54 pages • 1 hour read
Hannah GraceWildfire
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 20-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 20 Summary: “Aurora”
Aurora becomes increasingly frustrated that she and Russ have not even kissed since their one-night stand and expresses this to Emilia. Emilia suggests that she wait until she returns to Maple Hills and “the camp goggles are gone” to initiate anything serious with Russ (198). When Aurora calls her mother later, she’s uncharacteristically distant and claims that she’s adopted a stray cat. She also mentions that Aurora’s father is spending the summer break on a yacht with Norah and Isobel.
Emilia is scheduled for nightly watch duty with Xander, leaving Aurora alone in her cabin for the oncoming thunderstorm. Ever since a bad storm set the camp’s surrounding woods on fire one summer, Aurora has been uneasy with storms. After failed attempts at distracting herself with music and a book, Aurora gives in to the urge to seek out Russ. Near his cabin, she crosses paths with Russ—who was coming to check on Aurora. They give into their attraction and kiss.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Aurora”
Aurora and Russ retreat to his cabin, where they have sex. Russ gives Aurora verbal affirmations, which give her confidence and help her avoid the usual self-consciousness she’s felt with the other men she’s slept with. Afterward, “for the first time [she] do[esn’t] expect the guy [she] just slept with to close the door and wait for [her] to leave” (215). Before falling asleep, Russ cuddles Aurora and asks if she’ll still be here when he wakes up. She promises that she will be.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Russ”
The next morning, Aurora attempts to perform oral sex on Russ, but they’re interrupted by Xander’s return. Despite Russ’s fear of breaking camp rules, he admits to liking Aurora and is “really happy last night happened” (223). Aurora returns his feelings.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Aurora”
Aurora informs Emilia of her romance with Russ. A few days later, Emilia’s scheming ensures that Aurora and Russ are stuck returning a chest of life jackets to the storage shed. In the privacy of the shed, Aurora and Russ give into their pent-up attraction. Before they get too far, Aurora is startled by the appearance of a possum. Later that evening, a camper clogs a cabin toilet, and the counselors leave Aurora and Russ to fix it. When Aurora attempts to flush the toilet, it overflows, and the entire bathroom floods with sewage. As a result, the kids are all evacuated to the main building.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Russ”
In a group meeting about the talent show, Aurora, Russ, Clay, and Maya watch Xander and Emilia fight over what act to showcase. When it becomes clear that no agreement will be reached anytime soon, Aurora dismisses Clay and Maya. Aurora goes searching for deck chairs in the equipment cupboard, and Russ follows. They become intimate in the equipment cupboard but don’t go further. They realize their luck when they exit the cupboard with chairs just as Jenna arrives.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Russ”
The Brown Bears counselors confront Russ about his 21st birthday tomorrow. When Russ doesn’t seem excited about the cake that Jenna is preparing to celebrate, Aurora jokes about taking time off to go to Las Vegas, which Russ vehemently rejects. Considering his father’s gambling addiction, which no one knows about, Las Vegas is the last place Russ ever wishes to go.
Aurora and Russ take a day trip to Meadow Springs on their day off, where they browse a bookstore in the shopping district. Aurora tells Russ about her friend Halle, who runs the book club at The Next Chapter bookstore in Maple Hills. When a bookseller asks if Aurora needs help locating a book, she claims that she and her husband are looking to open a strip club in Meadow Springs and requests business books. Afterward, Aurora and Russ eat ice cream, and she mentions her desire to someday own her own bookstore. Aurora is surprised when Russ’s vision of the future doesn’t include the NHL; he doesn’t love hockey enough to give up his privacy. Aurora admits that her father’s worldwide fame because of his involvement with a Formula 1 racing team places her in the spotlight by extension, and she can’t promise Russ or her friends complete privacy. Her admission prompts Russ to overthink their budding romance.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Russ”
The following day, Xander takes Russ out for mini golf in Meadow Springs for his birthday. When Xander asks about Russ’s sour mood, Russ admits that he’s rethinking his relationship with Aurora because of the publicity surrounding her family. Xander reminds Russ that many of his hockey teammates are going pro or plan to after college and asks if Russ would cut them out of his life. When Russ responds with a vehement “no,” he understands the point Xander is making about Aurora. Russ realizes that the issue with her isn’t her fame but the fact that he feels as though he doesn’t deserve her. Xander reassures Russ that he’s more than deserving before taking him back to Honey Acres.
While Russ has received no birthday messages from his family, Aurora surprises him with a birthday party at Honey Acres, which all his Maple Hills hockey teammates attend. Aurora gifts Russ with a birthday wish coupon, and Russ uses it to request a date with her. During the party, Aurora gets the stamp of approval from Russ’s friends.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Aurora”
The next morning, Henry has a heart-to-heart talk with Aurora. He reveals that Russ has told her more about his family situation than he has to any of his friends, excluding Henry. After Russ’s teammates leave, Xander announces to the Brown Bears counselors that he and Emilia are parting for the talent show due to irreconcilable creative differences. Aurora allows Russ to join Xander’s act.
In the evening, Aurora and Russ sneak out of camp for their date. Russ drives Aurora to an open field for a picnic beneath the stars and projects a movie onto the side of a lone derelict shack. Aurora suggests that they stay there forever instead of returning to reality next month, to which Russ replies that she’s the brightest thing in his life. Russ tells Aurora that the trashed hockey rink at the start of last year was his fault; he briefly hooked up with a girl named Leah, whose on-and-off-again boyfriend—a hockey player at the University of California, Los Angeles—trashed the Maple Hills rink as revenge. Aurora comforts Russ by assuring him that it was not his fault, as he did not know that Leah had a boyfriend.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Russ”
Russ’s words of affirmation on his date with Aurora help alleviate her insecurities, and they have sex in the truck bed under the stars.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Aurora”
The counselors split into teams for a camp basketball tournament. Russ and Clay end up on one team, while Xander, Aurora, and Emilia are on another. When Xander and Clay become hyper-competitive during the tournament, Aurora feigns an injury, and Russ offers to escort her off the court, which conveniently removes them from the game.
Chapters 20-29 Analysis
Fire symbolism reignites in the narrative as Aurora and Russ fully give into their attraction to each other. During sex, Aurora notes their “damp stomachs stick[ing] together, heat spreading across [her] skin like wildfire” (209). When Russ compares Aurora to sunlight, she vehemently denies the comparison because “if you stand in the sun for too long, you get burned” (241), and she doesn’t want to burn what she has with Russ. Alongside this ignition of fiery passion is the real risk that Aurora and Russ take the longer they continue sneaking around. Their near-miss with Jenna nearly catching them in a compromising position in the chair cupboard highlights the dangers of continuing their secret relationship and the detrimental consequences they might face if caught, illustrating the theme of Risk Versus Reward. Fire symbolism is also applied to their relationships with their parents. Russ says that “forgiving people who repeatedly let you down is like sticking your hand in a fire over and over and expecting it to not keep burning you” (174). The repeated fire metaphors foreshadow the looming conflicts surrounding their respective parents, underscoring that Russ has not yet been completely honest about his father with Aurora.
This section also explores Aurora’s and Russ’s growing confidence through the lens of their blossoming relationship. In the opening chapter of this section, Aurora decides to seek out Russ for comfort during a storm despite the “real risk he’s going to turn [her] away” (206). Russ’s own confidence is evidenced in the first time they have sex since their one-night stand, during which Aurora thinks, “It’s different from last time; he’s more confident, more sure of what to do” (209). Similarly, rather than feeling self-conscious about her body as she has with other hookups in the past, Aurora feels positive with Russ, noting that he makes her feel “beautiful and wanted” (214). Her decision to stay the full night after they have sex is further proof of her growing confidence in herself and the romance that’s brewing between her and Russ.
While the couple’s relationship is an idyllic one for much of this section, Grace uses tone and dialogue to foreshadow the inevitable chaos to come in the novel’s climactic final chapters. As Russ notes in Chapter 26, “It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the good things, since they happen so infrequently in comparison” (255). His words act as a warning that in Aurora’s and Russ’s lives, good things often don’t last. Both struggle with The Impact of Family Dynamics on Relationships due to their dysfunctional families, especially their fathers. This section hints at instability in their personal growth and romantic relationship despite their seemingly blissful romance. Russ becomes easily spooked about the publicity surrounding Aurora’s family, as the lack of privacy might publicize the truth about his father’s addiction. This anxiety is compounded by Russ’s false belief that he is undeserving of love, a common belief in romance novels that often leads characters to self-sabotage. Aurora’s statement—“I don’t want to go back to reality next month. I want to stay here with you and the dogs and throw our cell phones into the fire” (273)—suggests that she, too, is in a period of instability. She isn’t ready to face her relationship with her father, which is where many of her own destructive habits originate. The characters’ inner turmoil threatens to impede their growing romance, underscoring that despite their newfound confidence, Russ and Aurora have more obstacles to overcome before reaching their happy ending.
