New York im Jahr 2020: Danielle Ashley Kohan, eine New Yorker Anwältin, führt mit David Rosen eine glückliche Beziehung. Doch nach dem Heiratsantrag, den sie annimmt, hat Dannie einen komischen, sehr realistischen Traum: Es ist das Jahr 2025 und sie ist mit einem anderen Mann zusammen. Kann es soweit kommen? Was hat das Ganze zu bedeuten?

„In fünf Jahren“ ist ein Roman von Rebecca Serle.

Meine Meinung:
Der Roman besteht aus 41 Kapiteln mit einer angenehmen Länge. Er endet mit einem Epilog. Die Handlung umfasst fünf Jahre, wobei es mehrere Zeitsprünge gibt. Der Aufbau ist recht simpel, funktioniert aber sehr gut.

Erzählt wird im Präsens in der Ich-Perspektive aus der Sicht von Dannie. Der Schreibstil ist einfach und schnörkellos, aber passt gut zur Geschichte. Auch in sprachlicher Hinsicht ist der Roman unauffällig.

Protagonistin Dannie ist eine sympathische und realitätsnahe Figur. Ihre Gedanken und Gefühle kommen prima zum Ausdruck. Ich habe ihre Geschichte gerne verfolgt. Auch die übrigen Charaktere sind nicht zu klischeehaft.

Inhaltlich hat mich der Roman nicht enttäuscht. Ich mag keine typischen Liebesgeschichten und habe auf eine Lovestory der anderen Art gehofft, wie mir das Marketing zu diesem Buch versprochen hat. Dieser Erwartung wird der Roman gerecht, denn er hält Überraschungen und unerwartete Wendungen bereit.

Auf rund 300 Seiten ist die Geschichte zudem kurzweilig und unterhaltsam. Emotional konnte mich der Roman mehrfach berühren.

Die reduzierte Gestaltung der deutschen Ausgabe spricht mich sehr an. Der prägnante englischsprachige Originaltitel („In five years“) wurde erfreulicherweise wortgetreu übersetzt.

Mein Fazit:
Wer eine klassische Liebesgeschichte mit viel Wohlfühlatmosphäre sucht, wird mit dem Roman von Rebecca Serle eher nicht glücklich. Für alle anderen ist „In fünf Jahren“ jedoch definitiv einen genaueren Blick wert.

The book's description and the categorization of this as a romance novel is misleading. It's more about a process of self-discovery and friendship. I was prepared to write this off as just light chic lit about a protagonist with a very specific and privileged type of lifestyle (corporate lawyer in NYC) and, while there are plenty of tropes, the author's aware and thoughtful enough to actually give a decently compelling narrative about life. I enjoyed. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator does a lovely job. 

So the main reason why I gave this four stars is this is styled as a romance and there is not a happily ever after or even a happily for now when we finish this book. I understand why Serle did this, but since this is in the romance genre I frowned about that. Another reason why I gave this four stars is that parts of this novel dragged. I also wish we had gotten a bit more character development for certain characters. However, in the end I thought Serle told a wonderful love story, just not about who readers may think she is telling us about.  

"In Five Years" follows Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan. Dannie is happy and living with her long-term boyfriend David. She is off to interview for what for her will be the best job in the world. Dannie already knows that David plans on proposing that night so everything on her life plan list is coming together. Dannie and David are simpatico on what they want their future to look like. After David proposes, and she accepts, they return home. When Dannie falls asleep that night she wakes up five years in the future in an apartment she doesn't know with a man named Aaaron. When Dannie falls asleep again she wakes up back in the past and wonders what is going on. This incident leaves Dannie shaken and wonders what went wrong in her life that five years from now everything is so different. 

The book follows Dannie as we get a fast forward of the five years where she thinks her "doom" lays. We get to see some insights into Dannie, her long-term relationship, and her long-standing friendship with her best friend Bella. 

I have to say that this was an interesting premise. Serle does a very good with the magical elements aspect of this story. She doesn't try to over explain it. It just is something that happens to Dannie. Because of this incident though, Dannie is stuck in her life. You keep reading and you realize she is waiting for the shoe to drop. And then it does when she finally meets Aaron in her present and his connection to someone close to her.

I will say that Serle should have built up Dannie's relationship with her long term best friend Bella more. We get more of that development towards the middle and definitely the end of the book. I wonder if that was a choice though. Since we know the character of Dannie is regimented and has her "plans" we don't see her start to thaw out until we get towards the ending. 

And I am going to offer another bit of criticism, we initially have Dannie enthralled and in love with her boyfriend David. You can see why she loves him. But then we do the time jumps and one wonders how much the future incident affected things between them. We do get some insights into other characters that are introduced, but it's quite fleeting. 

The setting of this book is New York in 2020. We jump ahead four years and follow Dannie again at the start of 2025. I do have to say that with everything going on in the world right now it made my heart a bit heavy. I wonder how other readers feel about futuristic settings of books? Weirdly enough though the book doesn't seem to touch on any cultural events. I wonder if Serle did this on purpose to enable readers to read this book at any time and not feel like it's dated? 

I have to say that I am glad this book did not follow "One Day in December" (BTW I did not like that book) or "One Day" (ditto). I think Serle did a great job threading the needle since at times I know readers are not going to like Dannie at all. I thought the ending of this book was true and we now know what type of event would have propelled Dannie into the future. 

Finished this for Snakes and Ladders 2020. 

1. Author is a woman (thankfully I have a lot of current reads that fit this square). 

The dinner list, - A Novel, Rebecca Serle, author and narrator

When Sabrina was still a university student at USC, by chance, at a photographic exhibit, she meets a young man from UCLA who is studying photography. For her, it was kismet, but they made no plans to meet again, and he soon disappeared from her life. When, four years later, not in California, but in New York City, she spies him again, their friendship begins in earnest. She is sure it was written into her destiny as their relationship develops and grows stronger. He is working as a photographer, and she works in publishing. Her career is more suited to New York, but California would be better for his future. It is a dilemma. How would it be resolved?

Sabrina had a best friend, Jessica, who was close to her and her mother and was almost like family. They had a birthday ritual. Every year, the girls took each other out to celebrate. The birthday girl chose the restaurant. One time, the two discussed which five people they would invite to their birthday dinner, if they could have anyone. Sabrina’s list was Audrey Hepburn, her father’s favorite movie star, Tobias, the love of her life, Jessica, her friend forever, Robert, her father who had abandoned her and her mother, and Conrad, a former professor who always left her with something to think about.

When Sabrina arrived to meet Jessica for her birthday celebration, there were more seats than she expected at her table. Her five people were actually attending her dinner. She stopped thinking about how and why the guests were there and allowed herself to experience an evening that shouldn’t have been possible.

As the dinner progresses, Conrad is the one who encourages the conversation and Audrey facilitates it. Jessica keeps interjecting with her own opinions which are sometimes contrary to Sabrina’s, and Tobias seems to want to reassert their relationship. Robert reveals the details of his life. The reader discovers that not all of the guests are alive! The dinner conversation delves into their lives and examines their relationships. Love, loss, friendship, grief, disappointment, and need are just some of the emotions that are explored. The conversation allows each guest to relieve their minds of certain burdens.

The story takes on a bittersweet reunion atmosphere. Poor choices are revealed and some of the guests are able to explain the circumstances that changed and influenced her life and theirs, although Sabrina had not known about a lot of the facts that they are exposing. It enlightened her and enriched her life in such a way that she was now able to move forward, where before she had been stuck grieving over past mistakes, losses and things beyond her control.

At times, she had been selfish and at times she had deliberately overlooked things that she should have dealt with that could have solved a problem, Instead, she took the less stressful, easy way out. At times, she was immature and wouldn’t deal with reality because it was painful. As each of the guests faced and revealed their lives by looking back, through memories, at their pain and sorrow, Sabrina realized that she was not alone in her feelings of sadness and pain, there were others who also suffered losses and grief, and dilemmas that were difficult to solve. Although there would only be this one brief dinner to work through all of her questions and doubts about her life and to ponder about any changes she would have or could have made, the conversation was able to enrich her and enable her to move forward.

There was a bit of magical realism in the story, but it was more dreamlike than make-believe. It was simple and easy to read. The characters revealed themselves well as they explained behavior and character traits she had never understood or accepted. The experience allowed Sabrina to say good bye to her past instead of remaining stuck in some part of it. It also allowed the rest of the characters to move on to occupy a space in her life that was more acceptable to both Sabrina and them.

In general, I don’t think authors should read their own books on audios and this one reinforced my belief. The author’s voice lacked the resonance and maturity of a professional and, at times, it was irritating to me because it was almost too matter of fact in its portrayal of the narrative. Still, it was an interesting story with an imaginative plot. It made me wonder, at my stage of life, if there would be five people I would like to revisit with in order to explore our relationship, and it made me wonder if there was anything in my life that I would go back to and change if I could.

What would you do if you could pick five people to have dinner with, living or dead? Who would you pick? If the opportunity really arose, how would you handle yourself? Would you be happy to be with the people or would you unload all your hidden anger and resentment? Would problems get resolved? Would they grow worse? Could you be mature enough to deal with the issues that are suddenly revealed to you that you never knew about, unknown families, resentments, needs? It is an interesting question to ponder. It makes one realize the importance of the choices we make because we carry them with us down the road of life.

I was pleasantly surprised to find The Dinner List in my mailbox a week back. The premise was interesting, I think we've all at least considered the question, if you could name five people, living or dead, who you could invite to dinner, who would they be? So the idea of having this dream dinner come true, what would that ACTUALLY look like, would everyone get along? Would some people end up not being what you thought they'd be like? Etc. Well our MC Sabrina had just this happen at 30th birthday dinner, her five living and deceased people there for her.

The story takes place over the span of this one time only dinner, and also jumps back to past events between Sabrina and all of the guests. While the story starts off a little awkward between the guests and what they are all really doing there, it starts all coming to light as it progresses. With a twist or two along the way!

This was a little of a slow burn. Not action packed by any means, but ultimately very emotional with some truly fantastic ideas about what it is to grow up, relationships, love, loss, and forgiveness.

A few things that resonated deeply with me:

1) The brilliant portrayal of what it is like to become an adult. To really start to question all the things around you, the relationships, the goals you want to achieve, what you want to do or be, want you really want and need vs what others may want or need or expect you to. The last one especially, we are almost hardwired on what to expect from life, go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, start a family, etc. I feel like we don't start questioning these things, if any or all of them are truly what we want or if we are just operating on someone else's playbook until we are in our twenties. It was refreshing and so real to see this exactly so beautifully on display in this book.

2) How relationships change over time. This can be such a difficult lesson to learn, but as we grow and our lives carry us in new exciting directions, our relationships change. That doesn't always mean they change for the worse, but one they definitely become something other than the center of your life, which is mostly how they feel when you are young. More often than not, it isn't even anything definable that changes it, no big dramatic moment, not one thing, it changes "Not with a bang but a whimper". Just a progressive shift of priorities, opinions, and lifestyles.

I thought this was expertly portrayed by Sabrina and Jessica in The Dinner List. Sometimes it can be so difficult to see that while your relationships look different, it doesn't necessarily mean make them less than they were. Jessica had a husband and a baby, living in the burbs, while Sabrina was in the city with a job and a long term boyfriend. Neither one being better than the other, but time, distance, priorities, these all account for just how we can be there for each other sometimes.

This was also highlighted well with Sabrina's relationship with Tobias as well. With them getting together when they were younger and growing up as a couple. I felt like in some instances as they grew, they started veering in different directions and it can be really hard to accept that some of those directions may just end up being deal breakers. They seemed more content to try and live in a bubble of denial that things were changing, maybe because they were afraid of what that change would mean for them as a couple. Unfortunately denial can only last so long and their bubble was reaching the bursting point for quite some time.

3) The absentee parent. Being someone who never met my father, I could relate to Sabrina and her inclusion of her father on her dinner list. If for nothing more than the burning questions, because there are always questions you have for someone meant to be there for you that wasn't. I was riveted by all their interactions with each other tbh. So many small details even, that rang so true, like Sabrina's apprehension to give him a chance to explain things like it would somehow be a betrayal to her mother.

There was something so brilliant and sad about them finally having only a few hours to say what they had to say to each other. And something so relatable to anyone, when you finally see your parents for what they are, human. Such a jarring realization to know that these larger than life pillars are merely flesh and bone people who aren't always right, make mistakes, and aren't all good or bad, but varying shades of grey like the rest of us.

Honestly, this book was more heavy than I anticipated going in, but in a wonderful way. And the inclusion of Audrey Hepburn and a random teacher of Sabrina's helped lighten the load a little throughout. They ended up bringing a nice balance to the dinner and the story itself. This was one dinner that just might change Sabrina's life, and one book that will make you think about your own. Very well done and I look forward to reading more from this author.