Expiration Dates

Title:  Expiration Dates

Author:  Rebecca Serle

Publication Information:  Atria Books. 2024. 272 pages.

ISBN:  1982166827 / 978-1982166823

Rating:   ★★★

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

Opening Sentence:  "The paper is blank save for the name: Jake."

Favorite Quote:  "Life is a catch-22 ... That's why God invented female friendship."

Relationships can be hard. Relationship take work. Relationships are full of uncertainty. I think this is something most people would agree on. So many people make a commitment and invest in a relationship for a lifetime. However, what if at the very start of a relationship, you knew exactly to the year, month, and day how long it was going to last? Would you invest as much? Would you work and try as hard? Would that knowledge add a certainty to the relationship or would it simply create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

These are the questions at the heart of this story. Every relationship Daphne Bell has ever had has come with an expiration date. When she meets a new man, she mysteriously also gets a slip of paper with the man's name and the amount of time the relationship will last. With that knowledge, Daphne never lets herself fully invest in the relationship because she knows a breakup is coming. "If you never stop long enough to sink into something, then it can't destroy you. It's easier to climb out of a pool than a well, is the thing." Again, the question arises. Is the knowledge the certainty or does belief in the knowledge create the inevitability of the breakup? Is the conclusion predetermined or does Daphne's belief and ensuing actions create the conclusion?

Then, along comes Jake. For Jake, Daphne receives the paper, but, this time, the paper has just a name with no timeframe. Does that mean forever or a lifetime or something else? For the first time in her life, Daphne approaches a relationship with no known end in sight. Again, the question arises. Does the lack of a date mean forever or does Daphne allow for and create the potential because she believes it to be possible?

The book is partly a sweet love story. If you choose to believe, the book is about the magic of the slips of papers. The book, of course, is about relationships - both long and short ones - and their potential to change the direction of our lives. However, more so, the book leaves me thinking about how much of life is predestined versus how much is driven by our choices; and how much our choices are influenced by our beliefs about ourselves and about the world around us.

If you had the choice, would you want to know the ending? For my life, I would not. I choose to be present now.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.