Reviews with content warning for Violence - Birthday Girl

This is pretty much everything I look for in a book. Slow burn, push and pull, realistic angst, and a legitimate reason for the couple to fight their attraction. Perfection

I fully understand this won’t be for everyone, but I could barely put it down.

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kotashomelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cpachet's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The spice is spicy and the burn is slow in this age-gap, forbidden romance. I vacillated between finding FMC Jordan likeable and finding her vapid. I hate the old “she’s not like other girls” go to, but there’s nothing to back that up. She loves the 80s. Ok, and…that was it. Douglas fails to flesh out anything else about her. The recurring theme of Jordan getting treated poorly by everyone in her life (including her boundary-less sister who is essentially only there to be in her court) is the main driver of her life choices. It made me so mad that she had zero friends but the why was never explored (she’s in college - the place where people make friends after they realize their high school friends suck). MMC Pike embodies the grumpy older guy and is fine, I guess. He’s clean, he has tattoos, terrible taste in women. The timeline of the book is wild - feels like months pass based on weather, volume of activity, etc, but it’s apparently only weeks. Lots of will they won’t they, forgiveness, tension. I sailed through it and when the spice hit, it was worth some of the flaws.

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katanai's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

i shouldnt have enjoyed this as much as i did... has nsfw content, btw! the age gap was... crazy but why'd i actually root for them ?? miss penelope made characters that were so easy to relate to & get attached to. cole :( im glad he got his good ending !! & man i loved pike more than i should've... idk. did i cry bc im a hopeless romantic? yes. i can understand why penelope is so popular altho there were some lines that made me giggle bc i couldn't take it seriously. also,,, im ngl... miss jordan giving pike an ultimatum irked me but that's always just been something i hate! anyway. it's a fun read. is it maybe problematic bc of the age gap (19 & 38) maybe? whatever. it's an entertaining read!

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