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From the publisher:

Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day—a striking, powerful, and moving love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

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.

I really loved the description of this book. It put me in mind of What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty, more than Me Before You. But after reading it, it is not really like either of those books, but wholly original. Can’t sell a book that way though, you have to have comparables. Preferably huge, bestselling comparables. I am not familiar with One Day, and there are stark differences between Me Before You and In Five Years, but I can see the same reader enjoying both. I did.

I tend to like anything with a whiff of time travel, and Dannie’s vision certainly seems to fit the bill. Was it a dream? I am too much of a pragmatist to think otherwise, until of course, she meets the man of her dream. While this book is being touted as a romance, it’s really not. It is women’s fiction about two best friends, and it is a tearjerker. To say more than that would spoil the book, I think, so I will leave it there.

On a more personal note, there is mention of a Catskills wedding and the Roxbury Inn. I almost dropped my Kindle when I read that – my son got married in June in Roxbury, NY! What a coincidence; Roxbury is a small town about an hour from Albany, and I mean small. Like drive twenty minutes to the next town to get to a supermarket or any other kind of store small. But completely charming and utterly gorgeous, especially in June. I would imagine fall to be quite spectacular as well. If you have a minute, scroll through some of the pictures on the Roxbury Inn website. Every room has a theme and no two are alike. But I digress.

I was almost envious of the friendship the two women had, it was quite special and I loved that about this book. The romance, not so much. I devoured this book in a day, but I was a tiny bit disappointed at the ending. It is certainly worth a read.

3/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™