Customer Reviews

Burning The Map

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Despite a growing rift in their friendship, college pals (and now career gals) embark on a girl's only vacation in Europe. Casey is about to settle down in a new law firm and with her longtime beau, John; Kat is a bit of a ho, out to have a really good time (despite the living conditions and lack of privacy); and Lindsey wants to trio to spend time together.

Casey knows that the three have grown apart, and that things are not that great at home with her boyfriend, new job, or her family. Instead of spending time with her best buds in Rome, Casey spends the day with and Italian paramour. She realizes that she misses the romance of the beginning of a relationship, and that she and John are in a rut.

While in Greece, the gals clash as Lindsey chases after an Irish bloke who is interested in Casey, and they are caught in a compromising situation after Casey gets bad news from home. Rather than pursue the relationship further, Casey agrees to go to another island with her friends and manages to somehow find herself.

There is also a secondary story regarding Kat and her relationship with her stepfather, though it is not fully developed.

I liked the storyline - and I pride myself on guessing what is coming next. This is one of those times where I was not right, and it was kind of nice to be surprised. I did not like the ending at all. Far too ambiguous - not the epilogue most readers are hoping for to wrap things up.

Casey Evers seems to have it all. She just received her law degree and landed a job with highly regarded Billings, Sherman and Lott. She is seeing one person, a nice attorney. However, with her future looking bright, Casey is unhappy, but not sure why. She wonders if it is the job that feels like jail sentence, her parents' imminent break-up, or her boyfriend's toiling seemingly twenty-four hours day.

Casey and her two friends from the University of Michigan, Kat and Lindsey travel to Rome and the Greek isles on a three-week vacation. In Rome, Casey feels estranged from her two pals unable to tell them about her concerns. Further separating her from her two friends is that Casey meets a nice Italian in Rome and another male in Greece. What will Casey do when the vacation ends and the rest of her life begins?

BURNING THE MAP is an interesting character study, done in the "chic" mode. The story line mostly focuses on the lead protagonist especially her doubts, but also provides insight into her friends, boyfriend, and parents at least from Casey's perspective. Genre fans will empathize with Laura Caldwell's intriguing look at a young lady at the threshold of adult decisions and responsibilities.

Harriet Klausner

This book is nothing more than a quick, amusing story, and it doesn't pretend to be. Casey and her two best girlfriends vacation first in Rome, then in the Greek Isles for three weeks after Casey takes the bar exam but before she starts working 14-hour days at her heavy hitting law firm. While on vacation, Casey faces resentment from her friends, who feel that she has been neglecting them in favor of her boyfriend for the past two years. She also gives in to her weakness for Italian men and enjoys not one, but two, relatively innocent flings.

I am a lawyer and I can appreciate the sense of dread that you are going to spend all of your time at your desk for the next 30-odd years. I also can appreciate the sadness of friendships that crumble due to scheduling and neglect. Caldwell writes in a smooth, pleasant style which allowed me to devour this book in about an hour and a half. I liked her descriptions of Italy and the beautiful islands of Greece. It made me long for a vacation with friends.

The one thing I did not particularly enjoy was the author's depiction of one of Casey's friends, Lindsay. Her criticism of Casey was a little heavy handed and prolonged. If I had been Casey, I wouldn't have put up with lecture after boring lecture while I was on my last pre-professional vacation.

However, this was an enjoyable read if not an overly memorable one. All I sought was entertainment and a happy ending, and Caldwell delivered.

Casey is on the verge of a very good life. She has a long-term boyfriend and an excellent job with a law firm once she's come back from a long-planned vacation romp in Europe with her two best friends, Kat and Lindsey.

But Casey's life has flaws. She's not sure she wants to start at the law firm. She's not even sure she wants her boyfriend. And both of her friends are oddly distant.

Many misunderstandings and revelations later, Casey decides to chuck her former life and start fresh. There's nothing wrong with trying something different from the usual girl trying to get a guy and a life formula. But I didn't care about Casey or her problems at all. The only characters I felt anything for where Kat and Lindsey. The sub-plot that lingers is not Casey's parents marriage crumbling but the creepy and quasi-incestous stepfather Kat is saddled with.

If you are a huge Red Dress Ink fan or even a casual Red Dress Ink reader, please take the time to read more than the back cover before picking up "Burning the Map". A few moments reading the opening chapter may save you some of your hard earned money.

If you're looking for a warm and fuzzy romance about a woman meeting the man of her dreams and living happily ever after, then this book is not for you. However, if you want a book filled with real emotions, real conflicts, and a hopeful (not overly romanticized) outlook, then read BURNING THE MAP.

I get so sick of reading things that have absolutely no basis in the reality of the human condition. Laura Caldwell must feel this same disdain, for instead of insulting my intelligence with a nice fluffy fantasy, she provides the story of three very different women who used to be close friends and are trying to find that friendship again. Casey is the heroine, and she's let her relationship with her boyfriend supercede that of her closest friendships. Looking for an opportunity to change that, she invites her two best friends on a trip to Europe. But beyond reconnecting with her girlfriends, Casey reconnects with herself, her own desires. It's a bittersweet yet hopeful tale of self-discovery that proves sometimes the love of a man isn't enough to make you happy.

Finally a chic-lit book that has some substance, along with tongue and cheek fun.

Burning the Map reminds me of my post college days in such a real manner that I felt like it was only yesterday. Memories of those years are typically fond. Many times, people wish they were living that life again--forgetting that although those days were wild and free, they did bring struggles and growing pains with it.

Caldwell brings back the fun of being that age again--yet reminds us that even in our 20's, things are not totally carefree!

That is the good news. A book that brings reality to the pages in an entertaining and sometimes laugh out loud way--offering life lessons that are subtle, yet impactful.

You will savor every page.

I really enjoyed this book from the very beginning. I found it fast paced and hilarious at times. I could relate to the main character and I love books about traveling. This is my first book by this author but it will not be my last!

Three friends - Casey, Lindsay (aka Sin), and Kat - take a month to tour through Rome and Greece before returning home to face their new jobs and `adult' lives. That is the basic premise of this book. The book is well written, and is enjoyable mainly because Rome and Greece are well described. The scenery is the best part of the book, and I felt like I was on a European whirlwind tour with a bunch of 18 year olds. The problem is that the characters are not 18 - they are upper 20s women who act 18 a majority of the time. Although the author tells us that the three are best friends, they spend the entire book belittling each other and ostracizing Casey. Also, Casey, the lead character, is terribly boring - I didn't believe for an instant that she was ever exciting and carefree (as we are told she was), and the end certainly didn't fit with the picture we had of her character. This book is marginal - high marks for setting and descriptions, but low marks for character strength and consistency.

Laura Caldwell is a very good writer, and I really enjoyed this book. It is intelligent chick lit -- and by that I mean it is well thought out, well-composed, and sophisticated. Another thing I really liked was that the main characters visit international, sexy locales throughout the story, which made it that much more fun. The reason I am only giving it three stars is because you get the sense that the author has not yet fully come into her own (I think this is her first novel) -- the novel is pretty straightforward. But it is worth picking up, if you are looking for something light, but not *lite*!

This book was okay, just not the most memorable. This is the kind of book that you read when you're stuck in the airport waiting for a delayed flight and there's nothing else to do.

Casey Evers is a 26 year old girl who is on the brink of responsible adulthood; she has just passed the bar and is poised to begin a promising career at a posh Chicago law firm when she and her two best girlfriends decide to try to re-connect and have one last hurrah before real life sets in.

You see, Casey, Lindsey (Sin) and Kat have been an inseperable trio for ten years but things havereally changed in the last two years or so since Casey has become involved with John. Both Sin and Kat have noticed that the certain sparkle in Casey's personality has greatly diminished. Even Casey herself notices that things have been off between her and John lately. This novel follows Casey as she struggles to put her friendships and herself back on track.