Book Freak: Book Review + Excerpt | The Birthday List by Deveny Perry

04 April 2018

Book Review + Excerpt | The Birthday List by Deveny Perry

Purchase Links\ :
Amazon- https://amzn.to/2G4jtNR

Happily married to her college sweetheart, Poppy lived a blessed life with the husband of her dreams. Then everything changed. She is no longer a wife. She is no longer the envy of her single friends. Now, people look at her with pity as they whisper a single word behind her back.

Widow.

Years after her husband’s tragic death, years of pain and sorrow and wishing for the life she’ll never get back, Poppy decides to finish Jamie’s birthday list. She’ll do the things he wanted to most. Because maybe, just maybe, if she can complete his list, she can start to live again.

Poppy expects going through the birthday list will be hard. She expects it to hurt. But what she doesn’t expect is Cole. Could the man who delivered the news of her husband’s death and shattered her heart be the one to help her put it back together again?

REVIEW

Rating: 5/5

I have heard about Devney Perry for a while, but I never had the chance to read one of her novels until The Birthday List, and now I understand all the hype. This book was a delightful read that will send you into a roller coaster of emotions, the kind of right that you won’t get enough of and would be so hard to get off from.

Poppy used to live an almost perfect life - she had the husband of her dreams marrying her college sweetheart. But her fairytale came to an early end when her husband died tragically. It took years before Poppy decided to start living again and finish off her husband’s birthday list - the crazy things he wanted to do for his birthday. A sort of bucketlist. She thinks that by doing this, she might start to move on and live again.

What she didn’t expect was Cole. He was the policeman who delivered the news of her husband’s sudden death and broke her heart. Will he be the man to help her live her life again and put her heart back together?

"Coincidence." He chuckled. "It kind of seems like a recurring theme for us."

Poppy’s courage in finally getting out of her grief and try things in life, things she wasn’t comfortable of was admirable. I love her - her strength and determination to finish the list. She has a really big heart. Her grief was pretty much palpable since the start of the novel, as well as that tinge for fear - forgetting her husband by letting a new man into her life.

"It's okay to always love Jamie.""I always will." Always."But maybe you can love someone else too."

But Cole is a total sweetheart. He’s such a dream that you’d want to him to push Poppy to already give her heart to him. And yet he doesn’t. He took his time, he went on with her pace and never pushed himself. He would do anything for her, in a heartbeat. Well, except breaking the law, that is. But he helped her with everything that he can without expecting any in return.

"Someday, I'd like to call you my girlfriend and have you not go comatose, but I know we're not there yet, so take a breath."

There are just so many characters in this novel that you’d love. The old men in Poppy’s life - her ex-husband grandfather and her new customer which were such a laugh and would make you really smile. Her brother and his family (will we get a story for these two?), and of course Cole’s family that welcomed Poppy with open arms.

The Birthday List is a story of moving on, living life and finding an unexpected love. It made me laugh, it made me cry (on the bus station, argh), and it made me feel hopeful. Devney Perry is officially on my favorite author’s list right now.

Excerpt

Turning to the door, I smiled, ready to greet my late-evening customer, but faltered as the door closed behind him.

Cole Goodman was walking my way.

My belly dipped as I took him in. His aviator sunglasses were perched on top of his chocolate-brown hair. A black polo stretched across his broad shoulders and pulled tight across his muscled arms. His pale-blue jeans molded to his Herculean thighs before draping down to his black, square-toed boots. The leather belt on Cole’s trim waist held both a shining badge and a holstered gun.

Cole smiled and locked his light-green eyes on mine as he crossed the room.

His straight, white teeth made my breath hitch—something that had happened last night more times than I wanted to admit.

Molly, who had turned around from her seat to greet our customer, spun around so her back was to Cole. Her cheeks flushed as she whispered, “Wow.”

Wow was right.

Cole Goodman was—simply put—gorgeous.

He could give a woman a speeding ticket and get a thank-you in return. He inspired women to attempt push-ups in a karate class just for the chance to watch him sweat through his gi. Cole made grown women blush like teenagers and giggle in corners, like those girls at the dojo last night.

aBOUT DEVNEY Perry

Devney is the USA Today bestselling author of the Jamison Valley series. She lives in Montana with her husband and two children. After working in the technology industry for nearly a decade, she abandoned conference calls and project schedules to enjoy a slower pace at home with her kids. She loves reading and, after consuming hundreds of books, decided to share her own stories. Devney loves hearing from readers! Connect with her on social media.