’t mean that she’s truly happy, and a tragedy is about to test the boundaries of all that she believed to be perfect.

The night Dannie, a corporate lawyer, gets engaged she has a wild dream that takes place 5 years in the future. This dream is about to alter her life in ways she could have never predicted. On a positive note, Dannie's dream and the way that is framed is the one element I really liked about this book.

My biggest issues with this book concern the narrative and Dannie’s character. Dannie's character never felt real to me. I actually forgot her name until another character would speak it. Constantly discussing her food choices and commenting on the weather seemed like tropes the author used to make Dannie's character feel real, but these elements didn’t add any depth. Serle also uses food to show how Dannie transforms, i.e. she is going to change by ordering something different from her norm. It also didn’t feel natural the way she was talking about NYC; it was almost like reading a tourist’s perspective of the city.

Onto the narrative: There was way too much of Dannie discussing her issues with her fiancé (I already forgot his name and finished this yesterday) and with Bella (her best friend) without the reader getting to see what was truly going on in their relationship. All of the characters felt one-dimensional and clichéd. They didn't elicit any emotion, rather they checked off the boxes to complete Dannie's story.

I know a lot of people loved this book and I apologize if I said anything that diminishes one’s reading experience. My personal experience was not a good one. For some reason, this book angered me to no end. I don’t know what exactly triggered my anger, but it might have been because I found this book predictable, one-dimensional, and frustrating to read. I felt like I should have been sobbing in the end, but it left me feeling cold.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

**Thank you to Netgalley for proving an ARC in exchange for an honest review**

No seriously, thank you Netgalley and Atria Books. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this unexpected and wonderful book. Lately I am beginning to realize just how much of a privilege it is to be able to share my thoughts, no matter how small my platform may be, on some of the awesome books that I have read, in the hopes of getting them more attention. And while, from what I’ve seen, In Five Years is not lacking in the advanced praise department, if this review can sway even one person to go out and read this book that wouldn’t have otherwise, then my job here is done.

There isn’t a whole lot that I can say about the plot of In Five Years without ruining it, so I will just tell you about my experience. When I began In Five Years I was looking forward to reading a cute love story. A young lawyer who, on the verge of getting everything she ever wanted, high powered job, new fiancé, Gramercy Park apartment, falls asleep one night and awakens briefly to a whole new life 5 years in the future. A life in a new apartment (in Brooklyn?!?) with a fiancé that is definitely not her current fiancé David. A life that she can’t seem to shake once the “dream” is over. Sounds cute right? And it was until it felt a little like I’d read this book before. I became nervous that it was falling into the predictable chick-lit category and I was enjoying it too much for that. Then it took an unexpected turn and the entire story became fresh, new and unpredictable. It was still a love story but not at all the one you would expect, and I loved every second of it.

I loved Dannie, I loved how Dannie loved her best friend Bella, I loved how she loved her fiancé David as imperfect as it may have been, I loved how Dannie loved her job, and how she loved New York City. I was swept up by it all and didn’t want to put the book down, and for about a day and a half I didn’t.

Be prepared to laugh, be prepared to ugly cry and be prepared to fall in love with this unpredictable book as much as I did.

Rarely is a book in no way what I expected. This one will fall in that category. I was shaken a bit by the sheer unpredictability of it all. Dannie wakes up one day, and she finds herself in flash five years in the future. Wow, was that written brilliantly. Fascinating even. (How did this women ever want to close her eyes again, I don't know) In my head this path had an easy opening and should have taken the conventional path of romance right to the last sentence of the last page. Heads up people, this isn't a Romance Book, it follows a path of friendship, loyalty and healing, forgiveness and acceptance. There is so much Dannie must weather the storm through that I don't think I was given the opportunity to catch my breathe. The supporting cast was expandable, and this disappointed me. I enjoyed the premise, yet I feel the reader needs to follow this story with a close discerning eye or you may walk away a little bewildered as I did.

“You mistake love. You think it has to have a future in order to matter, but it doesn't. It's the only thing that does not need to become at all. It matters only insofar as it exists. Here. Now. Love doesn't require a future.”

Wonderful and compulsively readable! You can dive into this modern and emotional story and finish it in one day. I LOVED the brisk and unpredictable story!! This is truly a book that is very difficult to review without spoilers. I have never read Rebecca Serle before and I loved her fast-paced, contemporary characters. Dannie is a very focused lawyer with a rising career at a big New York City law firm. She has a best friend named Bella and a fantastic boyfriend who she plans to spend the rest of her life with.

Except that she has a very vivid, very brief dream (premonition?) involving another man that she just can't quite let go of. And the dream is set five years in the future. What will she do with this experience? Her life goes on and she sees a therapist who gives her some very sound advice.

“It seems to me,” she said. “That you’re unwilling to say this was just a dream, but you’re not sure what it would mean if it wasn’t.”

Dannie and Bella's lives move forward with some very unexpected twists. This book surprised me and all of the characters and the New York City setting came alive for me. The author takes her time reaching the conclusion and the story was very beautiful, emotional and real to me. This book is as much about female bonds and friendships as it is romantic relationships, which was very refreshing to me.

I knew there was going to be something that was going to change the course of Dannie's life but it was NOT what I expected! I was completely mesmerized by this book and plan to read more of Rebecca Serle's books. The author built the tension very slowly and I raced through the last half of this book in just a few hours.

The author did a wonderful job of describing both the professional and personal life of a young lawyer in New York City. The descriptions of New York City were so vivid that the city became one of the central characters in the story. This book is perfect for fans of modern romance and women's fiction.

Overall, I loved 'In Five Years' and highly recommend it!

I was so excited to read this book because I loved the premise! We've all been asked this question so many times . How would you react if you woke up for an hour five years in the future and life was vastly different from what you expected? This book ended up going a totally different way than I expected but I absolutely loved it. I loved Danie as a character--while I am not a lawyer, I am all about the numbers and a planner like she is.

Serle's fantastic writing made this book impossible to put down. You don't expect this to be an emotional book, yet you get to the end and find yourself needing tissues and staying up late to finish it. It's a beautiful story of friendship and love, and a book you won't be able to stop thinking about once you finish it. I didn't want it to end! Though it's early in the year, I can definitely see this book ending up as one of my favorites of the year and it absolutely deserves five stars!

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for a review.

I am still trying to completely sort out my feelings so it's possible this rating will change. I also have no idea how to discuss my thoughts on this book without spoiling things because... Well, the way some things in this book are handled are why my thoughts are a jumbled mess. So let's try to muddle through together.

I requested this book because I heard someone compare it to Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid which is one of my favorite books. That was not a good comparison for me to have in mind going into this book, I don't think, because this book has the fast forward to five years in the future and then you're moving toward that moment in time from the present. The note that introduces the reader to the book (in the e-arc anyway) indicates too that this book is about friendship more than it's about anything else and that's certainly true.

Dannie is a corporate lawyer working for a Big Law firm in NYC and interviewing for an even bigger Big Law firm at the start of this book. She's a planner and likes for things to go according to that plan. She's incredibly loyal to her best friend from childhood, Bella, who is in many ways her opposite. She works ridiculous hours though and her relationship with Bella is tested throughout the course of this book. Dannie is also in a relationship where they get engaged (before the flash forward) and then when we pick back up with Dannie, they're still engaged and it's about four and a half years later. The relationship feels supportive but also like... it's a partnership without any kind of passion.

I think the book is well-written and flows well and it definitely made me think. Without spoilers, it's really difficult for me to discuss what led me to landing on three stars. I don't discourage anyone from picking up this book, but please check for content warnings before you do. My Goodreads review has some if you need them, but in this case, they do feel like major plot point spoilers so I'll not share them here.

In Five Years crept up on me and hit me in my heart. It’s not the book I thought it was going to be, and that’s perfectly okay, because I ended up blown away by how deeply it made me feel.

At the same time, I don’t want to spoil anything for any potential readers, so I’m going to have to keep my comments on the vague side.

This is not a time-travel story. There is no magical entry into parallel worlds. Yes, Dannie has a weird experience that puts her five years into the future for a brief hour — but call it vision or premonition or whatever you want, I promise that that’s not the point of the story.

The main character of In Five Years is Dannie, a super smart, super successful lawyer who measures out her life in plans and lists and spreadsheets. Her boyfriend David is just like her (even keeping a spreadsheet of restaurants they’ve visited and what they ate), and their future is nicely mapped out. They’ll achieve success in their incredibly competitive fields. They’ll buy a great apartment in a great neighborhood in New York. And after Dannie’s interview with the law firm of her dreams, they get engaged in the perfect setting… so they seem very much on track for their neatly planned out lives.

Until Dannie dozes off and has her strange, five-years-into-the-future experience, where she interacts with a man — not David — in such an intimate and emotional way that, when she wakes, she begins to question everything.

Four and a half years later, Dannie and David are still engaged, but never quite get around to planning a wedding. She’s working at her dream job and absolutely loving it. And then things get weird when her best-friend-for-life Bella introduces her to the new man in her life… and he’s the man from Dannie’s dream/vision/premonition.

But if you think that this is a love triangle sort of book, let me just tell you — it’s not.

The further along I read, the more I understood that the heart of this book is the love between friends. Dannie and Bella are perfect complements to one another — Bella free-spirited and artistic and spontaneous, all things that Dannie is not. But they love each other unstintingly and understand each other deeply, and as the story unfolds from here, their love absolutely shines in a way that’s beautiful and left me in tears.

There. I’m not saying anything further about the plot. I’ll just say that it surprised me and moved me; it wasn’t what I expected, and it completely pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go until I turned the last page.

This story hit me much, much harder than I thought it was going to. When I first started reading, I assumed that it was going to be a predictable love story, set in glamorous NYC. I was right about it being a love story - but the kind of love that is found in life-long friendships and the power of a bond between two females.

I loved Dannie. I loved how ambitious and goal-driven she is. I could relate to her strong type-A personality and the lesson that life never goes according to plan. I could not relate much to Bella and her exciting lifestyle, but my heart absolutely broke for her. I felt the men in the story were not deeply introduced characters and weren't included in the story to serve much of a purpose. The relationship between Dannie and Bella is the focus.

The story is a quick read and the events are earth-shattering. The writing flows very well and I was able to make a connection to the characters because of the way the story is written.

In Five Years touches on life, love, loss, ambition, true happiness, and the fact that life does not go according to any sort of plan.

When I first read the synopsis of this book, I was literally stoked! When you reach your mid 30's, I think it's common for people to reevaluate where they are in life and ponder if they are truly happy with their life trajectory. I was so hoping I could relate to the main character on that level. However, the book and the story just fell really flat for me. As hard as I tried, I just could not connect with the main character. In addition, the story felt disjointed to me and like it just never picked up a rhythm that I could enjoy. I was trying to push through, but I could feel it making me not want to read others I was reading at the same time. I wouldn't totally rule out giving this another try some day, but right now, this book just didn't do it for me and I have to put it down.

An impactful look at love, loyalty and loss. Dannie provides a glimpse into the struggles of life. She is a planner; everything has a schedule and purpose. At her dream job interview, she knows exactly where she will be in 5 years which leads to her engagement to her long-time boyfriend, David. What she doesn’t expect is to wake up in a different bedroom in 2025 with a different man next to her. This dream shakes Dannie’s foundation more than she will admit as she works to bury what she experienced. The one constant during Dannie’s life is her best friend, Bella. They met when they were 7 and just clicked. Bella is the free-spirit in Dannie’s structured world. Dannie is a complex woman, she is driven to achieve her goals but deep down, there is pain that has never healed from the loss of her brother at a young age. Through this journey, she has to face that grief as live throws new challenges her way that test her plans. Yes, I was in tears as this story unfolded. This is beautifully told in a way that allowed me to be Dannie and experience all the highs and lows with her. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

I received an ecopy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in advance of its release in exchange for a review.

I must admit...I was hooked from the blurb; however, with that said I don't think the book quite lined up with the blurb. And that prologue. 🙈 Why? No...just, no. I've decided I'm going to stop reading prologues altogether. This one, unfortunately, colored the whole book for me and I couldn't unsee it.

This read more along the lines of womens' fiction than a romance novel for me, the believable bond being the one between the main character and her best friend. Though it still has some editing/proofreading errors that need to be cleaned up, it's obvious that the author is a quite gifted storyteller. I read it all in a matter of a day...even with my disconnect from the main character.

<I>You think it has to have a future in order to matter, but it doesn’t. It’s the only thing that does not need to become at all. It matters only insofar as it exists. Here. Now. Love doesn’t require a future.

“You are not wrong for loving what you do,” he says. “You are lucky. Life doesn’t hand everyone a passion in their profession; you and I won that round.”</I>

Pretty amazing words, right? 3 stars.

📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: In Five Years
AUTHOR: Rebecca Serle
@rebecca_serle
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: March 10, 2020
https://amzn.to/39aEvoC

This book touched me in a way I absolutely did not expect. (Dramatic Pause)
It’s the story of Dannie, who sees what her life is going to be like in 5 Years, via dream. And then she goes there. But the journey, it’s all about the journey. My brain worked around how it was going to happen like usual. But when it did and she finally arrived at the moment again… I cried. It was breathtaking and precious. This is a tale of friendship, in the highest order. Of sacrifice and love and what we mean to each other. This is a must read for any woman who feels like she can’t make a difference in anyone’s life.

Small Summary:
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.
*****
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.

Dannie is a successful attorney living in Nee York City with her boyfriend, David. Admittedly a bit controlling, she has a plan for how her life will go - get engaged, receive a promotion, get married, start a family. There is a perfect time for everything. One night she has an all too real dream where she sees herself in five years in an apartment she doesn’t recognize and with a man she has never met. Is it just a dream? Or a premonition? Either way it throws Dannie and her controlled life off course.

I really enjoyed this book. I was expecting a love story but I was very pleasantly surprised this book is more about friendship and loss than it is romance, although there is some romance too. The ending wasn’t what I expected and after thinking about it for awhile, I ended up liking the direction the book took. This book is a binge-worthy read. I really enjoyed it.

Pick it up for yourself March 10, 2020!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital copy on exchange for my honest review.