About the Book

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?

Review

I read Icebreaker a year ago, and it was a book that I enjoyed. I had a few issues with it which are outlined within my review, and at that point in time it was unclear if Hannah Grace would be continuing the series. She was faced with valid criticism regarding the depiction of one of her characters. She did go in to edit the book after the criticisms. To my surprise after the criticism, she signed a book deal and the next book in this series was announced.

One of my criticisms of Icebreaker, was that there were too many characters. Wildfire is about Russ, who apparently was present in Icebreaker, but I have no memory of him. The book is also about Aurora, who I don’t think was present in Icebreaker. Both characters have serious daddy issues, and after a memorable hookup at the party, are temporarily separated due to miscommunication. But don’t worry, they end up working at the same summer camp as counselors.

The book lost me the second they got to the summer camp. It just didn’t feel like a summer camp setting. The best way to put it is that nothing exciting was happening. There was a lot of miscommunication. And although I did love Russ, I was considering DNFing this book. I forced myself to continue and when they finally got past all the hesitation, I finally went back to enjoying the book. Those parts really stood out to me.

Russ was the sweetest, and shy. He’s very adorable, and I think he’s my favorite Hannah Grace lead ever. I liked Aurora well enough. At times, she felt like Anastasia 2.0 with some of her internal thoughts and how she would say things. I'm standing to wonder if that is just a self insert on the author's part. I liked Russ and Aurora’s relationship the most when they were attempting to keep their relationship a secret. They have great chemistry, and they had a lot in common especially with their Daddy issues, but their relationship wasn’t enough to carry the entire book. Quite frankly the back and front got tiring in the beginning. And unfortunately, those high points did end, and the book felt lackluster at the end.

Final Thoughts

Wildfire is unfortunately a disappointing sequel to Icebreaker. Most of the book is plagued by lukewarmness. Something felt missing the entire time. There were a few memorable moments between the leads, but even that wasn’t enough at times.

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