Welcome friend! I found In Five Years on Pinterest. The caption of the image was along the lines of “this book made me ball during my pregnancy”. Well cathartic crying offers much relief, pregnant or not so I went and picked up this one from the bookstore. Here is the synopsis but truly, it only scratches the surface of what this story is about.
Rebecca Serle | Goodreads
Where do you see yourself in five years?
When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan 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.
Content notes include cancer, death, grief, car accident, pregnancy.
In Five Years – Review
Though at first glance it feels like In Five Year is a romance, it is actually the story of a friendship – one that meant the world to both the people. Dannie and Bella have known each other since childhood. Bella’s parents were negligent of her and as the girls grew up, Dannie took the role of Bella’s protector, shielding her from the fickle parents.
In her personal life, Dannie is a go-getter, a lawyer on the way to be a senior partner at her dream firm. She loves the life she has created with her boyfriend and things are going as planned. On the fateful night of the most important job interview of her life, David pops the questions in a magical setting. She says yes. They are on track! But the dream she has that night brings up doubts she never imagined she would have. At a subconscious level, Dannie wants this dream to mean something but she isn’t sure what.
Time passes and the days she dreamed of comes near. Bella has found the love of her life and he turns out to be the person Dannie dreamt about. She is taken aback but she loves her friend and sees how happy he makes her. As her long time protector, she is weary of Bellas heart being broken but it turns out to be completely different from what Dannie had feared.
Throughout the course of this book, Dannie has to work hard to keep her personal, professional and past life in check. She has to accept the help Bella wants to take from her. Her feelings for David need to be worked through and the plan that they made early in their relationship has to be revisited.
In Five Years is the story of that dream. What Dannie thought it meant when she first dreamed it and what it truly meant in reality. It is about grief and loss and how love lets us hold all the hurting pieces together. This book was a quick read. The pain and love in the events that transpired was engrossing and I enjoyed a weekend of immersion. It is definitely not the love story the synopsis alludes to and nor is it a perfect story.
A good emotional read, offering a gentle reminder that we are forever changed by loss, whether it is sudden or long time coming. Sometimes, there are changes in our lifestyle. But always there is a before and after. Check out In Five Years on Goodreads.
Have you read this one? What did you think of it?
I added this book to Armed with A Book Little Free Library for the September 2024 book swap and am sure it will be taken. I will keep you posted!
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