A love stronger than distance. A fate determined by time.

Nell and Van meet as children when their parents fall in love. They become best friends and each other’s whole world. Then tragedy strikes and Van is sent to the other side of the globe.

Five years later, they find each other again. But they’re no longer children and the bond between them smolders into flames. New feelings surprise them both. They are destined, soulmates. Until an untimely discovery tears them apart again.

For the next two decades, fate brings Nell and Van together every five years, even as life and circumstance divide them. They will have to make a choice, but it’s bigger than their lives alone. Is it bigger than their love?

“One day, maybe five years from now, you’ll look back and understand why this happened…”

Life is a fragile and ever-surprising thing; it can be hard to keep our bearings. So I appreciate when a book can serve as a refuge from the vagaries of the world, offering words of hope and solace. Paige Toon’s new novel Five Years From Now is just the winter balm you need, if you’re like me. It is a genuinely heartwarming ode to giving ourselves a little grace.

Nell and Van met as children, striking up an immediate kinship. But tragedy soon moves their families in opposite directions. When the two reunite five years later as adults, their friendship rekindles and then blossoms into something more. But just as they begin to explore where their relationship might go, they are separated again. This cycle repeats for two decades as fate toys with the two would-be soulmates. Then a choice is put before them to break the cycle and figure out once and for all if they are destined to be together.

Exploring the passage of time and the challenges of deciding who to share our lives with, this is an emotional and affirming story. For anyone who has met the right person at the wrong time, it will be all too relatable. But it also extends a warm hand and says: chin up, the world is still full of possibility. Who couldn’t use a bit of that right now?