Heather Chavez quickly cemented herself as an auto-read author for me after Before She Finds Me! I immediately ordered her backlist and anticipated any new work from her! When What We’ll Burn Last was announced I had to have it, and Novel suspects so graciously provided me a physical ARC! 🤩 Her writing and characters draw you in and make you feel like a part of the story. I love how we got to see inside all three of the women’s minds and know exactly what they’re thinking as we follow them through the day of the fire, hour by hour. It all builds up with so much tension as the fire closes in and the biggest question is answered, what happened to Grace and Adam all those years ago?

Overall, this one was just too slow for me. The story is told from 3 different POV's - Meredith, Olivia and Leyna. It was difficult to tell these 3 women apart since their 'voices' tended to blend together. I kept having to look at the chapter headings to know whose POV I was reading, which slowed down the story. It was also really bogged down by the chapters about the fire - they were unnecessary IMO and too distracting. There is a bit of suspense as we discover what exactly happened to Leyna's sister Grace and her boyfriend Adam 16 years ago. Although the reveal at the end wasn't jaw dropping or twisty, it was very expected. I felt like this was more of a domestic drama rather than a thriller or suspense. I had higher expectation based on the last book by Chavez which I absolutely loved.

The premise was so intriguing, and I was hoping I would love it as much as I did Before She Finds Me, but unfortunately, it was just a complete miss for me.

This slow-burn thriller centers around Leyna, who is still looking for her older sister, Grace, who vanished into thin air more than ten years ago. When a girl with a striking resemblance to Grace goes missing as well, Leyna goes home to get answers from the mother who is keeping secrets from her and the family whose son she thinks had a hand in her sister's disappearance. All this is set against the deadly California wildfires, raging and threatening to spread to Leyna's home.


What We’ll Burn Last is told from three perspectives- Leyna, Leyna's cold mother; Meredith, and Olivia, whose son Adam also went missing at the same time as Grace, who happened to be his girlfriend. The story also bounces back and forth between the present and the past. Overall, Meredith and Olivia's narratives are unnecessarily angry- instead of trying to work together to find their children, they spew insults and blame each other- and I found the shifts and storytelling very choppy. Leyna's whole life for the past sixteen years has revolved around finding her sister. Suppose the fires are a metaphor for the mystery burning underneath her childhood home. In that case, the unfinished housing development Meredith and Olivia still live in seems to be a fitting metaphor for Leyna's stunted life and Meredith and Olivia's inability to move forward in many ways.

Not much happens for two-thirds of the novel, and the last third is almost overly action-packed to make up for it. While the pacing and lack of likeable characters made it hard for me to get invested, my mind wandered, and I found myself swiping the pages; the mystery of what happened to Grace and the new missing girl kept me turning the pages. The final reveal of what happened was a total letdown. Not only was it needlessly complex and convoluted, but once I sat back to absorb it, it just didn't make any sense. The ending kept me trying to figure out how the pieces fit together—they just didn't. 😞

I want to thank Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

When I say I want a fast paced read, this is the kind of complicated thriller I'm talking about!

Sixteen years ago, teenagers Adam Duran and Grace Clarke disappeared without a trace one evening, leaving their families to grieve the loss as time passed and they weren't discovered.

Leyna, Grace's younger sister, has never given up hope that she could find her sister one day, and when a girl who looks like Grace stops by the restaurant she works at, her feelings about Grace reappear. When the girl goes missing days later, Grace is drawn back to her hometown by Adam's brother and her childhood crush Dominic.

Meredith, Leyna and Grace's mother, has always maintained that the two ran away together, and that she'd heard them talking about it for weeks leading up to their disappearance.

Olivia, Adam and Dominic's mother, has blamed the Clarkes for her son's disappearance for the last sixteen years, and Leyna's return to their neighborhood stokes all of her anger back to life.

Told in Leyna's, Meredith's and Olivia's perspective, the separate stories they all hold about Adam and Grace are slowly revealed as a wildfire threatens to burn through their neighborhood of secrets.

This thriller had me hooked from the very first chapters! The complexities of the relationships between the three POV characters had me so intrigued as to whose story was most accurate, and the tension of two families blaming each other for the loss of their children ratcheted up the suspense from the get go. Chavez's uniquely cinematic writing style is as present in this story as it was with her others, and the fiery climactic ending had me *burning* (pun intended) through the final pages.

What We'll Burn Last blends family drama, missing persons, and external conflict into a literary punch. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the main character Leyna's older sister Grace, and her boyfriend Adam, is intriguing and the atmosphere is so tense with the looming wildfire. I felt Leyna's angst, pain, and obsession throughout the story, and the drama and dislike between Grace and Adam's families was also intense. With all the internal conflict coming between the families, the secrets, the twists, and the external conflict of the fire, this story grabbed my attention until the end.

A little slow paced but I enjoyed the different perspectives and the tension of the wildfire. A good summer read.

Great fast paced thriller with several mysteries all going in. It was a race against time for Leyna to see if she could finally uncover the truth after 16 years before a wild fire threatened to burn everything she knew from her childhood. An asbolute page turner that I thoroughly enjoyed!

How well do you really know your neighbors, especially ones you hold a grudge against?

For Olivia, she knows her neighbor Meredith is hiding something specifically where her son Adam is and if they (Adam and Meredith’s daughter Grace) really disappeared together like she said. Meredith has secrets like everyone else but her secrets are for the greater good because that’s what she tells herself. Lenya has spent sixteen years wondering what happened to her sister and looks for her in every strawberry blonde women she comes across so when one day a young woman who looks exactly like her sister did when she last saw her shows up at her work, Leyna does the one thing she swore she would never do; she returned home. With Adam’s older brother and her one time boyfriend, Dominic, Leyna must be an encroaching wildfire to find the answers to secrets hidden long ago.

I love books with multiple POVs especially if it’s a book riddled with secrets the main characters wish would stay hidden. Each of the women had secrets to hide as well as answers they wanted and they each would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Thank you @mulhollandbooks @netgalley and @iamhrchavez for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

Leyna is obsessed with finding out what happened to her older sister Grace, who presumably ran away with her boyfriend Adam some years ago. She works in dead end jobs and fills her walls with evidence she's tracked down online. When a customer comes to the restaurant where she's working, Leyna is startled to see she looks just like Grace. Later, the girl is reported missing - just like Grace.

The story is told from four points of view: Leyna's, her mother Meredith's, Adam's mother Olivia's, and ... a fire. The fire is sparked in the Sierras some distance from the half-built development where Leyna grew up. As she returns home to finally discover what happened to Grace, and whether her disappearance is connected to the girl who looks like her, the fire is growing from a spark to a consuming monster.

The mystery is very much based on the complicated characters who tell it, and what each of them thinks happened between Grace and Adam, leading to their choices years later. I found the character development of Meredith especially interesting. She's not a nice person, but she's complicated in a way that intrigued me. I wasn't as convinced by Leyna's obsessiveness, and the pictures of Grace and Adam keep changing in ways that were at times a little hard to follow, but intriguing. Olivia seemed like a normal suburban mom - until we got to know her better.

Overall, I find I remember the setting and the feel of the half-finished subdivision nestled in woods that were about to burst into flames more than the plot details. Overall, an interesting read if sometimes not entirely emotionally coherent.

I'm a big fan of Heather Chavez’s books and was so excited to get my hands on What We’ll Burn Last. Since I LOVED No Bad Deed, I had high expectations for this book. I liked it! I read it quickly, anxious to see how everything would wrap up.

Three women.

When she was twelve, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works — and vanishes soon after. When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, Leyna’s childhood crush Dominic, who is also Adam’s brother, pleads with her to do the last thing she wants to do: come home.

Three secrets.

But Leyna isn’t the only one who hasn’t been able to leave that fateful night behind. Her mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home — even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns. . . and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly. Because someone in the neighborhood knows what really happened that night — and just how good the forest is at keeping its secrets.

Who will you trust?

Thank you NetGalley, Heather Chavez, and Mulholland Books for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading Before She Finds Me and having it top my favorites list for last year, I eagerly anticipated the author's next book. While I did enjoy the new release, Before She Finds Me will always remain my favorite. This is a slow burn, domestic suspense thriller that kept me flipping the pages so fast to find out the truth behind the mystery. Once the story took off, you need to hold on tight because the secrets, lies, and twists keep coming, leaving you gripping the edge of your seat. Towards the end, I had to pause to digest what I had just read, and the complicated ending left me with questions and confusion. Like, what? It didn't really make sense as to why for me. Overall, it is an entertaining read that I do recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ridgepoint Ranch was supposed to be a luxurious woodland dream for the avid golfer, but various funding problems caused the project to fizzle out - and then there were the two teenagers who went missing…

Sixteen years ago Leyna’s sister Grace disappeared with the boy down the street, Adam. The girls’ mother, Meredith, has a tense neighbor relationship with Adam’s family since no one could bear to leave the homes their children might come back to - plus there’s a lot of unanswered questions. When a young woman who looks strikingly similar to Grace shows up at Leyna’s place of work (& is then reported missing), a domino effect is triggered as a wildfire rages & answers may finally come to light…

I enjoyed all the true crime messaging board aspects of this story & the threatening Instagram account, the story made good use of the unique way the internet has influenced the way missing persons cases are discussed. I loved the little interludes about the wildfire creeping ever closer to characters in this story! This is my first time reading a book from this author, I definitely need to track down her backlist.

Thank you to NetGalley & Mulholland Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sixteen years ago, Leyna Clarke's older sister, Grace, along with Grace's boyfriend Adam, disappeared into thin air. Now, another girl has gone missing, after a haunting encounter with Leyna, and all those old feelings are brought directly to the surface. With a wildfire racing toward her hometown, Leyna is in a race against time to try and find answers. But the fire is not the only destructive force in the old neighborhood, and some secrets will do worse than burn.

This is an entertaining blend of disaster fiction blended with thriller and it mostly worked for me. I enjoyed unwrapping the mystery, but felt more exposition might have cleared a few murky places. Thank you to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for the review copy.

The premise of this book was so intriguing and I was hoping that I would absolutely love it, but unfortunately it was just a complete miss for me.

This slow (so slow) burn thriller centers around Leyna, who is still looking for her older sister, Grace, who vanished into thin air more than ten years ago. When a girl with a striking resemblance to Grace goes missing as well, Leyna goes home to get answers from the mother who is keeping secrets from her and the family whose son she thinks had a hand in her sister's disappearance. All this is set against the backdrop of the deadly California wildfires, raging and threatening to spread to Leyna's home.

The story is told from three perspectives- Leyna, Leyna's cold mother Meredith, and Olivia, whose son Adam also went missing at the same time as Grace, who happened to be his girlfriend. The story also bounces back and forth between the present and the past. Overall, Meredith and Olivia's narratives are unnecessarily angry- instead of trying to work together to find their children they just spew insults and blame each other- and I found the shifts and storytelling very choppy. Leyna's whole life for the past sixteen years has revolved around finding her sister, and if the fires are a metaphor for the mystery burning underneath her childhood home, then the unfinished housing development Meredith and Olivia still live in seems to be fitting metaphor for Leyna's stunted life and Meredith and Olivia's inability to move forward in many ways.

Not much happens for a good two-thirds of the novel and then the last third is almost overly action-packed to make up for it. While the pacing and lack of likeable characters made it hard for me to get invested, the mystery of what happened to Grace and the new missing girl is what kept me turning the pages. I won't give any spoilers except to say that the final reveal of what actually happened was a total letdown. Not only was it needlessly complex and convoluted, once I sat back to absorb it, it just didn't make any sense. The ending literally kept me up at night trying to figure out how the pieces all fit together, and simply put, they just didn't.

With so many great thriller options this summer, this is a hard pass from me. Thank you NetGalley and Mulholland Books for an advanced earc in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Grace went missing 16 years ago and her younger sister Leyna has never stopped looking for her. When Ellie, a girl who looks just Grace walks into the restaurant where Leyna works, she wonders if there is some kind of connection. Then, Ellie goes missing and Leyna begins searching for her. The search brings her back to her mother, Meredith's house and there she finds Meredith still in a feud with her neighbor Olivia, who is the mother of Grace's boyfriend Adam who also went missing at the same time. Shortly after her arrival, the nearby wildfires start to encroach on their neighborhood and the tension ratchets up as they prepare to leave.

3.5 stars.

This book was told from 3 points of view, Leyna, Meredith and Olivia. It started very slow and I didn't feel like anything very interesting aside from Ellie's disappearance happened for the first at least half of the book. Then things picked up and I was engaged and I was excited to finally learn what happened to Grace, Adam, and Ellie. But aspects of the ending didn't really make sense to me and I really couldn't follow how some of these things could have happened. I also care enough to re-read the ending to try to make sense of it. All in all, it was ok. Not my favorite from this author, but I will still read her next novel.

3 wildfire stars

This one is filled with secrets and twists—too many for this reader. I had trouble tracking everything as we learned bits and pieces along the way.

Leyna Clarke has been looking for her missing sister for a long time. Grace is likely dead, as it’s been 16 years, but Leyna would like to know what happened to her. She blames Adam, Grace’s boyfriend, who is also missing.

A mysterious stranger shows up asking questions about Adam and Grace, but now she has disappeared too. What exactly is going on in this town?

Mixed in with this story is the burgeoning wildfire that will soon complicate things for everyone.

We meet the people in both Adam and Grace’s families, and they all want the truth. Someone knows what happened that fateful night, but it’s been kept a secret this far.

I really enjoyed an earlier book by this author, “Before She Finds Me”, but this one was not as strong as that one for me. And the ending was convoluted and just didn’t resonate with me.

I love Heather Chavez!

This story is a little different than your average mystery/thriller.
You love to hate some of the characters and it’s not so hard to figure out who done what. But you will still not want to put this book down.

And who doesn’t love a little French bulldog causing a little mischief. I did feel sorry for the little bugger though.

Read this book to find out what happens.

Filled with tension and suspense! Leyna was 12 when her beloved older sister went missing and now, 16 years later, she is still haunted by this event. When a young woman, named Ellie, comes into the restaurant where she works, Leyna is triggered by how much she looks like her lost sister. That very day, Ellie also goes missing in a similar way that her sister disappeared and Leyna heads home to find out what happened to her. Meanwhile a wildfire is stirring in the Sierra Nevadas and the clock is ticking to find Ellie, solve the mystery of her missing sister, Grace, and outrun the impending wildfire.

I am a huge fan of Heather Chavez. I devoured Before She Finds Me while on vacation last summer. I thought the storyline for this one was intriguing and solid. But it just didn’t hit right for me. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and a couple of them were so similar they were difficult to differentiate. The story was told from a couple of POVs, which is usually not a problem, but in this book seemed kind of jumpy and disorganized. Nevertheless, I found myself on the edge of my seat waiting to find out where Ellie went and the wildfire terrified me. This author is an auto buy for me and I can’t wait for her next book!

Thank you Netgalley, Mulholland Books and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on July 23, 2024

For anyone that lives in California or has ever been impacted by wildfire, this book will give you chills.
The story of a long missing teenage girl as felt by her younger sister, Leyna, plays out like a domestic suspense. In the background and between chapters, a narration of how the fire starts and becomes a menacing predator of those inhabiting the highly wooded and unfinished housing development that is home to the secrets of the missing teen.
I enjoyed every aspect of this book from the devastated now grown younger sister that can't leave the memory of her big sister's disappearance alone, to the neighbor whose son also went missing the same night as the girl and the hatred that was ignited between the two families from the same tragedy.
Then another teenage girl goes missing .
All the players from years past return or meet up unwillingly in the same development when all leads point to the newly missing teen having been there just before vanishing. The problems is the fire is burning and will not be denied.

Thank you to Novel Suspects, Mulholland Books and Netgalley for an early e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are mine.

3.5 ⭐️

This was a SOLID 4 STAR read for me….until the ending. 🫤

Grace was counting down the days until she graduated: 1300, 1115, 895…softening the blow for her younger sister, Leyna.

Leyna was counting on 466 more days with her sister at home-but then Grace and her boyfriend Adam, disappeared from their Sierra Foothills neighborhood.

Now she has been without Grace for nearly 6000 days- And, she is still obsessed with the true-crime websites-still looking for a trace of her sister.

Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna is working.
Her name is Ellie Byrd.

SHE VANISHES SOON AFTER

When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, she and Adam’s brother, Dominick, become convinced that there is a connection, and they team up to investigate.

Leyna’s mother, Meredith, still lives in the family home—and down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns.

So, it isn’t hard to find either woman when the PAST comes knocking. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or to the missing girl from Sacramento.

There is a Wildfire threatening the neighborhood, and it may be even more deadly than the secrets that are about to become exposed. As the 🔥 grew closer, I grew nervous, as I have personally seen what the sky looks like when FIRE is near.

Last year’s “Before She Finds Me” was a FAST paced thriller that earned 5 stars from me. And, many early reviewers were disappointed that this book DIDN’T share that same fast pace. I didn’t mind this SLOW BURN, which is more DOMESTIC SUSPENSE-as Heather Chavez writes a lot of delicious highlight-worthy passages that just capture my fancy…

Like when Leyna finds at a neighbors house-a well worn copy of a favorite book, Agatha Christie’s -The Murder of Roger Ackroyd-and wonders if her favorite parts were also his. Or, when Olivia is visited by law enforcement who is warning residents of the threat of fire, and she muses that “the worst news always followed being asked to take a seat”.

But, what did not work for me after such a binge worthy book, was the CONVOLUTED ending. I had to read it TWICE, so I understood what happened but I still couldn’t make sense of WHY. It just didn’t work.

I remained engaged and curious throughout but, the final chapters really let me down.

At least Goose 🐶 comes out unscathed!

BE SURE to read the author’s notes about her terrifying experience with a WILDFIRE.

AND, be sure to watch for DeAnn’s review for additional thoughts! Perhaps she found the ending satisfying?

Available July 23, 2024

Thank You to Mulholland Books for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. These are my candid thoughts!