Book Review: In Five Years | Rebecca Serle

This is book #7/20 (#12 overall) that I read this year. It was published on March 10, 2020, and counts towards my 20 for 2020 challenge.

I liked this book in the beginning, but it eventually became long, boring and then just outright frustrating.

I really didn't like how misleading the book synopsis is. This is definitely my main issue with this book. I like to be surprised by things, but it can't be completely different from what was promised. It can be different in the sense that it offers something completely unique to the genre by putting a new spin on it, but you can't promise one genre/plot line and then completely replace it with another. It took a complete left turn from what was promised, and I kept waiting for it to get back on track and it just never did. This led to me feeling bored and disinterested in the story because I constantly felt like I was just a side story on the way to the bigger picture. Not only is the synopsis misleading, the introductory sections of the book itself is misleading. I will be discussing this more in the spoiler section, but I don't want to get too much into it in the spoiler-free section.

The characters started off strong for me, but they eventually became a little one-note and shallow for me. The main character, Dannie, also became annoying. The choices the characters make completely undermine the main themes of the book, which meant that I didn't leave with any kind of emotional connection to the story or characters.

That's about all I have to say without giving stuff away. Check out my spoiler section below if you've read the book, or don't care about being spoiled.

***SPOILER DISCUSSION***

So about the misleading synopsis... Specifically what bugs me is that the synopsis makes you think that the book will be a romance, with some sort of twist to it- maybe a little bit of a time travel or magical spin to it. The book takes a complete left turn by becoming about Bella's cancer plot line. Now that we can specifically talk about the details, I kept waiting for it to get back on track to Dannie and Aaron's story and it just never did. The synopsis does mention friendship, but the synopsis focuses on the vision of Dannie and Aaron, and hints that the book will be a romance. Not only is the synopsis extremely misleading, the book itself is very misleading. The book starts out showing a vision from five years in the future where Dannie dating Aaron (a different man than her current fiancee). The very nature of the way this book is told makes you crave to find out how that vision will come to fruition. So the entire time I was waiting to find out how it would work out that Dannie's and Aaron's relationship will come together. How they will overcome the classic "I'm attracted to my best friend's boyfriend" trope that is prevalent in many romantic comedies. But it just takes a complete left turn to focus on Bella's cancer journey. Because I was completely focused on the Dannie and Aaron getting together plot, I didn't really care about or pay attention to Bella's cancer story because I was waiting to get to the real meat of the story, which I thought would be Dannie and Aaron. Because I didn't put as much weight into Bella's story, the emotional payoff wasn't there for me at the end. And this is what is really frustrating to me, is that I feel like the author and publishing company wanted it to be a crazy twist, and advertised it as something it wasn't so that the audience would be completely shocked and surprised. But if they had just been honest about it, I feel like I could have enjoyed it so much more. I feel like it was so cheap and dishonest what they did with this misdirection. I don't feel like it was this crazy, but effective twist; I feel like I was played, and this was just such an annoying and frustrating experience to have as a reader.

Now more specifically, how Dannie and Aaron's relationship is revealed in the end felt really forced for me. Throughout the whole book actually, their relationship felt off. The introductory chapters of the book and the synopsis hinted that there would be a relationship between the two of them. So throughout the whole book I was very honed in on any interactions between them. I feel like the author really played into this whole shocking, dramatic twist angle and threw in all these red herrings to throw you off, when really if the case was that they got together just out of grief, none of those things would have happened in the first place. So obviously because of the vision, the audience thinks that it's inevitable that Dannie and Aaron will get together and is reading too much into every interaction they have, so the author is really playing up all of those moments to purposely throw you off. Them running into each other at the park and touring the apartment, makes you think that they have some kind of instant chemistry or destiny that is throwing them together. While Bella is in surgery, Aaron randomly takes Dannie to a rooftop that he thinks she'll like (I have so many problems with this 1) he barely knows her, I don't know how he would know that she would like this 2) I don't know how this is appropriate to randomly go on this adventure while Bella is in surgery). And when Aaron takes Dannie to the apartment and they kiss (which makes you think this is a lead up to them actually getting together like the vision implied). Then you find out that this was all a misdirect and the vision actually showed them getting together because they were grieving Bella. I feel like the above examples aren't explained by the "grief." These events were just plot devices that were thrown in there to make you buy into the idea that they're going to get together in the end, but the real meaning of how it factors into the grief explanation wasn't thought through. I don't think blaming grief for them having sex in the end, explains those hints of inappropriate behavior. Their actions, and especially their kiss, weren't explained by this grief cop-out.

I sometimes think that maybe I was just reading into things that weren't there, and am just mad that it didn't turn out the way I predicted. But I do feel like I was tricked into making that prediction, and it wasn't genuinely that the situation could have been read either way (like they are trying to say with that last scene where Dannie incorrectly read into the context of the vision). Yes, I admit that I saw no chemistry between Aaron and Dannie throughout the entire book, but I felt like this was something that was accidentally underdeveloped. Because the whole story was leading up to the day that they finally get together, I thought the author was just forcing them together with these plot devices like randomly meeting up (because it's destiny) and Aaron taking Dannie to the roof (to show he knows her and cares about her in a way that's more than a friend), without displaying any actual chemistry. So in a way suppose I should have seen it coming that obviously they would never get together out of love, since no chemistry was ever actually shown between them. But at the same time, I don't think the above situations can be explained away as them grieving. What I think is frustrating to me, is that rather than tell the story in a straightforward way that would ensure that none of the messages get lost, they chose to go with the more provocative route.

In addition to this misdirection trying to get the biggest shock out of the reader, I feel like these things were kind of jammed in to make it add up to how the author wanted it to end. For example, the whole point was that Dannie reads into the vision as her and Aaron being together and dating, when really they were just together for one day after Bella's funeral. I did think it was kind of clever to have this double meaning for the things encountered during the vision, but at the same time I thought it was a stretch. For example in the vision version, Dannie asks "Am I still a lawyer?" because she wants to know if she's still a lawyer in five years. In what actually happens, she is actually asking it because she hasn't gone to work in a few weeks because she's been dealing with Bella's death and funeral and all that. Which I think is a little bit of a stretch but okay. And the whole vision situation is just full of a bunch of instances like this. Another example is that Dannie goes to her closet and finds her clothes, as well as Aaron's clothes. In the vision version she saw this as "Oh this must be my apartment because my clothes are here in the closet, and he must be my boyfriend and he must live with me, since his clothes are also here in my closet." But in reality his clothes were actually in there because he was doing construction and renovations for the apartment unit. Again this is a stretch to me. I don't really see why a construction worker or interior decorator would leave extra clothes at the apartment they're working at. And the worst example of this for me was the engagement ring. In the vision, Dannie sees herself wearing a different engagement ring, and along with all the other clues, assumes that she is engaged to this new guy, Aaron. In reality, she is just wearing Bella's engagement ring to feel closer to her. I'm sorry, but to me that seems a little weird to be wearing your dead friend's engagement ring? While I did want to like this double meaning, it didn't quite add up for me. And since it didn't add up to me, it just added to that feeling that it was all forced together in a way to get the biggest shock out of the reader.

Not only is the plot line thrown way out of whack with promising a romance to then delivering a cancer, friendship story, but the friendship wasn't even an effective one. I didn't really feel much of an emotional tie between the two girls. And ESPECIALLY with what Dannie did to Bella, I really couldn't take seriously any emotional journey that they had together at the end. I could not get over how Dannie and Aaron kissed while Bella was on her deathbed. This can't get explained away to me by saying it was because they were "grieving." The correct explanation for me is that they were either attracted to each other OR that in that instant they just thought that it would be fun or something and didn't think about how it would affect Bella. Either way, this was extremely messed up. How am I supposed to buy into the idea that Bella and Dannie have such a powerful, out of this world friendship, when two days before Dannie kissed Bella's boyfriend while she was on her deathbed? The book became a story about establishing the bond between two girls, and how a friend can be your true love. But this was all undermined by the decisions Dannie made.

***END OF SPOILERS DISCUSSION***

Overall I didn't really like the book. It wasn't what I expected at all. Additionally, it was just boring and frustrating. I am giving it 2/5 stars. Have you read this book? I'd love to hear your thoughts down below.