Lies Like Wildfire - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Book Summary

In Gap Mountain, California, everyone knows about fire season. And no one is more vigilant than 18-year-old Hannah Warner, the sheriff’s daughter and aspiring FBI agent. That is until this summer. When Hannah and her best friends accidentally spark an enormous and deadly wildfire, their instinct is to lie to the police and the fire investigators.

But as the blaze roars through their rural town and towards Yosemite National Park, Hannah’s friends begin to crack and she finds herself going to extreme lengths to protect their secret. Because sometimes good people do bad things. And if there’s one thing people hate, it’s liars.

The book starts on a very mysterious note and then goes back 5 weeks. The five friends, the Monsters as they call themselves, inadvertently start a forest fire on a day out at Gap Lake and this very quickly spirals out of control. They know how much trouble they will be in if anyone finds out it was them so once they make sure the fire department know about it, they decide to pretend they were never there.

Throughout the book we are waiting to find out if the truth about the fire will come out, but I think the real mystery is what has happened to Violet. It seems that even though Hannah doesn’t know what happened to one of her 4 best friends, she clearly does have some suspicions!

The book definitely kept me guessing throughout, I had no idea what the outcome would be even when the main character expressed her feelings and speculations. It was quite a page turner and I read it all in 2 days. Hannah is a very interesting main character. She’s fiercely protective of her friends and I really do feel she does what she does to protect them as much as herself. She also has a huge crush on Drummer which doesn't help matters at all, particularly her objectivity.

I read this in Greece where the news was full of wild fires, both there and in so many other countries at that time. Add to that everyone having to wear masks due to the smoke, and all the talk of 'new normal' so it felt a bit too close to home for me!

The cocktail I’ve made for this book is the Flaming Dr Pepper, but it can be made as a shot, short, or long cocktail. I wasn’t able to get a good photo of the flaming cocktail so I’ve pictured it below as a long drink over ice. Despite having no Dr Pepper, it really does taste like an alcoholic version! To make my version, get a tall glass with lots of ice, add 1 shot of amaretto and then fill the glass with half coke and half beer. This does give quite a frothy drink so pour the beer gently if you don’t like too many bubbles.