In Five Years was incredible, heartbreaking, and somehow also heartwarming. I haven’t been able to stop talking about and recommending this book. Absolutely incredible!!

I read this one at the start of the pandemic before I got approved for Netgalley.


It was a quick, emotional read. I enjoyed this one a lot more than The Dinner List. I honestly don't remember much but I do remember crying at the end with Dannie's friend's death. It's tale of heartbreak but also finding one's self when faced with new obstacles.

I listened to this book in one day while I was driving around for work. I was really surprised with where it went. I thought this would be a love story and in a way it was. It was about the bond between 2 friends who have been through everything together and when tragedy happens how they deal with it together. I really enjoyed this book!! But be prepared to cry!

✨in five years✨

This book tells the story of Dannie, who is a type A, high achieving lawyer, engaged to her hedge fund manager fiancé, living the life she always imagined for herself. One night she has a dream five years in the future; she’s with another man, in another apartment and it feels like a premonition. Throughout the story, we see why Dannie thinks this vision may come true. .
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This book was not what I expected it to be at all! It’s less of a romance and more of a story of friendship and growing into your own. I did enjoy reading it but I feel like it lacked a lot of character and relationship development. There were points where I didn’t understand why the characters were feeling certain ways or doing certain things. (I would give specific examples but I don’t want to spoil it😅) Having said that, I did enjoy the twist at the end which helped explain things a little bit!
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Overall, this is a good book and I did enjoy reading it. Worth the read IMO! 3.5/5⭐️

Dannie thinks life is great and has a plan, but her world is rocked when she has a dream and wakes up in the future. I don't want to say too much for spoilers, but it's clear things in this future are very different from her plans. The book is an interesting look at life, love, friendship, and planning. The end isn't tidy, but it is hopeful.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great book. Didn’t see the twists coming

Enjoyed the audio

The dream effect was interesting.
The friend wanting her friend to be with her boyfriend in the end was different.

Note: I read this book through my local library prior to receiving the e-ARC from the publisher.

Dannie, a high-powered attorney living in NYC, gets her dream job and her dream man all in the same day. Just after her boyfriend proposes marriage, Dannie falls asleep and awakens 5 years in the future- in an apartment that is not hers and with a man that is definitely not her fiance. After an hour in the future, she falls asleep again and reawakens in her own time. For the next four and a half years, she wonders about whether this future with this man she does not know will come true. When her best friend introduces Dannie to her new boyfriend, Dannie whole world changes.

This was a sweet read. I thought it would be a straightforward romance read, but the twist towards the end of the novel really took it in a different direction. There was not much in the way of character development apart from the main character, and even then she wasn't a very likable character. The story was very much plot-driven, as the reader, like Dannie, is curious whether her vision of the future will come true.

This book is a quick and easy read. The ending is very sad yet also hopeful, and overall it was well worth the read. It is not on the level of A Walk to Remember or Me Before You (which both had me sobbing by the end), but if you want a sweet romance that is actually something more, pick up this book.

I just received the approval for this book (in October). I went ahead and purchased a copy back in March when the book was released since my approval was still pending on NetGalley.

This book was definitely a page turner for me. It ended up taking a slightly different turn than what I originally expected but I still found myself completely engaged in the story line. And the ending…. what a complete shocker that was! I may have ugly cried.

What a sweet book. I enjoyed reading it. It didn’t turn out at all how I was thinking. But it was a good book.

Gosh I wanted to love this book, but I was cringing and not too happy by the end. The set up was great and I even went along with about the first half, but the rest of it - especially the last 10% or so - are just terrible. The characters just stopped making since were downright uncharacteristic. And we never got to understand why the main character had that dream/vision in the first place. All in all, it was an interesting premise that never really worked out for me. Disappointing 2 stars.

The writing and characters are top notch. I'm drawn to modern day romances but this one had a twist I wasn't expecting.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for the advanced copy for review.

Excellent story of love and friendship. It is not the love story you expect. Be sure to have a box of kleenex nearby. It will break your heart a little bit each page...💕

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy of In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. Such a great love story.. with an interesting time twist. Dannie Cohan, seemingly has it all.. She has the perfect job interview and things are moving along with her boyfriend. Yet one night she has a dream that shows a life she couldn’t imagine. The dream feels so real and yet is seems opposite of everything she ever wanted. When she wakes up... from this “dream” she spends the next five years trying to forget the dream life. Until one day she meets the man of her dreams and things begin to unravel. I read this book in one sitting.. it was heartbreaking, heartwarming and funny all at once. Such an interesting take on what we have and what we want and what we never thought could happen. This was a four star read for me. I have recommended it to friends and family and on my Instagram account.

I loved this book!! Great story!! 1st book I have read by this author will read more of her books!! I received the book from netgally after it was released so I read it from the library!!

4 Friendship Stars

This novel is a romance, but I think it is much more the story of a lifelong friendship between Dannie and Bella. Friends since they were seven, the two of them approach life very differently, but have a strong bond of friendship. Dannie has her life completely mapped out, career, love life, etc. while Bella is much more spontaneous.

Early in the book, Dannie has a key job interview and important relationship milestone all locked down on her timing. That night, though, she dreams that she is five years in the future in a different place with a different man. Was it just a dream or a magical premonition? Dannie doesn’t think much of it until years later, when she meets the man in the dream. I must say this reminded me a bit of “You Were There Too” but I still enjoyed this book.

This one ended differently than I expected but overall, I liked it. I did have to break out the Kleenex and that brought my rating up by .5 stars.

All the feeeels! 😭
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the eARC of In Five Years in exchange for an honest review.
This is a story about the pursuit of goals, of love and friendship, and of the proverbial "five year plan".
Set in amazing New York, the story is told through Dannie alongside Bella, David and Aaron. Dannie's unexplained glimpse into her life five years down the road offers up questions and confusion on how life takes turns into completely unexpected places.
I inhaled this book in less than a day - it's a quick read but not simplistic.
It's thoughtful and heartbreaking and even nostalgic; lovely writing from Rebecca Serle. Recommended!

This was a fantastic read! Definitely a different story than I was expecting but I really enjoyed it!

Two years ago, I read Rebecca Serle’s The Dinner List (see my review HERE) so when I received a copy of her newest book In Five Years from Atria books, I had a feeling I would love it. What I didn’t know was that this was going to a tear jerker. In Five Years is advertised as a contemporary romance and while it’s a love story, it is not your typical lovey dovey romance story. It honestly was not what I was expecting at all.

Dannie Cohen’s life has gone exactly to plan. She’s landed her dream job as a corporate lawyer and she just got engaged to her boyfriend. The only thing holding her back at this point is an hour long ‘vision’ of herself. The vision, five years out, shows her living in a different apartment and with a different man. Yikes. This vision has a lasting impact on Dannie and subconsciously she begins to let it impact her life. Mainly she cannot seem to set a wedding date.

*SPOILERS*

While we start the book in 2020, the majority of the book takes place in 2025. Serle tricked me into thinking the main love story of this book would be between Dannie and her fiancé and potentially a third person. Except that’s not what this book is about at all! That is a side story and there is no love triangle! The love story itself is all about friendship and between Dannie and her best friend Bella. And no it’s not because they have romantic feelings for each other.

For the first half of the book is mainly about Dannie being an awesome corporate lawyer and not getting married. The second half of the book is when the story really kicks in. In 2025, Bella finds that she has ovarian cancer and while it’s fast, she’s gone before the end of the year. I would have started giving this book a 3.5 rating but the ending and the way Serle wrote the friendship between Bella and Dannie was absolutely beautiful. I could feel the completely unconditional love between the two. All I could think about was that this was a prime example that your family really are the people who are there for you when the going gets stuff. They are the ones who sacrifice for you, who think of you through your own suffering, and who put you before themselves. Blood has nothing to do with it.

The relationship between the two friends was really what sold me on this book. Also the fact that Serle’s writing made me actually shed a few tears just added the extra 1.5 stars to give this book a ★★★★★ rating for me. At 250 pages you can read this book in a day but make sure you have some tissues.



I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on In Five Years. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof_books. Huge thank you to Atria books for my advance copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars.

Okay...first off, this did not go ANYTHING like I expected from the blurb. And guess what? I'm totally not mad about it. In fact, I think it was actually better than I could have expected. This is much less of a contemporary romance and much more of a contemporary tale of friendship. And it's great.

The writing is good and measured and well thought out (though there are admittedly moments of tangential thought...I could have done without the seagull scene, thank you very much). The characters were well-constructed and balanced (though Dannie and David's lifestyle and relationship are very much not my style). Dannie is a great lead character. She is driven and focused and well-suited for her career in corporate law. It's also clear early on that her friendship with free spirit Bella is something that lends itself so that they can each learn things from the strengths of the other.

There is a lot wrapped in this narrative that presents representation for New York City, particularly with regard to restaurants/food and specific neighborhoods. This didn't mean a whole lot to me other than creating atmosphere, but (assuming accuracy) would likely be endearing/nostalgic for a New Yorker.

The plot moves at a comfortable speed with good emotional moments and has a strong ending that was honestly just right. It wasn't what I was expecting, but...again...not angry about it. It fit and it worked quickly to assuage any "icky" feelings that might have otherwise cropped up. I really enjoyed thing and, though I'm not a huge contemporary reader, I'm definitely going to be reading more Rebecca Serle.

In In Five Years, we meet Dannie Cohan, a lawyer who has just nailed the interview for her dream job, and accepted her boyfriend’s proposal. She’s on top of the world! However, in a dream, she wakes up five years from that night, in an apartment she doesn’t know, wearing an engagement ring that isn’t hers, and there is a man in the apartment that isn’t her new fiance. After a short bit of time, she wakes up back in the present day, having fallen asleep after a lot of celebratory champagne. Dannie is confused as can be, and spends a great deal of time trying to stop what happened in her dream as she lives her life. I’ll stop my synopsis there, as to avoid spoilers.

Y’all, I loved this book. Rebecca Serle just became a must read author for me. Her writing is flowy and beautiful, and she adds just the right amount of details so that you feel like you’re walking next to Dannie as she moves through her life. It was an easy plot to get lost in with likeable characters, making it the PERFECT read for me right now. Don’t get me wrong, it was very sad in some sections. The parts of the plot, along with how Dannie, Bella, Aaron/Greg, and David react to them, would make for some fantastic, in depth discussions about character motivation.

The audio version of In Five Years is fabulous as well. The reader does a great job of switching between the different characters and making her voices distinctly different.