BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: ©3/10/2020; 978-1982137441; Atria Books; 272 pp.)
(Digital: Yes).
*Audio: ©3/10/2020; 978-1797103204; Simon & Schuster Audio; Duration 6:48:27; 6 parts; unabridged
(Film: No.)
Series: No.

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I believe I picked this one when I was selecting the Goodreads BEST nominations for 2020. It’s short and sweet. If I say much more I’ll give too much away, so that’s it for me.

AUTHOR:
Rebecca Serle. According to the LAPL (Los Angeles Public Library) website’s “Interview with an Author”, “Rebecca Serle is a full-time writer, which means she gets to wear pajamas to work. She went to the University of Southern California, then got her MFA from the New School in NYC. (She likes New York much more than LA, but don’t tell anyone that.) Rebecca loves shiny hair, coffee, yoga, and pretending to be British. She is the author of several YA novels, including Famous in Love, which she recently co-developed into a television series. Her first adult novel is The Dinner List and she recently agreed to be interviewed by Daryl Maxwell about it for the LAPL Blog”

NARRATOR:
Megan Kathleen Hilty (3/29/1981). According to Wikipedia, Megan “is an American actress and singer. She rose to prominence for her roles in Broadway musicals, including her performance as Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5: The Musical, and her Tony Award-nominated role as Brooke Ashton in Noises Off. She also starred as Ivy Lynn on the musical-drama series Smash, on which she sang the Grammy Award-nominated "Let Me Be Your Star", and portrayed Liz on the sitcom Sean Saves the World.”
Megan does a fantastic narration here!

GENRE:
Fiction; Literature

LOCATIONS:
New York

TIME FRAME:
2020-2025

SUBJECTS:
Friendship; Cancer; Romance

DEDICATION:
“For Leila Sales, who has lit up the last five years, and the five before them. We dreamed it because it had already happened.”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From chapter 1
“Twenty-five. That’s the number I count to every morning before I even open my eyes. It’s a meditative calming technique that helps your brain with memory, focus, and attention, but the real reason I do it is because that’s how long it takes my boyfriend, David, to get out of bed next to me and flip the coffee maker on, and for me to smell the beans.
Thirty six. That’s how many minutes it takes me to brush my teeth, shower, and put on face toner, serum, cream, makeup, and a suit for work. If I wash my hair, it’s forty-three.
Eighteen. That’s the walk to work in minutes from our Murray Hill apartment to East Forty-Seventh Street, where the law offices of Sutter, Boyt and Barn are located.
Twenty-four. That’s how many months I believe you should be dating someone before you move in with them.
Twenty-eight. The right age to get engaged.
Thirty. The right age to get married.
My name is Dannie Kohan. And I believe in living by the numbers.”

RATING:
4 stars.

STARTED-FINISHED
11/1/2021 – 11/6/2021 ( )

“I look out on that view. The water, the bridge, the lights. Manhattan on the water, shimmering like a promise. I think about how much life the city holds, how much heartbreak, how much love. I think about everything I have lost there, this fading island before me” (230).

I really liked this book—even more than I was expecting. As I was reading, I kept thinking about how much I was enjoying it—Dannie’s goodness, her drive to succeed, her need for control; she was completely relatable. I kept thinking, “This book is a five, but the ending could definitely be its fall from grace.” Surprisingly, I was really satisfied with the ending. I give this book a five because there’s not anything I’d change about it. While there were some predictabilities, like knowing Bella would end up with the future-dream Aaron, I was completely surprised by how the ending, the premonition, was tied into reality. I also really liked that there were no villains—no bad guys. David was such a fantastic fiancé. Aaron really was loyal to and loved Bella. Bella and Dannie were true to one another. So even though there was this shadow of a love triangle hanging over the plot, it was unexpectedly delivered in such a way that showed really sucky circumstances with really good humans. And the ending wouldn’t have been quite as satisfying without Dannie’s brief encounter with Dr. Mark Shaw in the bagel shop after Aaron leaves her DUMBO apartment. It’s easy to feel the hopeful possibilities of this unknown and uncontrollable future. ( )

“Love doesn’t require a future."

In In Five Years, writer Rebecca Serle creates a maze of love, fate and controlled destiny. The story follows Dannie Kohan, a measured and driven young attorney in New York City, who gets engaged to her longtime boyfriend on the same night she has a startling glimpse of herself five years in the future. In this vision, she discovers her carefully calculated life has gone awry. Her future self is not only engaged to someone else but she seems to be living another life entirely; a life that has completely deviated from the future she has meticulously planned her entire adulthood.
The novel's dual timelines create a captivating tapestry, weaving a story that keeps readers eagerly turning pages until every piece falls into place. This structure keeps the reader engaged, as they are constantly trying to piece together the puzzle of Dannie's life and how she arrived at her future. Serle's writing is engaging and easy to follow, and she creates characters that are relatable and well-developed.

Highly recommended as one of the most unique books I have read in recent memory. In Five Years explores an unexpected range of emotions with lots of unexpected twists and turns. The character connection created by Serle is effortless. This enjoyable and thought-provoking novel is the perfect light read for fans of chicklit and magical realism. ( )

What would you do if you were given a glimpse of your life 5 years from now, and it's nothing you expect it to be?

Danni is an extreme "A type" most people will have trouble connecting to, a person who lives by numbers and plans everything to a minute. She's best friends with Bella, her free-spirited friend who is her proverbial opposite. The depiction of their friendship is the only redeeming quality of this book.

I read this in one sitting, so I can't say this was entirely poorly written. However, I had major issues with this book. I found these two main characters difficult to relate to and pretty shallow for the most part. There is also annoyingly too much brand name-dropping in this book for my taste, listing all the fancy restaurants, hotels etc. But, that's forgivable.
Another, more serious critique is that the "future" scene is misleading and honestly - unbelievable. I don't want to get into details without spoiling this, but the story never came together for me with that ending. It just didn't make any sense.

2.5 stars
( )

This is a very short read. I enjoyed the book but overall it seemed dragged on and predictable. I hated the end and did relate to the main characters. But, the plot and idea of this book is FAB! ( )