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:
****
EXCERPT
They call me party girl. That’s who the invitation
says I am, anyway.
Yo, Party Girl!
We. Need. You. Be at the airport tomorrow at
1pm on the dot at the Delta ticket counter or you will henceforth be known as
Mud. We’re not kidding. Don’t let us down. And
remember, you have permission to have fun and forget about your bullshit
boyfriend PUKE because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Over
and out. Love, your best friend, Kelly. And no, Candice
is not your best friend, I am. Love, Kelly. Your best
friend.
I put the invitation down on my desk. “No way,” I
said out loud into my office, “not gonna happen.”
“What’s not gonna happen?” asked Ruby, my
assistant. Really she’s more like a mother, next door neighbor,
confessor, and general pain in the butt all rolled into one, but the nameplate
on her desk says she’s Ruby. Executive Legal Secretary at Harvey,
Grossman, and Cantor, LLP. She came in carrying a piping hot mug of
coffee, and like she does every day, earned my undying gratitude for her
uncanny ability to know exactly what I needed when I needed it. Nine
a.m. and I was ready to mainline the caffeine at this
point. Bachelorette party invites do that to me.
“I’m not going to this stupid thing,” I said, tucking the
invitation under my desk blotter. I could already imagine what Luke
would have to say about it. That would be Luke with an L and not
with a P. My girlfriends weren't fans.
“For Kelly? Of course you are. She’s your
best friend. Do you want me to RSVP for you or are you going to
handle it?”
I frowned at her, not quite snatching the cup out of her hands
but letting her know she was making me cranky. “No, miss busybody, I
do not want you RSVPing for me.” I put the mug closer to my face so
I could smell its contents, wishing the act of snorting coffee steam could get
the caffeine to go in deeper or make its effects last longer. “I
told you. I’m not going.”
She pursed her lips at me in her patented Ruby-ain’t-playin’
look. “Mmm-hmm.” Two head bob-n-weaves later and I was
folding. She had serious guilt-trip power, and she wasn’t afraid to
use it on me regularly.
“But I don’t want to go,” I whined, getting my pout on and
working it with everything I had. “I have two briefs to finish by
Tuesday and three hearings this week on motions to dismiss and that’s just the
tip of my unholy awful iceberg.” I kicked my desk lightly, wanting
to do it harder but loathe to damage my Louboutins. They’d cost me
almost a week’s pay.
“You finished those briefs last week, as you well know, and you
can send Bradley to the hearings.” She said Bradley
with that tone - the one that conveyed how irritating she found
him. She always did. I had to really resist the urge to
do it myself. He had this way of getting under a person’s
skin. Creepy crawly and seriously, ew. Gorgeous clothes
and a pretty face could only do so much for a guy when his personality was so
gag-worthy. Think snake crossed with honey badger and you’d be close
to understanding his style.
I rolled my eyes. “You really need to stop snooping
around in my computer files, Rubes.”
“Why? How else am I’m going to keep up with
you? If I wait for you to ask me for help I’ll be old and gray
before that happens.”
“You already are old and gray,” I said, smiling behind my
mug. The glee I was feeling at this point was totally rude, but
that’s how I roll. Rockin the Louboutins while harassing senior
citizens. Classy with a capital K.
She pointed a very long, very polished fingernail at
me. “Girl, you are so lucky you’re sitting behind that desk and not
out there in that mess of secretaries with me, otherwise …” She
wrinkled up her mouth at me and shook her head slowly a few times.
“Otherwise, what? You’d mess me up? We’d
throw down in the copy room?” My grin got bigger.
“Count on it, baby girl,” she said. She turned to
leave the office, her panty-hosed legs making loud swishing sounds like they
always did. I swear one day the friction between her thighs was
going to start a fire in the office.
“Who do I send the RSVP to?” she asked without even looking back
at me. “Candice or Kelly?”
I sighed heavily, putting the mug down on the desk blotter.
Ruby wins again. As usual.
“Kelly,” I sighed out. “Send it to Kelly’s work
email.”
I spun my chair to the side so I could face my computer,
clicking on the keys that would take me to my client files. The
impending doom of Kelly’s upcoming bachelorette party hung over my
head. I was supposed to be figuring out how I was going to work my
way around the 4th DCA’s latest ruling, but the words on the
document I’d just opened swam in front of my eyes.
My eyes glazed over and I was fifteen again, in a small back
room of my mother’s house with the hulking figure of her boyfriend standing
over me, a belt raised above his head.
It crashed down again and again on my back, head, and
shoulders. Nasty, hateful words streamed out of his mouth, dank
ugliness that coated my skin.
I trembled not with fear but with anger. This had
gone on for way too long. The bruises were taking longer to
heal. I had to get away. With every beating the words had
gotten more hateful, and the belt had come down harder. If I didn’t
find a way out of this mess I’d be dead and buried in the backyard before I hit
eighteen. Wishing my mother would step in and help me was a waste of
my time.
When he left the room that day, I’d drafted the first version of
what became known as my lifeplan, the document that laid out the route that
would lead me to my goals: independence, safety, and financial
success. I couldn’t depend on my weak, co-dependent mother to save
me, so I had to save myself.
I shook my head, pulling it out of the clouds and bringing it
back to the present. No. I refuse to let those memories
ruin my best friend’s party. I took a deep breath and expelled
the ghosts haunting the recesses of my mind. I was twenty-five now
and my lifeplan had gotten me this far. Taking a small break to go
to Vegas wouldn’t change anything. Taking a little two-day trip to
Vegas with my best girlfriends presented zero risk to my lifeplan. I
could do this. I would not allow Fear to be my constant companion
anymore.
I clicked my mouse, bringing up the document that had to be
finished before I got on the plane.
*****
FIND THE AUTHOR
Elle
Casey is a full-time writer of New Adult and Young Adult titles in several
genres, including romance, urban fantasy, sci-fi dystopian, and
action-adventure. She's an American girl who's been living in southern France
with her husband and three children since 2010. She loves chatting with her
readers, so feel free to drop her a line.
Thanks for featuring my book on your site. :) Appreciate the review too!
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