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Since the time she realized that she “liked boys,�� Daphne has been blessed with a magically realistic gift (one whose origins, I must warn, are never explained in the context of this novel).

Seemingly, without fail, right before she is to begin a romantic relationship, Daphne receives a small piece of paper including only the name of her current love interest and the precise duration of their upcoming relationship.

This “benevolent�� supernatural overseer only sees fit to inform Daphne regarding her romantic relationships. It never deigns to give her hints on other crucial aspects of her life relating to her career, family / friends, major life events, or her mortality, the last of which will inevitably come into play later in this story in a surprising way (. . . well, surprising, if you have never read a book by Rebecca Serle).

Recently, Daphne has received a piece of paper with only a name, “Jake,�� and no expiration date. How will she react to this life-altering news? Has she finally found her happily-ever-after at age 33? Can she truly embrace this happy news, without telling Jake about the, not one, but TWO, time-sensitive secrets she is keeping at bay?

And what about Hugo, Daphne’s ex-boyfriend turned best friend, and the only person who knows ALL her secrets? How will her impending relationship with Jake affect their friendship?

Expiration Dates marks my third Serle read. In each one, the author succinctly (her novels never seem to extend far beyond 300 pages) incorporates magically realistic elements to send readers on a philosophical journey to explore questions of romance, fate versus self-determination, and mortality.

Reviews on this novel are admittedly mixed. As someone who enjoyed In Five Years, but wasn’t a huge fan of One Italian Summer, I went into Expiration Date with tempered expectations.

Overall, I’ll say that I enjoyed this novel more than I expected, and probably will fall in its upper-mid range of positive reviews. I loved its concept and its brevity. (I listened to this novel via audiobook. It clocked in at a very accessible 7 hours. However, I managed to finish it much more quickly, giving my penchant for listening to audiobooks at 1.75 speed.)

Yes, a lot of the “knowledge�� and truisms featured in Expiration Dates are a bit fortune cookie/ rom com movie monologue-esque. Yet, the tale did resonate with me. It posed some interesting questions about the true nature of love and fate. Despite its slightly emotionally manipulative 11th hour bittersweet twist, it did end on a surprisingly optimistic note.

On a more granular level, Expiration Dates often felt more like an allegory or half hour sitcom-with-a-moral than a novel. All the characters in this novel, from Daphne, to her “sassy-but-in-a-secure-relationship�� female bestie, to her powerful older LGBTQ ostensibly cold, but conveniently wisdom-spewing, boss, to her workaholic not-so-secretly-pining ex, to her “perfect man(?),�� to her various past relationship guest stars, to her parents . . . even her loyal dog, seemed more like archetypes than actual individuals with their own autonomous life paths.

Yet, surprisingly, I didn’t necessarily find the characters�� amorphous natures to be a negative! In fact, the cypher quality of our heroine, her love interests, and her supporting cast made it that much easier to see yourself in this story. Free from the burden of character analysis, your mind was free wander and contemplate similar novel-relevant experiences you may have had in the past, and how they impacted YOU personally.

As for the story proper, it reminded me a bit of the short-lived Max series Love Life, wherein a relatable lead character’s life story was told through its series of failed romantic relationships, each inevitably leading incrementally to the character’s happily ever after. Yes, Daphne always knew, unlike readers, when her respective past romantic relationships would come to their inevitable end. That may have impacted how much emotional work and effort she put into each coupling. But that didn’t mean that these failed relationships didn’t somehow impact her future and world view, in the way all relationship (romantic and otherwise), do!

Did the mortality question need to be included? Maybe? I always tend to find these specific plot insertions to be emotionally manipulative and unnecessarily maudlin. Yet, admittedly, this plot point did add another philosophical layer to the novel’s “Expiration Dates�� title and its overarching theme.

Simply put, I believe that the message of Expiration Dates is this: “Live your life to the fullest. Love to the fullest, regardless of what fate has in store for you. You can’t control everything that is going to happen to you. But you can control how you react to it, how much enjoyment you gain from it, and how it impacts your remaining days on Earth.��

Do I wish Expiration Date offered SOME explanation for its magically realistic presence (i.e. Why only Daphne? Why only romantic relationships?) YES, DEFINITELY!

Was the whitewashed version of LA presented in Expiration Dates, frustratingly two-dimensional, and did it occasionally provide an additional layer of remove to an already largely archetypal tale? (i.e. Everyone in this novel is always impeccably dressed, financially well-to-do, hardworking, and vaguely connected to Hollywood, yet seems to have endless free time to spend in farmers markets, multi-million dollar homes, expensive restaurants, and coffee shops, all while inevitably contemplating the “direly important�� twists and turns of Daphne’s love life for hours on end, Sex and the City Style.) Also yes.

Did Expiration Dates resonate with me, anyway, despite all of this? It did! Did I mention that it is VERY short?

So, if you like magical realism, navel-gazing philosophy, and light romance, with a relatively optimistic conclusion, I think you could do worse than Expiration Dates!