In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Brenda’s review

In Five Years is a stunningly beautiful, brilliant, unforgettable and insightful love story that gave me so much to think about!

The story starts with a hook that had me asking myself a few questions and anticipating the answers. I do have to admit I was a bit worried about the direction this one might go. I am a romance eye-roller, and I went into this one expecting to exercise my eyelids with some eye-rolling. Lindsay, my eye-rolling partner, read this faster than I did and loved it, so I figured there had to be an emotional pull to it, and she warned me to have some tissues handy. Well, I was so happy with a major turning point in the story that packs in some emotional depth to the story, I wasn’t excepting!

I loved the contrast between long time friends Dannie and Bella, and it added so much depth to the story giving me so much to think about. I was expecting not to like one, but they both are likable, interesting, well developed and insightful characters

This is such a well-done story that challenges us to look at how unpredictable life is, how hard it is to control, and sometimes the choices we make are not ours to make, making this one an excellent one to discuss. Through my discussion with Lindsay, I saw love a bit differently then I did going into this one. I highly recommend it!

Lindsay’s review

Emotional. Surprising. Intense. Thought-provoking. Heart wrenching.

Dannie and David are both highly motivated in moving up in their careers. They “get” each other and fully support one another in their career progressions. Dannie and David get engaged after dating for two years, yet over four years later, they still haven’t found the time to plan their wedding. Bella is Dannie’s life long best friend. Their friendship is the one stable thing in Bella’s life. Bella is spontaneous and emotional, she falls in love easily and hasn’t had a relationship last more than a few months before she is on to the next thing….that is until she meets Greg.

This storyline wasn’t anything like what I had expected. It was shocking, raw and highly affecting. It was a unique, emotional love story like no other. I’m not one to read love stories so don’t let that deter you if that isn’t generally your thing.

This novel started off strong then lost a bit of intensity before the halfway point. After the halfway point, the storyline dug its way deep into my heart and didn’t let up until the end (I’m still not over these characters and it’s been days since I finished). This novel is a tear jerker. It’s full of heart, love, loyalty, true friendship. It lived up to the hype and surpassed my expectations.

The writing was excellent. The characters were endearing and unforgettable. This story will make you think – so much to contemplate. I highly recommend!

I will end with my favourite quote from the book which I found extremely powerful:

“You mistake love. You think it has to have a future in order to matter, but it doesn’t. It’s the only thing that does not need to become at all. It matters only insofar that it exists. Here. Now. Love doesn’t require a future.”

Norma read this one before we did and then passed her review copy on to me

Norma’s review

Soul-stirring, striking, & an unexpected gem!

IN FIVE YEARS by REBECCA SERLE is an engaging, touching, heartwarming, and absolutely beautiful story of love and friendship that I was immediately drawn into and quickly devoured. The storyline definitely kept me intrigued and took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride right to the very end.

REBECCA SERLE delivers a fantastic, captivating, emotional and beautifully written story here with some startling twists and turns that will definitely give you all the feels. The characters are so relatable and genuine that it is extremely easy to get emotionally attached to them and be fully absorbed in their lives. I was thoroughly impressed with the storytelling here and the direction that this story took was downright ingenious. You think you know what is going on but wait, what just happened? Totally surprising the reader, well me anyway. There were definitely some aspects to this story that kind of ruffled my feathers a little bit but on reflection I thoroughly enjoyed how everything played out.

Thank you so much to Mimi from Goodreads for the ARC.