54 pages • 1 hour read
Hannah GraceA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Wildfire is the second installment in the Maple Hills series, set at the fictional University of California, Maple Hills, which consists of Icebreaker (2022), Wildfire (2023), and Daydream (2024). While the Maple Hills series includes many characters from the university’s ice hockey team, author Hannah Grace describes it as a college series rather than a hockey series. While the Maple Hills series consists of standalone romance novels, they are all interconnected and occur in chronological order. Icebreaker occurs during a school year and ends in April, Wildfire occurs over the summer break, and Daydream begins in the fall, which marks the start of the next school year.
Icebreaker follows the romance between hockey captain Nathan Hawkins and figure skater Anastasia Allen. Anastasia hates hockey players, and the novel employs the enemies-to-lovers trope when the figure skaters are forced to share their ice rink with the hockey team after their rink gets trashed by rivals. Icebreaker introduces significant characters in the series, including Robbie, Lola, Henry, JJ, and Russ. Wildfire follows Russ, whose past romantic fling is what led to rivals trashing the hockey rink, and Aurora. The two are co-counselors at the same summer camp following the school year concluded in Icebreaker. Daydream follows the newly promoted hockey captain, Henry Turner, and Aurora’s friend, Halle, who is briefly mentioned in Wildfire, and includes the popular fake-dating trope.
Sports romance is a subsection of the contemporary romance genre, typically featured in the new adult age category. Sports romances typically follow at least one character who is a member of a highly competitive collegiate or professional sports team. In Wildfire, Russ and his friends are college hockey players and teammates. Hockey is a large part of Russ’s life and the primary element that connects him to his social group. Without hockey, Russ would not be able to afford college nor put himself out there to make friends. Sports romances often include a sports-related pressure that affects the romance between love interests or presents as one character’s internal conflict. For Russ, hockey creates an internal conflict. Playing professionally like many of his friends is not a priority for him because it would place him in the public eye and make it more difficult for him to hide his father’s gambling addiction. However, having friends who pursue professional hockey will make this difficult for him regardless.
While sports romances often feature on-page sports matches, Wildfire does not because it is set in the off-season. However, the games and challenges that the counselors lead and participate in with the Honey Acres campers reveal the competitive and athletic nature of Wildfire’s characters, from hockey players and basketball players to Aurora’s surprising dodgeball talent.