BOOK REVIEW: In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan has been in possession of her meticulously crafted answer since she understood the question. On the day that she nails the most important job interview of her career and gets engaged to the perfect man, she's well on her way to fulfilling her life goals.

That night Dannie falls asleep only to wake up in a different apartment with a different ring on her finger, and in the company of a very different man. The TV is on in the background, and she can just make out the date. It's the same night - December 15th - but 2025, five years in the future.

It was just a dream, she tells herself when she wakes, but it felt so real... Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four and a half years later, when Dannie turns down a street and there, standing on the corner, is the man from her dream…

Publisher: Quercus

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.

Many thanks to Quercus for gifting me a review copy.