This book appealed to me because of the cover and the plot. I always gravitate towards books that have some kind of journalism aspect and Orla, one of the protagonists in this novel, in this novel is a journalist! I enjoyed the writing and many of the strong relationships found in this novel; however, the relationship between Orla and Aidan seemed rushed to me—ultimately, this was my primary frustration with this novel.

For example, in the second chapter when Orla and Aidan first meet, Orla sprains her ankle and Aidan proceeds to take her to the hospital to get her checked out, drops her off at her apartment and helps her get settled in her apartment. This felt awkward to me—especially considering they just met—but the characters think nothing of it. Again, the third chapter finds Aidan visiting Orla at her apartment the next day. He then proceeds to make her breastfast, etc. This continues throughout the novel and continues to feel unrealistic to me.

Overall, I would have liked to have seen a relationship that evolved gradually over the course of the novel.

This was such a delightful read! I loved every moment of it. It made me want to go travel and explore London and Ireland! I am sad I finished the story so fast.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book and loved the second chance romance trope. Flashbacks, however, are a tricky to.pull off and I found myself wanting more of the present story than the past one.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had all three tropes that I love in a romance novel.

At the beginning of the book you are introduced to Orla and Aiden who meet again for the first time in 5 years at one of Aiden's wildlife photography exhibits. Orla now writes for a large newspaper and lives in London. Aiden has been traveling the world over the last 5 years. Prior to the exhibit Aiden has sent Orla an invite that she assumes is because she works for a large newspaper. I think it is safe to say that Orla’s assumptions were incorrect.

The next ¾ of the book backtracks through the history of when Orla and Aiden first met and fell in love. Unfortunately, Orla has a plan of where they want to be in 5 years and Aiden is in no way ready to settle down, so they go their separate ways once Aiden receives his next assignment.

If you are a fan of second chance romance, friends to lover’s romance, and/or slow burn romance all tied up in one book than I think you will enjoy this one. Plus, there may be otters in included. I mean who doesn’t love a romance book with otters in it?!

Thank you to NetGalley/HQ Digital for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

I like other reviewers hate to not finish a book once started. I realise the amount of time and effort that has gone into it’s creation., but I’m afraid I realised that life is too short to keep on with a story that is just not going anywhere.
Some chic-lit authors have the ability to retain my attention in quite lengthy flashback chapters but I’m afraid this author didn’t. I found the heroine to be childish in her manner, certainly not acting her 22 years and the dialogue was really stilted during the first third of the book.
The first chapter started so well and I thought oh this is going to be a good novel but I’m afraid the back story just went on and on and on..
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a preview copy but I’m afraid I couldn’t finish it.

I chose this book due to the cover (cute!) and the storyline had promise. This was the first book that I've read by Carla Burgess. I loved the first chapter; it started out like a great rom com. However, I didn't care for the flashbacks as they were quite lengthy and too drawn out for me. As well, I really didn't care for Aiden either; it seems like Orla always has to do the compromising in the relationship which irked me to no end. I like to read about women characters that are strong and stand up for themselves. The characters were supposed to be in their 20's-30's but the dialogue sounded a lot younger.

Thanks #netgalley for the ARC.
#thefiveyearplan

I loved this book! Aiden and Orla had the perfect friendship/relationship from the very beginning. I found myself cheering them on. I also loved that it centered so heavily on the photography/documentary aspect of the book. Would highly recommend!

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, HQ Digital, for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Oh boy.

I would have loved to start my blog with a glowing, amazing review but c'est la vie. First, let me tell you what this is all about. There may be spoilers below so be warned.

Summary:
Orla Kennedy receives an invitation to an art gallery showcasing her wildlife photographer ex-boyfriend Aiden Byrne. Aiden has achieved worldwide and household name success (WHAT?) as a wildlife photographer and documentarian (is that a word?). Orla is NERVOUS so she brings along Aiden's #1 groupie/her co-worker. From there Aiden and Orla reunite and things get awkward so Orla runs away in the rain and Aiden chases her onto the train. After this chapter, we are whisked back into time (five years ago) to relive Orla & Aiden's too long love story and we need to find out if these two crazy kids can make it work five years later. She has a CAREER! He doesn't want KIDS! He also TRAVELS and lives in a TENT! HOW CAN THEY MAKE IT WORK?

My thoughts:
Okay, honestly, this book's first chapter had promise. I loved the premise of the two of them reuniting and Aiden chasing her to the train. I even loved the flashback right after but then the flashback went on for what felt like years. The writing got sloppy and awkward and the dialogue made me cringe.

NOT ONLY THAT, but Aiden is a douchebag. He pressures Orla into sleeping with him because "They're just friends! Who cares???" and then expects her to drop everything including her crush on the Italian barista FABIO and her job and apartment to travel to India with him...nope. THEN, five years later, he pulls the same thing and expects her to drop everything including her career and her boyfriend (JUSTICE FOR JAMES) to move back to Ireland with him. He decides not to compromise at all and she does the majority of it. ANNOYING. Also there was more toilet humor in this book than I needed to hear about (I understand how people use the bathroom with camping, don't push that on me when I'm reading a romance novel).

Ugh. So, this one was difficult to finish. I hate DNFing books so I powered through it but yikes it was painful until the end. Like I said, it held promise right at the beginning but fell off so completely by the end. Another silver lining is that Aiden talks about otters a lot and who hates otters? Not me.

Release Date: 3/20/20

Rating: ⭐️

The synopsis for The Five-Year Plan caught my eye. Unfortunately, it just didn’t live up to my expectations. Aiden Byrne and Orla Kennedy had their moments but often I found them to seem much younger than the ages they represented. Aiden could be pretty persistent and Orla very stubborn. I get that they had their goals but there never seemed to be room for compromise.

The first chapter is great, ending on sort of a cliffhanger then delving into their past but many chapters later, with far too much fluff, I was left wondering when I’d get back to the relevant part of the story. I don’t mind backstory, it was just a tad too long.

The last 25% of their story was good but again a bit drawn out. This had potential but just kind of fizzled and never quite reached it.

Orla has a five year plan - move up the ladder in her journalism career and move to London. When she interviews Aiden, a wildlife photographer, a relationship begins. After a whirlwind romance, Aiden leaves for his world traveling job, while Orla focuses on her career.

Fast forward five year, and Orla has seemingly achieved her five year plan goals - she works for a London newspaper. Suddenly, Aiden appears back in her life - is she ready to forgo her “planned” life for one of unknowns with Aiden? Or is she too scared?

This was a cute story, and didn’t take long to read. It wasn’t the most exciting book, and didn’t have enough to garner more than a 3 star rating to me. I’m not sure exactly what I missed, but maybe more about Orla’s career - it was just kind of glossed over when that was such a big reason for her “plans”.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to HQ Digital and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had some good potential, but it fell flat for me. The main female protagonist was too weak and wishy-washy to carry the story, and her POV did not come across as an adult, but rather as someone who needs to woman up and get on with it. Lots of grand talk about her career, but there didn't seem to be an awful lot of substance behind that. And at the same time, it irritated me that it was more or less expected of her as the woman to give up everything "for her man". Uff. What century are we in?

From the blurb this sounds like the ideal book for me. I even loved that the main characters have Irish names.

Unfortunately, this didn't grip me totally.

While I liked the development of each character and the story overall, there are many moments and things in the book that I couldn’t overlook and it bothered me a lot.
I’m all for make your life as you want and live it at its fullest potential but somehow I got annoyed with both characters at times. He seems a bit to entitled to decide their future without actually considering her options and what she really wants for herself and at other times I think she was more of a doormat and accepted him as it came because of the fear of being alone over the years or of what ifs.
It’s a great story to reflect on and a well written one but unfortunately not a memorable one for me.

A life plan is a good place to start, but should it decide what’s most important in your life? “The Five Year Plan” was a sweet romance book. It captured my heart and made me long for the early days of romance when love was new, fresh, and romantic. A great read for a lazy spring day.

This book follows Orla and Aiden- when they first meet 5 years ago and present day.

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. But I didn't. I found Aiden too masochistic. He didn't listen to Orla and take her career into consideration when planning their future. Orla had much internal struggle about choosing her job or Aiden, and while she does make her decision clear in the end of the book, and explains why she made this decision, it upset me that Aiden was so nonchalant about her career.

This book is an okay read, but the trope of potentially giving up everything for a man is just overdone.

DNF at 30%

I rarely dnf books but this is just so boring. This is a second chance book about an unusal couple, a wild life photographer and activist, and a journalist. The story is told in two time lines, before de separation and one in the second chance. The thing is... its juts so boring and the romance is unbelievable, the male love interest is so condescending and treats her like a kid (which she realices and kind of doesn't care).

I don't know how to explain this... just. I didn't really like it and i couldn't put myself through it. Its a very very slow burn but a boring and lacking of chemistry one.

This book was a total Monet (Clueless reference!). On the whole it was a cute romcom but when I dug into thinking about it for a review, parts of it felt prickly.
The book starts off with a strong first chapter, 2 old flames who haven't seen each other in 5 years and when they meet again they can't keep their eyes off each other.
After the first chapter, the book takes us back to how they met. The summer they spent together was a little weird to me - she really slept in a tent all that time? Where were her friends? They break up because he travels the world for work and she wants to focus on her career.
When we flash back to the present, they are having the same conversation they had 5 years ago about being together. In the end, Orla leaves her job and moves to Ireland.
On one hand I can understand why she gave it up because she wasn't super successful in her career and she basically lived in a cave (and was probably getting asbestos poisoning) so she wasn't truly giving up much but it also felt like she moved her whole life to be with him and he didn't give up anything.

Okay I REALLY enjoyed this. I went in a little skeptical because the reviews weren't promising but I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love a good second chance romance and this was exactly that. Aiden and Orla lose touch after a whirlwind romance and find each other, five years later, and it is unclear how they or IF they should move forward or accept that their time has come and gone.

I loved watching these two get to know each other and overall the story was really enjoyable and fun.

Five years ago, Orla didn't have time for romance - she had a plan. Even a whirlwind romance one summer with Aiden, a wildlife photographer, couldn't persuade her from focusing on her career. But now he's back in her life. And this time she has no plan.

Based on the first chapter, I thought I was going to love this book. But then my enjoyment fizzled when a very, very long flashback took over and dampened the spark that drew me in to start with. Things kind of improved when we returned to the present. I really liked the dialogue between Orla and Aiden - cracking, realistic, showing a lot about them. But most of the book dragged and that's not what I'm looking for when I reach for a chicklit title.

I received an ARC of The Five Year Plan by Carla Burgess, via #NetGalley, in order to provide an honest review. I was drawn to this book because the cover is catchy, and not cheesy, which I find most romances are. The description sucked in my in, and I am so happy I was able to read it.

The Five Year Plan begins in present time, with Orla, and reporter for a big London newspaper, brings her trainee reporter with her to Aiden Byrnes exhibit. We find out that Orla and Aiden hadn't seen each other in five years, after a wonderful summer together, Aiden leaves, breaking her heart. While they have a small interaction at the exhibit, Orla, trying to protect herself, runs off to catch the train home, not knowing that Aiden chases after her. Normally I would be annoyed of the cliff hanger, but we are transported five years in the past, to when they meet. I LOVED IT! When I read a romance, I want to know why two characters click so well, and Carla Burgess does a wonderful job with Orla and Aiden. Their chemistry is amazing, and I found myself not wanting to put down the book. The conversations between them are the highlight of the story, and had be laughing out loud too many times to count. When we get transferred back to the past, I constantly went back and forth between happiness and sadness ... much like Orla and Aiden. They are very easy to empathize. The epilogue, which I won't spoil, is beautiful.

The romance in this book is wonderfully written. There is no love at first sight scenario, which makes it all the better. They simply form a very close friendship (in part because Aiden is a very thoughtful, friendly man, who I suspect was attracted to Orla right away), that eventually turns to love. It was easy to see why they fell in love, which is so rare for romances these days.

My only complaint with this book, is that Orla's thought processes are hard to read through, sometimes. Perhaps it's intentional, because we know she is conflicted, but I found her inner dialogue was tedious at times, and borderline repetitive. If you are someone who likes some steamy scenes in your romances, like me, you might be just a little disappointed. The sex is there. It just could be written a bit better. That being said, the love and tenderness they feel for one another is there, and it makes up for the lack of steaminess.

In conclusion, I am so happy I got the opportunity to read this book. This is my first book I have read from Carla Burgess, and I am convinced to read her others now. The story is beautiful, yet simple. The characters are easy to like, and easy to empathize with. I liked them both for different reasons, and I liked them together because they balance each other out, and importantly, don't try to change each other. It flows beautifully between each time jump, so you are never confused. It's just an all around wonderful book, and I give it my full recommendation.