e-Audio, 09:52:55
Narrated by: Elena Rey
Release Date: March 18, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: March 22-24, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received a free e-ALC from PRH Audio App and the publisher. I also received an ARC for free from the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Alcohol Addiction, Domestic Violence, Anxiety, PTSD, wildfires, and death
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Personal issues, Tear Jerkers, YAThe story of a girl struggling to figure out her estranged brother, a new love, and her own life just as wildfires beset her small California town—by the acclaimed author of As Many Nows as I Can Get, herself a native of Paradise, California, destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire
Seventeen-year-old Caprice wants to piece her family back together now that her older brother has returned home, even as she resents that he ever broke them apart. Just as she starts to get a new footing—falling in love for the first time, uncertainly mending her traumatized relationship with her brother, completing the app that will win her a college scholarship and a job in tech—wildfires strike Sierra, her small California town, taking from her more than she ever realized she cherished. A response to the terrifying, heartbreaking events of Paradise, California, where the author grew up, and a love story of many stripes, this is a tale that looks at what is lost and discovers what remains, and how a family can be nearly destroyed again and again, and still survive.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I knew this was going to be a hard review to write as soon as I closed this book. Although we’ve been in different situations, I still related to so much in this book. From beginning to end I was hooked.
Ok so the big thing that had me hooked was the writing style. I cried, I laughed, I cringed, I got mad, and so much more. I can tell I love a book by how much they make me “feel.” And in this one I felt everything. I really felt the terror that she did when the fire was on its way, but I also felt the empty feeling she did when the fire was out and they began looking for ways to rebuild.
The other thing I liked about this was the ways I related. If you didn’t know, I have a family member who struggles with addiction, my family has survived countless hurricanes (two of which left us with nothing, one barely left us the shell of a house), my grandmother had dementia, and I have anxiety after all of this has happened. I’m almost positive this has clouded my experience and made me feel like this was telling my story, but whatever. I loved this part of the book, even with it being hard to read.
I also loved that the author included the actual catalog of objects. It could be the librarian in me, but whatever lol I had a fun time. But the objects and their owner’s explanations were the things that made me sob. And the way the author tied everything together once it was mentioned in the catalog was also cool. It was an unexpected part of this book that was amazing. And the way they talked about some of those things were definitely memories I had as well. Like that one entry that said something like how do you put a price on some plants that you’ve been growing for 20 years? Those are things you can’t just replace. And unfortunately I related to that part too.
I read this book when there was a wild fire near me and less than a year after our last hurricane. I still felt so much pain as I was reading this. It was so good, but so hurtful. I really hope more people pick this up!
Overall, I give this
