Thank you for the ARC! I adored this book, just as I do every book by Rebecca Serle. Her twists never fail!!!

Expiration Dates
Rebecca Serle
Mar 5, 2024
Atria
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
* magical realism * romance
Loved this book! Serle has done it again! All my emotions are drained in this beautiful 272 page novel.
Serle is a highly skilled writer and you will love this book as it tugs at
Your heart, I am not a typical rom com reader but this book is great!
5 stars

This is a really good read. I liked Daphne and her friendships and her job. She is really a go getter.
I liked seeing the look into her past and all the guys that had come before. I could tell that things with her and Jake, were not totally what she expected and I liked that she really takes time to think about moving forward.
There were some things I wasn't expecting too, but they were good and added to the story.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Expiration Dates is a lovely story about plans, the universe and fate. Daphne Bell thinks that the universe has a grand plan for her to find the love of her life. She receives a piece of paper every time she meets a new man that has the exact time that the relationship will last. When she receives a piece of paper with no date she believes she's found the one.

I thought this was a wonderful read. Several times I thought I had guessed a twist only to be proven incorrect but delighted with how the story was progressing. I found myself rooting for the characters throughout the story. Overall I wanted each main character to get their happy ending. I really enjoyed this and cannot wait to recommend it to my girlfriends.

If you need a deep emotional read this book is for you!! It’s got heart and humor and romance that is just so good! If you enjoyed any of Rebecca’s other books you’ll definitely enjoy this one!

This was far and away my favorite Rebecca Serle novel. It was the perfect balance of love, painful reality, and opportunities.

This book is going to stay with me for a long time. It will have you taking a long, hard look at life and love and what both really mean. Is love something we’re fated to find or an active choice we make? Can someone fully love if they’re living in fear. Can we trust ourselves to take care of our own happiness?

If you want an emotional, moving, and incredibly touching read, I cannot recommend this enough.

I’m a big fan of Rebecca Serle so it wasn’t shocking that I was sucked into Expiration Dates immediately and finished it in one night. This book has a bit of the same magic from other Rebecca Serle books so if you loved In Five Years or One Italian Summer, you’ll love this.

First and foremost, thank you NetGalley for this ARC. It was truly magical to get to read a classic Rebecca Serle book ahead of its publishing date.
Expiration Date is everything we expect from the ever developing plots that Rebecca creates in her stories. They’re never as simple as we imagine. The complexity of the story and the character’s development are what make her storytelling so powerful and profound. This story was just as beautiful and thoughtful.
Daphne Bell receives a piece of paper, every time she meets a new man, with his name and a number defining the exact amount of time they will be together. And then she receives one with just a name. It’s too good to be true and this exact twist is what takes us on such an honest and gripping ride of self-discovery, truth, honest displays of passion and heartbreak. All while we discover a piece of the puzzle that Daphne has been holding to herself for over a decade.
I was probably the biggest fan of In Five Years, and Expiration Date will take your breath away in the same way and have you gasping at what is takes to be honest with yourself in the name of love. It takes the saying, “In sickness and in health” in a new direction. What a fantastic read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC. I loved the story line of this book, it kept me intrigued for the whole story. I definitely recommend this book! Another fantastic story by Rebecca Serle!

Was this as good as The Dinner List? No. Was it entertaining enough to hold my interest during a book slump? Yes, but I think it could have been great if we got a teensy bit more. The whole premise of relationship premonitions is so intriguing, yet it’s almost background noise when it should be center stage.

Daphne got the first note in 5th grade. It was a postcard with a boy's name and a length of time in this case it was eight days. For the next 20-something years her dating life is determined by these innocuous slips of paper. She never knows when they will appear just that they always do. She never questions the notes. She just tries to make the best of the time prescribed and move on. Until on the eve of her blind date she receives a note that shakes her. This one is different, because when she opens it all she finds is the name of her date, Jake. Daphne assumes that Jake is the one. He must be right? In the years that she's been receiving them no man has ever been a permanent fixture when she's been given an expiration date....well except for her best friend Hugo. Hugo and Daphne dated for three months, but they've been best friends for five years.

As Daphne is free to explore this newfound relationship with Jake the reader is moving back and forth through time to discover how we ended up here. With time not being a factor will Daphne finally get her happily ever after?

The premise of this story was intriguing. How and why did Daphne start receiving these notes? More importantly who was sending them. Why did Daphne willingly accept what was written? As the story progresses a secret is revealed which might explain why Daphne just leaves her fate up to the anonymous notes, but personally it felt like a cop out on her part. When we leave her Daphne has ended up where I think she wanted to be all along she just needed to find the courage to admit it to herself.

I really wish we could have gotten a little more of Daphne questioning things and not being so resigned to following the directives of random pieces of paper. Additionally I would have like to explored her reasons for thinking her other secret was reason enough to close herself off to friendships/people. This novel is not very long so the author could definitely add a couple of chapters to flesh Daphne out a bit.

Overall it was a decent read. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I'd definitely recommend it to someone looking to have their heartstrings tugged.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Expiration Dates was a wonderful and moving read. I have read author works by this authors (One Italian Summer and In Five Years), and this book was my favorite from Rebecca Searle. Like the other two books, this contained elements of magical realism.

Our protagonist, Daphne, receives slips of paper with the names of men and a specific amount of time. That amount of time denotes how long their relationship will last. She's in her early thirties and for the first time she receives a paper with a name, and no time amount.

Could this man be the one?

Serle excels at describing places and experiences (the food in One Italian Summer made me want to book a ticket to Italy), but this is her first book where I truly connected with the main character. Daphne was a living, breathing human and her growth was spectacular to watch. This book isn't so much about finding the person you will be with forever, as it is about destiny versus choice.

Thank you so much to Goodreads and Atria Books for the ARC for my honest review of this very special novel.

How would it change things if you knew going in how long your relationship with someone you just met, would last? That's the premise of this new novel by Rebecca Serles who definitely has some magical realism sprinkled into her novels. I've read "In Five Years" and "One Italian Summer," both of which I enjoyed so when I saw this new one on offer, I immediately jumped on it.

There is a twist, there are some touching moments and some interesting characters, all of which come together in a most satisfying way.

Publication date is March 2024

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. This is a novel about a woman who receives slips of paper that let her know who her next relationship will be with and how long it will last. It also deals with illness. I thought it was a very easy and short read. I do wish we found out about the illness earlier on instead of it being used as a twist of sorts. I liked the ending and how that all worked out. I don't really think this book has much magical realism. If that's what someone is reading it for, they will be disappointed but it definitively is a sweet romance.

In all honesty, I have mixed opinions about EXPIRATION DATES. On the one hand, this is a supremely entertaining story that kept me turning the pages. The premise drew me in immediately. I liked the characters and I was curious to see what would happen next. On the other hand, it's simply not my favorite of Rebecca Serle's books. The ending is a bit predictable in my opinion.. More importantly, something about this novel felt a little like the author was going through the motions. However, it's still a great read and I'm eagerly looking forward to her next book.

I received a complimentary e-galley from the publisher in exchange for my review; all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this quick and addictive romance. While In Five Years is still my favorite of Rebecca Serle's books, I thought the writing was incredibly similar, and it scratched my itch to get lost in a story. The main character was believable, and the details of her LA lifestyle seemed well-researched. At the same time, there were some unexpected twists and turns, nothing out of left field that left me questioning or hating anyone. I thought the first half was slow, so I didn't give this five stars. But this is a four-star read, and I recommend it if you're looking for something to pull you out of a reading slump!

Quick recap without spoilers:
Starting with her first boyfriend, Daphne soon came to expect a letter including her paramour's name and the relationship's duration delivered at the onset of the relationship. It wasn't until Daphne received a piece of paper with Jake's name and nothing else that she realized her future and happy ever after had finally come. With flashbacks to previous loves and exploration of her present friendships, this book keeps you reading until the conclusion.

Not exactly what I was hoping for in a romance book. It was blah to me didn't really keep my interest or attention it wanting to continue and finish it but I did. Daphne apparently has a talent that will tell how long each relationship will last or is it really that she has commitment issues and the cards are an excuse as to why the relationships don't work. When she receives a card showing no date for her current relationship she wonders if this the lasting one she will marry. Then finds out that the card was left by an ex-boyfriend, Hugo who is know her best friend, to show that she can get past the expiration date. There was no wow factor, I thought Jake was boring and their relationship was boring seemed like the author was going for a three way love triangle with adding Hugo into the mix , . The chapters go between her past relationships and current one which I found to be unnecessary. Daphne's health issue she has was brought late in the book and Jake's obsession with writing down in his notebook when he saw someone wear Doc Marten's was a little off to me.

No real excitement in this book for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my review, release date March 2024.

I will say that this one was slow for the first 30-40% and I wasn't sure how it would turn around but it turned out to be such a great read! Tugs at the heart strings like all of Serle's previous work. Stick with it and it's worth it!

It has an interesting premise and I think it developed well. You'll even get a couple of plot twists along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC.