In Five Years Book Review

“But I was wrong. I wasn’t the strong one, she was. Because this is what it feels like – to take a risk, to step out of line, to make decisions not based on fact but on feeling.

Dannie from In Five Years

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 I need a minute.  Ok a few minutes.  Time to compose myself after being completely undone by this wonderful book. 

Summary:

Dannie Kohan, a high-powered type A personality corporate lawyer has her life planned out.  The story begins with Dannie interviewing for her dream job and getting engaged to her long time boyfriend.  Dannie falls asleep on the couch that evening and wakes up in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger in bed beside a very different man.   She looks over at the TV playing on mute, and sees the date, 2025 – five years in the future.  Once she wakes up again, she is back in the life she knows.  She doesn’t understand any of it.  Was it a dream or possible a look into her future? 

The reader is then introduced to her forever friend Bella.  Bella has been her best friend since meeting her at a park at an early age.  Bella is her exact opposite.  She is a successful artist and gallery owner with a spontaneous, bohemian personality.  The reader also meets both sets of the girls’ parents.  Bella’s are divorced, wealthy and were never keen on being parents.  Dannie’s on the other hand are involved, loving parents, affected by a tragedy that reshaped their future.

Chalking up the event as some sort of strange dream, her life as a successful, engaged lawyer continues.  Then four and a half years later, she comes face-to-face with the man in the dream.

Review

The characters in this book were so well developed.  Rebecca Searle gave us such depth into their relationships.  The story touched on experiences in our childhood that frame us, the concepts of choice vs. destiny, and the everlasting power of friendship and love.  Love in many forms.  And finding the strength you never knew you held.  I love a story involving the power of female friendships and I was richly rewarded with this book.  I could not put the book down.  I obviously knew that some sort of realization was coming, and I was dying to know how this is going to turn out, but the author gave connections in between that made the wait worthwhile.  This book ended up being a little different than what I expected, but it worked in a magical way. 

I am completely smitten with this book!