Wildfire

by Toni Draper

After a difficult breakup, a wildland firefighter and university professor have parted ways, but neither has moved on. When a life threatening accident reunites them, can a love that once burned so bright be rekindled? A story that explores the often out-of-control forces of nature and love.

Genres: LGBT

201 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 2021

Reviews

[Lex Kent · Rating 2 out of 5]

The timing for this book was unfortunately right on point. There are horrible wildfires burning in the western USA. Just to put it in perspective, the fires are so bad that even though I live all the way on the east coast, we keep getting breathing/air warnings here. I go outside and the air is filled with this hazy smoke and the smell is very strong. It’s odd that it doesn’t smell like a wood fire but more like an electrical fire –think wires burning and almost a burning plastic smell-. I’m so used to fresh mountain air that I keep getting a sore throat from being outside for more than a few minutes. My thoughts are with my fellow American’s out west who are really suffering.

I don’t like writing reviews like this so I would rather ramble on about other things, but that is not why people are reading this review. This book is a debut and I have a lot of respect for people that not only can write a book, but then have the courage to put it out for the world to like or criticize. I wish I could say different but this book was not for me one bit. I do want to say that I think the author can write, I just did not click with her writing choices both stylistic and story based.

The book started well. I read this for the women firefighters and that is what we get, unfortunately that did not last long. I think it was maybe 5% of the book was about fighting fires, where the rest was much more in the metaphorical sense. Had I known this I would have passed on reading this. There are not enough firefighting –women’s- books and I was excited for this concept, but this book really is not about that.

The best way I could describe what this book really is, is the anatomy of a break-up. This is about two women that don’t communicate, and what their life is like struggling in their relationship –in flashbacks- and post relationship’s end. Unfortunately, this is not what I want to read about and I found the story to be very slow and dry for my personal tastes.

The book has a mix of stylistic choices that just didn’t work for me. I was recently joking around with a few of my Goodreads friends and we decided that flashbacks need to come with a trigger warning, I’m starting to think that is true. They almost never work and they did not work here. They flash back to the rocky parts of the relationship, than jump forward, than forward even more, than even more… I think. I was completely lost in the timeline and spent much of the book scratching my head. It was not until the book actually said ‘present time’ that I finally stopped being lost. On top of that there were dream sequences that confused me even more. And finally, there was a story within the story that also bothered me. The characters are writers/teachers so we get to read a story that one character wrote. The problem is that it seemed like it went on forever. I don’t like stories, made-up song lyrics, and some made-up poetry in my romance books. This is a me thing, I’m sure plenty of readers won’t mind, but I think the overall problem was that the author was trying to do way too much. Putting in flashbacks, dreams, and a written story, well it’s all a lot.

There is one small mystery, if you could call it that. One character thinks a crime might have been committed. I normally love when little mysteries are thrown in but this didn’t work for me either. The character starts to investigate it but than just stops and tells no one for what I think is months later? I could be wrong, the timeline for the whole book was so confusing but this whole ‘mystery’ thing just rubbed me the wrong way.

I hate ripping on a debut book. It does not make me feel good but I have to be honest. I didn’t even go into how I could not connect with the characters or even really understand them as a couple. This book just did not fit with my personal tastes. I think this author can write, it’s just that her style and choices are not for me.

An ARC was given to me for a review.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the title suggest this book is like a Wildfire, hard to predict where it is going next and I don't think it is all that positive in this case.

I'd say this is a second-chance romance, something I usually like, but how this is told it is hard to keep up. Several times I lost track of where we were in the story and how it all relates. At least the first half of the book is flashbacks, I think, I am not even 100% sure because the timeline is confusing. You get to read about both Mena's and Sydney's sides of why it all fell apart. After this we move on to the mains reconnecting and discovering how they got together the first time around and now again. Still I am very much lost here. We jump so much I just can't keep up. Obviously, this book is meant to be emotional, but for me, it just ends up being all over the place and not being able to connect with it.

I would have really loved to say I loved this book about female firefighters as I think there aren't enough of those out there, but I would be lying. The parts of the book I enjoyed were the fire fighting, but it's just too disjointed for me to be able to tell you what this book really is about and what emotions it should convey. I am just confused and I didn't enjoy this read. The cover is really pretty though that along with the promise of female fire fighters is why I wanted to read this one.

*ARC received in exchange for a voluntary and honest review*

[Jess Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

*ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Wildfire is a beautiful story of second chances after tragedy strikes and what you would do if you only had one more chance at making things right.

Jimena "Mena" Mendoza has had her heartbroken and after such a thing you can either lay down and let the pain overtake you or you can move on as best as you can. Mena is moving on; she is a language teacher as well as a wildland firefighter. After an accident lands her in the hospital the last person, she thought she would ever see again was Sydney but that is exactly who she sees when she opens her eyes.

Sydney Foster might have her own set of issues that causes her to pull away from her own happiness but the minute she gets the call that Mena is in the hospital she is on a plane headed towards the woman she let leave her life. Dealing with the trauma from your past can leave you with a variety of problems that will alter your present and disturb your future. After seeing Mena in the hospital Sydney knows that if she ever wants another chance with her, she will have to tackle the fears that stem from her past.

This was a beautiful story of second chance love which isn't always a hit for me. Sometimes it is too overdone, or it is the same story over and over. That is not however the case with Toni Draper's debut novel. The research she put into the characters as well as their backstories shines through on the pages and will have you aching to comfort both Mena & Syd in different ways. I look forward to seeing what other stories Toni Draper comes out with in the future because if Wildfire is any indication then we are in store for some wonderful things from her.

[Della B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wildfire. The title elicits a feeling of being out of control and all encompassing at the same time. This is not how I would describe this debut novel by Toni Draper. The story is about a second chance at love. It is a slow and methodical telling of two women who fell in love then fell apart in order to grow and become better versions of themselves. These women are both introverts who live in their heads with very little outward emotional responses to the world around them.
Jimena Mendoza is a Spanish teacher for the school year and a volunteer wildfire fighter in the hot summer months in Arizona. Dr Sydney Foster is a university professor in Maryland who is also a successful novelist. The fire fighting scenes are well written and add excitement to the novels premise. However for me that is where my interest ended. I could not find any emotional attachment to the main characters. Reading other reviews I understand I am an outlier. I just could not find a flow to the writing. It is extremely rare that I have to force myself to finish a book. Obviously this book was just not for me.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks Netgalley for a arc copy of this book for a honest review..  


Wild Fire was a 4 star read. What I liked most this story women firefighters I hardly see stories like that.  I enjoyed reading about Mena  and Sydney story. 




 


Happy Reading 📚

Lisa 

[hannah clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really loved this story from the start. It kept me honestly hooked throughout and had me glued to its pages. I love how it really focused on a woman being on the front lines as a wildland firefighter. Mena was an easy to love character and she was so inspiring. Sydney was also a great character but I honestly felt more attached to Mena.

It covered love and healing well. I feel as thought the relationship took its time and was a very natural healing and progression. I just loved Mena and Sydney. It was an honest good read and I highly recommend you add it to your shelf.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

CW: devastating forest fires, hospitalization, anxiety surrounding past trauma

Thank you to NetGalley and Interlude Press for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

After a difficult breakup, a wildland firefighter (Jimena) and university professor (Sydney) have parted ways, but neither has moved on. When a life-threatening accident reunites them over a year later, they find themselves wondering if their love has a chance of being rekindled.

I tried to like this book, and I gave up around 42%. It's not necessarily bad, but the writing style is so cringey. The author writes in third person omniscient, but doesn't focus on any one character long enough for you to get a real feel for them. It also feels like the characters think they're better than you, especially Sydney. I also felt like the author was forcing a lot - like emphasizing that one character didn't care about sexual orientation, just hard work. It felt unnecessary. The plot itself is a good idea, but the execution wasn't for me. I read that the author worked on this book, put it down for years, and then picked it back up during COVID, and you can tell. It doesn't feel recent or updated. It might be for someone else, but it wasn't for me.

[L. Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotional read with some riveting firefighting scenes. Really enjoyed the character of Mena. Solid debut from Draper. Hope to read more from her.

[Jane Shambler · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had written this book as my first published novel I would be ecstatic and doing a jig down the high street.

Now down to the serious stuff. I found the back and forth a little confusing at first but as you get deeper into the story and getting to know the characters it all slotted into place. Its also kind of interesting because you get to see all sides of the situation from different characters point of view. We all have our own experiences and challenges which form who we are and who we become. I feel the author gave us the opportunity to see all sides of the same issues and their individual struggles.

Also, it's like two mysteries rolled into one. The first being the relationship and the second being the job. I cant tell you too much or it will give it away. But when you read it it becomes a really compelling story.

Yes, I would recommend this book I really enjoyed it.

Enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

[Evren (Nonbinary Knight Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has mixed reviews and I get why it does. I had a lot of feelings about this book while reading it. Some were good, others not so much. This is Toni Draper’s debut novel and I commend Draper for writing and publishing a book. I also received an ARC of this book from the publisher in a giveaway. So, here is my honest opinion about this book.

Mena is a firefighter currently fighting a series of rapidly spreading wildfires. She gets injured while out in the field and is taken to the hospital. There a fellow firefighter contacts Sydney, her ex-girlfriend, to give her the news. The two had been together years ago and something still lingers in them. While reunited, they try and see if a relationship can be salvaged from the wreckage left years ago.

One of the things that worked the best for me was the characters. The characters felt honest and true. They didn’t seem to be too perfect or too messy. They feel into a level that made them feel realistic. I do wish there had been more exploration and time spent with the characters, but I genuinely enjoyed them and wouldn’t mind reading another book with any of these characters.

I had a small problem with the wildfire and mystery angles of this book. It just seemed like both were going to play much bigger parts in the story than they did. Also, sometimes we would cut to the firefighters, minus Mena, and that felt a bit awkward.

This book is based on the rekindling of a relationship between Mena and Sydney. The problem is, that’s also where I found most of my problems with this book to lie. This issue was bugging me so I went back and actually counted pages in order to ensure that the following information is as close to accurate as I could get it. The copy of this book I received is 186 pages long. Approximately 60 of those pages are flashbacks about Mena and Sydney’s relationship. That’s a bit much especially considering only about 15 of those pages actually feature Mena and Sydney together. Outside of the flashbacks, only roughly 30 pages have Mena and Sydney occupying the same place. At times Mena is even unconscious or other parties are present.

My biggest issue with this book is that it lacked connection between the two characters. We are told that the two characters feel deeply about each other, but there seems to be a lack of actual time spent together to help strengthen the relationship. This is especially a problem because the two are broken up at the beginning of the story and together by the end. There seemed like very little pages dedicated to the two of them working out their issues with each other and discussing where things went wrong the first time.

Toni Draper seemingly has the marks of a good author. Her writing is very beautiful, and I found that I was absolutely intrigued in the story. There just seems to be things missing in this story. If there had been an extra 50 or 100 pages dedicated to Mena and Sydney interacting, I think this book could have been wonderful.

This is a decent book to pass the time. It has some nice writing and I genuinely loved all the characters, I think Isa might be a personal favorite of mine. The problem is it felt like there was very little interaction between the two main characters and that led to the conclusion of the book not feeling earned.

~ Check out my other reviews on my Blog, Instagram, or Twitter. ~

[Bridget Macleod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wildfire is Toni Draper‘s debut novel and it is a second chance romance.

I liked reading about Mena’s job as a firefighter - I don’t think there are many books in which we get a female working in this line of duty and I found it to be both interesting and important to be talked about.

I also enjoyed seeing the support Mena received throughout the story from different people like Alex, Isa and Officer Peña, their love and acceptance made me smile.

On the other hand, I struggled to connect with Sydney and some of her actions annoyed me a little. I liked that she seeked professional help to resolve some of her issues, but at the same time I felt she wasn’t being honest with her therapist or herself and the story dragged a little because of it.

Overall, this was a fine lgbtq+ second chance romance, but it left me wanting a bit more depth in the story.

✨Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Interlude Press for an eARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.✨

Pub date: 7/27 🗓

This review will be posted on my Instagram account closer to pub date: @bm.bookish.girl

[Mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I have to admit I struggled with this one mainly because I couldn't connect with either main character and that blows because i really wanted to like this.
It's not usual we get main characters in "traditionally male jobs" and that part the author nailed it in the story but for me that was pretty much it because I didn't felt the romance was well developed or it felt too forced.
I also didn't liked the ending but I get why it ended like that.
I still can see why some people will like this even tho it was clearly not a match for me.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review

[Colleen Corgel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, I noticed a lot of folks liked this book way more than I did. I think it is a solid romance, but it does have the problem of being billed more as a second chance at love romance, with most of the action happening when the two leads re-unite. It is that - to a degree. Most of the story first half of the book is flashbacks to both Jemena's and Sydney's side of their story. It was a little confusing, seeing as it doesn't really feel like they want to reconnect, which I know they do, as opposed to not knowing how to restart their relationship. The ending is way too vague for me, mostly because it doesn't feel like the two got anywhere. I understand that it was meant to be bittersweet, and perhaps a little hopeful, but it just didn't land for me. It doesn't help that there was a small mystery thrown in to show Jemena's growth as a character, but that just felt haphazard, and the bad guy was pretty obvious from the beginning.

That said, it is obviously just packed with a ton of emotion, and there were times where I felt for these two very flawed women. They had a typical whirlwind romance, with them not really getting to know the other. And the thing that finally broke them was something that could have been discussed at the beginning but simply wasn't because they were caught up in their emotions, and because Sydney has some massive issues that she didn't know about until after Mena left. I actually didn't mind that about their relationship - usually the break up because of one partner being too in the closet is not carried out well, but this one is, because I believed they were too caught up in each other to really talk about their relationship, on top of the issues Sydney had that really wasn't aware of. I loved that about the book, but I wish the rest of their story was handled better.

This is a debut novel, which does explain some of the problems with some of the disjointed feeling of the story. I enjoyed parts of the book, and thought it was solid overall, especially as a drama, but it lost me in too many places.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Domi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to write a review about Wildfire, but I am going to rip the band aid off now. It's a debut, I think it's courageous in itself to put yourself out there. God knows I haven't done that. Unfortunately this one was not for me and I didn't finish, the writing style was not my cup of tea and the use of flashbacks was too much, causing me to lose track of things and generally not getting into the story. I'll just leave it at this, not a book I would recommend, but I see there are more positive reviews out there so if you remember it's hardly about wildfires, but more about an explanation of a breakup with lots of flashback and that would be right up your alley then please read and decide for yourself.

*** An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

[Dorothy Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

WILDFIRE, a debut novel by Toni Draper, started off great--about wildfires and the people who fight them, including WOMEN, which is an exciting thought! With the fire detail and a woman injured, I thought we were off to a good start for a great novel on a subject I was interested in and knew little about. However, before long there were fifteen (at least) subjects and issues that had been introduced in a very short period of time, and I couldn't keep up or remain interested because there was too much and too little at to take in and feel something about. Here are a few: A failed romance (a book in itself if done completely), cultural differences and teaching children of different cultural backgrounds (another story in itself), firefighters who set fires (now there's a book), fire investigators (another story), beautiful Sedona, Arizona (a lot more could have been done with this), a kayaking trip (not enough on this). There is no end. There is also a long piece in italics that is something written utilizing materials and titles from famous works of writing--hard to wade through unless you know all the references. I almost quit reading on that page. This beginning writer is talented and has much to say to us. I gave the book four stars for its promise for the future. Toni Draper needs to learn how to take her readers by the hand and lead them through the adventure she is presenting. Too often she leaves them behind by failing to develop the ideas completely and not throw too much into one book. Good start, Toni! I'll look for your next novel!

[Shannon Luchies · Rating 5 out of 5]

A year after they broke up, Sydney and Mena are drawn back together when Mena is injured while working as a firefighter. Drawn back together by tragedy, can they rekindle their relationship?

Decent read, likeable cast of characters and a believable plotline. My sole complaint is it's a bit short (Only 200 or so pages) and kind of feels like it could be fleshed out a bit more.

But if you want a entertaining but fast read, this book is for you.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interesting parts but I struggled a bit with the sequencing and continuity of the plot.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

When volunteer firefighter gets hurt in a wildfire, her friend and fellow firefighter calls her emergency contact. Only problem is her emergency contact is her ex-girlfriend. Lost time and complicated pasts comes into play add some drama.
I really like this story. It's different from most of the lesbian stories, especially since it's a big part of it is first responders.
I'd definitely recommend this look to anyone who likes first responder stories and fiction with romance.