In Five Years

Title:  In Five Years

Author:  Rebecca Serle

Publication Information:  Atria Books. 2020. 272 pages.

ISBN:  1982137444 / 978-1982137441

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Twenty-five."

Favorite Quote:  "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 as it exists. Here. Now. Love doesn't require a future."

What would you do differently if you knew the future or thought you saw a vision of the future? What would you do if that vision was completely differently from the direction you think your life is heading? What would you do if that vision implied that you might betray the important relationships that exist in  your life at this moment? How would you spend those five years?

These are the questions Dannie Kohan is struggling with. She is happy in her life - in a long-term stable relationship with a wedding being planned, in a stable career heading for success, and surrounded by love and friendship.

Then a dream or a vision shows her a completely different future - a different place and different relationships. Dannie believes in the reality of the vision.

This book is very much a love story. Dannie is planning a wedding, but the man in her vision is not her fiancé. This book is very much a love story, but it is not the one you expect. "I have been asked if I've needed help so many times that I have been allowed to forget the question, the significance of it. I see, now, the way the love in my life has woven into a tapestry that I've been blessed enough to get to ignore."

It is the story of two best friends and the men who love them. A lot of it is about life in New York - the big city, which I can do without for it is the cliche image of that life with the glamorous career, the tourist locations, and the name dropping that implies. At the same time, the book is about unexpected news that upends all you thought about what life was going to be. Without a spoiler, I will say that this is not a light hearted read. It is about the challenges of navigating a life altering occurrence both for the person facing that and for the surrounding loved ones.

Once that challenge is revealed, the book goes where I expect it to. There is no surprise after that; the book remains about the journey getting there. Part of me travelled along on that journey of friendship. Part of me wishes that the book had gone somewhere more unexpected to match the fact that begins in an unexpected direction.

I love the premise of this book and was excited to see where it went. Part of me is disappointed at the direction; part of me walks away with life lessons that we would all do well to remember. The main lessons from the book is that life is unexpected, the reality that you think you see may not be what it seems, people have a tendency to take for granted the love and support that surrounds them, and that so often, people settle for what is comfortable unless someone or something jars them out of that comfort zone.

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