SHINE NOT BURN

SHINE NOT BURN                                          ELLE CASEY

Andie Marks, known as “Party Girl” in her college days, is now a whip-smart lawyer on the fast track to success. Determined to move on from a bad break-up, she joins her girlfriends for a wild bachelorette weekend in Las Vegas, promising to let her hair down just this once.

Vegas is a blur of cocktails and blackjack, and in the middle of it all she meets Mack, a real-life cowboy with a winning hand and an irresistible body. They get lucky in the casino and luckier back at the hotel, a hot night of passion that was definitely not part of Andie’s life plan.

By dawn Mack is gone and all she has to remember their one-night romance is a hangover and a pile of casino chips. Or so she thinks…

MY REVIEW:

     This was a very interesting story.  I could relate to in a lot of ways.  I could totally relate to Andie Marks Character of a woman who came from an out of control background.  Andie being an only child had to come up with a plan to bring order to her life to make it bearable and to have goals set to have things to look forward to, hence her “lifeplan.”

     You see Andie’s dad took off when she was young and her mom looked for love in all the wrong places.  With men who would use and abuse her in every which way.  To the point where she started allowing the men to abuse Andie.  The saddest part being in those instances Andie could see in her mom’s eyes that she was relieved that she was not the one who had gotten beaten that time but that it was Andie.  Until one day Andie had to get her mom to the emergency room because she had been beaten so badly.

     She was able to talk her mom into staying away from that man at least until she went on to college but her mom went right on back to the same woman beating man.  That is when Andie broke all ties with her mother.  She needed something more so she had gone back to the list she had made at 15 to help her have that focus she needed to make it in the world and she finished college and then went on to law school.  She is 25 and a lawyer.  She has her eyes set on junior partner.  After that comes the husband, the 2.5 kids, and then the good life.

     Now at 25 years old she is a lawyer and she is committed to being the best of friends to her college friends to her roommates from college, Kelly and Candice.  But they just need to understand nothing can come in the way of the “lifeplan.”  So when Ruby, her closest thing to a mother, neighbor, and secretary brings in an invitation to Kelly’s bachelorette party that they want to spend in Las Vegas she is like “Oh Hell No!”  But Ruby is “Well yes you are.”  They banter back and forth but Andie knows it is a lost fight already Ruby was right Kelly and Candice were her dearest friends and she had to do this.  Ruby called to accept.

     The whole way there she dreaded the whole thing of having to be gone the weekend.  Not to mention that Luke her fiancé, (one Ruby, Candice and Kelly disliked), in fact they called him Luke the puke.  Andie knew he would be put out that she was gone with them but she had to go.  Sure enough she was right he was because while they were waiting to board the plane she gets a text.  He is pissed that she is going with the girls and breaks up with her over the text.  So the girls grab the phone from Andie and respond by duping him right back all before it could register to Andie.  She was upset at the situation but the girls made her promise to have a good time and not to worry about it until she got back.  Until then she was to have unleashed fun.

     That night Candice cuts and styles her hair.  They put make-up, dress her up and take her down to show her off.  But you see they had started hitting the hard stuff early.  So by the time they had gotten down stairs Kelly the bride to be was a little on the queue size.  So Candice told Andie to stay down at the casino and that she would go take care of Kelly and be back.  Well when Andie started looking around she saw the most gorgeous Cowboy she had ever seen.  He was over at the blackjack table and so she decided to saunter on over and check him out.  There was only one small problem she was wearing one of the girl’s high heels that were in nosebleed country so with the drink in her hand and her losing her footing she trips and spills the drinks over this god looking Cowboy.

     The handsome Cowboy turns out to be Gavin Mackenzie.  He just looks into her eyes smiling.  Andie on the other hand grabs some napkins and starts whipping his crotch vigorously causing a woody.  He grabs her wrist with a wolfish smile and says something to the effect before we embarrass each other I better go get cleaned up.  When she looks down and sees the effect of what she had down she turns beet red.  He ask her to save his seat. 

     While he’s gone she uses some of his chips to play or they would have made her leave the table.  She has never played so an elderly gentleman next to her helps her.  (This to me is one of the cutest scenes ever because it would so be me.)  By the time “Handsome” gets back she is up $600.00.  He introduces himself as Mack they continue to play.  They decide to leave to go get a bite to eat and get to know one another but she wants to go change.  So they go to her room.  One thing leads to another and their worlds start to spin, collide, and then crash together.  They are so drunk or at least she is that when she wakes up she is in bed next to one of her roommates and no sign of Cowboy.  Leaving her with the feeling of not being sure of what was real and what was not.

     This was a funny, sweet, and heartwarming story. Of a girl determined to not end up like her mom.  And a man who lives by the motto “Luceo non uro – Shine, not burn.” It is a sign of how we all try so hard to protect ourselves so well but if love wants to find us and hold on it will.  I give this 5 stars.