REVIEW: Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

OUR REVIEW:

Expiration Dates is the third novel I've read of Rebecca Serle and one thing that I've come to learn about her works is that she doesn't repeat tropes or build on ideas/characters/content from previous novels--so I never know what, exactly, I'm going to get. 

Expiration Dates is unlike any other romance that I've read. It's based on the main character, Daphne, and that she gets these mysterious notes that tell her how long a relationship with a certain man will last. Because of that, she never really fully opens herself to the possibilities of that relationship because she knows there's an end date. While she finds pleasure in her relationships and sometimes, even, allows herself to be more of herself with some of her partners, it's really only 2 partners that we see her begin to fully be herself.  And it's because of all of this that for the first half of the novel, I felt disconnected...because she felt disconnected. Everything up to the halfway mark felt so matter of fact and didn't really back an emotional punch--it was more of a retelling of her past relationships than an emotional unfolding of her story. Then we learn more about her and why she does certain things or seems so matter of fact and that's when I became more invested in what was happening with Daphne and Jake.

Expiration Dates has a unique take on fate and love and while it wasn't what I was expecting, it was still an interesting read.

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SYNOPSIS:

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.