I've read several books with similar plot lines. While 10 Hours To Go did have a few twists that made it stand out from the others, the story over all was not what I expected. It's a good book, just not a great one.

Wildfires terrify me but I love survival thrillers so I thought I would give this a try. The author does a great job of capturing the angst of having to ride with people you don’t really like, and then the added anxiety of the wildfires closing in, as well as the annoying ways of teenagers (the this or that game was getting on my nerves before the wildfires started). There were a lot of TSTL situations that they put themselves in mixed in with some pretty brave moves that somewhat redeemed them but holding onto past transgressions for that long and plotting revenge when you can just drop someone off and get rid of them just doesn’t make sense to me (but I’m too lazy for revenge scenarios). Not sure how accurate the wildfire scenes were (and I hope I never find out) but it made for a thrilling backdrop for a story.

This book is described as a mystery thriller. And personally, I didn't really get that vibe much at all across the scope of the book. There were definitely elements that leant that way, but for the most part I wouldn't have said it was a thriller.
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I enjoyed the plot and the characters, though the amount of times that past events and mistakes were brought up, even after everyone has forgiven each other felt a bit weird to me. It felt as though despite them saying they'd forgiven each other, they were still holding grudges.
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The ending felt kind of off to me. It felt like a bit of a let down after the excitement and the stakes of the rest of the book. Maybe that's just me though. Overall, it was a good book, and I enjoyed it, but I just wish it might've leant into the thriller aspect a bit more.
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Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC copy of this book.

2⭐️

Ugh sadly this one was a swing and a miss for me. I had really high hopes for this one and thought I would have connected more with. Being from Oregon and having friends who fled the Beachie Creek fires and survived

But right off the bat it just wasn't very believable for the characters. Why would anyone agree to a 10 hour car ride with their two bullies. Who still were completely awful to her. The amount of times I read friendemies when they are running from literal fire.

I thought the atmosphere was the best part of the book. Although confusing and disorientating at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own

This was a harder book to get through for me. The concept interested me and I was excited to jump in. The story was OK I just wasn't excited to pick it back up.

I am not the target audience for 10 Hours to Go and that could be why. I rated reflecting that

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this title.

Another nail-biting survival story from Keely Parrack. Lily just wants to get home to find out the results of her Mom's tests. but after her train was cancelled due to a wildfire, she accepts a ride from a former friend.

Natasha only agreed to drive Lily home so she could finally get revenge for the incident that ended their friendship. She brings along Elke, who was also involved in the incident 4 years ago, to help in her revenge plot.

The trip is supposed to last 10 hours, but there are delays due to the wildfire.
Natasha & Elke decide to leave the main highway, hoping to go around the delays, but instead they get lost

Now, with the wildfire closing in, the three of them must depend on each other to survive, but can Lily trust the others?

Lots of twists & surprises in this one. I will definitely be purchasing this one for my students.


Content Warnings/possible triggers - Bullying, wildfires. language, death.

Really enjoyed the book from start to finish. Author wrote this with great pace. This book is now one of my top books of the year for sure. Loved every second of this book

While I thought this book was pretty good and liked the character develop especially between Elke and Lilly I felt like it dragged a little especially in the middle. The part going through the woods felt long. I did enjoy the climax with them running from the fire and it did a good job describing the feel of the fire.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

My opinion of this book might be colored by the fact that it is not in my usual YA wheelhouse. I don't usually read suspense novels and so what I think of as "too much description" might be necessary for the genre.

We were in that forest for just too long. I understand that it served to heighten the threat both from the characters to each other and the wildfires to everything, but it just took so long to describe every tree, rock and path in addition to every flash of lightening that I wanted to skip ahead. I knew that would definitely ruin the whole suspense aspect of the book but at times I just wanted to move on and get to where something really happened. I do have to commend the author for making me really understand the power and malevolence of a wildfire. The part in the book between the forest and the emergency rendezvous area was absolutely breath taking, especially when the group was trapped in the school as the fire went over them.

The characters were well developed enough that I managed to almost universally dislike them - Lily and Elke were interesting and had some redeeming qualities but Natasha just grated on me and Darius was simply there to advance the plot.

I know that the back story of the girls' was important to their actions and to the plot but for me it was only that. What I loved about the book was really the last 25-30% when they were out of the hunt/hunted phase and moving on with the story. I would definitely recommend this book to people, but it didn't make me want to read more suspense.

Thank you Netgalley, Keely Parrack, and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced reader ebook! This book had me on the edge of my seat until the very end! A thrilling read!

Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book just fell short for me. I can't see anyone getting in a car for a road trip with girls that you didn't get a long with in school. The revenge prank they played on Lily was pretty juvenile. The premise of the book sounded amazing but I just couldn't get drawn in. I do think if I were younger that this book would have appealed to me. So I would suggest it for a younger audience. I did enjoy the authors notes at the end and how she came up with this story though.

The day had gone so well. Lily had spent it checking out her dream college, but now her transport home had vanished. Wild fires had sprung up between her and her home in California. Oregon was known for its forest fires, but Lily never imagined her train home would be cancelled because of them.

An opportunity for a ride home comes up, but it's with someone she thought she would never see again. Someone she used to love with all her heart in middle school, but who turned on her. A terrible event rose from that hurt and shunning back then. Something she has pushed down deep and would rather not remember.

Lily accepts the ride as she is worried about her mum. The hospital is going to ring her mum with some test results, and Lily would prefer her not to be alone when she receives them, just in case they're not good.

Although a little awkward and uncomfortable in the car with her old BFF Natasha all seems okay at first. As 11 year olds they were inseparable, but that changed when they were 12. Suddenly the girl who wrecked their friendship back then is also in the car. Natasha never told Lily she was picking up Elke too. Relegated to the back seat, Lily just wants to stare out the window and try not to think of that terrible time back in middle school. Only 10 hours to go.

But Natasha and Elke begin their mind games, just like back when they were 12. Subtle comments about that time and the event that ripped them apart are dropped into conversation, and Lily wishes she never accepted the ride.

Hours later, when lost in the bush alone, she worries she has been part of a sick joke in revenge for the past. Wanting to be home with her mum more than anything, she knows that even if she finds her way back to Natasha and Elke, there is still over 10 hours to go.

The smell of smoke is growing. Is the bush fire coming their way? All three girls soon find themselves deep in an Oregon forest. They're lost, it's dark, there are old traps, crevasses could be anywhere and they've lost cell coverage.

Trying to find their way out after a double prank gone wrong, they begin to work through the tensions they had at 12. One by one they admit the other pressures in their lives back then, and truths are revealed. The only problem for Lily is the more she thinks of that time, the more she remembers what she did.


A ride-share gone horrible wrong - 10 Hours to Go is a great read. I could feel the awkwardness of the past between the three teens in the beginning, and enjoyed the journey they made, both physically and mentally to work through all that old tension.

Their 10 hours to go is stretched and stretched again as one thing after another goes wrong. A prank turns into another which turns into bad decisions and then life changing ones. Misconceptions are rife, but sorted through and old secrets revealed. The worse things get in an oncoming bushfire, lost in the bush in an area where many have disappeared before, the closer the girls become. Fear sparks old squabbles now and then, but maturity works its way into their predicament.

Smoke. A strange hunter. Missing persons. Lost in a forest. All this and more test these teens to their limits. 

Age - 12+

2.5 stars rounded up.

Lots of unbelievable situations throughout the book, like for starters that a teenage girl would agree to a 10 hour car ride with a girl she hasn’t talked to in 4 years and wasn’t on good terms the last time they spoke.

Three girls, lost in the woods, almost run the car out of gas, get lost, get out of the car for no reason, encounter some scary man with a gun and they later worry if he made it out of the area alive….cheesy at times. Wasn’t good for me. All three girls were annoying or just clueless, reads not even at YA for me.

Thanks to netgalley and Sourcebooks for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

A road trip. Revenge. The threat of impending wild fires. On paper I should have loved this one, but having the focal point of the story revolve around an incident from middle school just didn’t really work for me. Even when stories are geared toward a younger audience, I still tend to be able to really enjoy them, but this time around I just didn’t connect with the characters. I have no doubt there will be plenty of people who will enjoy this one, but for me it was just okay. 2.5 stars out of 5. (Rounded up to 3) Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the chance to read and review 10 Hours to Go.

Would you get into a car with two girls who hated you in middle school? Surely they’re over you getting one of them expelled, right? Right??? In 10 Hours to Go, Lily is stranded after her college visit because an incoming fire has cancelled her train. Her ex-best friend offers her a ride home, 10 hours away. But first they have to pick up the girl whose life Lily ruined four years ago. Is the fire the only thing burning or is there a revenge plot cooking as well?
The little moments were my favorites: relatable bickering and not knowing whose side to take, Lily throwing her voice to trick Elke, two truths and a lie.
I found everything to be overdone. The nature being the villain was very similar to Keely Parrack’s other novel, Don’t Let In The Cold, except this wasn’t as well done. Theo fire never really felt like a threat for most of the book because the characters were all so nonchalant about it. The ending was very abrupt and off tone. Because of this, I gave this book a 2.75⭐️.
Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! 10 Hours to Go publishes tomorrow, February 5!

A mystery with no twists and one single plot point. It ended up DNFing this, premise sounded cool but was beaten to death.

10 Hours to Go is one of those books where the tension is so high and so well-controlled that it is borderline suffocating. The pacing was spectacular and what is a simple premise became so fraught and intense. I can see why this book is so highly anticipated.

I love a survival thriller and this one definitely kept my attention and had me flying through the pages to get to the end. The drama between these characters felt particularly immature and unrealistic (holding grudges since middle school that led to them literally risking each others’ lives and then waffling back and forth between whether they would actually make up or not). I also feel like I didn’t get full closure on a couple of plot points and story lines which makes me feel unsatisfied. Also, classic YA in that I was constantly asking “WHERE are the parents???” But even despite all that I can’t deny I was intrigued to find out what happened in the end. Not my favorite book or my most resounding recommendation but if the synopsis sounds interesting to you and you wanna dive in to high school girl drama, that’s what you’re getting here!

Lily’s way home has been canceled due to the ever growing wildfires all around her. But in a twist of fate, her mother gets her a ride home with the last person she was expecting, her ex best friend. To make things worse, the girl she got expelled from school is so tagging along. They have a not so fun ride planned for Lilly that is made ever worse because of the wildfires. Her hopes of making it home safe a slowly going up
In smoke.

Thank you to Keely Patrick and NetGalley for this eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I feel in love with the concept of this book the second I read the synopsis. I was slightly disappointed when the plans her ex friends have for her play out, and conclude, pretty quickly in the beginning of the story.

I knew going into this that 99% of the story would take place on a road trip, but unfortunately this is not a road trip I would want to take again. The best part of the plot takes place in the first 20% and kind of goes up in smoke (pun intended) pretty quickly.

Every plot point after feels forced and out of place, included just for the purpose of making the story a full length novel.

I did enjoy her writing style for the most parts and the first part was good enough for me to rate this a 3/5 star read.

Three girls- Lily, Elke, and Natasha- take off on a road trip from Oregon to California. The trip is supposed to take them 10 hours, but they're going to have to survive a series of wildfires and their own ruined friendships and self-destructive tendencies in order to make it through the trip.
The girls' history of broken friendships, misunderstandings, and old resentments now threatens their future as they race the clock and the fires to try to make it home.
Sadly, for me the story felt like it went in circles as much as the girls' journey did, and none of the three characters was likeable enough for me to really invest in their story.