In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

*Disclosure of material connection- I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own. 

About the book-

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.

My thoughts-

I read a lot of books, like sometimes several a week, and much of the time because of that I have to push through them when I find them to be slow. In Five Years was the exact opposite. I read it in one day, every chance I got to get into the pages because I had to know what happened. This was a beautiful contemporary love story that was both modern but had a classic feel about it. It will pull at the heartstrings (both happy and sad tears were shed), but it will leave you feeling fulfilled.  I thought it was going to be an entirely different book than it was, but I was grateful I was wrong because I never could have imagined the story any better than it turned out. 

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

*Disclosure of material connection- I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own. 

About the book-

“We’ve been waiting for an hour.” That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.”

At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends with in her utterly captivating novel, THE DINNER LIST, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as One Day, and the life-changing romance of Me Before You.

When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.

Delicious but never indulgent, sweet with just the right amount of bitter, THE DINNER LIST is a romance for our times. Bon appetit.

My thoughts-

I was so excited to read The Dinner List because the concept seemed so interesting. I think many of us have been posed the question, if you could have dinner with 5 people living or dead who would they be? This book takes that question and helps paint a picture of what that might be like. Sabrina has this happen to her in the book at her 30th birthday. There is only one famous person in the mix, Audrey Hepburn, but she ties together several of the people in Sabrina's life and makes the story more interesting to boot, she may have been my favorite part of the book. The Dinner List explores several key relationships in Sabrina's life- her relationship with her estranged father, her best friend who she seems to have lost her connection with, and the love of her life, Tobias, and the struggles they went through and what happened that ultimately lead to their parting. The book is heartbreaking and romantic and keeps you turning page after page to see what exactly happened in all of these relationships. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something refreshing and new or who enjoys contemporary literature.