Based on a clever premise, IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle is well-written and fast-paced, insightful, equal parts charming and sad, ultimately satisfying.

The premise? A super-achieving lawyer with a Type A-personality has planned out her life to the letter. But, on the evening after she clinches a job at her dream law firm and her boyfriend proposes, she falls asleep and, quite vividly, is five years into the future in a different apartment, making love with a very different man.

She awakens confused, assuming it is a dream but worried about its meaning. She is upset enough to see a therapist, but the image continues to haunt her. Worse, little by little, there is overlap between her real life and what she saw that night. The question becomes whether what she experienced was a dream – or a glimpse into the future.

IN FIVE YEARS is eminently entertaining. The characters are snappy and the plot twists unexpected. I’m not sure I agree with the author’s resolution of that dream/glimpse – or for that matter, with the ethnic references at the start that seem to just disappear. Both certainly require the willing suspension of disbelief.

Otherwise, though, this is a poignant, easy read that is truly more about friendship than romantic love.