I have been on a bit of a romantic comedy binge, so a took a little detour with Five Years From Now by Paige Toon. I’ll tell you right now, it DID NOT make me laugh. I’m not a crier, but I actually got a little verklempt with this one. The book starts off with Nell consoling her teenage son who just got into a little accident and thinks that being stuck with a broken ankle during the summer is the absolute end of the world.

“All I’m saying is, although this feels like the worst thing ever right now, something positive might come out of it. My dad once gave me that “five years from now” advice and I’ve never forgotten it.”  …

“So when did Grandad say that five years from now stuff?”

“When I was your age, funnily enough. But I overheard someone say a similar thing a whole decade before that. Ruth was a hard person to forget.”

Nell decides to share a story about a lesson she learned from someone who was only in her life briefly. A lesson she knows all too well now being an adult.  “Five years from now.”

The story followed Nell and Van. They met when they were five when Ruth and Van moved in with Nell’s father. At age ten they are torn apart by tragedy. They reunite at age 15 and realize that their friendship and transformed into love. They’re torn apart again. Age 20, the meet again as adults. Their circumstances never seem quite right, but they can’t seem to shake that connection and pull they have toward one another. I kept reading along…”the next five, the next five” just waiting for it all to work out for them. Now I can’t tell you how it all ends. You’ll have to find out for yourself. If you’re a crier…grab the tissues. This story is truly bittersweet.