Rating: 
Summary: Ugh
Review: "Burning the Map" had so much potential to be a great summer-type read, but I felt short changed in the end. Laura Caldwell has a very pleasant writing style-filled with great imagery and clever conversations. Overall, this book was fun to read, but after pages and pages of character and scenery development, the ending felt like it was on fast-forward play. It was almost as though the author was very excited about the plotline, but then just fizzled out when we finally get to the meat of the main character's epiphany. The story of the three young women's trip to Rome and Greece is told by Casey-a young woman who has just now realized that she has been isolating herself from her friends, family, boyfriend and even her true self for nearly two years. I found it difficult to empathize with Casey and her struggles with her two best friends. It isn't until the very end of the story that she seems to really make any effort to `reconnect' with her friends and reacquaint herself with who she really is. I admit, I was very pleased with the deviance from the standard chick book wrap-up, but I wasn't terribly surprised. My only real complaint about the plot is that it all seems rushed in the end; the characters all very promptly (seemingly out of nowhere) `figure it all out' and then poof, the book has ended. This was a fun but not fabulous read.
Rating: 
Summary: Living on the Fringe
Review: "Burning the Map" had so much potential to be a great summer-type read, but I felt short changed in the end. Laura Caldwell has a very pleasant writing style-filled with great imagery and clever conversations. Overall, this book was fun to read, but after pages and pages of character and scenery development, the ending felt like it was on fast-forward play. It was almost as though the author was very excited about the plotline, but then just fizzled out when we finally get to the meat of the main character's epiphany. The story of the three young women's trip to Rome and Greece is told by Casey-a young woman who has just now realized that she has been isolating herself from her friends, family, boyfriend and even her true self for nearly two years. I found it difficult to empathize with Casey and her struggles with her two best friends. It isn't until the very end of the story that she seems to really make any effort to 'reconnect' with her friends and reacquaint herself with who she really is. I admit, I was very pleased with the deviance from the standard chick book wrap-up, but I wasn't terribly surprised. My only real complaint about the plot is that it all seems rushed in the end; the characters all very promptly (seemingly out of nowhere) 'figure it all out' and then poof, the book has ended. This was a fun but not fabulous read.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a great read!
Review: Another hit from Red Dress Ink! I am becoming addicted to their chick lit! You can't miss with this one! I couldn't put it down after I got started and I dont' think you will either. One of the things I really enjoyed most about this book was that I felt like the placed the characters visited was so well described. I almost felt like I was there with them!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A great escape
Review: As a 20-something living in Chicago, I totally related to this book. Casey is on the cusp of the real world, and she's not sure if she's ready to work like a dog for the rest of her life. And her friendship with her old college friends is fading as they start to grow apart. And her boyfriend just isn't doing it for her. Sure, the story is great, but I really enjoyed reading about someone who knows what the 20-something-life-crisis is all about!
Rating:
Summary: Ugh
Review: Boring and predictable. There's a reason lawyers should not right novels.
Rating:
Summary: intriguing look at a young lady at the threshold of adulthoo
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: excellent -- nails how vacations really are
Review: Casey is off with her friends Kat and Lindsey for a few days in Rome -- where she once spent a semester --- and then a few weeks in Greece. She is nervous about returning to her first full-time job as a lawyer, knowing that her life will be taken up by that job. She also has a sweet boyfriend named John and discovers early on the trip that Kat and Lindsey have thought of her as aloof and concerned only about Joh for 2 years! Beyond that, she has a brief dallaince with a guy in Rome and then another in Ios. This is not all ha ha hee hee, though. Casey is confused, and she goes through fights with her two best friends about some serious matters. The author also does a good job of painting how most vacations in popular European spots entail meeting other tourists from other countries more than the locals (of course, if all you do is go to to the touristy bar, it's a given.) Still, a very good debut novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A burning disappointment
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Casey, Kat and Lindsey have been so close for so long they consider each other family, but Casey started becoming distant two years ago when she started dating John. Lately she's been studying so hard to pass the bar that she hasn't had much time for her friends. She's hoping this month-long trip to Europe will help her bond with the friends she finally realized she missed. After the claws come out, in a couple different arguements, while trying to regain the friendship Casey starts to realize that maybe this trip to Europe is an escape from the life she doesn't want to return to. Her love is not in law, her parents are separating and she's not sure what to think about her boyfriend. Casey just doesn't know how to tell her friends about her problems, but some men she meets along the way are helping her (maybe a little more than they should!). Casey must deal with her problems and more than she wanted to when confronted with a proposal. Kat and Lindsey eventually warm back up to Casey, but Casey has a different plan about returning to the states! I'm not going to ruin it for you, just read the book and find out for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: Letter to Amazon.com
Review: Dear Amazon.com
When I read Burning the Map, I found it different than most books. Casey Evers had so many problems, and I've never read a book with the main character having so many issues. Her father moving out and Casey's friends who have her a hard time are just a few problems. What I did find fascinating in this book was reading about Rome and Greece. I really got a taste of what those two places look like, just through the descriptive writing. I also saw through the eyes of an American, what the culture shock is and why. What did sometimes irk me was the repetition of what Casey and her friends did every night. They would go to a bar, and meet people, or meet the ones they did in the previous nights. If they did anything else it happend rarely. Despite these things overall it was a good leisure book. Laura Caldwell did use fine writing in this book. She was an excellent author and the plot of the story made it fun to read and so different than other books I have read. I enjoyed that. I would defenitly reccomend this book to others, and if anybody had time to kill, this would be a great choice to soak up that time. So to all future readers, ENJOY!
-Courtney
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