From the publisher:
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes a love story that will define a generation.
Being single is like playing the lottery. There’s always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.
Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.
But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.
Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.
“Daphne’s sometimes heart-wrenching, often heartwarming search for meaningful relationships, both romantic and platonic, is sure to inspire.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
https://amzn.to/3PRLF8G
“Serle’s compulsively readable prose will attract fans of Jennifer Weiner and Emily Henry.”—Booklist
“Serle provides an interesting conceit and a healthy dose of wit that readers will appreciate. An entertaining love story with moments of depth.” —Kirkus
Serle always writes smart, interesting books, and she did it again with her latest. Daphne is a millennial with an unusual dating life, going all the way back to her childhood. She lives in Los Angeles, which almost becomes another character in the book. She works as an assistant to a movie producer and enjoys her work.
But Daphne has a secret – she receives a slip of paper, a letter, or a postcard with the man’s name and the time frame every time she goes out with a new man. That’s it. That time frame turns out to be the expiration date of the relationship. The only exception is at first, Hugo. They break up at the time on the note, but they remain friends, and Hugo is the only one Daphne has told about these notes.
When a friend offers to fix her up on a blind date, Daphne gets her usual note but this time all it says is “Jake.” There’s nothing else, no number of days, so does that mean he is the one? Will they stay together forever?
This book isn’t your typical romcom, so there is another expiration date that we don’t find out about until much later in the book. Jake is a kind man, but honestly, there was no chemistry between them. But Daphne couldn’t find fault with him and things develop as one would assume. But there is a twist coming, and it wasn’t as shocking as I suspect it was meant to be, but it did take the story in a different direction in an emotional way. All in all, this was a short, fast read and a good one. These characters will be staying with me for a while, and I always enjoy a touch of magical realism in a romance. This was very well done, and I highly recommend!
4/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
EXPIRATION DATES by Rebecca Serle. Atria Books (March 19, 2024). ISBN: 978-1982166823. 272p.
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