Review | Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe

Title: Happy Birthday to Me
Series: Birthday Trilogy #1
Author: Brian Rowe
Genre: YA - Paranormal/Romance
Published: 04.11.2011 by CreateSpace
Pages: 322
Source: From author for review

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Cameron Martin has a huge problem: he’s aging a whole year of his life with each passing day!

High school is hard enough; imagine rapidly aging from seventeen to seventy in a matter of weeks, with no logical explanation, and with prom, graduation, and the state championship basketball game all on the horizon. That’s what happens to Cameron, a popular pretty boy who's never had to face a day looking anything but perfect.

All Cameron wants to do is go back to normal, but no one, not even the best doctors, can diagnose his condition. When he finds love with a mysterious young woman, however, he realizes his only hope for survival might be with the one person who started his condition in the first place...

Cover: I like it! I like the colorful candles, and that there are so many of them. I also really like that the title and authors' name are formed by the smoke of the candles, it looks really cool.

Thoughts: As soon as I read the summary, I knew I wanted to review Happy Birthday to Me. Not only was it something totally different and unique, but it sounded like it was going to be lots of fun. I expected the laugh out loud moments, but not the events that made me tear up a bit. I thought it was going only to be a little mysterious, with the paranormal aspects thrown in here and there, but I was surprised at the heartfelt moments that kept me glued to each page.

Cameron has the perfect life. He's good looking, a star basketball player, has a beautiful girlfriend, and his family has money. His family life is a little less perfect with his father always working and his sister always practicing away on her violin, but Cameron is happy, confident and full of life. One day though, Cameron looks in the mirror and sees a man. Not the 17 year old boy that he is, but an older version of himself. He immediately freaks out and tries to find out what is wrong, but no doctor can tell him of a cure. Instead he must live each day carefully, and as he gets a year older with each passing day, Cameron finally begins to realize what really matters in life and how every moment that you spend with your loved ones is truly special.

Like many others have said before me, I did not like Cameron. At first. He's your ordinary, popular and good-looking jock. He's a jerk with a gorgeous snobby girlfriend and he only worries about his looks and when he'll finally sleep with his girlfriend. I sort read the beginning slowly because I was having hard time connecting with him or anyone else. So when he first started aging, I thought "that's what you get, butthead..." But Cameron starts to change, and as I continued to read, I couldn't help but become a little attached to him and feel sympathetic because of what his condition had him going through.

His family and friends, although at first a little odd in the way they treated Cameron, begin to change as they realize that Cameron isn't getting any younger and that he will quickly become an old man. Although they have a hard time accepting what's happening to him, they must face it and support him in any way they can. I enjoyed how each relationship blossomed as the days went by, and how their love became more apparent as Cameron became older. His changes in personality only helped each relationship grow stronger and that definitely helped in liking him more.

I loved that I didn't know how it would all end, and I must admit that I was a bit surprised with how the story concluded. Actually, I was a lot surprised, and it left me with lots of questions. I know the second book in the trilogy will be released in just a few months, but I cannot wait to read what happens next. The authors writing was great, and the book held a combination of humor and seriousness, that keeps the reader flipping through the pages until the end. I definitely recommend this book to YA and paranormal lovers; this is a fun, unique read that I'm sure many will enjoy. 

Quote: "But of all the horrors entering my daily life, what scared me most of all was something I hadn't foreseen happening for at least another week or two. A gray hair."

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