Sunday, July 7, 2013

Review: Shine Not Burn by Elle Casey


IT HAPPENED IN VEGAS.

I can't be held responsible. Things that happen there are supposed to stay there, right? Right? Yeeeah. Not so much.

Andie's just days away from tying the knot, but there's just ooooone little glitch. Apparently, she's already married. Or someone with her name is married to a guy out in Oregon of all places, and the courthouse won't issue her a marriage license until it's all cleared up. Tripping her way through cow pies and country songs to meet up with a man who gets around places on horseback is her very last idea of how to have a good time, but if she's going to get married, make partner at the firm, and have two point five kids before she's thirty-five, she needs to get to the bottom of this snafu and fix it quick ... before her fiance finds out and everything she's been working toward goes up in flames.

 
 
Review:

"Oh my pink granny panties," I loved Shine Not Burn. This is one of the funniest, cutest, most heart stealing books I've read in awhile. I might be a little biased because I have a soft spot for cowboys, but, really, who doesn't?


You have Andie, an attorney, that's obsessed with following her life plan to the "t". She has everything mapped out. College, career, marriage, babies... She likes to have total control over her life. The only problem is...she dates total garbage. Her friend is getting married and she reluctantly heads to Vegas for the bachelorette party. Her boyfriend gets mad and pretty much says if she goes, they're done. Well....she goes...and boy, does. she. go.

She get's to Vegas and meets Mack at the blackjack tables. He's sporting his cowboy hat and some devastatingly blue eyes. She makes a beeline for his table and accidently spills her drink all over him. This little incident leads to the funniest night in Vegas that I've ever read about. This part of the book was all it took for me to fall in love with Mack. Everything was perfect. Grant it, I know it's Vegas and Andie was lit, but still...it was perfect.

Combine alcohol, blurry memories, and a cell phone knocked into a toilet and you get Andie waking up alone the next morning minus the handsome cowboy with no recollection of most of the nights events and no way to reach said cowboy.

And we fast forward 2 years...

Andie's back on track with her lifeplan and engaged to King Jerk. She's all set to marry King Jerk in two weeks until that crazy night in Vegas comes back to haunt her. She hops on a plane to Ohio to track down the mysterious cowboy to have him fix the problem they created while letting loose in Vegas. Turns out, they let Elvis marry them and Andie didn't even remember. She thinks she'll hand Mack divorce papers, he'll sign, and the wedding will move forward as planned. But....what do you do when the cowboy says....

"I don't believe in divorce."

You laugh! That's what you do! Goodness gracious this book was funny! The writing was incredibly detailed and addictive. It was like a vortex and I just couldn't avoid the pull. The more I read, the deeper I fell. All in all, this is seriously one of the best books I've read this summer. I've got my eye on anything Elle Casey publishes in the future, for sure!

My rating: 4-4.5 Stars
Luceo non uro means I shine, not burn. To me, though, it means that I have a choice. I need to balance the bad with the good, make sure to avoid the things that could burn or scar me but get close enough to the heat that I feel life and really experience it."

Reviewed by:
 
 
FIND THE AUTHOR
Elle Casey
 

5 comments: