Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
Actual Rating: 2.3
*Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.*
This book has such an interesting premise but it never completely buys into it.
The title, Expiration Dates, refers to the mysterious letters that Daphne gets telling her exactly how long each of her relationships will last, whether it’s three hours, two weeks, or years. It’s always accurate to a tee, which is why Daphne can hardly believe it when the newest letter reads: Jake. Just Jake. And that’s how she knows he’s the one…right?
The plot started out really interesting. You have an inkling of how the story goes — it’s always something about going against your destiny and writing your own story, which is a theme I LOVE to read about.
About halfway through, however, Expiration Dates introduces another plot device to increase tension and urgency — one which is basically another premise entirely, one which is really commonly seen and much less remarkable. I found this aspect really unnecessary as it felt like the book started neglecting the paper theme and focusing on it instead.
In the end, it felt like we never really explored the letters as much I wanted; we didn’t learn much about why they existed, why Daphne was the one receiving them. I’m generally pretty good at suspending my disbelief and accepting that something just is, but the book makes it clear that these letters aren’t normal, and then it never explains further which made me feel like I was left hanging.
The book is also interspersed with mini chapters that talk about Daphne’s past relationships and why they ended. I liked the idea of this, but I think they were far too long and took up too much time. About halfway, I realized that this book actually is a romance and there’s a main love interest — but I hadn’t realized that because of how inconsequential their character felt. I think we could’ve shortened the other chapters and focused more on this character if that’s where the story was going to go.
In the end, it felt like this book found itself starting out as a contemporary adult fiction (which I would have loved) and ended up as a romance (which I would’ve also loved) but it didn’t do a very good job of balancing both. I found myself not really emotionally invested in the romance because it came too late and seemed too underdeveloped, and the plot with Daphne and her letters also felt underdeveloped because of the other plot device the story introduced.
Ultimately, I think there was a lot of potential in this story but I really didn’t connect with it in the end. I might even go so far as to say that the blurb about Daphne and the letters is kind of misleading, because in the end it didn’t seem like the book was really about that. I think it’s a gentle read but not something that will make you think or give you butterflies.
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