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. 

(Thanks to Net Galley and Source Books Fire for the ARC)

Author – Keely Parrack

Age – 13+

(2024, Source Books Fire, Penguin NZ, Action, Adventure, Conflict, Courage, Growing up, Revenge, School, Secret, Ex-friends, Ride-share, Ride Home, College Visit, Oregon, Forest Fires, Bushfire, Lost in the bush, Past friendship, Middle School, Camp fire, Tension)