A review by cpachet
Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas

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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