Birthday Girl Paperback – April 16, 2018

This was SO GOOD. So so so so so so freaking good. Birthday Girl is a slow burning forbidden romance that's perfectly peppered with just the right amount of angst and emotion. I could not put this book down. From the very beginning I was overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings on how this was going to work, how this could possibly end the way I wanted it to. It's a roller coaster of blistering emotions, a relentless barrage of intense, complicated feels... And I seriously loved it so hard.This book was EVERYTHING. This is the book I've been dying for from Penelope Douglas and DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT. This is everything she ROCKS at doing all in one book. Douglas takes fresh out of high school characters and delves into their psyche, their complicated emotions, their difficult circumstances and she complicates their lives further by adding to it a love story that will wreck the reader, that will make that character struggle even more with everything that's going on in their life. That's what she does here with Jordan, taking a girl who has the weight of the world on her shoulders, a mountain of difficulty staring her right in the face, and she catapults the girl's problems into another stratosphere by throwing in a quietly simmering attraction to her boyfriend's dad. I MEAN, HELLO?! I COULD NOT GET ENOUGH OF THIS.I love how bumpy the road is for all of these characters. I love how desperately they fight their attraction and I love how scorchingly hot it is when they don't. I love how naughty and taboo their dynamic sometimes feels but I love how it can feel so perfectly right at the very same time. I love how fun this book is. I love that it made me laugh out loud at the most unexpected times and I love that I actually found myself tearing up in the most heartbreaking moments. I love that I just got lost in it. I love that there was never a single moment in this book that made me want to stop reading it. I love that I fell in love all over again with one of my favorite authors with this book. I love the push and pull and the slow burn between Pike and Jordan for much of this book and the delicious anticipation I felt the entire time. I love how much it hurt. I love that I felt SO MUCH, both good and bad feels on these pages. I love how giddy I feel after reading a book like this. I love how intoxicating this story is. I love all the rightness in all of the wrongness of this deliciously forbidden love story. And I love that I can't think of a single bad thing to say about it.I read this book as fast as I could because I was absolutely dying to see how this would end. But I never wanted it to. I loved every moment, ever page, every delicious, angsty second of the build of this story. I got lost in these pages and I wanted to stay lost. Birthday Girl is Penelope Douglas at her absolute best, if you ask me. Everything from the writing in this book to the stellar storytelling to the character development to the raw emotion that just oozes from this story was top notch. This book took me back to Bully, to all the reasons I became an insta-fan of this author but it also showed me how beautifully Douglas continues to grow and change as a writer. All the awesome things I love about her stories are in this book along with a whole lot of other amazing things that I wasn't expecting. It was so good, so well done, so unputdownable. I loved Birthday Girl with everything in me.

Book Review: Birthday Girl by Penelope DouglasRating: 4/5 stars | Spice Level: 3.5/5Penelope Douglas’ Birthday Girl is a captivating forbidden romance that delivers both heart and heat. The story follows Jordan and Pike, two characters whose undeniable chemistry is complicated by a very forbidden connection—Pike happens to be her boyfriend’s father.Douglas does an incredible job of developing the characters, making the reader truly empathize with their internal conflicts. Jordan is mature and independent, while Pike is a blend of rugged masculinity and vulnerability. Their relationship unfolds naturally, with just the right balance of tension, longing, and eventual surrender.The spice in this book is palpable, earning it a solid 3.5 stars on the spice scale. While the intimate scenes are steamy and well-written, they are also deeply emotional, enhancing the connection between the characters rather than overshadowing the story.The pacing is steady, but at times, the storyline veers into predictable territory, which is why this is a 4-star read for me. That said, the emotional depth and the characters’ growth more than make up for it.If you’re a fan of forbidden romance with a touch of angst and well-written spice, Birthday Girl is definitely worth adding to your TBR. It’s a compelling blend of passion and heartfelt moments that lingers with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Penelope Douglas is one of those authors that appears on my one-click author list. The writer who I do not need a title, a cover, or a blurb in order to buy it. I just need to know that she wrote it to know that I am going to read it. However, when I heard the word taboo, it gave me pause. The one genre I tend to stay away from has been written by one of my favorites. What do I do? You read it, obviously, and I was pleasantly surprised with the depth of the relationship between Pike and Jordan and the romance created between them. If my boyfriend's father had been Pike Lawson, I might have been in some trouble. Not only does he have that hot older man, perfect like aged liquor, quality happening, but the way he cares about his son, the way he tries always to do the right thing, and the way he tries to protect those he loves makes me enamored with his personality. He is self-aware, which isn't a surprise for his age, but I love that he wants the simple things in life, which matches the "old-soul" of Jordan. As with most of Douglas's men, Pike's skill in the bedroom is top notch, and she delivers a hero who will set your body aflame from the glances across to the room to the way he touches her. Readers are going to love this man, and he is one of my favorite Penelope Douglas heroes. Jordan was going to be the character who made or broke the story for me. If she was too immature, I would have rolled my eyes. If she was too mature, it would have been unbelievable, shattering the taboo illusion. Penelope Douglas, however, hits the right balance of both. Are there moments when Jordan acts 19, yes. She throws fits when her emotions get the better than her, but she also has an authentic maturity based on her past. Her development as a character makes her a teenager who longs, as well, for a simple life. She wants a home, to be loved, to be appreciate for the who she is. She finds the companionship she has always yearned for with Pike, and the physical attraction, which is not something that can always be helped, that sets her body and soul aflame. What solidifies my adoration of her character, though, is her actions when the climax of the story arrives. The way she puts herself first and chooses self-preservation had me cheering, as it should an evolution of character. The beginning of the story was a tad slow in terms of pacing, but a part of this is because of my perceptions of the taboo genre. I expected lots of heat-inducing, secretive moments, and I got that but not as quickly as I thought. There was a considerable amount of time put into to developing the relationship of Jordan and Pike, showing them getting to know each other, to learn about their likes and dislikes, to forge a real friendship, making their relationship believable. This is about more than lust. Pike and Jordan have the foundation of a real relationship, one built to last. Obviously, it doesn't last forever, because there would be no story without conflict, but the expected reveal occurs in an unexpected way, and I found that I enjoyed the weakness it exposed in the hero and the strength it exposed in the heroine. The resolution is the HEA readers of romance long for, and the way Penelope Douglas pulls it altogether gives all players the ending they deserve. I love when a writer puts me in the gray, when he/she shakes up my preconceived notions of acceptable, such as age gaps, particularly younger characters (adult teens, at least 18) and an older person, especially when the relationship is based on more than lust or what one can gain from the other. She shows that there can be real authentic connections between people of different ages because it is very much about the experiences we have that shape us, and those defining moments can make us suitable for other people. It is also about following your heart and not worrying about society and their expectations. It is about what makes you happy and whole and who sets your soul and body aflame. Everyone deserves that.