Review: Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe

Summary/Cover Image from Author's Website:

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...

Review: 

Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe is a book I hadn't heard too much about prior to reading it. However, the things I had heard were mostly good so I recently decided to dive right in and give it a try. How did it go? I ended up liking it quite a bit! It was certainly an interesting read, and while I do admit I had some qualms with it, it was overall an funny and quick read.

Happy Birthday to Me begins the story of Cameron Martin, one of the most popular and talented jocks at his high school. Cameron has always been giving everything to him on a silver platter so when he's suddenly faced with an ageing disease, he doesn't know what to do! With every passing day, he ages another year, getting weaker and weaker as the days go and the clock ticks down. What's happening to him? Is there a cure to this horrible situation? Only time and more pages can tell!

When Cameron was first introduced in the story, I wasn't his biggest fan. He was a bit too pompous and self centered to my liking. I especially didn't like the whole birthday gimmick he constantly pulled. However, as the novel progressed and he began to grow as a person, I started liking him a bit more. I was left with one little question, though, and that's if he wasn't faced with this horrible problem, would he have grown as a person? I wasn't too sure, and that bothered me in some ways. On the other hand, I really liked the secondary characters introduced in this such as Wesley, Cameron's best friend, as well as Liesel, the mysterious waitress. Both were funny as well as sweet and managed to teach Cameron a lessen or two throughout the novel.

One of the things that originally drew me to this book was the plot. The idea of ageing a year with every day was intriguing as well as creepy, and the way Brian presented it managed to do much of the same. I especially enjoyed the way in which Brian split the novel up by day aka the year Cameron had reached, because it caused for much suspense as the time continued to tick down. The other plot lines in this such as Liesel's involvement as well as Wesley's film(s) also provided little fun twists and turns. However, there were two plot lines I didn't particularly enjoy. One was Cameron's relationship with Charisma, his self centered girl friend. It truly added nothing to the book, and it didn't help that I could barely stand the girl. The second was the little twist at the end with the librarian. It was just odd and really added nothing to the story as well.

Lastly, I felt Brian Rowe's writing was pretty great overall. I thought he did a great job of building up the plot as well as presenting Cameron's problem in an emotional and intense way. While I would have loved a little more development here and there, I'm sure more will be done in the future additions.

Fast paced and interesting, Happy Birthday to Me is a book I suggest to readers who enjoy a little paranormal with their contemporary.

Grade: B

Happy Birthday to Me (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads) is now out!

Source: Author- thanks Brian!