Dannie has a five year plan, marry David, become junior partner at her dream firm and buy a house in Gramercy Park. When Dannie falls asleep the night she becomes engaged she dreams of a life she hasn’t planned for, including a man who wasn’t David, when she wakes up it all seemed so real.

Bella is an artist, gallery owner and free spirit. She has never stuck with one man for long, flitting between countries settling down has never been a priority for her. Until she meets Greg and falls head over heals.

Dannie and Bella have been best friends since they were seven years old. They have shared everything. The ups and downs, tears and triumphs. They are one another’s soulmate. So when a crisis occurs their friendship is at the centre and they realise that love is everything.

I really didn’t expect the story to take the twists it did. I can’t say much as it will ruin it. But I was an emotional wreck for the most part.

“Love doesn’t require a future.”

Welcome to my first 5-star read of 2020!I have just turned the last page of IN FIVE YEARS and tears are streaming down my face. What an emotional roller coaster rode this book has been!

It’s difficult to review a book that has managed to connect with me on a very deep emotional level without giving away all the whys and hows that would spoil things for other readers. You know from the blurb that main protagonist Dannie, a lawyer and all-around super organised person who is always in control of every situation, falls asleep on the eve of her engagement to David and has a dream. In the dream, she is in a strange apartment, with a strange man, at a date five years in the future. It all appears so real to her that when she wakes up she still feels shaken. Who is the stranger? Why was she not with David? The dream continues to haunt her for the next four and a half years, casting a dark shadow on her life whenever she thinks about it, even though she tries very hard to dismiss it. Until the moment she meets the man from her dream in real life...

I will leave it at that. But make no mistake, it’s all a lot more complicated than this premise may seem. Also, don’t mistake the book for a romance, because even though love features in it (in its many forms), the main story is about friendship. It’s also about the things we can control and the ones we can’t, destiny, and about taking things in the right context. As I a m writing this, I know how lame it sounds and how badly I am expressing myself here – sorry! Take it from me when I say that the story will surprise you, steal your heart and make you cry. As someone who likes to be in control of my own fate, I found a lot of gentle wisdom in its pages that made me pause and reflect. And even though I am a lot older and a very different personality to Dannie, her character really resonated with me and I felt ALL the emotions.

If you like books that steal through your defences, make you think, surprise you and let you feel a million different emotions, then this book may just be right for you. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I picked it up, and I’m glad I dove into it blindly because it took me totally by surprise and carried me in its wake. A book that can elicit such deep emotion will always get five stars from me. I can’t wait to read more from this author!

Reminiscent of One Day in December but instead of searching for someone in the past, it is a wait for someone from a future premonition.

The book opens with the type A protagonist preparing for an interview at her dream law firm where the interviewing partner asks her where she sees herself in five years. This answer is easy for Dannie who has planned out everything in her life, including this interview and the marriage proposal her boyfriend has secretly been planning for that evening. How perfect her day and life have been up until this point would be a frustrating and boring read, except that later that evening she has a very real dream of the same night five years from now and she is in a different apartment with a different man and a different engagement ring on her finger. The dream feels so real that over the next few years Dannie deviates slightly from her plans, haunted by possibility that the premonition might play out.

Although I was hooked and considered it a page turner, I didn’t love this book. Like some of the of the reviews, I didn’t find the protagonist completely relatable but unlike others, I quite liked this aspect. I liked that I was detached from her and I have certainly known couples like her and David. Some of the timelines felt very cramped to fit into the five years but the author did well in creating a sense of urgency. Serle is a wonderfully descriptive writer and I really enjoyed the ending.

This is a fun holiday read and has the bones to make a great romantic comedy on screen.

Thank you to Net Galley and Hachette Australia for this ARC

In Five Years was a unique, beautiful and heartbreaking story that took me by surprise. Once I started I couldn’t put it down and finished it in one sitting as I was so intrigued as to how the story was going to unfold.

Everything is going to plan in Dannie’s life, she’s engaged to the perfect man who’s plans align with hers and she has just interviewed for her dream job in a top form in New York City when she has a dream of herself 5 years in the future with a man that isn’t her fiancé.

The highlight of the story for me is Dannie’s friendship with Bella. I adored Bella and her no nonsense personality and her sense of humour and whit however I also loved Dannie, she is fiercely independent and has worked so hard to get to where she is career wise. They are complete opposites personality wise however they compliment each other perfectly.

So whilst this story is primarily about love for me it was about their friendship and being there for one another in the good times and the bad.

Overall I enjoyed this heartwarming, emotional story. Rebecca Serle has an ability to approach heavy issues in a way that was respectful and sensitive at the same time as keeping the book light and an easy read.

I want to thank Netgalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable read with a poignant ending. Although the original premise was a little strange (to me anyhow), it was an interesting take on friendship, love and loss.