Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas

Synopsis:

Jordan:

When I had no place to go he took me in. He doesn’t take advantage of me, hurt me, or ignore me. He sees me as a person, he hears me talk, and offers protection. Over breakfast, I can feel his eyes on me, and when I hear him pull into the driveway after work, my heart starts to race.

I must stop right now. It is not possible. There are no good men, and if one is found, he’s probably not available, my sister informed me. The only person that is not avaliable isn’t Pike Lawson it’s me.

Pike:

Because I believed I was assisting, I took her in. But as the days pass, it’s becoming anything but simple. Every time I stumble into her in the house, I need to stop letting my thoughts wander to her and stop holding my breath. I shouldn’t want to touch her and I can’t.

However, we are not free to accept this. She is 19 years old, while I am 38, and the father of her lover. Sadly, they both recently moved into my home.

About the book:

After being evicted from their apartment and having nowhere else to go, Jordan and her boyfriend, Cole, decide to move in with his estranged father, Pike, who just so happened to be there to help Cole get out of jail and offered his place for them to stay. The weird thing is that Jordan met Pike earlier that same night at a midnight showing at the neighbourhood movie theatre when she was killing time at the neighbourhood dive bar while she waited for Cole to pick her up from work as he was supposed to but obviously forgot. It’s funny how life works at times, isn’t it? What’re the chances?

The three of them have now all moved into Pike’s immaculate home and are attempting to adjust to their new surroundings; Jordan and Cole assist with household duties and prepare a few dinners each week while they save money for their own apartment.

While Pike wants to try and make amends, Cole isn’t interested and typically goes out and parties away his paychecks, leaving Jordan behind. Pike gave birth to Cole when he was very young, and his relationship with the mother is strained because she used Cole to create tension over the years. She and Pike get closer as a result of this, and they both experience forbidden sentiments for one another.

This leads to her and Pike becoming closer, and they both have illicit feelings for each other that only intensifies as time goes by, but never act on it because both are confused about their feeling and she is with his son.

Jordan continues to work at the bar, getting excellent tips but not enough as she’d like, especially for student debts when schools resume in the autumn (I definitely feel the agony of that today), and is pondering whether she should resort to alternate means in order to make more money. Jordan has no interest in moving her assets around for the neighbourhood to her financial advantage because her sister makes much more money working at a strip business.

It’s a lot to handle, especially since Cole is doing nothing to improve their situation: she spends all of her time partying, breaking commitments, and saving very little money. She also has a secret crush on his father.

Despite doing everything in their power to support one another, Pike and Jordan have feelings for one another but never express them. She fills in for Cole when he isn’t available to lend Pike’s construction company an extra hand.

He constructs her a garden and, in a way that no one has ever done before, he notices her when she prepares and cleans while also making her feel attractive, significant, and extra special.

Tropes in the book:

• GrumpyXsunshine
• Age gap
• Ex Boyfriend’s dad
• praise
• forbidden love

Characters:

Jordan Hadley: Jordan Hadley didn’t know how she was going to spend her nineteenth birthday, but the few carefree hours she spent grinning, laughing, and forgetting about the world outside those walls turned out to be precisely how she had hoped to spend it. Jordan, meantime, continues to work at the bar, getting excellent tips but not enough as she’d like, especially for student debts when schools resume in the autumn.

Pike Lawson: Pike Lawson, who has always been the calm and collected kind, has dedicated the last 20 years of his life to raising his kid and creating a business, putting his personal life on indefinite hold. Now in his late thirties, all his aspirations of falling in love and building a family feel like a distant dream that would never be.

Birthday Girl Quotes:

• But it also makes me wonder…. If my heart will never break this badly again, then will I love anyone like I loved Pike Lawson?
• But no one’s better off without you.
• Now get inside and take off your clothes. I’ve had a whole day to dream up the theme park I’m going to make of your body tonight, girl.

About the Author:

Penelope Douglas is a romance author. Who was born in Dubuque. She attended the University of Northern lowa, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree. She went on to earn a Masters of Science in Education at Loyola University. Her books have been translated into 20 languages. She is 45 years old, She lives in America.

Conclusion:

We recommend you read this book it’s a contemporary and forbidden romance. This is one of the best books of the Author. It has a lot of angst, steam, and swoon.