Blog Tour with Review: The Birthday List by Devney Perry

     

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?

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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.

             

 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.

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REVIEW

Title: The Birthday List

Series: Standalone

Author: Devney Perry

Release date: April 3, 2018

Cliffhanger: No

My Rating: 4 stars

    He was a dream. How had I found a man who was so understanding and patient, who saw me so clearly? It was nothing short of a miracle.

Believe it or not, this is my very first read by Devney Perry. I've heard so many good things about her writing, but somehow never got around to checking out any of her books. When the early praise and excitement for The Birthday List started to flood in, I knew it was time to go for it.

I don't shy away from a highly emotional book, in fact, if an author can make me feel so intensely for her characters, I know that they've created something really special and meaningful. I was expecting a more weighty narrative due to the subject matter, but honestly, it felt more uplifting than anything. Perry managed to infuse a lot of humor and lightness into Poppy's journey that made for a really fast-paced read.

This is the story of a woman's rebirth in a sense, how she discovered that there was the possibility of life after loss. Poppy thought she had everything she could ever hope for when she married the love of her life right out of college, and they started to build a home together. She took for granted that the future promised years of laughter and love with her husband Jamie. Then in the blink of an eye, that future suddenly dawned dark and grim.

Logically it makes sense that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was stolen from her. But the guilt gnawing at her seems to contradict that. After four years of surviving a unrelenting grief and living in limbo, she's finally at a place where she feels ready to try to give herself permission to find happiness again. So she comes up with the birthday list plan.

The birthday list was Jamie's own version of a bucket list. Things that he wanted to accomplish and experience in his lifetime by each of his birthdays. Poppy decided that completing his goals would give her a sense of peace and freedom, and fearlessly jumped into each challenge in order to honor the man she loved.

    I wanted to do this for Jamie and let it go. Every day, I was getting stronger. I was getting back on my feet. I was starting to live again—for me. And until the list was done, I’d still be living for Jamie.

Despite her brother Finn trying to talk her out of such an emotional upheaval, she knew it was the right thing to do. She was taking steady steps to reach a happier future. Until she walked into her next challenge at the karate dojo, and the past confronted her in the form of Cole Goodman. He was the man who once shattered her entire world. The irony was, he was going to be the one to help her glue all of her pieces back together again. This man was so perfect for her, and so deserving of the fragile woman that needed to be handled with extreme care.

Cole was so utterly patient and understanding of her need to keep things slow, and sensitive to what she needed to feel comfortable with him. He knew that there was a powerful attraction brewing between them, but he needed to help her to see past her guilt for feeling it. One of the things I thought was really amazing was the fact that he realized that he had fallen in love with her before their first kiss. Not because of insta-love, but because he put their physical relationship on hold until she gave him the signal that she was ready.

    When I pictured kissing another man, it was Cole. When I imagined sleeping with another man, it was Cole. He was the man of the future, patiently waiting on the other side of the line. I could imagine him standing there, holding out his hand.

Poppy was such an incredibly strong character. She faced each task on Jamie's list with courage and grace, all while managing to launch her new restaurant and make it a huge success. Her budding feelings terrified the living daylights out of her, but she faced her fears and put one foot in front of the other in order to let love in her life again. There was an additional conflict involving the unsolved murder of her husband Jamie. Cole worked his fingers to the bone in order to bring Poppy closure, but what he uncovered was something that neither of them could have anticipated.

I'm really glad I gave this story a chance, and I know without a doubt that I will be reading more from this author. My reason for a four instead of a five was partly because I was expecting more of an ugly cry book, and while it had some sad moments, it didn't really delve into the darkest days of her struggle. I really appreciated the overall tone, but I wouldn't have minded seeing her work through those initial stages of grief. Also, there were a couple of things in the book that occurred that I thought were a little bit too coincidental or convenient to be 100% realistic towards the end. However, if you're looking for a slowburn romance with a heartwarming message about love and new beginnings you can't go wrong with The Birthday List.

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