Review: Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe

Book: Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe
Genre: YA Fantasy-ish
Rating: B+
For: Review
From: The author sent it to me. Thanks!

I ended up taking this book with me on vacation because it looked a bit light-hearted and fun, perfect for trip reading. And yes, it turned out to be that mostly, but it was also a bit dark too, I thought, and I found myself just wanting to get done!

It's about this obnoxious kid, really full of himself, who likes (among other things) to go to restaurants and say it's his birthday, every time, so he gets free dessert. Well, after one of these times, he woke up the next day feeling a bit different. And the next day, and the next and so on. Turns out he is aging one year, every day. So if he is just a few months from graduation, and if you do the calculations, you'll soon see that his chances of making it to the end of the year are slim.

But that's just what he plans on doing, and along the way, he may even learn a little about himself and how to treat others with a bit more respect. Does this story sound familiar? It didn't hit me until nearly the end, but it's a bit of a Beauty and the Beast retelling.... sort of.

So I liked it for that reason. But I had a hard time connecting with the main character, any of the characters really. I felt no sympathy for him at all! And be warned, he has a one track mind, so there is lots of sex talk and not so pretty language going on quite a bit.

Despite that, I was hooked enough to read to the end to find out what happens to him. Also, there must be more to the story, because it's going to be a trilogy, of course.

Another point in this book's favor, my sixteen year old picky book reader started it and seemed hooked right from the start. It remains to be seen if he keeps reading though!

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