Portobello Book Blog

It is many, many years since I’ve had a job interview and I’m not sure even then I had to face the dreaded ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ question. This is not a difficult question for ambitious New York corporate lawyer Dannie though who knows exactly how her life is going to pan out. The day she has an interview for her dream job, she also gets engaged to her boyfriend David. All their plans for the future seem to be coming true but does life have other plans for them? That very evening, Dannie has the most vivid dream that in exactly five years, she is engaged to a different, rather gorgeous man, and living in a different apartment. She is rather unsettled by this dream but manages, mostly, to put it behind her. That is until four and a half years later when she meets the very man who was in her dream…

This is such a difficult book to review, not because I didn’t like it but because I loved it and don’t want to give anything away. I had been told by a few people before I started reading that they had read this in one sitting. Well, it’s ages since I did that but that was my reading experience too. Once I started, I just could not put this book down and finished it just after midnight. I loved the characters and the emotional storyline, and the pages just flew by.

Parts of the book made me want to cry but parts made me delight in the joy of friendship and love. It’s true what it says on the cover, this is most definitely not the love story I was expecting but it was captivating and heartbreaking and uplifting all at the same time. I highly recommend this wonderful story.

Huge thanks to Millie Reid at publishers Quercus for sending me a review copy of this book. In Five Years will be published in hardback, ebook and audiobook formats on 10th March. The paperback will follow in October. You should be able to buy or order it from your usual book retailer or you will find various buying options on the Quercus website here: In Five Years

From the back of the book

Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan has been in possession of her meticulously crafted answer since she understood the question. On the day that she nails the most important job interview of her career and gets engaged to the perfect man, she’s well on her way to fulfilling her life goals.
That night Dannie falls asleep only to wake up in a different apartment with a different ring on her finger, and in the company of a very different man.

The TV is on in the background, and she can just make out the date. It’s the same night – December 15th – but 2025, five years in the future.

It was just a dream, she tells herself when she wakes, but it felt so real… 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 Dannie turns down a street and there, standing on the corner, is the man from her dream…
In Five Years is a love story, brimming with joy and heartbreak. But it is definitely not the love story you’re expecting.

About the author

Rebecca Serle is an author and television writer who lives between NYC and LA. Serle most recently co-developed the television adaptation of her YA series FAMOUS IN LOVE for Freeform and Warner Brothers Television. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California. Her bestselling US debut adult novel DINNER LIST was a Book of the Month club pick, Costco bookclub pick, and Bustle Bookclub selection.