Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Happy Birthday to Me Again ~ Brian Rowe review

Happy Birthday to Me Again
CreateSpace
September 22, 2011
314 pages
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In Happy Birthday to Me, the first book in this trilogy, Cameron aged a year every day thanks to a curse put on him by Liesel Maupin. Going from a seventeen-year-old high school student to an old man in just a few weeks isn't just shocking for for Cameron (and his family and friends), it's possibly a death sentence.

He's saved just in time, though and now thinks couldn't be better. Cameron Martin is happy with his girlfriend Liesel - who is a witch - and looking forward to spending the long life (that he now has) with her.

Then he breaks off the engagement days before the wedding and she lets another curse loose on unlucky Cameron.

It's similar to the last time . . . only this time Cameron is aging backwards. Losing one year every day. Soon to be just a baby.


Happy Birthday to Me Again is similar to its predecessor but different in that it takes quite a bit longer to get to the altered aging part. As with Happy Birthday to Me that is the strongest part of this novel, as well.

The beginning of this novel has a lot of Liesel and Cameron's relationship as well as his relationship with his sister, Kimber and some with his parents - we see how everyone is dealing now that life with Cameron is back to normal. The romance aspect between Liesel and Cameron is not especially strong. After everything that's already happened between them -and to Cameron especially - it's hard to see just why they're so great together.

Once we get into Cameron's reverse aging and him trying to figure things out, the novel gets better. Working to find out what's happened to him, hide his changes from his family, etc adds a lot of drama to Cameron's life.

This novel was not quite as compelling as Happy Birthday to Me but it's written in a way that is easy to read and keeps the reader reading - and wanting to know what will ultimately happen.

There was more about Cameron's sister Kimber this time and that was great. It was a nice addition to see more of her life and have her interactions as part of the story. I'm still not sold on Cameron and Liesel's love but I'm not against it, either. The ending is one that will leave readers curious about the last novel in this trilogy.

6/10


Thank you to the author for a copy of this novel

2 comments:

  1. I have been wary of reading this series! thanks for the honest review!!

    Here's my review of Incarnate. Stop by and leave your thoughts?!

    http://lindsaycummingsblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/arc-review-incarnate.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course :) You're welcome.

    I'm anxious to read the third book and see how everything ends.

    I'll definitely stop by & check it out!

    ReplyDelete

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