Review: Is it possible to love Elle Casey any more? Why yes, yes it is....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2014
Shine Not Burn was on my favorite list for months. Whenever anyone would ask me if I'd read any good books lately I'd tell them to look up Elle Casey and Shine Not Burn. I can't believe it's been almost an entire year since I read it. It was a feel good romance, one that kind of stuck with you.Then there was By Degrees and I wasn't thrilled with that one. I mean I liked it and all but it didn't have the oomph of SNB.Then, something happened.Actually, it wasn't just something, it was REBEL that happened. It was like Elle got her groove and it was beautiful. Rebel is still one of my favorite books. No lie, I've read it close to 8 times. (I'm not sure if that makes me an avid reader or a really boring person.) Rebel is laugh out loud funny. I mean, I still read it and laugh out loud.Then came Hellion and Trouble... and pretty soon I'm becoming addicted to Elle turning out books every two months or so. And I want to tell her to write faster. WRITE FASTER, ELLE!So, I pre-order MacKenzie Fire. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was thinking maybe this book would revert back to Elle's feel good days and have less of that laugh out loud quality that have made me love her even more throughout the Rebel series. Not that I don't love me a feel good romance. Oh I do, I really do.But this... MacKenzie Fire... Ian... Candice... I think you all have officially replaced Rebel as my go to book. Not only does this book have that feel good romance but it is funny as hell. I mean, pee your pants funny. Where do you get this stuff from?Ok, enough swooning more reviewing.This book has a great backbone. It's not loosely drawn together like other stories. The MacKenzie clan is a tight knit group and I love that about them, but they don't come off as overbearing either. It's a just right kind of balance.Editing is practically flawless... I mean like 99.999999% flawless. And that's pretty hard to accomplish when you are turning out books so quickly. Usually I find authors who turn out fast end up pressing their editors too hard.The characters in this book are so well fleshed out you don't even need to read Shine Not Burn to get them. And yet it happened so on the sly that I didn't find myself reading huge paragraphs of descriptors about each person.The story starts off on the right foot... or rather on the icy ground... multiple times... and there's some definitely luggage abuse going on. I find it's hard to write a good intro and Elle knocks it out of the park.And the laughter, I know it's been said many times, by many other reviewers but I don't recommend you read this with a full bladder. Or even partially full for that matter. Or while eating. Or drinking anything. I'm pretty sure my husband checked on me once or twice to make sure I wasn't going crazy.(SIDENOTE: Elle, I think I might come to expect each of your books to be so funny. You've been knocking my socks off and making me pee my pants since Rebel... so yeah... no pressure or anything.)And then, there's the romance. The most important part. This wasn't really one of those "Let me lay on the couch and lament about all my troubles while a guy I'm sorta into tries to fix my broken heart." (Come on, NA-ers you know what I'm talking about.) Or even one of those "I've had a terrible childhood and I must overcome all these emotional barriers to love again."This romance was none of those. This romance just was. And it was beautiful. There was no big overcome, no big reveal. It was just a series of wonderful moments and memories that brought these two closer and closer together. There was no big AH-HAH moment where the character realizes she's in love with Ian. (I think one of the reviewers might have mentioned this, too.) But trust me, an AH-HAH moment isn't necessary to make a romance a romance. The kind of love we are talking about builds slow. It kind of starts low in your belly like a tiny flame and spreads outwards. It's a small touch here, a smile there, maybe a roll in the hay...There doesn't need to be an ah-hah moment to get to love. You don't need to overcome something to love someone. You just do. It starts slow and then before you know it you love them and it kind of grew on you and around you. And that's the best type of love.So, yeah, go ahead and buy this. It'll make you laugh. It'll bring tears to your eyes. It'll make you feel good. And it'll stick with you.Oh and Elle? Is there a possibility we will be seeing Boog in the future? I just kind of feel like you can't drop those hints like that and not follow up on it.You know... no pressure or anything.