He is playful yet vulnerable makes me want to take care of him, give him a massage when he gets off from his work, make him his favourite desserts, drive away his loneliness, do equally thoughtful stuffs he does for Jordan and people around him. So as you can tell I do not vibe with that big of an age gap. like bro, he could be her dad, easily. But then I love the romance and their relationship! UGHHHHH this book is actually making my skull split in two! There were a few eye roll moments culminating in the final scene, when he goes to the motel looking for Jordan. Dear Lord! That was so cheesy!

Cole was a douche the whole story until the end when he suddenly had an abrupt change of heart that I didn’t see coming. It felt bizarre. When had he grown up? I took her in, because I thought I was helping. As the days go by, though, it’s becoming anything but easy. I have to stop my mind from drifting to her and stop holding my breath every time I bump into her in the house. I can’t touch her, and I shouldn’t want to. I fell in love with the main characters. The development of their stories and their characters made sense to their story. I loved the dialogue, their individuality, the tension, the romance, the sex (my goodness!).

I never got to understand why a mature girl such as Jordan was putting up with him. That sad little story about the dead friend didn’t work with me, it was not a strong enough reason. Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas blew me away! Once I read the synopsis for this book, I knew it would be one that I would drop everything to read. And I did. I stayed up till 4 am reading this book the night it landed on my kindle. I wanted to slow down and enjoy the story, but I had to know what would happen. I could not put it down. This book was straight up addicting and I loved every minute! Please note that this review contains curse words. If you don't like the F word then please don't read on).

I love both Pike and Jordan's thought process, both of them are similar in so many ways and I think that is the foremost reason why they molded together so perfectly. There are truly no other novels that can utterly compare to anything that is by Penelope Douglas. To me, sometimes I find it hard to believe that once I finish a book by Pen I think to myself "let's google, 'books similar to Penelope Douglas'" but nothing ever seems to come up because every search I make, is never appealing to my eye. Penelope is definitely one of a kind, one that never sees to amaze me with her writing and mental state behind her stories. Every word that she expresses is one that touches home-base to my mind because of how exceptional her fictional "worlds" are. Birthday Girl is yet again another of her novels that has brought a new meaning to "forbidden," and has indulged in the aspect of age gap romance novels as well, the one thing that made me crave Pike in such a filthy, dirty, and un-moral way. Long story short they play house, fall in love and live happily ever after in a suburban neighbourhood with a pool. This was my second book of Penelope Douglas, and I adore it just as much as I loved her other book, Bully. She takes "forbidden/taboo" to another level as always! Not cringy, not grossing, just perfection!The romance and age difference is handled with tact and done incredibly well. The situation with the boyfriend is as well. There was simply nothing about this book that I didn't love. This was clearly a book the author wanted to write and was meant to, and it came across vividly clear in the writing. I fell so hard for this story and these characters. I knew the moment his eyes were on me tonight when he walked in and I was at the juke box. I could see him out of the corner of my eye when I walked to the bar, too, and I know that look. Possessive." Upon finishing it I literally have nothing to say except I don't know💀 there was nothing wrong with it, I simply don't like it. I've been putting off this review because quite a few of my friends on here love this! Apologies to those of you who did love this, please don't be offended, different tastes and all that..... He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. He doesn’t use me, hurt me, or forget about 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.