Author Spotlight Rebecca Serle
This Author Spotlight Rebecca Serle is also a YA Crossover Author post, as author Rebecca Serle started as a YA author and then transitioned into adult books in 2018. Her books do make great crossover books for Adult Readers of YA Books and also have some similarities to books by beloved YA authors, so let’s take a look at all of it!
Author Spotlight Rebecca Serle
Rebecca Serle’s first book was When You Were Mine in 2012.
She then published both The Edge of Falling and Famous in Love in 2014.
Famous in Love, a (very meta) book about a girl who is starring in a movie based on a popular YA book series was (wait for it!) made into a 2017 Freeform TV series starring Bella Thorne. Wrap your mind around all that!
Serle then published Truly, Madly Famously (a sequel to Famous in Love) in 2015.
After that, Serle was one of the earlier YA authors to make the switch to adult fiction. She began publishing adult fiction with magical elements: The Dinner List (2018), In Five Years (2020) and One Italian Summer (2022).
Her newest (adult) book is Expiration Dates, which I’ll discuss and compare to her other adult titles.
Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
Published on March 19, 2024 by Atria Books. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review. I read this book in February 2024.
Expiration Dates is a adult contemporary romance with magical elements.
Main character Daphne receives slips of paper with the name of her next romantic partner and a expiration date for the relationship. Sometimes it’s a night, sometimes it’s months. But there’s always an end date.
One day, Daphne receives just a name with no date. Is this her forever person?
What Did I Think of Expiration Dates?
Expiration Dates was a very LA-centric book filled with excursions to restaurants and the farmer’s market and such. If you love that SoCal vibe, you’ll enjoy soaking it up in this book.
I thought Expiration Dates had an interesting pace. It feels fuzzy and leisurely as Daphne settles into what she thinks is her happily ever after.
But then the book drops not one but TWO bombshells on the reader.
And fellow reader, I was not very happy about either of these revelations.
I’ve had this experience with two of Serle’s other adult books.
I was EXTREMELY upset about the ending of In Five Years. Extremely!
One Italian Summer has a weird twist, but I was okay with it.
I guess I keep reading Serle’s books to find out what crazy magical realism tricks she has up her sleeve?
YA Books For Readers Who Love Rebecca Serle’s Adult Books
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon is also eerily similar to Expiration Dates!
Instant Karma and With a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer also have magical realism elements.
Tell me in comments: what do you think of Serle’s books? Do you love reading books with magical elements?
I am team Serle. I love her adult books and all their messiness. I see her the same way I see Katie Contugno. People love them or hate them. But regardless of if the story went me way or not, I am always left with a lot to think about. That one “bombshell” in Expiration Dates (if I am right as to what you considered a bombshell) helped explain why Daphne was ok with these short term romances, and I love how her ideas about forever were challenged by the one slip of paper.
Yes, that’s the “bombshell” I am thinking about! And lol Katie Cotugno books aggravate me too. I am a person who dislikes messiness. It’s true!