Burning the Map [Kindle Edition]

Laura Caldwell (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Casey Evers is on a dream vacation to Italy and Greece with her two best friends, Kat and Lindsey, but it isn't quite turning out the way she expected. Kat and Lindsey resent the fact that Casey has distanced herself from them since she started dating John two years ago, and Casey is hurt that Kat and Lindsey don't seem to include her the way they used to back in college. Kat and Lindsey are furious when Casey ditches them on their last night in Italy to spend a romantic evening with a handsome Italian man; then, when Casey finds her feelings for John growing murkier, she can't even turn to her two best friends. Things seem to improve once the girls get to Greece, but when a guy Lindsey is interested in turns his attention to Casey, their friendship faces yet another challenge. At its best when it focuses on the girls' friendship and not on the myriad men who strain it, Caldwell's debut is a fun, snappy read. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

The choices Casey Evers has made in her twenty-six years aren't exactly making her happy. In fact, her life is so on course--college, law school, boyfriend, job offer--that it's actually off. So, before she slides into fourteen-hour days at a Chicago law firm, she heads to Rome and Greece with her two best friends for one last hurrah. The thing is, her best friends haven't really been all that close to her since she started seeing John two years ago, she hasn't been all that close to John lately, and she's awfully partial to Mediterranean men....

I rest my head against his shoulder. The scooter starts to fly again, and Rome whizzes by--a myriad of fountains, marble statues, larger-than-life doors with gigantic handles, streets that look like alleys....

The rigidity that has settled in my bones and head over the past year seems to thaw a bit.Yet with the thaw comes an army of questions from some unused corner of my brain. What about John? Will you tell him about this little excursion, this man you are hugging? What happens when you get back, when you have to start work, when you can no longer escape the world? I lift my head and let the wind snarl my hair around my face, trying to forget these questions, the ones with rifles in hand that are waiting to fire holes in my flimsy curtain of contentment.

Set against the backdrop of sparkling beaches and old-world villages, Burning the Map ignites the fire within us all, to shine in unexpected ways....

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 270 KB
• Publisher: Red Dress Ink (May 18, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0028OLDSO
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Laura Caldwell: Former civil trial lawyer, now Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Director of Life After Innocence, published author of 10 novels, 1 nonfiction book, public speaker, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend.

Caldwell, lawyer, turned author who left the law behind, or so she thought. With 10 novels published in over 22 countries and translated into more than 13 languages, research on her 6th novel led her to the criminal case of Jovan Mosley, a young man sitting in a Cook County holding cell without a trial. After hearing about his case, Caldwell joined a renowned criminal defense attorney to defend him, ultimately proving his innocence and inspiring her first nonfiction book, Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him (Free Press, Simon & Schuster).

Due to the Mosley case, she founded 'Life After Innocence' at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a innovative program which aids exonerees--people who have been wrongful convicted and later found completely innocent--to start their lives over.

Her fictional works, began as chick-lit now turned mystery, includes a returning character, Izzy McNeil. Izzy a Chicago lawyer finds her way into a myriad of situations she must use her wit and legal skill to work through. Three books published the fourth due out March 2011, with at least three more on the horizon. Pick up an Izzy book now and travel through the streets of Chicago while solving crimes with her.

Laura is also a freelance magazine writer and has been published in Chicago Magazine, Woman's Own, The Young Lawyer, Lake Magazine, Australia Woman's Weekly, Shore Magazine and others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great premise - but a little lacking, April 18, 2005

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Burning The Map (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars intriguing look at a young lady at the threshold of adulthoo, November 15, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Burning The Map (Paperback)

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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy reading, January 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Burning The Map (Paperback)

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.