Ablaze

Title: Ablaze
Author: M. Liz Boyle
Series: Off the Itinerary, book 3
Major Themes: Montana, Mountain Climbing, Survival
Synopsis: Some people are telling Marlee that she is cut out to be a leader, and others are telling her she’s useless, but when disaster threatens, she learns the truth.

Young adult books are one category I often find to be annoying. Most seem to be fantasy or dystopian, and I don’t like either of those genres. Most others focus heavily on romance. Because I don’t appreciate that, either, I have not found many YA books that I really liked or could recommend. Enter…the Off the Itinerary series. While these books are not free of romance, either, the main focus is adventure. I heard a definition once of straight-up romance as being books in which, if you removed the romantic element there wouldn’t be a story left. While there is romance in Ablaze, it is definitely not the main focus.

This summer, Marlee is facing a lot of challenges. Her best friend’s mother mentioned she thought Marlee would make a good leader, but now her best friend has turned against her and is accusing her of being a horrible person and even accuses Marlee of betraying her. When Marley and her family head off to Montana for their usual summer hiking trip, she is still trying to work through this. She, her sisters, and Sawyer and Marshall participate in a program to help people learn to hike and climb mountains safely. Here, she runs into someone else who is tearing her down and saying she is a horrible leader, while at the same time, the ranger who is in charge of the group is trying to encourage Marlee that she has the potential to be a good leader. Who is she to believe?

Meanwhile, Marlee is struggling with her feelings for Marshall and trying to figure out how she really feels about him. She tries to slip back into her preferred role as a follower, while trying to make peace with the girl who seems to hate her, and then disaster breaks out. With the wildfire raging between the small group that Marlee is teaching and the rest of the group, what should Marlee do? Can she save her small group, which includes the girl who is causing trouble?

All throughout this story, Marley learns a lot about love, forgiveness, and extending grace to those who don’t deserve it. She also has a lot of adventures, and a lot of serious conversations. I was inspired by the things Marlee learned about being a leader. In one paragraph, she realized, “Sometimes leading is simply serving.… Great leaders aren’t always famous or rich. Leaders just care about their group.” Such a good point! There’s also a lot of humor; I was laughing out loud at one scene. This story explores a lot of issues that teenagers are thinking about and need to be thinking about. Friendship, love, forgiveness, unconditional love, and the choice of a life partner factor in. Though there is a fair amount of discussion about boyfriend/girlfriend issues, it is a healthy discussion and very clean. There was one time there were a few hugs between Marley and Marshall. I appreciated that there is no kissing in the whole story. Teenagers who love adventure stories, especially girls, will enjoy Ablaze as well as the rest of the Off the Itinerary series.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

WARNING: Marlee rescues her best friend from a drinking party. “Emma’s parents are divorcing….” Yikes one time.

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