Five Year Plan by Carla Burgess

No Spoiler Book RevieW & Blog Tour

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Orla is fresh out of college and eager to prove herself as a reporter. She wouldn’t mind finding a boyfriend, but is determined to put her career first. So, of course she literally falls head over heels for Aiden.

Aiden is a wildlife photographer and won’t be in England for long. He lives in a tent and goes where the animals are. No serious girlfriends. He is not sticking around.

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Orla is exceedingly young and strikes me as someone who is inexperienced, sheltered and naïve. None of those things are bad. We all start there and it’s who she is when the story begins. It just made me worry. I felt like she was going to be taken advantage of. I think that younger readers, recent college grads in particular will be a lot more comfortable with her character. I had a hard time turning off my mom brain.

Aiden is very much like Bear Grylls. He starts off as a wildlife photographer and ends up with his own nature TV show. He is forcefully sarcastic, but very sweet and caring. His sarcasm usually comes off as banter, but sometimes comes across as him just bossing Orla around. Or joking, but hoping she would go for it (spoiler, she does). Again, I’m probably not the perfect demographic for this book. Aiden is a good guy, he’s honest and fun, but I couldn’t help being slightly suspicious of him.

The author spends a lot of the book talking about Aiden’s work with animals (otters in particular) and the environment, which is interesting. I also learned what a Cob house is, so that was cool, seriously look it up!

I have been reading more romance lately. Wanting to avoid books on heavier topics, trying to keep my entertainment light. This book wasn’t perfect and I’m not enough of a romantic to fully enjoy it, but I did like it. It afforded me a few hours of escape at a time when I really needed it. Too bad, I couldn’t let my guard down enough to truly love it!

This book will appeal to romance readers and anyone looking for a light contemporary read. If you have an interest in wildlife photography or environmentalism, you will appreciate those aspects of this book. Probably best for a younger audience, women in college or in the first few years of their career.   
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You may also like this No Spoiler Book Review of Flatshare.

Thank you to Rachel at Rachelsrandomresources for including me in this blog tour. 
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers of this book for allowing me advance access in exchange for this honest review.

Five Year Plan Mood Board

Goodreads Summary

Orla is a trainee reporter with a five-year plan: work her way up the career ladder, move to London and secure a job on a big national newspaper. She doesn’t want a boyfriend, he’s only going to hold her back anyway. Aiden spends his life travelling the world and living in a tent. He knows his goal: to photograph animals and raise awareness of global warming and wildlife conservation. He’s definitely not looking for a relationship past the odd casual hook-up! So when Orla and Aiden’s lives collide, they do everything to not fall for each other – with the opposite effect. But they stick to their plans, and go their separate ways...Five years later, they meet again. 

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