I love it when I read a blurb which sounds so different. I’m always on the lookout for books which have a unique premise and authors I haven’t read before so I thought I’d give it a go. The title also had me intrigued but little did how know the journey it would take me on!

Dannie is a typical type ‘A’ personality. She likes order to her life both personally and professionally. She a successful attorney she her jobs suits her well. Everything is planned and organised down to the very last detail well, all except her wedding to her long term boyfriend, David. Her job does keep her busy and it seems like the planning of her wedding is forever on her ‘To Do’ list!

“I saw what was coming, but I did not see what it would mean.”

Dannie’s best friend, Bella, could not be more opposite if she tried. She’s the type of girl who is always on the go and trying new things. She certainly has no plans to have the life Dannie has planned and wants to live every day as it comes but when she meets ‘The One’ this is where the story takes an interesting turn.
After a very surreal dream of where Dannie sees her life 5 years ahead she begins to question everything. Circumstances evolve around her which she has no control over which really turns everything she hold dear on its head. Dannie was a truly likeable character and I truly admired how she loved her bestie, Bella. The scenes between these too were extremely emotional and at times heart-breaking.

“You mistake love. You think it has to have a future in order to matter, 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.”

This read is not your conventional romance read but one of living your life the best you can and hoping you make the right choices. The story bounces from present to future which is certainly new to me. I’m not normally a fan of a change in timeline as sometimes it can often be confusing but this was done very well. Not ever did I feel the story was lost in the detail. At times I admit I cried as it’s a thought provoking read and does contain a very sensitive subject matter which some readers may find hard to read. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this well written story and even months on it still pops into my mind.

Thank you to @RebeccaASerle and @QuercusBooks for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Dannie Kohan has planned her entire life meticulously and there is no room for deviation, so when she interviews for her dream job and gets engaged all in the same day everything is going just as it should. Until she dreams about herself, five years in the future to the day and everything is wrong. The apartment is wrong, her engagement ring is wrong and her man is 100% wrong.

The dream has knocked her for six, but soon becomes something she just writes off as a silly dream. Until four and a half years later when Dannie bumps into the dream man and he is most definitely real.

General Thoughts 🤔

This book ended up being something completely different to what I was expecting. I don't want to give too much away and spoil it but it truly did surprise me and totally in a good way. This is a story about love and relationships and happiness and heart ache but not in the way that I expected.

I haven't read a book that's made me shed a tear in a while, but I lay in bed last night with tears falling down my face as I finished this book. Sad tears and happy tears all mixed together and for so many different reasons.

Characters 👫👭👬

When I first started reading, I knew straight away that Dannie was a younger me. The Dannie with the five year plan, the milestones, the controlling girl. I'd like to think I've kind of grown out of some of the negative sides of that by now and I feel like Dannie did the same.

I also have friends just like Bella and have a friendship dynamic just like Dannie and Bella do. It's kind of the stereotypical childhood friendship; one achiever, the A-type and one fanciful "live in the moment" friend. It's a friendship pairing that I'm sure nearly everyone can relate to in some way.

Writing Style ✍🏽

When I first started reading I thought this book had the potential to turn into some kind of supernatural, time travel romantic sci-fi but I was proved very wrong and I loved how this book ended up being something completely different.

Rebecca Serle has a fantastic talent for making the reader emotive and drawn in to the story as well as putting themselves into the shoes of the characters. I related to each and every character in this book at some point and and I think that is what ultimately makes a book tug on the heartstrings.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This was a perfect Sunday afternoon read and I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a book to snuggle up with and shed a tear or two (we all know we need a good cry now and again). The beginning made me question what on earth was happening, the middle made me smile and weep and the ending tied everything off with a perfectly satisfying bow. Fabulous book!

The tag line for this novel by Rebecca Serle couldn’t be more apt! This is certainly not your average romance fiction; it’s hardhitting, gritty and has moments that will take your breath away.

Its depiction of the characters and their interactions is thought-provoking and harrowing at times as the reader is drawn into the complex world of the different relationships contained within the story.

The emotional and heartfelt examination of the power and depth of true friendship is one that lingers in the memory long after you finish the book. A fantastic read!

I cannot for the life of me decide how I feel about this book. It certainly had some twists and turns that I absolutely did not see coming. I read a very similar (in concept) ARC a few months ago and absolutely detested it but here, the concept of having a dream about what happens five years in the future - strangely worked? It drew me in, at least, and kept me reading until the bittersweet ending. However, I did not connect with the protagonist at any point - I understand why she is characterized in almost direct opposition to her best friend Bella who I really enjoyed reading about.
I also didn't completely get why Dannie did a lot of the things she ended up doing, considering that her "telling" never seemed to quite follow what she was "showing" the reader. The same goes for her fiancé - in general, all the characters could have been more fleshed out, they were very one-dimensional in terms of their goals, dreams, and general likes and dislikes. I understand that Dannie's personality had to be read like a spread sheet, but the same did not have to be the case for every person she knows.
It was a very quick read, though. The writing was engaging and fast-paced and kept me flipping those pages - I'm also almost relieved at the way the book ended considering this could have turned out to be very cliché and instead took a very unexpected but appreciated turn in the last few pages.

What an amazing book!
Dannie stands in a flat with a strange man only a few hours after getting engaged. She sees her life as it will be in five years time.
When I started the story it was like a few others I had read recently, and I though boring and same with little imagination. How wrong I was.
The story then proceeds to tell us about her life and the heart wrenching yet heartwarming events of those five years.
The latter part of the book is unexpected and beautifully written.
I highly recommend this book.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Do you live for the moment or do you have your future all mapped out?

In Five Years is a poignant and beautifully written story about self-discovery and relationships that had me engaged from the very first page and I read it within a day. It is narrated through the eyes of Dannie with an almost ethereal quality and the anticipation was built up wonderfully. This story took me by surprise as it’s not your typical girl-meets-boy romance, it’s an exploration of human connections in various forms and the notion of fate and whether it is possible to alter your destiny.

The exquisite details in the writing allows you to be fully immersed in the story, to visualise the characters as if you are right there with them and to be transported to the various locations feeling the crisp breeze against your skin or feeling the cool water as you dip in your toes. I loved the deftness in which Rebecca Serle interwove the dream sequence into the overall story and that it wasn’t a straight forward romance and the friendship between Dannie and Bella was one of my favourite aspects.

I ultimately settled with 4⭐️ for In Five Years. Throughout this read I was expecting to be really emotionally affected but I didn’t quite get there. I know that many of my fellow readers connected emotionally with this story and I highly recommend checking out this book for yourself! I enjoyed The Dinner List and In Five Years and I look forward to reading more from Rebecca Serle in the future.

Huge thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing a copy for review

What would you change if you could see an hour of your future?
This is the story of Dannie Kohan; she has an interview for her dream job, has the perfect boyfriend (soon to be fiancée) and the best girl friend ever. But everything will change when just after the interview she will see herself in the future (just one hour), in an amazing apartment and engaged to another man. How could it be possible? She had everything planned and now this will change her plans completely, but this is a dream or has she seen the future?
This is an emotive story, Dannie seems to have the perfect life, but thanks to a “dream” she will not know what’s her life anymore, this story is about friendship, love and emotions. Would you change your present if you could see your future? I always believed that is not easy to change the future, that what you “see” is what you’ll have, all your actions will let you directly to your future, so… Who is the man Dannie saw on her dream? Will all her plans change for him?
I’ll say that this book is not really what I was expecting, not because the book is good or bad, but for the “theme” on it; I was expecting something funny and happy and this was not the book for it. This doesn’t mean the book is not good, don’t get me wrong, but instead of laughs I had tears… not what I was looking for!
I know that with the plot you can’t know much about the story, but if I tell you more there will be spoilers for sure, so this is a romance story, with a major twist, but emotive and sad, that will stay on your mind for a long time.
Ready to discover In Five Years?

*3.5 stars rounded up*

I’m not sure how to feel about this book. People are either gonna love it, hate it or feel meh about it, maybe even DNF it angrily like I wanted to so many times. And I had all these feelings. Do NOT go into this expecting a romance. I was going to rail angrily at this book until I read the acknowledgments by the author.

“[of fate and love] Even after midnight, especially after midnight. Continue moving toward that which is moving toward you.”

And that is what it’s about. But I feel sulky about it. I feel irritated and angry and I want to yell and scream at the unfairness of this book. Certainly do not go expecting something similar to One Day in December or Remember Me?. I thought the plot would be as predictable as those but everything went left and I was a blubbering mess. I don’t know if I hated or loved it. If I knew what how the central conflict was solved (the dilemma of the experience she had 5 years ahead vs the present), I wouldn’t have picked up this book. I would have actively avoided it. To its credit, the trope was not written in an angsty trauma porn way. However, the use of it did and does not sit well with my spirit. I do feel there’s some glamorisation of these types of stories (if you read it you’ll know what I mean)

I cried reading this book. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be cold and unfeeling but what was happening was so personally real to me and I hated that life is not linear. The tale of friendship was so palpably real and strong and I strongly feel it could have done without the (seemingly) romance element. It felt like there were two stories running concurrently and they did not mesh at all. When the mesh happened I felt cheated. It was too easy. Like all the things she did in those 5 years were for nothing. Oh yes, the same conclusion could have occurred, the author makes it clear with the clinical way the present relationship is described, but the journey to the end feels like a lie.

What touched me was the story of friendship here. I wish we had more Bella. Poor Bella. I wish we got more of her, less of Aaron. I didn’t even see the point of Aaron. I saw more of a point of Dr. Shaw (even David!) than Aaron (even if that also annoys me). Aaron was just there to irritate me and justify the premise of this plot.

This is something I can only say to read for yourself and see. I suspect there will be mixed feelings about it. That’s what I like about it mostly. I felt like I was going through all the stages of grief.

Dannie has a dream or is it a premonition? She sees herself as she will be in five years time BUT that isn't have she expected things to pan out. She has been in a steady relationship for years, has the job she always wanted and expected this would be how things would continue.

I felt as if I knew all the main characters and lived this journey along with them.

Oh this was a rollercoaster of a read, all the emotions from this book. I absolutely devoured this book! the minute I started reading until I put it down, I lapped you every bit of this wonderful novel.

This is a story about love, but not your typical love story. It shows love in all its forms; from the most ecstatic times to the truly sad. The book deals with love as in romance, but also love as part of a friendship and this is what makes this story about love unique.

Dannie and Bella have such a wonderful friendship in this book and the author conveys this beautifully. Although extremely sad at points, it’s also a book about hope and knowing your worth, not settling for second best.

Definitely a tear jerker, with a few twists and turns along the way! Rebecca Serle writes thoughtfully and beautifully throughout the whole book.

Enjoyed reading this book..
The story of Dannie & David. Their friend Bella. Both working and enjoying their lives, getting engaged. Dannie has a dream of five years down the line. But she can’t think what it means.
One day they meet Bella’s boyfriend who Dannie recognises from her dream, only his name is different.
Then Bella, think she’s pregnant after doing a test whilst they all are on holiday, but it turns out to be something else.
This book tackles issues that affect most of us, was sad reading it. Definitely recommend it.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Out this week!

Dannie’s life is going to plan. She’s flying high in her career as a Manhattan lawyer and she just got engaged to her perfect boyfriend. Then, one night, she falls asleep and wakes up in a completely different apartment. The year on the news shows she is exactly five years in the future. She’s with a completely different guy, and has a different engagement ring on her finger. She lands back in present day, wobbled, but thinking it’s all a dream. Then, four and a half years later, she meets the guy from the dream in real life... The set-up of this book is very compelling. I thought I knew where it was going but then half-way through it took a completely unexpected turn and it wasn’t the story I expected it to be.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I can say this is a book full of heart and love. It’s emotional and deals with heart-wrenching subjects. It’s also a lesson in how life is all about the journey, not the destination. Dannie’s premonition shook her. She could see that life wasn’t going to go the way she expected, however as events unfolded; the place she ended up held less importance, it was the series of events that took her there that held the biggest meaning.

I love anything with a twist and raced through this. However, there was one pretty big element that I couldn’t quite get my head around - as soon as you’ve finished it, you’ll want to discuss it with someone else who has! Great choice for a book club.

You’d like this if you enjoyed: Me Before You, The Man Who Didn’t Call, Something Borrowed.

#InFiveYears
Thank you @QuercusBooks for the advance copy.

Earlier this year, a lot of Twitter accounts I follow started raving about this upcoming love story. I am a total sucker for love stories -especially unexpectedly unique ones- and In Five Years seemed to fit that bill. I am delighted to be able to say that I’m right here on the blog tour, thanks to the lovely people at Quercus!

Dannie Kohan is a NYC lawyer who has mapped out her life according to a strict timeline. At a big job interview, she is asked where she sees herself in five years time and she knows exactly what to say. That night, her boyfriend David proposes and Dannie is right on track to nailing her five-year plan. Then she wakes up in 2025 in an apartment that isn’t hers with a man she has never met. After a confusing hour, she wakes up again and finds herself back in 2020 with David in the apartment she knows. So what was that? A very intense and vivid dream? Or a vision of the future that suggests Dannie’s next five years may not go exactly to plan?

One of my favourite things about this book is its realistic take on the long-term relationship and its admittance that they don’t always work out. So many romance novels feature couples that have supposedly been together for years and yet they still appear to have a mostly hearts-and-flowers relationship. Dannie gradually comes to the realisation that although she’s safe and comfortable, she isn’t happy and it spurs her on to want more for herself. I know there are so many people in relationships who feel exactly like this and I hope this book inspires them to be brave and really live their best lives.

Dannie and her best friend Bella have a truly beautiful, perfectly complemented relationship. A lot of my tears were triggered by it but I’m not going to talk too much about the plot in this review. It’s rare that two women in their thirties have a friendship that is quite as special as theirs and we’d all be extremely lucky to have a Bella. I could sense a physical glow around her, which is actually quite prophetic and it makes perfect sense.

In Five Years is a love story but it can be read as a love story in many different ways. It’s a romantic love story, it’s a platonic love story, it’s a self-love story. There are some lovely thought-provoking sentiments that make the reader pause and reflect for a moment. It asks us to re-assess what constitutes a healthy, successful relationship and re-educate ourselves on what love really is.

Certain elements of the book including the subtle twists and heart-wrenching plot points reminded me of the work of both Taylor Jenkins Reid and Josie Silver. It has that same life-affirming vibe that made me fall in love with the current wave of women’s romantic fiction. I finished the book with my eyes full of tears, my heart full of fuzz and my head full of hope. It serves as a stark reminder that we can’t ever plan for all of the bumps and potholes that life will put in our way and that we simply need to live every day as if it’s our last. If that’s not the most worthy, powerful message that a book can give its readers, I don’t know what is.

Oh my goodness, Rebeca Serle you certainly know how to tug on those heartstrings! I absolutely loved The Dinner Party and had to have this book. In Five Years is not the book that you think it is going to be - and I say that in a good way. It is so much more than you expect and I could not love it more. I devoured it in 2 nights of reading and did not want it to end.

This is another book that you don't want to know too much about before you read it. It is a beautiful story of love, friendship, control and acceptance. It is an emotional roller coaster and it had me ugly crying late at night. This is hands down the best book I have read so far this year and I will recommend it to anybody who will listen.

What I will say is this... Dannie is a lawyer in New York City. She has an interview for her dream job on the same say that her boyfriend proposes to her. After dinner in the most exclusive restaurant in town she comes home and falls asleep on the couch. She wakes up exactly Five years in the future in 2025. She is living in a loft apartment on the other side of the city and is more than just friends with the handsome Aaron. It is so real and vivid that it shakes her - what does it all mean> Does it mean anything?

That is all I think I can say without spoiling anything. You seriously need to read this book - and have no distractions - you will bot be sorry1

Thank you so much to Quercus Books and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read.

TW: cancer, death

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for sending me an eARC copy of this book! I had to request it after seeing all the hype about it.

Ohh this was a good read. I absolutely love that the message at the heart of this book is the love of friendship; whenever I feel a bit low about the fact that I’m single, I remind myself how lucky I am to have so many amazing friends that love me and that have known me in good and bad times. I don’t think I could ever say I’m lonely. And that’s what we get with Bella and Dannie; they have each other’s backs until the end.

I also like that this book didn’t take us on the path we were expecting, it kept it intriguing but it also marred it a bit for me because Aaron and Bella were so in love that imagining Aaron and Dannie together just felt wrong. I appreciate that when it did happen, it was in grief, but it didn’t quite sit right with me.

I do wish we got to know more about Dannie as a character; we know about her job and her relationship but I never got the sense of her as a person. I didn’t feel like I could connect to her as much as I wanted to.

There was something lacking for me with this book though and I’m not sure what it was! I really wanted it to be a five-star read but it just didn’t reach that level for me.

I did enjoy this book and think it was well done, but it’s not necessarily one I’d be in a rush to read again.

4 stars

TW: Cancer, death of a loved one.

I am going to start off this review by saying that I could not put this book down. This book may only be 250 pages but it certainly packs a punch.
The byline of "This is a love story but not the love story you're expecting" was certainly right. It isn't a story with romantic love at the forefront, but the love of friendship and sisterhood. The story was so different to how I expected but I felt all the emotions throughout this book which shows what a beautiful story and how well written it is.

Our main female lead Dannie is a smart and strong woman that is dedicated to her goals and maybe a little too set in her ways. I loved seeing her growth through the book. Her best friend Bella is a beautiful, carefree and loving character and I loved their dynamics.

I could go into so much about this book but I want to keep this review spoiler free. If you love character driven stories with friendship at the forefront, then you should DEFINITELY read this book. It is a gem.

Thank you to @quercusbooks for gifting this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was not a fan of this book at all. I found it extremely boring and gave up reading it about a third of the way in.
I know that this will not be a popular opinion but it was not for me

Rebecca Serle begins In Five Years with Dannie, a lawyer, starting a new day and going for a job interview. The question is where does she see herself in five years?
Her boyfriend has just proposed and she’s happy. She falls asleep….and ends up five years in the future where she’s in the home of a guy named Aaron.
She’s left shaken by the dream and wondering what it means. An important support in her life is her friend Bella who she’s known since they were small.
Rebecca Serle drops a childhood memory here or there and we get an insight into Dannie and Bella’s friendship. I’d have liked these memories to be more detailed as I felt they got interesting but needed more to truly impact and move me.
The pace in In Five Years is quick, which is good, (I finished the novel in a day) but at times it was WAY too quick- for example four and a half years have flown by by the time you hit around the 30-35% mark in the ebook.
This was the first thing I felt was off with the novel, I’d have liked more details in this section as to what happened in that timeframe as I actually took a deep breath and went “WOW- that was QUICK!”
I kept on with the novel, and was immersed at the midpoint/ middle of the book. Here, I found the pacing easier to cope with.
I felt for Dannie and Bella at times and could see how close they were. I liked Bella’s clothing style. In fact, both hers and Dannie’s outfits were well described and their individual tastes in fashion came through well.
The other problem I had with the book is that Dannie is wandering around New York City and these parts are detailed, but not so detailed that I felt really immersed in the surroundings.
I also found I couldn’t connect too much with the characters a lot of the time, but there were some romantic parts in the book, just don’t expect a full blown romance.
In Five Years is romance mixed with challenges, heartbreak discovery friendship memories and good and bad times.

The ending was kind of expected and also not- I certainly felt that the way it ended had enough plot left for the book to have a few extra chapters, but then again it also leaves room for a sequel.

Thanks to Rebecca Serle and publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

4 stars (3.5 in some parts).

I loved every second of reading this book, honestly couldn't put it down. This was just the kind of entertaining read I needed.

I loved this book - totally not what I was expecting. Starts off as fairly lightweight, but soons turns serious. I’m not certain the hook was completely plot-hole proof, but the ending was very clever.