The Birthday Girl by Melissa De La Cruz – a Review

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Description:
Ellie de Florent-Stinson is celebrating her fortieth birthday with a grand celebration in her fabulous house in Palm Springs.

At forty, it appears Ellie has everything she ever wanted: a handsome husband; an accomplished, college-age stepdaughter; a beautiful ten-year-old girl; two adorable and rambunctious six-year-old twin boys; lush, well-appointed homes in Los Angeles, Park City, and Palm Springs; a thriving career as a well-known fashion designer of casual women’s wear; and a glamorous circle of friends.

Except everything is not quite as perfect as it looks on the outside—Ellie is keeping many secrets. This isn’t the first of her birthday parties that hasn’t gone as planned. Something happened on the night of her sweet sixteenth. Something she’s tried hard to forget.

But hiding the skeletons of her past comes at a cost, and all of Ellie’s secrets come to light on the night of her fabulous birthday party in the desert—where everyone who matters in her life shows up, invited or not. Old and new, friends and frenemies, stepdaughters and business partners, ex-wives and ex-husbands congregate, and the glittering facade of her life crumbles in one eventful night.

Review:

The Birthday Girl by Melissa de la Cruz is a standalone suspense novel revolving around a woman celebrating her 40’th birthday, and another birthday celebration when she was 16 years old.  This is a story of secrets that come back to haunt her, as her life in the present slowly begins to crumble.

Ellie de Florent-Stinson, our heroine, is celebrating her fortieth birthday with an exclusive birthday party in her new house in Palm Springs.  Ellie invites everyone who is anyone to her party and is determined to make it perfect.  She seems to have it all, money, successful business, happy marriage, famous friends, glitzy life, but not is all as it seems. Things continually go wrong, such as the flowers wilting, her suspicion that her husband is having an affair, her step daughter has a secret and a major business deal could cause bankruptcy, etc.  Ellie also receives a text from someone in her past, which worries her, as this person says they will come to her party, and she does not recognize the number. Who is it?

We follow the two POV’s that continuously go back and forth between the present day birthday party and the same day (24 years ago) birthday celebration when she was a teenager.  In the past, the story revolves around two best friends, Leo and Mish, who not only are close, but have the same negative issues with their parent, especially the fathers.  Mish takes Leo out to meet friends to celebrate her birthday, and along the way they get drunk, try drugs, and crash another party.  All does not end well on this birthday party fun.  I will not give spoilers, so you will need to read this book to understand what happens on that day years before.  This is part of the surprise twist at the end, both in the past and present.

The Birthday Girl was well written by Melissa de la Cruz, but I did have some mixed feelings.  It was interesting, and kept my attention; but I frankly did not care for Ellie.  I found her to be not really likeable, self-centered and superficial. As for Leo and Mish, I did like their friendship, until jealousy changed everything.  The ending came out of nowhere, as well as a total surprise. Overall, The Birthday Girl was a good story.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher