My second Lucy Clarke book and loved it. I was quickly hooked from the first line of the prologue and a true page turner for me, I finished the book in one day. A story of four best friends who set out on the adventure of a lifetime. I enjoyed the POV's from each of the women, some of the females I related more to than others but it was nice to see the character development. The suspense and surprises along the way kept me reading. This story was definitely multi-layered with plenty of plot twists.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books (Penguin) for an early ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was my first Lucy Clarke book and I’m officially a fan! The intense suspense of this book was so much fun and I did not want to put it down. I loved the atmospheric vibe and overall just thought it was a great story. Definitely recommend!

This book was not what I expected it to be from the description, at all! I was expecting more of a one by one, and then there were none vibe. However, I did end up enjoying this book immensely and it's message of true friendship.

Such a good read! Every character was well written and I loved the suspense! Definitely did not see the ending!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an early ARC of this. Lucy Clarke writes thrillers. Usually centered around friendships and the dynamics within friend groups. Her mysteries are always multi layered and she is a queen at the twists that will make gasp out loud. The mysteries in this were slightly more far fetched. The writing was still engrossing. I enjoyed the journey. Was slightly disappointed with the ending.

Finished…. And hated it lol it’s getting a lot of 4 stars though so take my review with a grain of salt.

I just didn’t care about anything that was happening. the chapters are titled each women’s POV, however they weren’t really written like that, which was confusing. Like it would be titled “JONI” but then half the chapter was about Liz. So weird. This comes out on Thursday but idk if I’ll do a pub day review. Thanks to @netgalley for the early copy!

The Hike is a story of survival, female friendship, and everything that can go wrong when a group of women set out on an adventure that quickly turns sour. I don't read many survivalist thrillers as it's not my favorite subgenre but this one was really good and had me hooked! I felt so much tension while reading it.

The Hike by Lucy Clarke is a fast paced thriller set in the Mountains of Norway. A beautiful disaster is the perfect description of a trip that 4 best friends set out to adventure abroad for it to turn out completely different than expected. This book keeps your guessing and putting together the pieces of different story lines. Absolutley loved it!

I just finished this and WOW I’ve been in a slump and only gotten to 2 books in April, then I devoured this!!! It was so good. The anticipation,the POVs switching up, the friendship aspect, the suspicious characters and the setting. This is a 10 out of 5 star book!!! I immediately went and looked up what else the author has written and added to my TBR! If you love a good suspense/thriller with some survival stuff thrown in this is for you.

This is only my second book by Lucy Clarke and I am officially reading everything she has published & will publish. The mystery in this book is solid and twisty, but I also love that her books have more depth, and in this book, it delved deeper into friendship and the roles women have in life. It didn't feel like a book I was reading just to be entertained by a mystery, it has actual real life situations with relatable characters going through hard situations. My only complaint is some of the conflict between the characters felt slightly contrived and took me out of the story a bit, but it is still very much a good read!

I've never read a thriller set during a hike so this caught my attention and it was pretty fun! Four best friends take an annual vacation and this year they're going hiking in the mountains of Norway. It's really atmospheric and the four friends have a relationship dynamic that can get messy at times. There's also a cast of side characters in Norway who were the most intriguing part of the book for me. This was my first experience with Lucy Clarke and she seems to (in my own mind, anyway) have a reputation for writing these fast, fun thrillers for women. And this book definitely held up that reputation.

My only thing was this didn't really felt like it got going until around the 40% mark when things actually started to get kind of suspicious on this hike. Though I understand the need for introducing us to the main characters and the side characters, all of the introductory parts weren't the most compelling to read about to me. The chapters in this are really short though and it's easy to just keep reading. And I didn't connect to any of the main women enough to care about their personal drama from back home, I was really more into what was happening in Norway.

Anyways, this wasn't a favorite but I'd still recommend to anyone looking for a fun thriller. And I'd be interested to read more Lucy Clarke in the future!

Thanks to Net Galley for an ARC of “The Hike”. This is the first book I’ve read from this author. I was very pleasantly surprised! This book was exactly what I needed. A perfect blend of mystery and adventure.

“The Hike” tells the story of four women who have been friends for a long time and go on an annual trip together every year. This year, one of the friends has chosen a specific four day hike in Norway, very ambitious for this group.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers. Let’s just say that the character development and setting description makes it easy to get swept away on the hike! This was a fast read for me, and I would be interested in reading other works by this author.

I received an ARC of this book from Penguin Group via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I am adding this to my recent reads which are not really as thriller-esque as the synopsis would lead you to believe. However, this was 100% a page turner, with intense atmospheric suspense. And it just reaffirmed my desire to never ever hike or camp. Bleeding blisters on day 1? Almost drowning? Getting wet in the tent? Yes - these occurrences are terrifying enough to almost qualify as a thriller.

The author does a good job with characterization and making each woman an individual with her own story. I also have a soft spot for books about old friends, though Liz would no longer be my friend after choosing this hike instead of a pool holiday.

There were definitely twists I didn't expect, regarding the women's relationships and also the plot involving the people from the lodge.

Overall this was enjoyable and I would recommend for fans of dramatic women's fiction.

Helena, Maggie, Liz, and Joni have been friends since primary school. As adults, they make it a point to take a vacation together every year, usually lying around on a beach somewhere sipping drinks. This year Liz decides on an ambitious mountain hike in Norway. All of the women have troubles in their personal lives and each of them has misgivings about this trip as well.
As soon as they arrive at the lodge, they notice that there is something a little bit off about some of the locals and are warned that the mountain trail is known for being dangerous. They also learn that a woman who looked eerily similar to Maggie disappeared on the mountain exactly one year ago. Their hike immediately encounters problems as tempers fray and buried conflicts between the friends are brought to light. They endure arguments, storms, injuries, and a landslide on their way up the mountain but the biggest danger comes from the others who are on the mountain with them.
I enjoyed the way this story revealed several mysteries along the way instead of building up to one big revelation. The way all of the conflicts played out and were resolved was often unexpected and although you suspect that not everyone will make it out of the wilderness, the identity of the victims and villains isn't clear until the very end.
#theHike

I just finished "The Hike" by Lucy Clarke and it was a great read that sent shivers down my spine. The story follows four friends on their hiking trip in Norway, where they face death and an overwhelming feeling of being watched in a possibly supernatural place.

As someone who loves hiking and being outdoors, I can definitely relate to the feeling of being spooked/watched. The book really captured that eerie feeling and had me feeling more scared than I expected!

What I enjoyed the most about the book were the four female main characters. They were all so relatable and I found myself empathizing with different parts of each of them. The story is a great portrayal of female friendship, highlighting both the hurt and growth that can come from it. I didn’t expect this much depth from a thriller!

Overall, I would highly recommend "The Hike" to anyone who enjoys an unpredictable thriller with a creepy setting and strong female characters. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read and review this book!

3.5 Stars

I enjoyed this one! I liked the character backgrounds, thought the plot of the book was pretty good, and felt like it had a great pace! Any longer or any shorter and it wouldn't have worked.

I felt like the characters came off as pretty relatable - all were in different stages of life, but they were a group of friends that stayed together through thick and thin.

Liz - the doctor who is going through a trial separation with her husband. She's seen as the "perfect" life and has everything together.

Maggie - the single mom who loves her daughter so much but doesn't do anything for herself.

Helena - the single friend who is career oriented and has nothing to stop her.

Joni - an actual rock star who travels the world but visits her friends during her down time.

The catch? All of them have a secret that becomes know on the hike.

The twist? There's also a murderer on the mountain with them. The four friends get caught up in a secret that unravels all of their secrets, plus more.

I did figure out who the murderer was and who all was involved, so I will say that's a bit obvious. Other than that I enjoyed the book and finished it within a day!

Best friends Joni, Maggie, Liz and Helena have set out on their yearly girls trip! This year, Liz has decided that they are going to hike the Blafjell mountain in Norway. The story follows their trek and details their friendship throughout the years. The women soon realize that this mountain is more than they can handle and while it helps them to leave their personal problems at home, they soon find out that they’re not the only ones looking to escape their problems. The forest is full of secrets and their only hope is that everyone can survive the trip.

I gave this book 4/5 stars and I couldn’t put it down! I finished it in 3 hours! Highly recommend!

Thank you so much NetGalley, Penguin Group, and Lucy Clarke for allowing me to read The Hike before its release on Aug 29!

For their yearly girls trip Liz decided that this year instead of beach location they would go to the mountains of Norway to hike. Her three friends are less then enthused but decide to go for Liz. As they start hiking each women has secrets they they are dealing with and old wounds that have not healed. When they stumble upon a crime not only do they have to face each other but those that want to hide their crime.

Clarke is the master of suspense and she did it yet again with another enjoyable read. Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

Four friends, Liz, Helena, Joni and Maggie, set off to Norway for their yearly girl’s trip. It is Liz's turn to pick the trip and she decides on a slightly not so friendly hike in the Blafjell mountains. Although Liz has been given warnings of the dangers of this hike, she conceals this from the rest of the group because there is no way she is turning back, no matter what the warnings, danger or risks are.

Liz is a mother and wife who is married to her high school sweetheart. They are having relationship issues and are on a trial separation. Helena is perhaps the worse of the group. She is rude, abrasive, a whore and very jealous hearted. Maggie is a divorcee and mother of one, who clings to her only child. She is still learning the art of coparenting. Joni is the fun one, the party girl, and popular musician who occasionally binges on cocaine and alcohol.

The book was a good and quick read. I really love hiking stories and loved the fact that the author gave a fictional spin to the location of the Svelle trail and Blafiell mountain so that we could imagine without comparing. I always love to experience new hiking trails and locations, so I was pleasantly pleased with this one, and I of course I googled it 😊.

The story was told from multiple POVs which I don't think worked very well here. I also don't think the two times lines worked well either. On one hand you have the girls POV and on the other, you have the timeline of the search with Lief. The problem with the search timeline is it didn't seem to be clearly outlined whether the search was taking place during the current hike with the girls or the previous hike with Erik a year ago. I also do not feel that Helena's jealousy of Joni was ever addressed or dealt with. It seemed that Helena was given a pass and somehow Joni had to apologize and be understanding. Helena was so awful to Joni and none of the friends came to Joni’s rescue. In fact, none of the friends came to Joni's rescue when she needed them the most! I felt that when Joni was there, she was really there for her friends and would do anything for them, but no one caught Joni when she was at her most vulnerable and needed them the most. I really loved her character and felt she had the most depth which made the reader want to learn more.

For me the book died after chapter 79 and from that point it was just reading the wrap up which wasn't completely wrapped up. It fell short of addressing what happened to Knut or how he was directly involved. It also did not fully examine what happed to Erik's girlfriend on the night in question. For me the ending was not smoothly done and didn’t really feel like an ending. I kept waiting for the twist or surprise. Somehow it did not feel final.

Another flaw was the villain ‘s 🦹 storyline. Anyone running any type of illicit business has more than one bad guy on the scene; and thus, I found it incredulous to believe that we would be left with one bad guy on the mountain extracting revenge.

I also felt that if you are going to make a character a doppelganger of another, it should be explored more in-depth which this one was not. It felt more like a resemblance in passing than a topic that held any significance to the storyline. However, I did really like the ending of Maggie's story as well as Liz’s. Helena's ending story could be skipped because who cares, she’s not very likable anyway. Joni's ending story was a big flop for me, but I really loved the ending stories for Erik, Lief and Austin. I found them very realistic while on the other hand I found Vilhelm’s story ending a bit comical and less believable.

This was my first book by Lucy Clarke, and I would definitely read another book by this author. For the most part this book kept me engaged, was a quick read and kept my interest. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publishing company for allowing me to read this arc for an honest review.

I was veryyyyyy disappointed in this one 😩 after absolutely loving ONE OF THE GIRLS last year, I was really hoping this would be a hit too! sadly, it felt victim to overused tropes!!!

when four friends reunite for their yearly trip, everything feels different - and not for the reason I was expecting (aka they selected to hike up a dangerous mountain during a storm season like THAT was a good idea 🥴🥴)

and if that wasn’t a key enough example, every single one of these characters is SO stupid that I was physically rolling my eyes every chapter at something one of them did, such as leaving your packs behind with everything important in it in your tent … or … choosing to leave a cabin when there’s literally a murderer on the loose …

I think I was just so put off by the dumb actions of the characters that I felt like I was in a stereotypical horror movie instead of a mystery thriller

lucy clarke’s writing, however, is as fantastic as ever, keeping me intrigued and occupied with different POVs until the very end! sadly, the ending wasn’t enough to save the storyline and left me wondering what was the whole point

a huge thank you to netgalley and st martin’s press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 2 stars
wine pairing: alsace gewürztraminer