This was one of those mysteries that, while very slow, also had so much going on at the same time. It took until about halfway through for me to really get into it. There were multiple perspectives, one being the fire itself, which was odd but unique. The ending was done well, but overall, I felt like maybe I could have skipped this one. That's not to say this was bad. It was just not for me. Maybe others will enjoy this one, and if the description piques your interest, give it a shot. Three stars because although I could have done without, this was still a well written book with a decent plot.

Thank you, Netgalley and Mulholland Books, for this ARC.

This domestic thriller is a super slow burn with an ever present ominous and lurking fear of the fire. Although Heather Chavez is one of my favorite authors, I thought this book was just so so.

🔥 F I R E F R I D A Y 🔥 featuring “What We’ll Burn Last” by Heather Chavez!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Leyna Clarke has never given up on finding her missing sister Grace. Sixteen years ago Grace disappeared with her boyfriend Adam and was never seen again.

When a teenaged girl goes missing that looks a lot like Grace, Leyna is desperate to return to the small town she fled from to get some answers. As a threatening wildfire spreads through the county, Leyna pushes to uncover the truth about her sister and see if the cases are connected!

This book is a SLOW burn domestic thriller … but at the same time the threatening wild fire adds to the desperation of the MC finding answers! The characters are unreliable and sketchy, the twists and turns creates tons of tension and the uncovering of secrets and lies puts readers in a downward spiral!

Thank you kindly to @heatherchavezauthor @mulhollandbooks @hachettebooks @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on July 23, 2024!

This book has a neat premise - it takes the California wildfires and missing persons (and the hunt for missing persons) and combines those two events into its plot.

I felt like the novel had a good mystery to its plot, but I also felt as though the book had almost too much going on at once.

Leyna returns to her home neighborhood after being gone for years. It was sixteen years ago that her older sister, Grace, and Grace's boyfriend, Adam, disappeared one night from the very same neighborhood. Leyna is drawn back to the location because of another disappearing teen, Ellie, who eerily reminds her of her long lost sister, Grace. Leyna was visited by Ellie in a restaurant where she works (hours away from her old hometown) just the day before her disappearance.

Upon returning to the subdivision, Leyna finds that not much has changed - her mother and Adam's mother still reside next door to each other, still hate each other, and are still blaming each other for their kids' disappearances that fateful night. Throw in the fact that Ellie did indeed visit this exact neighborhood right before her reported disappearance.

You encounter multiple perspectives as the clock counts down to the wildfires' approach and to finding the missing teen. You also encounter a plethora of twists and turns which will keep you glued to the enigma being presented.

Lovers of crime and mystery will enjoy this wild ride. Thank you, NetGalley and Mulholland Books, for this ARC. It drops July 23.

This book was so hard to get into, I felt like it was super slow, and it really didn’t have a hook that drew me in. It’s told through 3 POVs, but the same timelines.

There was so much drama and hate between families for understandable reasons once you know. I don’t think I really liked any of the characters…maybe the side characters. Dominic and Thea were good characters.

I think it really took me til 60% before I was fully invested in the story. At that point, the story was giving me such anxiety. I liked that the story was about the fires that California had went through. I couldn’t imagine living through that.

I think I may have just not been in the right headspace for this book. I think other people would really love this story. I like that the author didn’t leave you guessing at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me read and review this book early.

Slow

What We’ll Burn Last is a thriller centered around a missing girl and a wildfire approaching a half-completed housing development, which is eerily tied to another disappearance from the same area 16 years ago.

I went into this book expecting the pacing and action to be similar to Before She Finds Me, which I loved for the action, drama, tension, and suspense. This book is quite different--it is a slow-burn read with minimal action until the end.

The narrative revolves around three women:

Leyna, a sometimes waitress who has never given up hope that her sister Grace, who disappeared 16 years ago, is still alive. Her obsession with uncovering the truth has isolated her from everyone.
Meredith, mother to Grace and Leyna, lives a solitary life painting replicas of famous artworks in an unfinished housing development.

Olivia, the mother of Adam (Grace’s boyfriend) and Meredith’s neighbor, grapples with her hidden struggles.

All are keeping secrets about Grace and Adam’s disappearance. I didn’t like any of the characters, although Leyna is perhaps the most sympathetic.

The narrative structure is a bit choppy--perspectives will shift from the present to the past in the middle of a chapter, making it a bit confusing to remember which timeline I was in.

There are chapters also dedicated to the fire. I expected more tension and suspense from these chapters, but they were stagnant.

This was a bit of a struggle to read. It took me a week to get through it. Had it not been for the mystery surrounding Grace’s disappearance, which was intriguing and had many layers, I probably would have DNF’d. The only other element I was concerned with was whether or not Olivia’s dog, Goose, would make it out of the fire alive.

The ending is where the action, tension, and suspense finally come into play. However, the outcome fell flat. I also had some questions that were never answered.

This isn't a bad read; however, it didn't fully meet my expectations. The mystery is compelling, and while the intensity of the characters can be off-putting, it also adds a certain depth to the narrative.

Overall, this was a mixed bag that left me curious yet somewhat unsatisfied.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Mulholland Books in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a bit of a departure for the author, at least in terms of pacing. Her other books have been fast paced with lots of action to keep you turning the pages and this one was very slow with the action not happening until the very end. There were quite a few characters to keep track of at first and it did take some time for me to settle in with them, I think it’s because Olivia and Meredith were so similar in their unlikability that I had a hard time knowing who was who as the book switched back and forth a lot. Leyna was much more likable for me so her chapters were my favorite and then there were short chapters from the fire that was beginning to rage in their neighborhood that were ok. I took almost a week to get through this and that’s pretty unheard of for me but I am glad I finished because I was super curious about what happened to Grace and Adam. Overall just an ok read for me, I definitely needed more action and faster pacing.

This book had lots of suspense and who did it questions but I found myself confused at times. While eventually it all came together I had many times where my attention was lost. It jumped around a bunch. I kept reading however because I had to figure out what the heck was going on with these families. I just wished there was a bit less chaos throughout the book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the copy of What We’ll Burn Last by Heather Chavez. I loved the description of this book, but somehow the pacing was off. I had trouble really getting involved with the story because there were so many characters and I had a hard time keeping them and their stories straight. The integration of the wildfires didn’t meld with the rest of the narrative until the end, and when it did it made the book even more exciting. I loved how everything came together in the end, I just wish I had been more engaged with the characters.

Many thanks to Novel Suspects Insiders Club, Netgalley, and Hachette Book Group for this arc. I received this book in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are entirely my own.

Layla and Grace are sisters and when Grace was 16 and Layla was 12 Grace disappeared. Grace disappeared with Adam Duran the guy next door. Layla and Grace were best friends with Adam and Dominic Duran. Adam and Grace were a couple and after a big fight they disappeared. Layla believes that Adam hurt Grace and killed her, the day after she disappeared Layla confronted Adam's mother Olivia and told her that her son wasn't as innocent as she believed him to be. Even after 16 years Layla still believes her sister is alive somewhere. Then another girl who looks a lot like Grace disappears. Ellie Bryd is actually Grace's daughter and Layla's niece. Ellie was taken by Olivia because Olivia finds her in her and Richard's bedroom and believes her to be Richard's mistress. Layla and Grace's mother buried Adam in the backyard after killing him by hitting him with a mallet when he had his hands around Grace's neck. Grace and Layla reunite and save Ellie who Richard hid in a cabin after discovering what Olivia did. Grace and Layla have a stronger relationship and Layla will get to know her niece.

It took me a bit to get into this fully as there were so many characters and a back and forth timeline. Definitely a family drama with a lot of secrets and a wildfire burning out of control that forces them to all come spilling out.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
I loved Chavez’s previous book, Before she Minds Me, so I was ecstatic to get my hands on an early copy of her up-coming chilling mystery/thriller-and man, oh man….Chavez does not disappoint! This story is told from past and present, and centers around two families in California who are trying to put the puzzle pieces together on a case of a missing girl, all while a wildfire is burning out of control.
This starts off as a definite slow burn, until it picks up to a whirlwind of a rollercoaster that takes you on a thrilling ride about half way through. I really enjoyed the characters, the alternating time lines, the multiple POVs, and the mystery that leaves you trying to piece everything together one by one. This book has many different layers to it for the reader to peel apart slowly, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, as well as the cast of diverse and engaging characters that brought this story to life. Chilling secrets are slowly revealed in this thrilling mystery. Chavez’s writing and characters sucked me into this whirlwind of a story, and had me questioning everything as I wanted to put all the pieces to the puzzle together to discover the ultimate truth. I loved the twists, and the ending! BRAVO Chavez and yet another mind blowing and captivating thriller that is sure to grasp the hold of its readers and take them for the ride of their life!🙌🏻

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆:
✦Diverse characters
✦Alternating time lines and multiple POVs
✦Plenty of secrets & lies that have been tucked away and are slowly revealed
✦A book with multiple layers to it
✦A great deal of tension and suspense with plenty of mystery

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫4.5/5

Slow burn but did enjoy the ending. Struggled with relating to the characters
Thank you NetGalley for this arc

This story was more a slow burn (no pun intended). I really enjoyed the setting and the impending wildfire added a nice touch of suspense. Some of the story was predictable, but I still really enjoyed the journey. If you like family and neighborhood drama and/or fires this will be a really enjoyable one for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sixteen years ago Grace and her boyfriend disappeared. Her sister saw her one last time before she ran off. Her sister, Leyna is still obsessed with finding out what exactly happened to her. Did her boyfriend, Adam kill her? Did she kill Adam and run off? Did they run away together? What happened to Grace and Adam?

Then one day a strange young girl shows up at Leyna’s restaurant where she waits tables. She only had a brief chat with her that was suspicious and then the girl leaves. Shortly after that, Leyna discovers that same girl has disappeared just as her sister did sixteen years prior. Leyna heads back to her old neighborhood to play detective. The girl, Ellie is missing and who is she really?

Man, this story was pretty slow. Most of this is neighborhood drama and dialogue. I wished there would have been some more tension written in. I didn’t really find this all that suspenseful. Oh, but there is definitely some fire written in. I did appreciate how the author told her personal experience of a fire that affected her and her family years before and how it inspired her to write the story.

I’d like to thank Mulholland Books, NetGalley and Heather Chavez for the opportunity. All opinions are my own.
Publication date July 23, 2024
3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Posting to Instagram closer to publication date @nikkileethrillseeker

Three women - all seaking

A slow burn of a thriller (!) What We'll Burn Last centers around 3 different women: Leyna, a young woman still scarred by the disappearance of her sister 16 years prior; Olivia, the other of the man who was last associated with Leyna's sister Grace before she disappeared, and finally Meredith, mother to Leyna and Grace and somewhat estranged.

The story starts off with Leyna serving a young woman who reminds her of Grace in a restaurant. When the woman disappears, Leyna becomes obsessed once again with what happened to Grace. She returns to her hometown and takes up with Grace's boyfriend and potential killer's brother and leaves no stone unturned. But in this case, some secrets may best be kept.

As a wildfire sparks and families need to flee, Leyna comes face to face with her worst nightmare but also a chance to find out what happened to Grace. #mulhollandbooks #whatwellburnlast #heatherchavez

What We'll Burn Last is a slow burn mystery which I was sure I would fall in love with but the pacing is extremely slow, the second part picks up. It is still a good story, the characters were truly hard to like and to just grab onto which made it hard for me to root for anyone, I did not really care for any of them.

Sometimes I read a book and want to gather all the characters together and tell them: My god, you are all a bunch of weirdos. This can be a good thing (The Secret History!) or it can be a thing where all of the characters are either horrible or tedious, and I don't understand why they act the way they do to the point that it's difficult to engage in the narrative because there isn't anyone sympathetic enough for me to grab onto.

What We'll Burn Last, unfortunately, fell into the latter category. In fact, we got a few slightly odd interstitial chapters that were actually from the POV of the fire itself, which as a character at least made decisions that I found reasonable. This actually made the fire the most relatable character for me. Instead of constantly getting caught up in questions about what the hell all the other characters were even doing - why doesn't the main character get therapy? why does the mother hate her children so much? why don't the neighbors move? are they all supposed to be rich? why did the MC think it was a good idea to break into that house? what on earth was the husband thinking? - I could just be like "yes girl! burn that brush! jump the highway! do it!!! hell yeah" which made me feel bad because per the author's notes this book seemed to be a bit of a working through the trauma moment for her.

2 stars plus one guilty half-star I'll round up.

My thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

What We'll Burn Last is a mystery that shows how secrets and lies linger for years and destroy families. It unfolds slowly, so slowly that I almost gave up. I'm glad I stuck with it, the second half of the book moves at a much better pace. This is an enjoyable read for a rainy afternoon. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

This was a well-written book, but the end was a little slow. It kept me interested enough to keep reading to find out who did it and why. Decent read