Review: In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Star Rating: ★★★★☆
Page count: 266
Genre: Light Romance, Magical Realism, Adult
Format I read it in: Kindle Book
Standalone

Iconic Quote

“She lives in a world I do not understand, populated by phrases and philosophies that apply only to people like her. People, maybe, who do not yet know tragedy.”

Why I Picked it Up

This year I am trying to read 2020 releases. I enjoy the occasional romance/sentimental book and magical realism is often a story element I enjoy.

Content Warnings

There is the occasional swear word. There is also 3 or 4 brief sex scenes (starting as early as chapter 3). While brief and reasonably easy to skip over, there are details.

SORT OF SPOILER: One of the characters gets cancer and this becomes central to the plot. The book gets quite sad.

Book Summary

TLDR: A book built around the premise of “Where do you see yourself in five years time”. Dannie has her whole life planned out but when she wakes up five years in the future with a completely different picture, she begins to question life when she goes back.

Full Summary:

Dannie lives her life according to plan. She knows everything she does down to the number. How long it takes her to get ready, what the right age is to get engaged, what the right age is to get married, how many kids you should have and what her five year plan is.

When asked in an interview what her five year plan is, Dannie is prepared. She gives a detailed and impressive answer to her prospective employer. That night she gets engaged and all is going to plan. Until she wakes up five years in the future in another man’s apartment.

When she gets back to the present day and her life continues with her current fiancé, she dismisses the event as a silly dream. Until 4.5 years later, she meets the man once again.

My Thoughts

If you like movies from the 2000s with a semi-cliché plot that results in a comforting read, this is the book for you. Sometimes cliché is cliché for a reason.

I think this book would have been a 3 Star for me, had it not been for the ending. I liked the way she tied things together and how the ending was slightly less cliché than the rest of the book.

The characters were developed really well. The book mostly centers around the main character and her best friend. Both of whom are different people by the end of five years. They grow in a beautiful way and as I result I grew to love them as characters.

This is probably the kind of book you should read in a day or two. That was my original plan but life got in the way. After not reading it for a day or two, the book lost some of its magic.

This is a book I would recommend to lovers of sentimental books who don’t mind a romantic focus.

If you would like to purchase this book, you can do so here