In Five Years

Serle's unpredictable novels are made stronger by the pinch of magical realism she sprinkles throughout the plotting.

Her characters are deeply drawn so readers can feel their joys and griefs. In this book, she perfectly captures that inexplicable "something" about New York City. I relished In Five Years.

Upmarket Women’s Fiction at its finest! Women’s Fiction isn’t, incidentally, fiction written by or necessarily for women.

It comprises rich stories in which the plot is driven by the protagonist’s emotional journey. You’ll always witness external events creating an interesting and lasting impact from beginning to end, changing our main character inside forever. 

In Five Years excels at that, and packs a devastating, shocking, powerful punch in the process. I cried, but experiencing this story was worth it.

In full disclosure, I don’t normally pick up mid-20-year-old protagonist books; I’m in my 50’s. I don’t normally relate. In this case, however, I related. It was a good book, solid, entertaining and recommendable.

And here’s where it gets weird – not the book, the fact that the author wrote my life, sort of. When the young protagonist finds her friend dying from cancer, she cracks, and the emotions, thoughts, experiences are so relatable; hauntingly so, I felt as if she were a friend of mine going through my cancer story. This book takes a time travel twist, but don’t… show more.

When Dannie (the heroine) has a vision where she's five years in the future in a different apartment with a different ring on her finger and a different man, her life shifts in ways you won't imagine. I was surprised and awed as the story unfolded, totally immersed and engaged. I felt for the characters, cheered for them, fought for them, and snapped at them when they did stupid things. I was enthralled with the story, in awe of the author's creativity and imagination, admiring and appreciative of certain words and phrases. Her writing style is concise and efficient, not… show more.

This book absolutely shattered me. Imagine going to sleep one night and waking up in the morning to a whole new existence. That’s what happens to the protagonist in this book. It’s five years later, and she’s living with the wrong man, having no clue how she ended up where she is. With NYC as a fabulous background to this captivating story, she has to figure out how to make sense of her whole new world. The only thing grounding her in reality is the city she’s always known.