After being let down by her friend at the last minute, Maisie leaves the UK & flies to Canada to hike the West Coast Trail alone. Once there she meets brother & sister Seraphina (Sera) and Ric & when it seems they have lost the money to be able to pay for their travels, Maisie impulsively offers to lend them some money. They join her on the hike & it starts off as a fun-filled experience: Sera is beautiful & Maisie is a little overawed at first but Sera seems friendly enough, whilst her brother Ric is quieter, but Maisie thinks he may be attracted to her.

As they travel on, the friendships between the three become fraught with tension & the siblings are always fighting with each other. Ric ends up leaving them, saying he'll catch up later, & Maisie is left with a sulky Sera, but worse is to come. Over two decades later, Laura is happily married & has two children & is completely unprepared for the news that the remains of a skeleton have been found on the trail, believed to be those of missing hiker, Seraphina. Laura has kept a big secret about what happened for all of these years but it looks like the truth is finally going to come out & it may possibly destroy her life.

The narrative is told in a dual timeline, Maisie back then & Laura in the present. It becomes difficult to empathise with Maisie as the story goes on as she is way too naïve & clingy. The pace is fairly brisk & it keeps the attention well, but the main issue is that it is far too obvious what the twists & reveals are going to be. I did enjoy reading though & the cover is eye-catching. I can only rate this one 3.5 stars (rounded down) due to the predictability.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Canelo, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was a bit of a slow starter for me, but once I got into it the story flowed at a good pace and held my attention till the last page was turned.

Told in dual timeline, we jump from past and present, allowing us to find out exactly what did happen on that fateful night.

All of the characters are realistic, relatable and very good at keeping secrets, but who is the killer?

It's cleverly plotted, suspenseful and has an ending that will blow your socks off and ties everything up nicely.

Many thanks to Love Books Tours for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I really liked this book. It was a little bit slow in the beginning but I’m glad I kept reading on. The story was so well written. It was everything I look for in a thriller.

Maisie travels from the UK to Canada to hike the West Coast Trail. She meets Sera and Ric, who are siblings. It starts out as a fun hike but things quickly turn dark. Fast forward 25 years later, Laura is worried when a body is found near the trail. The police suspect they are the remains of Sera. Laura is worried that her secret is about to come to light and shatter the perfect life that she has built. What will Laura do to protect her secret?

This story is told over two timelines - the present and 1999 - as well as from different perspectives. Many of the chapters ended with cliffhangers. I reduced my score by one star as I felt the storyline was slightly predictable. Overall, it is a quick and enjoyable read.

That you Canelo and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

The Hiking Trip is pretty much everything you would want in a thriller. It contains shady characters with dark pasts, an element of mystery and best of all…murder. You go through the majority of this book, assuming that you know who was murdered. Everything is not as it seems.

The characters where really solidly developed, and I enjoyed the fact that it was written both in during the present, yet also contained flashbacks. I felt like this definitely helped with the mystery element of the story, and made the eventual twist jump out from the page.

The ending definitely was not what I had anticipated, and I felt it didn’t quite fit in with the story. However, this was definitely a massively action packed read and was very fast paced.

Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller!

The trip of a lifetime ends in murder

Back in 1999 nineteen year old Maisie is about to leave the UK for a hiking trip along the West Coast Trail in Vancouver with her friend Ruth but, as usual, Ruth lets her down at the last minute, so Maisie decides to go it alone. When she arrives she meets brother and sister Seraphine and Ric, who she spends the first few days walking the trail and camping with, but things go horribly wrong when Sera goes missing, presumed murdered. Fast forward to 2019 and we meet Laura, happily married to Rob with two children, Faye and George. Life is good until she hears the words she's been dreading for all these years; 'Human remains found' and Laura's world comes crashing down around her, is her secret about to be revealed and how far will she go to protect the new life she's built?

The Hiking Trip is a dual timeline, told in the main by Maisie and Laura, alternating between 1999 and 2019, it's a great premise with some interesting, but not always pleasant, characters. This is a fast paced thriller, with short chapters, just how I like them and plenty of twists along the way, but one particular twist had me swiping back to check if I'd misread something because I was convinced, up to that point, that I knew where this was going and I was so wrong! I've been a huge fan of Blackhurst's books ever since I read her first, How I Lost You, back in 2015 and she is well known for her jaw dropping twists. If you love a thriller that will keep you second guessing throughout, then The Hiking Trip is one for you, and then go back and read her others. If real life (and The Traitors) hadn't got in the way, I'd have finished this a lot quicker than I did!

I'd like to thank Canelo and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

Happy Thriller Thursday 🖤 The Hiking Trip by @jennyblackhurstauthor is a suspenseful thriller about a hiking trip on the West Coast Trail in Canada which goes horribly wrong and ends up with a young woman missing and presumed dead. I thought I had the ending figured out, but was completely wrong 🤯

I recommend reading this book which has shocking twists, dual timelines, and multiple POVs.

Thank you @canelo_co and @netgalley for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

Laura seems to have it all. A wonderful husband, two adorable children, a delightful dog and a lovely house. But Laura isn't all she appears to be. Her life is mostly built on lies and secrets, and the past might just come back to haunt her when one of those secrets looks set to be revealed.

Human bones have been discovered on a hiking trail in Canada. They are believed to belong to a young woman called Sera, who disappeared on the trail twenty-five years ago. Laura knows all about it. After all, she was on that hiking trip all those years ago. Someone is desperate for her to tell the truth, as she should have done back then. To what lengths will Laura go to keep her family and carefully constructed life safe?

'The Hiking Trip' hooked me from the very first page. The chapters alternate between events on the fated hiking trip twenty-five years ago, and the present day where odd things start to happen in Laura's life. On the hiking trip, the reader first meets a young woman called Maisie. She has come all the way from the UK to hike the West Coast Trail in Canada. Here she meets Sera and Ric, and what was supposed to be an adventure and a fun-filled experience quickly turns into an absolute nightmare.

I must say it didn't take me long to figure out how Laura could possibly have been involved, but that didn't ruin my reading experience at all. There were still plenty of other things left to discover. 'The Hiking Trip' is full of intrigue and mystery as you try to figure out what happened to the characters on that trip. There are a few of them, though some more important than others. And some are utterly and completely toxic. So massively unlikeable that I often rolled my eyes at Maisie, not understanding how she couldn't see what I was seeing.

Obviously this is fiction. However, for some reason, my brain still prefers it when things actually make sense. I'm not entirely sure they did here. I have questions that remain unanswered, actions by characters that baffled me for which I would have liked more of an explanation. Mostly though, I feel a sense of injustice. Like maybe someone got away with something, and it just doesn't sit right with me. I'm not the author so clearly I don't know if that was intentional or even if that's the way I'm supposed to be feeling. It's all in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? All this is a roundabout way of saying that I love it when a book makes me think. Even if it means going around in circles for a few days.

With 'The Hiking Trip', Jenny Blackhurst delivers another solid and entertaining psychological thriller. Just like I've come to expect from her. The story is massively addictive, makes you question everyone and everything, and will have you glued to the pages. Very much enjoyed it and I look forward to whatever she comes up with next.

This is the second story I've read in a row centred around a hiking trip, after Lucy Clarke's The Hike. Maybe domestic thrillers are moving outdoors? Anyway, Jenny Blackhurst's new book follows two timelines: in the present day Laura, a wife and mother running her own small business, finds something she did twenty years earlier coming back to haunt her in terrifying fashion, threatening both herself and her family. And twenty years earlier, a young woman called Maisie heads off on a hiking trip in Canada, which (needless to say) doesn't end well for anybody. The connections between Laura and Maisie, however, as well as what really happened back then, take time to emerge...

It was a good read, less focused on the hike itself than on the present-day consequences as seen through Laura's eyes. While there were some good descriptions, the hike setting was perhaps a little wasted - if you're going to take your characters all the way to Canada, you might as well make the most of it.

On that note, I did find it a wee bit implausible that a naive nineteen year old British café worker with family responsibilities and not much money decides to head off to Canada on a hiking holiday. What's more, the friend who talked her into it bails (on fairly specious grounds) at the last minute, leaving Maisie to go alone. Necessary for the plot, yes, but doesn't entirely ring true... I don't know exactly how much plane tickets to Vancouver cost, but I can't imagine it's cheap.

A good read though with a good few twists, not all of which I saw coming. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This is my first Jenny Blackhurst novel and I will be reading more books by the author. Oh mayn this is a thriller that is so engaging with an unreliable narrator. The book follows Maisie leaves who leaves for a solo hike the West Coast Trail in Canada. On a chance encounter she meets siblings who she ends up helping and hiking with. However one of the two girls ends up death. And years later we meet Laura who panics at the news of a dead body . What happened on the hike? Was it Maisie or Sera ? Read it for the mystery and trust me it's awesome.

Maisie, who was suppose to go with her best friend, ends up leaving her home in the UK to solo hike the West Coast Trail in Canada. While waiting for the bus to go to her starting point, she meets siblings Sera and Ric. They instantly hit it off and end up spending the first few days together until things start to go wrong.

It’s 25 years later and a body is found on the trail. A woman, known as Laura, is panicked when she hears this news. After a few incidents she believes she is being stalked by someone was was involved in the incident.

The story is told in the present from Laura’s perspective and the past from Maisie’s. I enjoyed these dual perspectives and found that it kept me drawn to the story.

About halfway through the book I was able to predict the outcome, there were still a few things I was surprised about.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice easy thriller to read and I would recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the ARC!

The story took me a bit too fully get into. I thought I knew exactly who the killer was and the big secret, but as I kept reading I was glad there were a few twists towards the end I didn't see coming. It was an edge on the seat book which I love, and mostly wrapped it up at the end. But still wasn't the ending I wanted.

Jenny Blackhurst is a reliable author for suspensful thrillers and this was no exception. Relatable characters, evolving storyline told in dual timelines and, best of all, everything was tied up nicely at the end. Ms. Blackhurst is one of the few "buy on release" authors that never disappoints!

What an exciting read. It had me hooked right from the beginning. It’s very fast paced. Lots of twists and turns. Mix of characters thrown together hiking. The plot was very well written. Threw a curve ball I wasn’t expecting at the end. Highly recommend this book. Will be looking out for this author again

I would like to thank Canelo and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Hiking Trip’ by Jenny Blackhurst in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Maisie Goodwin has her heart set on a backpacking trip to Vancouver and when her best friend drops out she decides to go alone. She makes friends with Seraphine and her brother Ric who she walks the West Coast Trail with but something unexpected happens and Maisie has to keep a secret but she isn’t the only one. Twenty years later human remains are found near the Trail and the only other person who knows her secret is out looking for her.

‘The Hiking Trip’ is a thriller of long-hidden secrets and lies with an interesting plot that’s told by Maisie in 1999 and Laura twenty years later in 2019. The story is tense with a fair amount of drama, suspense and twists and turns that have kept me involved for a good part of the time, but about three-quarters of the way through it’s become so far-fetched that I’ve found it confusing and the final twist has made me struggle to make sense of the last chapters.

What happened on the hiking trip 25 years ago? Laura knows and she's frightened, This is a dual time line novel about Maisie's ill fated hiking trip and the discovery 25 years later of human remains, Maisie framed someone back then and now Laura is dealing with the consequences. The two time lines will hook up in a way that makes sense. I like the short chapters and the fact that each one ends with a sort of bam that entices you to keep reading. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC, A good read.

25 years old solo backpacker Maisie meets some interesting people on the trail and it ends in murder. Flash forward to present day and the man she framed is let free from prison and he’s coming for her….

Twisty and fast paced I absolutely loved reading this book and I’m very glad it’s going to be last book of 2022!

Well, this was a fun little jaunt through the woods! Blackhurst does a good job of keeping multiple POVs straight across 20 years and slowly dropping clues like breadcrumbs. I was convinced I had figured out the twist early on, only to have not gone far enough with my theory, and I appreciate that the author has a better imagination that I. Altogether a satisfactory white lady thriller and I will be adding Jenny Blackhurst to my list of go to writers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review. All options my own.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4.

My synopsis:

The Hiking Trip is a dual timeline story about Maisie in 1999, lacking independence and travelling through a trail in Canada, meeting new people and trying new things, and about Laura in 2019, who is panicked about bones having been found on the same trail Maisie had hiked several years earlier. Laura had rebuilt her life since the Canada trip and now someone is trying to unravel all her secrets.

My opinion:

This was a good crime thriller. It was full of twists - some more predicatable than others.

I found following so many different characters on the hiking trip to get a bit messy and to start, it was a bit slow and boring but by about 50%-60% in, it all flowed well and was fab.

I guess what I struggled most with in this book was the lack of character development, even though I enjoy plot driven books more so. I just didn't really care for any of the MCs, making it hard to become overly engrossed in the book. The plot was 👌 though, even if unbelievable at times - but isn't that why we love fiction?!

I'd recommend this book if you're looking for a good "popcorn thriller" as I hear it is referred to by many now 😆. However, don't go in expecting the extremely fast paced, can't put it down type.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Publication date: 12 January 2023

Hikers are on a trip. While on this trip they run into a few obstacles
Everyone that went on the hike will not return from it
Maisie and Seraphine meet on the trial. Afterwards their lives collide into the future
Will this be for the good or the bad
Someone is keeping a secret
Someone knows what happened while they were on the hike
Thank you Netgalley and Canelo books