There was nothing extraordinary about this one and yet I really enjoyed it! It's a very relationship driven story. By that I mean, you've got a lot of one on one time between characters but not much actually happens other than relationship building!

I loved how two strangers become so close in such a short amount of time, it didn't feel fake or unrealistic at all to me. That alone takes good writing! And both Orla and Aidan were great characters!

I also learned some stuff about otters... Who would have guessed it!

If you're looking for a fun read with some depth I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Five-Year Plan was a fairly cute story. I've been really loving the whole missed connections and second chance tropes lately and when I read that this story was about two people meeting and trying to hold off on falling in love with each other for five years as they get their careers sorted, I got very excited. It's a wonderful storyline but unfortunately the story's execution didn't quite get there for me.

The story begins in the present with the two characters meeting again after five years. They're both nervous and exchanging lots of longing looks across a crowded room, and the chapter ends leaving you hanging. Then it flashes back to five years ago when they met.

To be honest, I felt the pacing of the story between past and present to be a little awkward. When we see the two characters meet and their relationship begin to flourish, I didn't really feel much of a connection to either character or their relationship. I pretty much could have gone either way on whether they ended up together or not which isn't the best feeling for a romance novel.

I also felt the craze over everyone knowing who the hero was to be a little unrealistic and the communication between many of the characters felt almost immature and adolescent in a way.

That all being said though, I'm rating this 2.5 stars because it had a lot of potential! It was a great storyline that needed a better execution and with a few more revisions of pacing and dialogue it could have been really great.

There were a few things missing in here including: anything about Orla’s career, More of the sex life, and although their relationship was sweet it was kind of bland

This was a great book to get me into reading again. I really enjoyed the story, especially when the main characters Orla and Aiden meet. I liked their background story of how they meet and look for the otters.

I just felt like I wanted more of the story. I wanted to go in deeper with some of the things that happened. I wanted to know more about Orlas work and about James. The writing style wasn’t really for me, but I did get so much into the story that I almost forgot about the writing style.

All in all, I laughed and smiled throughout the book and did really enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Carla Burgess for my Arc copy of The Five Year Plan., for an honest review. This was a fast paced read for me. a good story about love lost and found again. Orla and Aiden seem like a great fit but timing is off.. She has an exact career 5 year plan and seems to not be able to diverge from it. This story was lighthearted and sweet. At some points I felt it went on a bit but overall it was a good story.. It was a 3.5 star read for me. I would most definitely recommend for friends, that like this type of book.

Sooooo cute! I love this one a lot. I love contemporarys so much. They make me smile and giggle sometimes. It's such a good feeling to read something with happy ending.

This book was provided to me by Netgalley.

The plot of this book was interesting. Orla has a five year plan. She wants to move to London and become a big news reporter. Well, she hopes doing a story about wildlife photographer, Aiden will help her.

They end up falling in love. However, Aiden has to leave for his next job, India. He asks Orla to go with him. Spoiler Alert: she didnt.

5 years later, she has the job she wants in London. She goes to an art show with a collegue and it so happens to be Aiden's art show.

What is weird that her "boyfriend" James didnt seen interested in her. I was hoping James would be more interesting. He was just tossed aside as a plot device.

I would recommend this book if time jumps are your thing. This is the time I am reading this author as well, so I think I am going to check out more of her books!

Absolutely loved this book from the moment that I started reading it! It has you hooked from the first chapter. You are instantly cheering for Aiden and Orla, willing them to take their friendship further. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and read it all in one day!

I loved the slow burn build up friendship to romance in the flashback (which for reference is about half the book). Watching Aiden and Orla go from total strangers to tentative friendship, to strong friendship, crush, and beyond was deeply satisfying. I detest insta-love and Orla (who's perspective this novel is written from) certainly does not suffer from the trope. With one glaring exception (the abrupt and less than romantically discussed transition from platonic friendship to friends with feelings with benefits) the first half of this book was by far my favorite. 

I appreciated that Orla remained cautious when Aiden suddenly showed back up in her life five years later. Despite the fact that she still obviously loves him, they have issues that need resolving and she has a life with existing commitments. The suggestion of dropping everything to move out of the country after spending a week together with no promise of a long term commitment is BANANAS. Orla had one redeeming moment in this situation that made me want to shout, you go girl show him that backbone! I wish she had a few more of them.

Sometimes I just need a cliche romance where I know it will be a happy ending, and this was perfect for that. I was really excited to read this and I enjoyed every second of reading it.

So the book starts in the present day; Orla is a journalist in London and she is personally invited to this Aiden person's gallery, so she takes her colleague and they go together to get an interview. There is clearly some tension and unsaid things and I personally was dying to know how they got to this part of their lives, as much as I needed to know what happened after this. So we get taken back to 5 years earlier where Orla and Aiden meet. I like the slow burn of them going from friends to more; they are both very much set on only being friends, as neither want to date anyone, but without either of them realising it as they spend more time together and get to know each other, they fall in love (this is actually how me and my boyfriend happened so Orla and Aiden took me down memory lane). However, Orla has her 5 year plan and she sticks to it, which I loved because a lot of times the woman will fall in love and drop everything for the guy she's fallen for, but Orla doesn't. So they go their separate ways and then we end up back at the beginning of the story again where it's set in present day and we get to see if anything has changed for either of them over the five years they were apart.

I did find the ending felt a little rushed, but I think that was purely because the bulk of the story was quite slow-paced. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes this type of book.

The Five-Year Plan - Carla Burgess 4/5: This book was adorable - I love second chance romance books so much! I have seen so many mixed reviews on Goodreads and was super confused why! Orla was such an empowering female lead character. She had a five-year plan and stuck with it; career and personal growth first. She didn’t put her life on hold for a man! I can appreciate this type of mentality and respected Orla’s choice. She didn’t give up everything she was working toward because of a man. I had such major butterflies with Orla and Aiden from their beginning. Everything about their friendship was natural and honest. I adored how Orla and Aiden fell for each other. You could tell that they both built their foundation on their friendship and let it blossom from there. Aiden had such a bright spirited soul and it was obvious Orla was going to fall for him eventually. If you’re into romance books, just be aware the steam isn’t there; very PG-13 but it works. This is a very slow-placed read, with no real plot twists or big heartache. Sometimes you just need an uncomplicated love story and this definitely hit the mark. Burgess made their love story valid and realistic. Overall, this was a sweet story and I definitely enjoyed it.

Others might like this second chance romance more than I did. I wanted Orla, who was supposedly so focused on her career, to talk about HER job, not Aiden's. I liked that Aiden is a wildlife photographer who wants to save the world. Unfortunately, although I'm always up for a good rom-com chick lit type quick read, this one just didn't spark for me. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for the honest review.

This book was not my cup of tea. I wanted to like it but the characters were both incredibly selfish, there was enough spicy romance and it bored me to the point where I ended up flipping ahead to get to the good part, which never came. A real shame because it was a good premise.

OMG! The chemistry between Orla and Aidan in the opening scene is electric.
It's the best opening chapter I've read in a long time but it left me hanging!

The impatience I felt here was real.

We are catapulted into their lives where they meet again for the first time after their five years apart. After reading this scene I was so tempted to skip past the time jump chapters of their youthful, summer romance because I wanted to follow their present day getting back together scenes!

Self control won out.

Their story is quite a slow burn romance but I quite like that as it makes the inevitable reunion that much sweeter in the end.

I really liked Orla and Aidan although Orla did drag her feet a bit and I wouldn't have minded giving her a little nudge to move the story along.



This was a cute, feel good romance and I loved it.

Loved the first chapter, and the end/epilogue redeemed what was a pretty hum-drum and so-so story throughout. It dragged in many places and what was said could've been said in half the words and episodes, but it carries along okay and can be enjoyed on a free afternoon

I enjoyed this easy to enjoy romantic comedy that I read through in a day.
The story begins in the present day with Orla, a journalist visiting the photography exhibition of a long lost "friend" Adrian where it is clear that they have a special connection. The rest of the story is told with one long flash back to five years ago when the pair originally met and the story of why they ultimately parted ways. The tale then returns to the present day to find out how they end up.
It's definitely a predictable romance (but most are) that could've been told with two povs instead of just Orla's but I still enjoyed the relationship they had despite the reasons for the relationship not working baffling me. An enjoyable read!
I read this as an Arc from netgalley.

A quick, cute read!
Orla meets Aiden when she’s out to interview him about otters he’s photographing. What follows is a love that can’t be forgotten even after five years time has passed.

I found the first couple of chapters captivating, and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. I read eagerly on and kept wondering if guys like Aiden actually exist. He was very honest and open about his feelings, sometimes it felt slightly strange as he had just met Orla but kept showing up at her house etc.

I felt like towards the end the story became more and more of a cliche and it became a little bit harder to read without rolling my eyes every now and then. But I enjoyed the beginning and better half of the book.

If you’re looking for a quick, sweet read then this is it!

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was an OK read. The story was cute, kind of predictable. The climate change angle kind of felt like it was thrown in at the end, didn’t really feel necessary.

Overall, a decent summertime read.

This book begins in the present where the two characters Orla and Aiden meet again five years later at Aiden's photography exhibition. It then flashes back to their time together five years earlier telling the story of how they met and their friendship that developed. It was a nice realistic story of friendship becoming something more beautiful.

When they first met Orla was a strong, independent woman, starting her first job as a reporter, who has a five-year plan to improve her career. Enter Aiden, a wildlife photographer who is her first solo interview. After an unlikely accident, they are drawn together and become unlikely but great friends, that slowly turns into more. As they knew would happen Aiden gets called away to his next assignment and they part ways.

Flash forward five years and Orla goes to Aiden’s photography exhibition on his invitation. He is now a famous wildlife photographer with some documentaries under his belt and she is a successful journalist working on a large paper in London, her dreams fulfilled.

The story continues in the present with what happens after their five year reunion.



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***I received a copy through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.***

Working in the field of conservation, I was THRILLED to see a main character (Aiden Byrnes) as a wildlife photographer and conservationist. It was breath of fresh air to be able to relate to a character's career and not have another doctor/lawyer/businessman as the hot guy lead. Major kudos to Carla Burgess for breaking the mold on what a love interest can be!

With that said, I had a hard time connecting with the book after the first chapter because of the timeline switch. The bulk of the book is spent 5 years before the first chapter, which leads to great storytelling and plot building. It was difficult to get into it, for me, because the first chapter immediately throws you into Aiden and Orla's relationship and then switches to a slow buildup of their first meeting, their friendship, etc. It wasn't a bad thing, but something I needed to take some time adjusting to. And once I did, I was hooked to the characters and story!

What I truly loved about this story was how Orla, who is not a conservationist, was describing her experience with the otters and the bliss she felt being outside. Those were very real feelings that I have had and I adored how Burgess translated those feelings to people who might not experience them every day. She managed to bring real-life things like climate change, wildlife extinction, etc into a very cute love story. I not only thank her but applaud her for that!