Anna Todd’s Brightest Stars trilogy tells the contemporary love story of Karina, a young woman who “grew up military” and is living and working for the first time on her own, and Kael, a 21-year-old soldier now home after two life-altering deployments in Afghanistan. The Burning picks up from the sudden and shocking disruption of Karina and Kael’s developing romance at the end of The Falling: the attraction to one another is undeniable, yet the trust they’ve placed in each other has been broken by a concealed truth. To resolve what may be difficult, or impossible, to repair, Kael’s closed-off past — a past that unknowingly links him to Karina’s family — must be opened and reconciled. And Karina must decide whether loving someone she doesn’t want to live without is worth the pain and risk of it all.