Warning: Contains plot spoilers!!!

Warning: Contains British spelling and Finnish punctuation!!!

Wildfire: the slow-burning second instalment of the Maple Hills trilogy

The first time I tried listening to the audio book version of Wildfire, I called it quits after a chapter or two. The lap dance scene was just too contrived, and I couldn’t shake the suspicion that the author was throwing believability under the bus aspect by injecting such an improbable scenario into the early pages of the story. Granted I’ve never been to a party thrown by men on a college hockey team, so there’s a chance that I’ve just missed out on a lot in my college days. But at this point in the book, and based on my experience with the initial book Icebreaker, I feared Grace might be focusing on getting her characters naked as often and creatively as possible.

I gave the book a second chance after a few months, and am very glad that I did. In light of the sexual activity that transpires over the first half of the book, Embers might be a more fitting title than Wildfire. Unlike the encounters that become more frequent and deranged and sort of become the plot in Icebreaker, here Grace takes things slow, letting Russ and Aurora reveal and contend with their little demons. By the time the sex really starts (and it does), they have become more than just two heterosexual characters existing for the sake of another steamy scene.

The villain

Wildfire is the only book in the Maple Hills series not to have a nasty ex-boyfriend creating tension. Instead, both characters bring daddy issues. A lot of them, in fact. To cope with being ignored by her father, Aurora has developed a compulsion to get attention in any way possible – most easily achieved by misbehaving and doing things she regrets later. She struggles to believe that that good people won’t take advantage of her, and won’t discard and leave her when they’re done. Russ has a crushing sense of shame stemming from his dad’s longtime gambling addiction, and he struggles to open up and be completely honest with those he loves.

Looking at the other two books of the trilogy, Anastasia is the only main character who has a dad who isn’t terrible. I’m not sure if Grace had a crummy father or if the bad father trope lends itself well to these types of romances, but the high percentage of bad dads in Maple Hills is worth noting.

I think Hannah Grace really does justice to the inner conflicts of both Russ and Aurora – she does more than just give lip service to the fact that they’re struggling, and lets the conflict play itself out organically over the pages. It’s exciting but also cathartic to watch Aurora and Russ mature and flourish beyond their personal baggage when they are in Honey Acres’ cosy and safe environment. This is a large part of what makes the book’s mid section so engaging, and in fact it’s a little disappointing when you sense the climax and inevitable end of the book approaching.

Slow burn

This leads to the facet of the book that most sets it apart from Icebreaker: it’s a slow burn, despite Russ and Aurora’s initial copulation happening in the early pages. After the first fling, Russ and Aurora have to learn to get out of their respective bubbles to truly know the other person. And this is precisely what they both desire: there’s already plenty of sexual chemistry, but each person first craves an authentic connection with the other, and this connection is impossible unless they learn to get over their daddy issues.

The slow burn is prolonged by Russ’ fear of breaking Honey Acres’ strict no-romance policy, a fear it seems the author wants us to think is irrational. It doesn’t feel entirely consistent, given that Russ and Aurora could have found ways of getting off without flagrantly violating Honey Acres. Alas, following rules is not as exciting as breaking them, and importantly in the case of Wildfire, breaking the rules gets the main characters naked more often. Win-win.

I understand there are limits to how deep a cosy romance novel is expected to go, but would have liked to see the book expound on one or two of the other behind-the-scenes romances that Jenna alludes to at the end. The „alternate flings“ could have added some contrast to the Russ-Aurora dynamic and allowed Grace to further expound on the themes of personal honesty, being true to one’s self, and rule-bending.