Rebecca has quickly become an auto buy author for me. I’m a big fan of magical realism though and so her books give me enough magic within a contemporary setting to fuel my imagination.
Since she was young Daphne has always received a slip of paper telling her how long her relationships last. She doesn’t know why but she’s lived and not lived her life with the expectation that her relationships had an expiration date. That is until she receives a blank note with nothing other than Jake’s name on it and no date. She’s convinced he’s the one, but will her secret let her open up and let him in?
I wanted to love this book, and I did! At least for 75% of it. Without adding spoiling anything, I just couldn’t with Daphne’s ‘secret’. As someone who has dealt with much of that and knows all too well what comes with something like ‘that’, I just don’t understand Daphne’s secretive nature about it. She’s letting ‘it’ and these notes dictate her life, and while I really loved the concept of the notes, her commitment to not being her own person and taking the reins irked me.
If the secret would have been something different, I’d probably be writing a much different review and would be 100% praising this story. So, while the concept and writing are five-star worthy, the irritation I felt at that one thing knocks this down to 3.5 stars for me. I’m still a big fan of Serle and still think her writing has a peaceful, magical, and floaty feeling to it, I just didn’t like the how it ultimately played out. This book is still a fast paced and a perfect beach vacation read, but the ending just didn’t work out for me.
Other Rebecca Serle Reviews:
One Italian Summer Review | In Five Years Review | The Dinner List Review
AMAZONĀ |Ā GOODREADSĀ |ā ā ā ā ā
Expiration Dates comes out March 5, 2024! Huge thank you to Atria Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.Ā Ā If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof_books.
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