Birthday Girl

Product Information

Jordan has nowhere else to go when her boyfriend offers to let her move in with him and his dad. Working a dead-end job, with her relationship sputtering, she jumps at the opportunity, expecting to help out around the house in exchange. What she doesn’t anticipate is for her heart to race every time Pike pulls into the driveway, or to burn when their eyes meet over the breakfast table. He’s kind and listens to her and protects her in a way no man ever has before. Her sister once told her there are no good men, and if you find one, he's probably unavailable. Only Pike isn't the unavailable one…she is. I liked this book, it was beautifully written and perfectly paced – slowly revealing secret after secret until you’re not sure of anything anymore – only that you have to keep reading! The author does a great job of moving from past to present – throughout, you really can not tell where this book is going – it keeps you guessing right up to the end! I would however pin this story as more of a literary thriller/mystery, but more mystery than a thriller.

True love comes from the most forbidden places in this TikTok smash hit from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas, now with bonus material!Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas is an age gap forbidden romance that centers around Jordan. After an unfortunate circumstance, Jordan’s boyfriend Cole lands in jail therefore leading him to move into his Dad’s house with Jordan. The great opening scene with Jordan and Pike is when we see her going to the movies. She’s alone and waiting on her boyfriend, who doesn’t show up. Pike is there along watching a movie and by the drop of her cellphone, the two end up talking. This scene is MAGNIFICENT! I mean, you can feel the energy between the two character’s from scene one.

There is some angst in the last third of the book when Jordan and Pike start seeing each other (because it took that long for that to happen), but I found it to be very bearable. It probably helped that Jordan is a mature character and there is a lot of self-reflection going on with characters. The romance was lovely as well. It was a nice slow burn with plenty of tension. Penelope Douglas delivers a scorchingly hot and sinfully sexy, forbidden romance with Birthday Girl. It kept me up until after midnight as I devoured every single word. Definitely one of my top reads of 2018!” -New York Times bestselling author Meghan March The characters were a little hit and miss for me, but I did like the way their characterization was handled in the dual timeline. The story flip-flops between the 1990s and 2019 and we see most of the characters in both timelines. I really enjoyed how Wolf tweaked their relationship dynamics between the two timelines and it was interesting to imagine how these characters got from point A to point B over the course of 20ish years. I'd say the slight majority of the story is the 2019 timeline and I found the characters in that part to be really insufferable to read about. It felt very much like the story revolved around 'rich people problems' that just weren't built up in a way that was interesting to me. Jordan has nowhere else to go when her boyfriend offers to let her move in with him and his dad. Working a dead-end job, with her relationship sputtering, she jumps at the opportunity, expecting to help out around the house in exchange. What she doesn’t anticipate is for her heart to race every time Pike pulls into the driveway, or to burn when their eyes meet over the breakfast table. He’s kind and listens to her and protects her in a way no man ever has before. Her sister once told her there are no good men, and if you find one, he’s probably unavailable. Only Pike isn’t the unavailable one…she is. We do spend a lot of the book in Jonathan's head and it's not the best place to find yourself to be honest. Although a lot of what is gleaned therein is important and integral to the overall narrative, I think that maybe there was a little too much introspective and some info could have been found from another source, maybe.In 1996 Jon Dainty’s wife, Maddie, stepped into a stranger’s car and was never seen again. In 2019 Jon is now a successful crime fiction author, so when he thinks he sees Maddie in a crowd he’s determined to investigate. He remembers me, laughs with me, and looks at me. He listens to me, protects me, and sees me. I can feel his eyes on me over the breakfast table, and my heart pumps so hard when I hear him pull in the driveway after work.