Heard great things about this book so bumped it up to the top of my tbr list. Right from the first page I knew I was going to love this book. New York setting, romance and intrigue whats not to like. I thought I knew where the story was headed but I was wrong. Highly recommended.

Such an unexpected heartbreakingly beautiful love story.

When I began “In Five Years” by Rebecca Serle I had expected a love story and I found a love story but not the one you would expect, a couple of unexpected turns and then it hits you the most amazing love story of all.

This would have to be one of my top reads so far for 2020!

A big thank you to Netgalley, Quercus and Rebecca Serle for an ARC of this amazing book!

Dannie has her life planned. She has a great job. A great boyfriend. And an amazing friend. On the night of her engagement she wakes up in a different apartment with a different man and a different ring.

I really enjoyed this book. Dannie's character is quite likeable. I will say that I feel the synopsis of this is misleading. This is not merely a romance read. While there is some of that, I felt it was more of a connection about friendship, life-long important friendship. It was beautifully written.

There became a bit of predictability towards the last third. I knew what was coming and yet I was eager to see how it played out on the pages. I'm not always a fan of first person stories, but I was not annoyed by this one one bit. It was done very well.

I listened to an audio version as well as the ebook format for this read. It was fast-paced and not terribly long. I will say, have some tissues nearby.

Thank you to both Netgalley and Quercus for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not crying… You’re crying.

I adored In Five Years.
Although, it definitely was not what I was expecting!
Be prepared, have tissues handy when reading this book!

The biggest & most unexpected love story of 2020
This is a love story, brimming with joy and heartbreak
But it is definitely not the love story you are expecting…

I should have paid more attention to the “But it is definitely not the love story you are expecting…” Although I don’t think this would have softened the heartbreaking blows though.

“Happiness. The enemy of all suffering.”

When Dannie “wakes up” in a different apartment, with a different man and ring on her finger, you think for sure that you’ll get a somewhat happy ending right? WRONG!

Ugh! There is so much that I want to say about this book, but I don’t want to spoil it for everyone!! So I’m going to stick to the basics

Rebecca Serle has done such an amazing job with this story, while the characters aren’t always likeable, they are real.
David is probably the nicest, most forgettable character I have read about, I actually forgot his name haha. But that is just David. And he fit into Dannie’s life so perfectly!
Aaron is the opposite. But I loved how he stuck with Bella throughout everything!

My favourite character by far, was larger than life Bella.
I loved Dannie and Bella’s friendship! Their story was so sweet and heartbreaking!

This was actually me while reading In Five Years
While the content of the book is tough to read, the writing is not. The story flows so well! I read In Five Years in one night because I just couldn’t put it down! Will definitely be picking up all the books by this author!!!

“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.”

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a copy of In Five Years!
This has in no way affected my views or opinions.

The main protagonist of In Five Years is Dannie Kohan, a 28-year-old corporate lawyer who lives in New York. She seems to have everything sussed in her life – she has a lovely boyfriend, David Rosen, also 28, who works in finance as an investment banker and they have an apartment in Murray Hill that overlooks Third Avenue.

Dannie does everything by numbers and has a plan: she’s very ambitious, likes to be in control and knows exactly what she wants and when. She knows how long it takes her to get ready in the morning, how long it takes to walk to work and she believes that 20 months is the ideal time to date before you move in with someone, 28 is the best age to get engaged and 30 is the right age to be married.

Dannie and David even have a five-year plan themselves, which they devised after six months of dating when they realised things were serious between them. Their ultimate aim is to live in Gramercy and for Dannie to be a senior associate and aspiring junior partner and David will be working at a hedge fund for more money and less corporate bureaucracy.

It’s 15 December 2020 when we first meet Dannie, on the day of her interview at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, the top law firm in the city, the place she’s always wanted to work since she was 10 years old and what she’s been aiming for ever since then. She’s focused, organised and determined, she’s prepared well and, as expected, aces the interview. To celebrate, David has made a reservation at the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of the 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which has amazing views of the city skyline, and Dannie knows that this is the night he’s going to propose. It sounds incredible!

The couple have a dance, eat their salad and lobster, drink champagne and wine and finish their desserts but David still doesn’t propose. Eventually, he gets down on one knee, says some lovely things and pops the question and it’s perfect. Two hours later, the couple are back home and ordering Thai food online and then Dannie falls asleep on the couch.

She wakes up and doesn’t recognise where she is. She’s in a loft apartment in Dumbo, Brooklyn, that overlooks the Manhattan Bridge and there’s a different engagement ring on her finger and a strange man starts talking to her! On the TV, the news is on and she sees a graphic showing the date, which is 15 December 2025! While the man makes them some food, she looks in his wallet for his driving licence and discovers he’s called Aaron Gregory and is 33. All rather confusing – what’s going on? Dannie is drawn to him and she falls asleep in his arms and when she wakes up, she’s back in her apartment with David and all seems back to normal.

Dannie gets the job and life carries on and she tries to put the dream to the back of her mind, even going for therapy to try and forget it. They follow the plan and move to Gramercy but, for various reasons, the couple don’t get married. Their lives seem perfect but are they really happy? What’s stopping them from taking the plunge?

Four and a half years after she first dreams of Aaron, she meets her best friend, Bella’s new boyfriend, an architect, who is nicknamed Greg but turns out to be Aaron! Dannie is shocked by this revelation and can’t understand how he can be the man from her dream. Her friend, Bella, is smitten by Aaron and their relationship quickly develops and become serious.

After this point, the focus of the book changes and we learn more about Dannie’s friendship with Bella and Aaron. They’ve been friends since they were seven years old but Bella is rather different to Dannie and she’s a great contrast but, at times, they rather clash and aren’t on the same wavelength. Bella falls in and out of love easily, she’s impulsive, dramatic and intense, is rarely awake before noon, always chronically late, enjoys travelling and partying but is rather fragile and emotional.

When the worst happens and life tests them both, we see how strong their friendship is and that they’re loyal, supportive and really care about each other. The story is so poignant and moving but engaging and an easy read, which I really enjoyed.

By the end of the book, Dannie realises that life is unpredictable and throws curveballs and you can’t always plan how things will work out. Things happen, emotions alter, life changes and you’re not always in control of your own destiny. It was certainly a thought-provoking chain of events and made me think there’s more to life than having a plan and following it so rigidly.

In Five Years is cleverly written, a bit different from the norm, and it definitely didn’t pan out how I expected when I began reading the story. It was touching and emotional and really made me think about relationships and friendships. I also enjoyed the descriptions of everyday life in Manhattan and the various bars, delis, buildings and sights. This was my first book by the author but I’m keen to read some of her other books now, especially The Dinner List.

A lot of people are talking about this book and now I’ve read it, I can completely understand why. It is so well done, Serle captivates her readers from the very beginning and I flew through the pages.

Dannie Kohan has planned her entire life- the career she wants in corporate law, the apartment in the right part of New York, the boyfriend whose plans fit with hers. She has a big day, a successful job interview and a romantic proposal from David, life, in her eyes is perfect. But she goes to sleep and then wakes up in a different apartment with a different fiance and the calendar says it is 2025, five years from now. On waking the next morning, she writes the experience off as a bad dream and books an appointment with her therapist. Yet just over four years later she sees the man from her dream and he is very real. Dannie is so confused, this man is not part of her life plan and she becomes even more committed to following the future she has in her head but life has other ideas.

This is very much a love story but not in the way that I expected. Serle looks at different forms of love, family, marriage, friendship and even the love you have for your work. My favourite part of the book was Dannie’s relationship with her best friend Bella and this really drives the second half of the book. Dannie and Bella are complete opposites but they love each other deeply. Bella has to teach Dannie that true love is not necessarily about long term plans but instead the here and now and how we behave towards others in the moment. Dannie has become so fixated on what she should do that she has lost the ability to see that it might not be the right course of action. Bella wants her friend to be happy more than anything and she does everything in her power to show Dannie how to live life a little more and to not give your love to someone half-heartedly.

In Five Years left me with a lovely feeling, I felt like it was a gentle reminder to appreciate what you have whilst not settling for less than you deserve. I loved the exploration of friendship and how deep and significant a true friendship can be. Serle writes about loss in such a beautiful way, the language she uses is honest and poignant.

This book is going to delight so many readers, I’m already looking forward to re-reading Rebecca Serle’s fabulous story.

I was advanced a copy of this book by NetGalley and many thanks to the author Rebecca Serle and the publishers at Quercus Books. Interesting story that took me on a roller-coaster of emotions. Definitely not your normal romance book. Normally I'd shy away from a book that is in the romance category but I'm so happy I read this one.

I am a reader of course but I since I began my second innings as a reader I have mostly been hooked to mysteries, thrillers and crime novels. In between, I have often found that up comes a book- sometimes a non-fiction, a classic, a children's book or any other -that just blows me away. And today if I were to typify the book that I am going to be taking about then I would put it in league with my two other favourites from the similar feeling genre- Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us and Vibha batra's Glitter and Gloss.

Rebecca Serle's In Five Years, isn't really a book that I can put in a particular genre. I might have called it a romance because love runs all along the book as a theme but so does friendship and sisterhood so maybe, women' fiction but then well there are elements of a mystery too in the early pages. So you see my problem and also why I absolutely adored this book and you might too.

In Five Years is the story of an up and coming lawyer Dannie who has a plan in place for her life. She has a perfect apartment, job and a fiancee, and a best friend from her childhood who is more like a sibling, but then she dreams an intriguing dream. There is a man in her dream who feels real to her though she thinks she has found her one true love in her boyfriend-turned-fiancee. To her horror as her life moves absolutely according to her plan, she does bump into the man she saw in her dream, five years ago.


Serle weaves a fast narrative full of action. The book takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions as it weaves together a story of friendship, of finding and losing, of love and loving. The writing is swift and the details, where the book deals with a serious illness, aren't exhausting so the flow almost never breaks. I honestly did not want to put down the book before finishing it. I recommend it highly to anyone who is looking for a change of pace in their reading or just looking for something to bolster their attitude towards life and living.

I was advanced a copy of this book by NetGalley and many thanks to the author Rebecca Serle and the publishers at Quercus Books.

This book totally took me by surprise I have a few romance books that I've been highly anticipating this year and if I'm honest a few have already let me down so I was quite nervous going into this what with that synopsis saying not the love story you're expecting, and while it wasn't the love story i expected i really loved how this story played out.

We follow Dannie getting ready for the interview of her life she knows she's going to nail it and get the job, she knows her boyfriend is going to propose tonight because that's all in her five year plan, what she doesn't expect is for her to fall asleep that night and wake up five years in the future to a life that looks very different from the one she's living now.

This book definitely pulled on the heartstrings and made me cry, I loved every character in here and while it's not really your typical romance book I definitely loved the main love story in here which as the synopsis says it's definitely not the one you're expecting. I Honestly could not put this book down the themes in here are just brilliantly done, and by the end I was a sobbing mess but was so satisfied with the outcome.

If you're looking for a book that will tug at the heartstrings, make your cry and be a story that will stay with you long after I highly recommend this, it's beautifully written and completely surprising and for me was a perfect read.

Thank you so much to the publishers who gifted me a E-ARC via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

‘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’.

I devoured ‘In Five Years’ over the last weekend, as I found myself catapulted in the streets of New York with Dannie, a young carismatic corporate lawyer.
She thinks she has everything under control: her work and love life.She gets the job of her dreams at a famous firm and she becomes engaged to David the very same day.

‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’. How many times we get asked this question during interviews or by family and close friends.The answer might come easy:a good job,a place to call our own,a marriage and a family.But it might not be what you want...nor need.

I would not write any spoiler but I have to say I truly enjoyed the book!Clearly I was not predicting from the cover how the story would have evolved.Not only a romantic story, but an emotional rollercoaster through pure love,real friendship,sorrow,pain and acceptance.

The characters are wonderfully presented and the writing is very enjoyable (with unexpected twists!).
A great portrayal of feelings,relationships and ambition.

Would totally recommend this!
Thanks to Quercus and to Rebecca for this book in exchange of my honest review.

#infiveyears

This was a much more emotional read than I had anticipated. the book centres around the friendship of Danni and Bella, friends since a young age. They lead completely different lives - Danni is a corporate lawyer; high flying and high achieving with her life mapped out. When we join her she is just getting engaged to David. Bella seems more flighty - she's an artist, well off and running a gallery, and flitting from man to man. Danni has a strange dream which takes her 5 years forward where she sees herself with another man in a beautiful apartment. Is it a dream or a premonition? Surely she will marry David? How things unfold is worth reading without spoilers, but I really found this a lovely read where female friendship is at the heart of it. The love story is that of Danni and Bella in my eyes. #infiveyears #netgalley

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The story centres around Dannie a high flying lawyer in her early 30s who thinks she has her whole life planned out, until one night she wakes up 5 years in the future and sees a totally different reality. This snapshot haunts her over the next 5 years and we see the real heart of the story unfold. If you’re anything like me, you’ll convince yourself you’ve figured it out over and over, but I’d be very surprised if you were right! For me, the true ‘love story’ in this book is the friendship between Dannie and Bella and I really loved that focus.
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If you’re looking for a lighthearted romance story, this probably isn’t the book for you as it deals with some difficult topics. It had me in tears at many points and I’m sure a lot of people will find it emotional too. I think Rebecca Serle has written a really special and unique story and has managed to switch up the typical romance story into something new and engaging.

I can't make my mind up if I liked this book or not.... but it was certainly interesting.

Dannie is engaged and has the 'perfect' life, everything is on track according to her life plan, and everything in its place. The only variable is her best friend, Bella, a free-spirit who I really liked and wished we'd seen more of. Then Dannie has a dream involving another man, but 5 years in the future, where she seems to be leading a different life.

Time goes by and life goes on, and five years down the line she meets the guy who was in her dream, but he's with someone else.

There are quite a few twists and turns along the way, and one I really didn't see coming, very clever, the story leads you down one path then all of a sudden you're completely thrown by a storyline you didn't see coming at all.

I think the reason I had reservations about it is because I didn't particularly warm to the main character, Dannie. But I did love the relationship between Dannie and her best friend Bella, who was the star of the book for me really. It was very sad in places too. A book I had mixed feelings about really.

It is causing me great angst in how I can review this beautiful book without any spoilers. Don’t worry I won’t, I just have to work my way around it.

So I went into the book knowing nothing, I didn’t read the back of the book. I just liked the cover and I was taken in by the tag line which reads “ This is a love story but not the love story you’re expecting”.

The main character is Dannie Kohan, she is in her twenties and living life with her boyfriend David in New York. They are both career-driven and Dannie likes to plan life out. But the universe has other roads for Dannie to travel. Side note Dannie likes whitefish bagels, which I had to google. I get that the hint is in the title “whitefish” but I wondered if it was something extra special.


Rebecca Serle did something really unique in writing a story that I have never read before. Most love stories have the same ingredients just mixed around a little with either two results. In Five Years is not that kind of recipe. Also, she gave me a different reading experience, the writing is so good I finished it in the wee small hours of the night. I was left with a sense of WOW and just floored by the journey I had just been on in two hours.


This book is one of those self-reflecting ones. It hits home and you start to think of the people who matter to you in your own life. It hasn’t left me since I finished it last week. This is one book you will want on your bookcases. In amongst the keep books that don’t get given away or leant out.

I have no negative thoughts about the book, my only wonder was would it work without chapter three. Was chapter three necessary? If you have read the book, please let me know if you think it was or wasn’t.


I see this book being a major movie in a year. Streaming on Netflix and becoming a worldwide sensation. Which fills my heart with love and twinkly stars as everyone needs to feel the heartbeat of this wonderful book.

A truly outstanding read that makes you stop, reflect and take stock of your own life.

I loved it.

This novel is a beautiful love story with a twist, it draws you in and breaks your heart (make sure you have your tissues at the ready!) Serle creates a compelling, clever and unique novel with characters that you love and are instantly rooting for.

A read in one sitting kind of book! A love story I wasn't expecting. It gives you all the feels and it deserves all the stars, heart-wrenching and heartwarming & will most certainly stay with you long after you have turned the last page.

Thank-you Quercus & Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an open & honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story started very well but that ending of the book completely ruined it for me. I don't like it and also I didn't get it. It was really weird. I respect the people who read and love this book but I'm a minority in here. Sorry.

Thank you to Quercus Books NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review!

On a superficial level, the cover of this book doesn’t do its contents justice. Consequently, I went into this novel expecting a cheesy, possibly heart-wrenching love story set into the city. Of course you do get some of that, but for the most part this is a captivating and well-paced contemporary romance book.

Dannie is on the brink of getting engaged. Her career is off to a flying start and at her interview, she’s asked ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ She doesn’t miss a beat when she shares her response. However that evening, a newly engaged woman, she wakes up in a different apartment, with a different man and different ring, seemingly five years in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed In Five Years in ways I can’t quite pinpoint. The magnitude of the topics explored is huge and yet the author tackles them brilliantly; love, friendship, being driven by a career… It captures them all beautifully without being overwrought or skimmed over. I haven’t cried at a book in YEARS, and at one point I didn’t even bother trying to turn off the waterworks. One I’ll be recommended to plenty of people for myriad reasons.

From an editor POV: I noticed a few missed spelling errors throughout.

After hearing a few people talk about this I was intrigued.
I went into this thinking it was going to be a cute romance. But it's not. Why did no one I saw mention that? I feel like maybe my expectations wouldn't have been so off. Maybe it would have changed my reading experience. I thought I would have been rooting for Dannie and Aaron.
I flew through this. But at the same time I was struggling to care about any of the relationships. Especially any relating to Dannie. Her character felt flat. I just didn't care. The ending didn't help. It was left way too open for me. I get why that was done but it didn't work for me.

The plot is intriguing and I don't want to spoil it so I'm not going to summarise what happens here. But if you're looking for a beautifully written, well-developed story of life, love, friendship, family and destiny, In Five Years is the one for you. The characters are good, authentic, likeable and relate-able people. My name is Danni too and this book made me want my own Bella!

In Five Years didn't follow the path I expected; it would be very easy to make a book like this follow a stereotypical path (am I being too cryptic here?!) but I was pleasantly surprised to find just the opposite, which added to my enjoyment even more.

With the backdrop of the sparkling lights of New York City, In Five Years shows how even the best laid plans can change in an instant. Sometimes life can get in the way of what you really want ... but can also throw up people and opportunities you'd never expect.

Five wonderful big stars from me! Thank you to NetGalley, Rebecca Serle and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

My heart has just been broken in the most beautiful way and I'm not completely sure if I will ever fully recover.  It completely took my breath away.  I finished a few hours ago and this story and all its feels are still hanging over me.

The trouble is, I have to review it spoiler free and without crying onto my keyboard.

This novel is about pure and utter love, in all guises; Passionate love, love of life, friendship, work, the places in our lives, dependable love, impulsive love and everything in between.  It celebrates all these aspects of life. 

I was a bit complacent and thought I knew exactly where the narrative was heading so I settled in for a tame and cute romance.  Little did I know I was about to get the wind knocked out of me.  The story-telling, setting and characters were completely absorbing and I couldn't put it down. 

Each character had vulnerabilities and flaws and they all linked and complimented each other beautifully. 

I think this is one of my all time favourite novels and I just cannot recommend it enough.  It's a stunning homage to love and friendship and to living life the way you want .