Every reader has a unique experience while reading a book. Typically this experience is based on the effect the book has on them, which then defines the relationship that they develop with it and the space it occupies in their hearts. Some books are emotional reads that the reader may only ever read once, but that stays with them for the rest of their life; some are comfort reads that are read again and again, until the pages know the mark of the reader’s fingers. Some books are little more complex, requiring the reader to take multiple breaks in between…demanding introspection and thought.
To me Wildfire was exactly that. Demanding many breaks and lots of thought, Wildfire was an emotional and an intellectual experience, within which I was sifting through all my memories, past relationships, and those of others I know, trying to understand Aurora and Russ. I can’t recall a time before this that I related to the male protagonist of a story first, so it was initially confusing that I couldn’t understand the female protagonist the same way. This resulted in me taking a pause at around 34%, trying to comprehend why I was struggling and began dealing with all the notions I had about the way the characters, their past, and their struggles were written.
Hannah Grace has certainly chosen a difficult theme to tackle, one that may take the reader aback a bit initially. However, the writing has so much heart, which I think is Wildfire’s biggest strength. What I may have found difficult in the beginning was greatly overshadowed by the way Grace’s words evoke a sense of warmth and comfort that kept me coming back no matter what. Grace’s writing style gentles the rough edges of the characters and slowly cracks them open to show the heart of their pain and the strength in their vulnerabilities.
The way this book was planned really played to the strength of the plot, the characters’ personalities and pain. As mentioned in the synopsis, the characters share an intimate night with one another and part ways immediately only to meet again at a summer camp as colleagues. The large part of the plot is the characters healing, revealing their scars and painting galaxies around them and finding beauty in one another and themselves; however, there’s a subtler underlying theme that Grace talks about that takes up a lot of the emotional real estate in the book. The breakthrough moments we witness within that theme were sometimes hard to believe and I loved that Grace writes them that way.
Thinking back, I can tell now that the way the characters feel about themselves through the book is how we feel about them too. When the book begins the characters are struggling, feeling the disconnect within themselves, coping, misunderstanding themselves and internalising failures and pain. But as the book progresses, there’s a wonderful transition that simply comes from spending time with the kind of people that are a balm to our soul. The kind of people that don’t trigger our pain, but soothe our wounds. I absolutely enjoyed falling in love with Aurora. The more complex of the two, Aurora was a young woman striving to find herself, to feel good about herself and maybe find the person she can do all that with…be all that with. Russ, a gentle giant, was the golden-retriever magnet that was not hard to immediately love. His pain and struggles were easier to understand and relate to and he’s likely to steal a reader’s heart from the very beginning.
The secondary characters were aplenty. Both Aurora and Russ had separate social circles and friends, and a shared one that existed within the camp. This was my first Hannah Grace book and even though this is the second book in the Maple Hills series, it reads fairly well as a standalone. However, all of Russ’ friends I presume were already introduced in Icebreaker (Maple Hills, #1), because they were the only characters we weren’t introduced to. The characters closest to Russ were clear but the next circle merged a little bit. While it didn’t take away from the experience, reading the books as the series intends would possibly add to the joy.
The lack of unnecessary drama or third-act breakups and the presence of sweet, lovely characters with lots of funny and emotional moments certainly uplift the book. I did feel that this book wasn’t as deep as I would have wanted it to be given the nature of the themes, however despite that I would rate Wildfire a solid 8 out of 10. The many many highlighted passages on my Kindle throughout the book certainly attest for it.
Wildfire is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of October 3rd.
Will you be picking up Wildfire? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The latest in the TikTok sensation and deliciously “swoonworthy” (Elena Armas, New York Times bestselling author) Maple Hills series follows two summer camp counselors who reconnect after a sizzling one-night stand.
Maple Hills students Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts cross paths at a party celebrating the end of the academic year, where a drinking game results in them having a passionate one-night stand. Never one to overstay her welcome (or expect much from a man), Aurora slips away before Russ even has the chance to ask for her full name.
Imagine their surprise when they bump into each other on the first day of the summer camp where they are both counselors, hoping to escape their complicated home lives by spending the summer working. Russ hopes if he gets far enough away from Maple Hills, he can avoid dealing with the repercussions of his father’s gambling addiction, while Aurora is tired of craving attention from everyone around her, and wants to go back to the last place she truly felt at home.
Russ knows breaking the camp’s strict “no staff fraternizing” rule will have him heading back to Maple Hills before the summer is over, but unfortunately for him, Aurora has never been very good at caring about the rules. Will the two learn to peacefully coexist? Or did their one night together start a fire they can’t put out?
