In Five Years - Rebecca Serle

Title: In Five Years
Author: Rebecca Serle
Rating: 4/5

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers.

She is nothing like her lifelong best friend—the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend's marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content.

But when she awakens, she's suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight—but it is one hour she cannot shake. In Five Years is an unforgettable love story, but it is not the one you're expecting.

It's so very uncommon of me to write a review just for me, without the title being a requested one on NetGalley. I haven't received In Five Years in exchange for an honest review, but I thought this book was worth it, spending my time writing a review nevertheless - no matter how short it might turns out to be.

It's been quite a while since I read When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle. Years even. It's one of my all-time-favourites, to be fair, which is why I was dying to get my hands on her latest novel, an adult fiction book. Remember when I said I didn't request this one?! Well, truth be told, I recommended it for the digital range of my public library and boom! I was the first one to borrow it when they bought it pretty soon afterward. Super exciting! I love that feature! Seeing how many people are currently waiting for it, I think I did a pretty good job, too.

Anyway... What I meant to say is that I'm not sure if this book would have landed on my to-be-read-list if it wasn't for the author herself. I knew what I'd be getting in to, loving Rebecca Serle's writing style, so though there were high expectation, she met those. Reading the first few sentences, I didn't exactly click with the main character Dannie. It wasn't love at first sight. She has her whole life planned out, when she is going to get engaged, when she is going to marry and all that. Ugh, I didn't like her, probably for the same reasons as her best friend in the story - live a little, woman! Also, though described lovely and sweet, I wasn't convinced about her boyfriend David at that time either. As soon as Aaron entered the picture, I was in his team. And I expected a huge love story.

Only it wasn't. You can't expect a huge love story here, sorry. Did I feel let down by that? No. And I'm really surprised by that, as well. The story itself certainly involves love, but it's more about the friendship kind. It's about finding out what you want in life, realizing what you could lose, who you could lose and makes you rethink about everything, actually. On how the way you view friendships and relationships and love and romance and your career. What's important? How do you not lose yourself on your journey through life? So many aspects that I'd like to point out, that are so well-thought-through. My heart really felt all that.

I expected more sights into the future and there weren't, I can tell you that much. It's not something you miss while reading, just unexpected. Such as many other details. But honestly, it was beautiful. I finished the book within a day and loved it very much despite it being so adult-ish and a tear-jerker. The ending, I think, was a bit too rushed for me. And also, what's up with that person at the end? I never would have seen that coming! Perhaps I will... In five years?!