I absolutely adored this book. I was so excited to read it because of how much I had loved The Dinner List, but Rebecca Serle took things up to another level here. I didnt see the twist coming, and more importantly, once it had come, I couldnt put the book down until the very last page. What a gorgeous tribute to friendship and love. It reminded me a little bit of Beaches, and definitely tugged at my heart strings. I will definitely recommend this.

This book is amazing in so many ways. I want to say I hated it since I cried for about 100 pages, but that would be a lie. Dannie is a planner and knows where she will be in 5 years. When one night she glimpses that future briefly and it’s not how she imagined. She begins to see her life moving towards that day in the future and she tries to keep planning her life to stop it. But that’s not all that this book is about. It’s about friendship and love and hope. You will feel all the feels as Dannie learns what is truly important.

Such a beautiful story about love and loss. I read this book in one sitting.
The way Ms. Serle intertwined each character was amazing, I did not see some of the plot twists coming.

Dannie Kohan has always been a planner and manages her life with long-ranging aspirations. One goal was met when she got engaged to her long-term boyfriend, David, after living together in New York City. Another goal is on the horizon after interviewing for a position at a prestigious law firm. This job is in line with her career ambitions as an attorney. Among her long term goals are to buy an apartment and eventually have children.

Dannie becomes unsettled after having a dream that takes place five years into the future. In her dream, she lives in a Brooklyn apartment with an unknown man named Aaron. Every detail from this dream feels so genuine including a different engagement ring. She constantly thinks about this scenario as she contemplates her future wedding date.

In Five Years by Rebecca Searle is a thought-provoking book about love, friendship, and relationships. This heartfelt and absorbing novel will lead readers through an emotional journey.

Dannie has everything she ever thought she wanted in life, a blossoming career as a lawyer, a comfortable and predictable relationship with her fiance, and a wonderful best friend. Then a dream rocks her world. In the dream, it's five years from now and her life is completely different...new apartment, new man, newfound passion for life. This story is what happens when she meets the guy from her dreams...who just happens to be dating her best friend!

I thought I knew what was going to happen in this story, but I was so very wrong! This tale is so much more than a basic romance. It's a story about finding yourself and loving who you are. It's a story about being open to possibilities and taking chances. It's a story about what it means to truly love someone.

Couldn't put this one down!

Although I'm not a huge romance reader, every now and then a book comes along that just warms (and breaks) my heart.

After reading the intriguing synopsis, I knew I wanted to read this one and find out just what In Five Years was all about.

Dannie is a Manhattan lawyer with a five year plan (I love that!). She has a wonderful career, boyfriend, New York life, BUT who is this man in her dreams? He seems so alive and "real" to her, but he is not in her five year plan! Oh no!!

I felt a touch of magic in this tale, had some tears (oh my dear), laughs and just wanted a few more chapters.

Thanks to Atria for my review copy! OUT MARCH 2020

I’m so ugly right now! My face is blotchy, my eyes are bloody red, my nails, oh no I have no nails left. I’m a great candidate for any horror movie monster casting call.

Even the husband dearest who is normally coolest, mimic-less Scorpio man worried about me and cover my face with trash bag so he stopped screaming when he was looking at me!

After I finished this book, I cried so much! I couldn’t help myself. Honestly my friends shaped my life and made me who I am more than my own family. They saw my ups and downs and I seriously did too many mistakes to ruin my life because I’m so reckless and hot tempered, crazy redhead Aries woman and they always saved my ass, punched me, shook me and gave me the ugliest true messages and wake up calls I needed.

So when I read a book about testing your relationship with your childhood friend, it was impossible for me gather all those broken pieces of my heart. This book shook me to the core and thought me again instead of earning money, being slaves of material things, we have to collect friends who make us lives better and who help us to be a better person. Bella and Dannie’s heartbreaking, emotional friendship affected me deeply.

Before starting to read this book let me tell you the facts about it:

This book started so similar with Kristin Harmel’s “Life Intended”, when a woman dreams she can meet with her deceased husband at another universe and when she wakes up she resumes her relationship with her actual boyfriend. But don’t worry! At this story our heroine dreams only one time. Is it premonition? A fantasy about a man she never knows? Beginning of love triangle? You have to read and see by yourself. But one thing for sure, this story is more complex than Kristin Harmel’s because Dannie dreams her best friend’s new boyfriend!!!

Don’t wait to read a romcom about time traveling or parallel universes kind of fiction. This book is not a romance story. This is about a woman’s self discovery, life choices and love. And of course there is another heavy stuffs hurt your heart deeply. I don’t want to discuss them because I don’t want to be mean person who love to give spoilers (normally I’m mean and told the movie endings to everyone but when it comes to the books, I’m more tight lipped.) but my emotions were everywhere after I closed the book and story occupied my mind, haunted my dreams.

There is no bad guy of the story: The characters are not flawless. All of them have their own antics and irritated attitudes but you can understand each of them’s motives and connect with them easily.

Overall: I don’t care lack of romance or resemblances with other books including”One Day in December”! I loved the creative, outstanding, smart and realistic writing, heart wrenching ending even the ending really tore my heart out!

Rebecca Serle, you’re amazing but I’m not gonna forgive you to sledgehammer my heart. My head is still spinning and I’m so shaky because of the powerful writing.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this meaningful ARC COPY and help me to discover a new writer by sharing this book in exchange my honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A moving novel about friendship, settling for less than you want in life, and moving on after loss. This would be a perfect book club novel--so much to think about and discuss.

Wow. After the first little plot twist, I expected this book to be predictable and that I would be disappointed. I was so wrong! I laughed, I cried, and I wanted to stay with the characters just a little bit longer.

In Five Years is a beautiful story. I would recommend this to people who like drama, a strong friendship, and just a dash of romance.

So this book was not what I suspected. I was captivated by the first few chapters and was expecting this epic romance. It went completely sideways for me. It was a good book about friendship and that is the only reason why I will give it 3 stars. If it had a different blurb and plotted just about that, I would have easily given it 5 stars. You go in thinking that this is a love triangle or just romance in general. The author's writing was good though, it just wasn't the story for me.

Arc provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, My Aching Heart! I feel like someone reached inside and ripped it out of my chest!

In Five Years is a beautiful, touching, and revertant love story between two best friends, Dannie and Bella. The two have been inseparable since childhood. Growing up, Bella would spend more time with Dannie’s family than her own.

Dannie is a corporate lawyer, a black and white thinker who lived life by the rules. Whereas Bella was a free-flowing, passionate artist who lived life to its fullest, rules be damned. They supported each other, held each other accountable, and loved the other with the purest love.

This story sneaked up on me. I didn’t expect it to go in the direction it did, and when it did, I broke down. I sobbed. I wept. My heart ached, and I got angry.

How can something so gut-wrenching be beautiful at the same time?

I cannot share the plot with you. I suggest you go into this blind.

This story was complex and thought-provoking. It was compelling and unexpected. It was a beautifully written, heart-wrenching love story.

This book was absolutely heartbreaking, and so, so engrossing. I finished it in one sitting! Our library patrons will love this!

When I first heard about this novel, I was immediately intrigued by the concept. In some ways, I dreaded digging into the story because I worried it could not measure up to the fascinating concept. Thankfully, my worry was ill-founded. Serle is clearly a very talented author and she pulls this story off with grace and aplomb. The story flows well and keeps the reader turning the pages. The characters are multi-faceted and complex in a very genuine way. You feel as if you know them. I found myself quite anxious for how everything would play out in the end. Recommended for fans of smart book club fiction.

In Five Years was SO much more than I was expecting from the synopsis! ♥️⁣
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A brief glimpse into the future rocks Dannie’s carefully crafted world. She attempts to navigate life after this glimpse even though she’s shaken to the core. This is a moving story about life, love, and loss. I loved it and read it in one sitting! The characters are well rounded, the plot moves along nicely, and the author threw some well timed twists into the storyline. ⁣
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Skip the synopsis and reviews, just go into this one blind! 4⭐️ Thank you @atriabooks for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

This book is absolutely phenomenal. I firmly believe that it should be read before reading any reviews so that absolutely nothing about it is spoiled. However for those that do like to read reviews before choosing a book, I will strive to include no spoilers but instead just rave about the premise and its stellar implementation. This book is truly a not-to-be missed book.

What would you do if you had a brief glimpse into the future and saw that you were living a completely different life than the one you were currently living? IN FIVE YEARS tackles this topic when Dannie, a highly driven woman who refuses to stray from the goals she set for herself when she was young, falls asleep and wakes up five years in the future with a different engagement ring, a new apartment, and another man in this new apartment. After spending an hour in the future, Dannie falls asleep and returns to her regular, present-day life. She is shaken by this fateful hour in the future and struggles to return to her structured life continually wondering if what she experienced was a dream, a vision or something else entirely.

The premise for this book is highly original, and Serle’s execution of the concept is both clever and thought-provoking. The entire time I was reading the book I was on the edge of my seat trying to anticipate (1) what would happen next, (2) what would result from her glimpse into the future, and (3) how in the world it was going to end. And thankfully the ending is absolutely perfect.

I just cannot say enough good things about this one – it is a truly fantastic book that will make you really think about your life and your choices. I also think IN FIVE YEARS will make the perfect book club selection because there is so much to discuss – the concept of free will, choosing your own path, pursuing goals at the expense of everything else, and listening to your inner voice.

When I first started I thought I was going to absolutely love this book. It hooked me right from the beginning. I enjoyed the friendship between Dani and Bella but the romance in this book was lacking from a realistic standpoint. Dani doesn’t marry the guy she’s engaged to for 5 years??? Bella’s mom was a little over the top and the relationship with her daughter was strange. The romance between Dani and Greg/Aaron was a little unbelievable. However, the book was a quick read and kept me fully engaged #InFiveYears #NetGalley

More reviews and book-ish content @ <a href="http://www.facebook.com/clubbookmobile">Club Book Mobile</a> & <a href="http://www.andrearbk.com ">Andrea RBK</a>

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle was such an intriguing premise! What I love about this author (and this is my second of her books with the first being The DInner List) is how she takes questions we've all been asked and pondered, and she builds these incredible stories around them. This is a story built around "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Dannie's life is right where she wants to be. She's just interviewed at a prestigious law firm, and she's recently engaged. She goes to bed one night, but when she wakes up the next morning, it's five years later. She's in an unfamiliar apartment with a man she does not know. It is a jarring experience, but she then shakes it off as a dream when she wakes up back in 2020 with the life she knew. Then, 4 1/2 years later, the man from her 2025 "dream" reappears in an unexpected way. Y'all, this was a book packed full of feels. It was the type of book that made me think about my own life as I read Dannie's story. What would I do with that five years later vision? What if it wasn't what I expected? Dannie is someone who loves a plan, and I definitely also related to that need for control as she tried to make sense of what was happening in her life. Additionally, the revelations in this one as the story went emotionally hit me in a way I wasn't expecting. I spent two late nights reading this one because I was so drawn into Dannie's story, and these were the type of plot developments that made me gasp with shock and end up in tears. Again, this author tells her stories in such a unique and captivating way. As soon as I saw I was approved from NetGalley (#appreciateyou) for this, I moved it to the top of my list. This is one you'll want to check out when it's released in March 2020, and in the meantime, you should go read The Dinner List.

I read this book in two days and had to force myself to stop to sleep. The characters are engaging and the settings real. The premise asks "If we knew the future, could we change it?" Dannie, the main character, grapples with this as she learns more lessons about love than she expected, taking the reader along on the ride. In Five Years is rich with the ups and downs of relationships and left me smiling through my tears.

First of all, I truly believe the blurb for this book is wildly dishonest and as a result I find it really difficult to even know how to rate this book- a book that I feel is almost two books. It’s hard to talk about it without spoilers and as a result I can’t say all I’d like to. It definitely wasn’t the book I thought I was getting (that blurb, the whole premise of seeing this glimpse of 5 years from now and it being so radically different than you expected, that’s what drew my attention and if it drew yours as well, I’d caution you that this won’t be what you’re expecting at all!). I also don’t think I would’ve read this book had it been more honest about what it was. The twist this book takes is one that hit too close to home and was not something I wanted to read right now and on one hand, I can’t fault the book or author for this, but on the other part of me wants to give this book a single star for its sheer dishonesty and springing on me a sensitive subject I was unprepared for and otherwise unwilling to read. So some massively mixed feelings that I wouldn’t have, had this book been more upfront about what it is. Of course, if it had been, it would have no hook. The thing it becomes, is not remotely unique, if anything it’s been a bit overdone in recent years. So I’m torn. I’m torn in so, so many ways on this one and don’t even know how to rate it.

Here’s the thing too- I almost stopped reading halfway through. I honestly hated the first half of the book and did not find it to be well written. In the first half our overly Type-A to the point of being almost a stereotype main character Dannie, is very hard to relate to. I found her especially judgmental of her best friend Bella as well, constantly referring to her many boyfriends and supposed inability to finish what she started. She even argues, somewhat pointlessly and repeatedly, with Bella over her memories of their shared history. I struggled in the first half to even understand why these two were friends at all, let alone best friends.

I also had many issues with the writing itself. There’s far too much focus on what everyone is wearing. I was confused at the way Dannie narrates how financially privileged she and her fiancé David are (to an extent I found rather unbelievable for a then 28 year old New Yorker. I say this even having recently read a nonfiction book about New Yorkers who traveled in those kind of privileged circles at that age and as someone in a somewhat less expensive but major city who is not much older) and yet there’s several points where she takes pain to state how careful they are with money to an extent and in a way that didn’t line up with the earlier statements. Frankly that level of wealth and the high powered careers where everything goes exactly right, the repeated mentions of Bella’s beauty (at least Bella clearly comes from wealth. The situation with Dannie was less clear and more unlikely) felt a lot like overblown wish fulfillment, or the amateurish bend of making your characters too perfect with all the things you wish you had. It also made them hard to relate to. And as a Jew myself, I found the way this book esthablishes Dannie and David’s Jewishness to be cringeworthily stereotyped. The words “Shiksa” and “reformed” (which sorry, is not what any actual Reform Jew would call it) even appear. I read a lot of Jewish books and this... was so unnecessary and not ever really relevant either and honestly kind of painful to read.

But the thing about the writing that drove me most insane was the way the guy Dannie dreams of being with in that 5 year into the future hour she sees in advance is constantly referred to by her as Aaron yet when he shows up in the book, he’s introduced as Greg and that’s what everyone else calls him. Yes, his name is apparently Aaron Gregory but that doesn’t really help anything. The book flip flops on his name constantly and I one-hundred percent believe that should’ve been scrapped entirely. It serves zero purpose and is just maddening to read.

AND YET...

All of this aside though, after putting the book down for a day or two, I returned to it and felt almost like I was reading a whole different book! As much as I did not want to read the subject matter of where this book twists and goes into in the second half, it was written SO MUCH better. I still had a few issues here and there but suddenly the characters become much more likable and I will absolutely hand it to the author- we see some major character growth in this book and as much as I couldn’t connect to and disliked Dannie in the first half, she definitely grew on me. I do still wish Bella had gotten more of a chance to shine or that we could’ve seen her more honestly, instead of mostly through Dannie who was so dismissive of her and demeaning in the first half. Only late in the book does Dannie realize how much she misjudged her friend and well, I think both Dannie and Bella would’ve been easier to connect with and care for if some of those changes and realizations had come sooner, perhaps.

There’s some weird threads in this that never really seemed fully fleshed out. In some ways the premonition of the future Dannie has that the whole book title and blurb are based on seemed rather unnecessary. The whole story could’ve been told without that and it wouldn’t have changed any, except the blurb might’ve been more honest and maybe we could’ve avoided some of the painfully frustrating and not as well written early parts of the book. The main story within is written surprisingly well. I wouldn’t have chosen to read a story like that at this space and time in my life so if anything I think it speaks volumes that I ended up liking that part so much. It’s everything else though, that just didn’t really fit and made a mess of this story.

Speaking of messes, this review feels long and messy as well. I’ve stepped away and reread and revised it a few times but this is such a tough one for me to write. If my review is a bit all over the place, honestly so is the book. It’s also hard to say much when the whole premonition or dream Dannie has that the title and blurb are so focused on, really isn’t much of the book at all. It’s like a gimmick that bookends the real story, a story that while well written isn’t exactly unique. So there’s a dishonesty here. And I came in, as I assume most will, wanting to read what this book claimed to be. I don’t know how else to say any of this. There’s a solidly written story within but it’s not the story you’re expecting and all the stuff surrounding what will draw you in or cause you to pick this one up in the first place is what’s poorly written, messy, and perhaps downright pointless. I’m not sure what the author wanted to achieve here but I don’t think it worked. Yet I blew through the last half of the book in an hour or two, enjoyed it, found it so very readable. So 2.5 stars from me, I guess. 2 and a half very conflicted stars.

IN FIVE YEARS was a sweet tear-jerker. I went into it thinking it was a rom-com, but ended up being a lovely story about friendship and being open to life. Living in the fantasy of a New York where the best apartments and restaurants are at your disposal was the most fun part of this book, and I loved the interesting take on the character having a premonition of her life on 5 years — and it’s like nothing she could imagine. It’s a fast read, and heart-warning, and perfect for a rainy afternoon come March 2020.