Title: Expiration Dates
Author:  Rebecca Serle
Genre: Romance   
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

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 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.

This was a bit hit-or-miss for me. I loved the premise and thought it was awesome, but how Daphne used it as an excuse to just check out and not get emotionally invested was pretty…cowardly, frankly. Jake seemed nice, but the two of them together felt very bland, while her friendship with Hugo was fantastic and compelling. I was supposed to be rooting for jake and Daphne, but I really wasn’t. I just wanted Daphne to wake up and realize what had been waiting for her all along, while she was busy shutting everyone out.

Rebecca Serle is a bestselling author. Expiration Dates is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.)

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