REVIEW: In 5 Years by Rebecca Searle

In 5 Years by Rebecca Searle: Despite the unrelenting punches In 5 Years pulls, you cant help but be winded and breathless as you navigate your way through it. In the end, it lands a solid dozen , which you wind up thinking you may rightly deserve.

Immersed in a corporate NY scene, Dannie, via sharp, biting, first person narrative style, is perhaps one of the least likeable characters set in a work environment that only the truly ambitious value. Given her overarching OCD perfectionism, you are initially left wondering if this character has more than one dimension. But please hold tight. Mercifully, it doesn’t take long before the layers begin to unravel, and a clever action kernel as a brief glimpse at a predicted future, leaves you wanting more, and perhaps realising that context is, in fact, everything.

Naturally, 5 years later means that every part of the context isn’t what you think it’s going to be, and even more so, any prediction will still leave you blindsided. Perhaps more than that, Dannie’s depth begins to crack wide open.

This is a gut-wrenching read that draws far too close to everyone’s bones – it’s impossible to live and love if you haven’t lost. And whilst there is a little Sliding Doors type undercurrent, it’s the loyalty, friendships and love that will see you go under as Dannie discovers her real truths. Highly recommend you curl up on a rainy day with In 5 Years and wait a while afterwards for the sun to come out so you can breathe again.

Book Info:

Publication: 10th March 2020 | Atria Books |

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan 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.