Birthday Girl Review


 I have so many mixed feelings about this book that I don't even know where to start.

Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas is an age gap and somewhat taboo romance. It is also a bit darker than a typical romance novel. I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited because I've seen it come highly recommended on BookTube and book blogs. Unfortunately, I was left feeling unsatisfied by the end of the book.

Jordan just turned nineteen years old. We open up with her celebrating her birthday alone because her boyfriend is somewhere getting drunk. she decides to take in an 80's slasher flick where she bumps into this older but very attractive man. Well, it turns out that man is Pike Lawson, her boyfriend's father.

Nothing happens at the movie theater despite the attraction and playful dialogue between the two. So, at the start of this book I was on board with this couple eventually getting together.

Shortly after her birthday, Jordan and her boyfriend, Cole, find themselves moving into his dad's house because they need a place to stay while they save up money. Of course, Pike and Jordan are attracted to each other. We see a lot of their inner thoughts with each character checking the other out. Pike is defiantly attracted to the young woman but his role as Cole's father stops him until Jordan and Cole break up and Pike convinces Jordan to stay in his home.

While the smut scenes were hot, I found myself not wanting Jordan and Pike to get together by the end of the book. It takes a long time for the two to get together because Douglas does a great job building up these characters and their lives separately. We learn about Pike's past fling with Cole's mom and how he tried to do the right thing by providing for his family despite growing apart from Cole's mom. We also learn about Jordan's broken family and more of her relationship with Cole.

Let's take a second to talk about Cole. We learn about him through Jordan and Pike's eyes. We are lead to view him as a loser and douche-bag. he actually gets some kind of a redemption story at the end when he joins the navy and gets his life together, and, honestly, I would rather have read a book all about Cole's life. I don't want to excuse cheating because it was still wrong and they should have just broken up, but I'm really interested in seeing things from Cole's point of view. I don't want to hate him just because he is in the way of Jordan and Pike being together.

Can I also just take a minute to say that I hate Jordan's taste in music? Throughout the book there's references to 80's music and Jordan's love for 80's music. First of off, 80's music is crap. Just kidding but I felt like her taste in music was meant to make her seem more mature for her age. Kind of in a "she's an old soul in a young body" sort of way. I know a character's taste in music is a weird thing to hate about the character but she was getting on my nerves slowly throughout the whole book.

I just kept thinking how Jordan is a 19 year old girl. She needs to go be independent for a while, not date a man in his late thirties with an established life and kid. A kid she was dating nonetheless.

By the end of the book, I wanted Jordan to run away and become independent. I did not want the happily ever after ending that is typically and expected of romance. When Jordan does take off for two months and does not contact Pike, I thought Douglas was going to pull one over on the reader and break with romance norms. I would have preferred that she did.

I like dark and weird romances but sometimes they need to end just as dark or weird.

The smuty scenes and sexual energy between Pike and Jordan was nicely done. Pike did refer to her as a "little girl" and bring up her youth a little too much perhaps but it's part of the taboo aspect of the story so it was not completely out of place.

Birthday Girl started off strong and intriguing. I was enjoying the taboo sexual tension between Pike and Jordan. When they finally got together, it was very steamy and I was into it. But by the end of the book, I feel like we see too much of the characters and I questioned if they should really stay together.

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