Book Review: Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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...

My Thoughts: This book starts out with Cameron, the main character, in his hospital bed at the age of 80. He is really anxious to get out of the hospital to see "her". You can tell it is so important to him but you aren't sure who "she" is or why it's so important. From that moment, I was sucked into the book.

Rewind 3 months to when Cameron was 17. Yes, you read that right...it only took Cameron 3 months to age from 17 to 80! Cameron was a popular senior at school who had a lot going for him. He was good looking, the start basketball player and had the hottest girl as his girlfriend. He was "perfect". Well, except for his attitude. He was vain, selfish, arrogant and cocky. He picked on people and looked down on people. He was just an overall jerk!

After winning an important basketball game, Cameron heads to the local pizza joint to celebrate. Cameron has a game he plays that he thinks is hysterical. He tells people it's his birthday to get free stuff, whether it be free tans or a free slice of cake. His mistake was playing this "game" with the same waitress twice in one week. Liesel obviously knows it isn't Cameron's birthday but brings him the cake and sings to him anyways. Cam thinks nothing of it...until a couple weeks later when he has aged one year for every day.

The story takes you through Cameron's life as he progressively ages. He decides to still attend school and he gets to see how he has treated everyone from the little, nerdy guy, Paul to the Librarian and of course, Liesel. He gets to know how it feels to have his looks count more than his personality as his super popular girlfriend, Charisma, drops him like a hot potato and even his own father tries to change him.

I hated Cameron and his father and Charisma until the middle of the story. Cameron's father is superficial and a complete jerk, trying to do plastic surgery on Cameron to make him "perfect". Charisma is just as superficial and will use anyone to get what she wants. However, towards the middle of the book I ended up liking Cam and his father a lot. Charisma....yeah, well, there has to be one character you never like right?

I loved how Cameron grew through the story. He found out what was important to him and that it matters how you treat people. He finds new friends and in the end....well, you will just have to read it to find out what happens to Cameron.

The one thing that kinda bothered me (and it wasn't really a huge deal) was that Charisma put SO much emphasis on Cameron getting facial hair. She says over and over again that she will not sleep with Cameron, who has yet to grow any facial hair, until his is a man, which to Charisma means until Cameron grows a beard. It was just silly to me.

All in all, I think this book was very emotional and an excellent read! I would recommend it to teens over 16 due to some sexual content.

**I received this book free from the author for an honest review**