Join BookBrowse today and get access to free books, our twice monthly digital magazine, and more.

In Five Years: Book summary and reviews of In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

In Five Years

by Rebecca Serle

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle X
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' rating:

  • Published Mar 2020
    272 pages
    Genre: Literary Fiction

    Publication Information

  • Rate this book


Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day - a striking, powerful, and moving love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she's suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It's the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can't shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn't the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. 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 by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"While the plot hinges on well-worn tropes, the deadpan prose highlights the author's keen sense of irony. Serle's whimsical tale is book club catnip." - Publishers Weekly

"A heartwarming portrait of a broken heart finding a little healing magic." - Kirkus Reviews

"The story has a strong New York setting and sympathetic characters. Emotional hooks alongside moments of humor and self-awareness will remind readers of Jojo Moyes's Me Before You or Taylor Jenkins Reid's Maybe in Another Life." - Library Journal

"What would you do if you glimpsed your life five years from now—and found that it was different, in every way, from what you hoped for and expected? Rebecca Serle pairs this inspired premise with deft, propulsive prose and characters who feel as real as friends. In Five Years is as clever as it is moving, the rare read-in-one-sitting novel you won't forget." - Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

"Heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic in all the ways that make a book impossible to put down, I fell in love with this story. In five years, I will still be thinking about this beautiful novel." - Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

"I adored In Five Years, it's so poignant and tender. It broke my heart, such an unusual idea executed brilliantly, I didn't see that twist coming! I'm a sucker for great love stories, and this one is just lovely. A keeper on my shelf!" - Josie Silver, author of #1 New York Times bestseller One Day in December

"In Five Years is more than just a love story; it's a half dozen of them, none quite what you expect. Heartwarming, heartbreaking, and hard to put down, it's a novel about romance, friendship, the magic of good bagels, and what happens after you get everything you always wanted." - Laurie Frankel, author of New York Times bestseller This Is How It Always Is

This information about In Five Years was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Phyllis E

A story of best girlfriend friendship, not a romance
Thanks to Atria Paperback/Simon and Schuster Publishers for a gifted copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

This 3.5 star book had a lot of buzz when it first came out in 2020. I received a gifted copy from the publisher in 2021 but just recently read it in May 2022. I didn’t intentionally put it off, but it took the suggestion from my friend Val that we both read it and then discuss together to make me pick it up. And it turned out to be a different type of book than I thought. No matter how others have labeled this novel, it is not a romance, but a story of friendship, best girlfriend friendship.

This is about two long-time best friends who live in New York City, both single but different in so many ways. Dannie is organized and has her life planned out – her career, her boyfriend and now fiancé, her budget, and her future – including where she will be in five years. Bella is the “poor little rich girl” – wild, whimsical, impulsive, and believes in fate.

After accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal and receiving her dream job offer both on the same day, Dannie falls asleep. When she awakens she’s with a totally different (and sexy) guy, a different apartment, a different engagement ring – and it’s five years in the future. She tells herself it’s a dream and files it away in the back of her mind.

But four-and-a-half years later she meets Bella’s latest boyfriend, who is the very same guy from that long-ago premonition/vision/dream/alternate reality. That’s the set-up but it isn’t the story you’re expecting. And you’ll need tissues.

Even though there are aspects of the plot and the characters I would argue with, and some things I would have changed completely, I still found myself engrossed and emotionally caught up in the story. This would make a great book group read and I’m looking forward to discussing with my friend.

Techeditor

Don’t believe all the great reviews
Although Rebecca Serle did not intend IN FIVE YEARS to be a young adult novel, it still has a YA feel to it. The main characters, although adults in their late 20s, early 30s, refer to each other in YA terms (e.g., "best friends,” "besties"), and their circumstances almost always concern their love lives (also very YAish). That may put off some adult readers.

The real problem with this book is what, at first, seems like a good thing because it sparks your interest and draws you in.

Dannie has a dream that seems very real. Probably nothing will come of it, but maybe it was a premonition. So the entire book leads up to that particular day. And for the entire book you will be expecting an explanation of the dream/premonition. If it is a premonition, how and why did it happen?

That, alone, kept me interested in this story. Otherwise, IN FIVE YEARS is just a typical live-with-her-boyfriend-for-five-years-and-look-forward-to-marrying-him YA book. But there is that dream/premonition that sets it apart.

In the end, though, the story is unsatisfying. I still have questions and don’t feel like anything was explained.

MaryBeth Little

Disappointing
This story initially was intriguing but became trite and weighed down by mellow drama which wasn’t realistic. The book left me feeling flat.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Rebecca Serle

Rebecca Serle is an author and television writer who lives in New York and Los Angeles. Serle codeveloped the hit TV adaptation of her YA series Famous in Love, and is also the author of The Dinner List, and YA novels The Edge of Falling and When You Were Mine. She received her MFA from the New School in NYC.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Clear
    Clear
    by Carys Davies
    John Ferguson is a principled man. But when, in 1843, those principles drive him to break from the ...
  • Book Jacket: Change
    Change
    by Edouard Louis
    Édouard Louis's 2014 debut novel, The End of Eddy—an instant literary success, published ...
  • Book Jacket: Big Time
    Big Time
    by Ben H. Winters
    Big Time, the latest offering from prolific novelist and screenwriter Ben H. Winters, is as ...
  • Book Jacket: Becoming Madam Secretary
    Becoming Madam Secretary
    by Stephanie Dray
    Our First Impressions reviewers enjoyed reading about Frances Perkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Half a Cup of Sand and Sky
by Nadine Bjursten
A poignant portrayal of a woman's quest for love and belonging amid political turmoil.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Flower Sisters
    by Michelle Collins Anderson

    From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.

  • Book Jacket

    The House on Biscayne Bay
    by Chanel Cleeton

    As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.

Win This Book
Win The Funeral Cryer

The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

M as A H

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.