Clearly I have been sleeping on Lucy Clarke books! The Hike should be added to any Thriller lovers future TBR list! I engulfed this book is just two days because I needed answers and I needed them quick.

Four friends embark on a journey in the Norwegian wilderness but only three will emerge in the end. Cut off from civilization can be healthy for the soul but also make you extremely vulnerable to the wilderness if you are not careful. One wrong move or step could be catastrophic. Also let’s not forget to mention that everyone’s true colors are shown in their most vulnerable moments.

For someone who is afraid of heights this book sent shivers down my spine. Norway is a top destination on my bucket list but you won’t find me hiking any mountains.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam Books for this ARC! Cheers to finding a new favorite author!

Four longtime friends, Liz, Maggie, Joni and Helena, plan their annual girls’ trip. This year it will be a four day hike on the Svelle mountain range trail with camping in the wild. Preparations are made, camping supplies are purchased, outdoor training is done. However, each woman is bringing more than just a backpack on this trip. All are running away from something and the secrets they carry will affect their mountain experience. What they don’t know is that there are others with secrets, possibly life threatening ones, and they are also hiking Svelle.

The Hike is a suspenseful, fast paced thriller by best selling author Lucy Clarke. The characters are so real you feel like they could be your friends and the plot moves at breakneck speed but is realistic. The atmospheric location is well described - Clarke spent five days hiking with a backpack in the Svelle mountains for research. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and Lucy Clarke for this ARC.

The Hike by Lucy Clarke is the story of four friends, connecting on their annual girls' vacation trip. Typically they choose a relaxed, poolside adventure, but this year they set out on a strenuous hike in the Norwegian mountains. Some of the women are more excited about escaping on the trail than others. As we learn the backstory of each woman, their personal conflicts greatly affect their desire to participate or not in the hike.

This was a total popcorn thriller! Fast-paced, action-packed, full of eerie and sinister moments. The town locals placed fear and warnings into the women about what danger the mountains might hold, and kept me turning the page for “one more chapter.”

The setting of the nature scene had me (almost) reaching for my trail shoes to head out to the woods. Clark did an excellent job at describing the scene and made me feel as if I was on the hike with the women.

So why am I rating this 3 stars? To be honest, I disliked every one of the characters in the story. I had a difficult time following who was narrating between the women, and had to flip back to the chapter title multiple times to remind myself if Helena or Maggie was the focus. Joni’s character felt unrealistic to me. Avoiding spoilers here, but I just don’t believe her, believe her actions, or believe that she is the world famous musician that she was written to be. In my opinion, Liz is the worst of them. Her decision to endanger her friends on the hike would be enough for me to end a friendship with her. I couldn’t get past those actions from the beginning.

The major plot twist that arrives in the late part of the novel was unexpected but also unappreciated. Again, no spoilers, but I just don’t believe that the Norwegian mountains are the place for this plot line. Make it make sense.

This is my first novel by Lucy Clarke, and will not be my last. I think she is an entertaining author. This one just missed the mark for me.

3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A group of long-time friends created a tradition of taking turns planning a group holiday each year! This year, they are trying something new: a hiking trip in Norway. Liz, Maggie, Helena and Joni set off on a challenging 4 day hike on a mountain trail, but the journey becomes a lot more treacherous than they ever expected.

The holiday adventure soon becomes a fight for survival as things start to go wrong. Not only do they battle the forces of nature and unfamiliar terrain, they also find themselves embroiled in a sinister plot involving the town locals they once thought they could trust. Four friends started this hike, but will all of them return?

This book had me captivated from the beginning. Readers get to know the characters with multiple POV’s in the book and the predictions I had made for the route the story would take was not at all what I thought it would be! The fast paced survival story was made a lot more interesting by also adding the thrill of a chase and a mysterious foe. There were lots of twists and turns and the ending was quire unexpected and I admit that it had me a little wrecked.

This is the first book I DNF in a longtime.. maybe a year.. I just could not get through it after coming back to it a few times. The story could not keep me hooked.. I kept trying to struggle through but I just don't think it's for me.

This thriller had me guessing from just about the first page! An annual girl's trip is a tradition for Liz, Helena, Maggie and Joni, and at the start of the book Liz, Helena and Maggie set off for a four-night camping trip in Norway. The trip is going to be physically demanding, and each woman is also carrying her own emotional baggage. Before they leave, a few locals give them warnings about the journey, but they don't heed those and set off. They have to battle weather, injuries, and the other people who are also out on the trail. Will they all return safe and sound? You'll have to keep turning page after page to find out. The four women are great characters, all with flaws but all with redeeming qualities. Their interactions with one another are so believable. This book is fast paced and the prose is lean but really good. My only quibble is that there's one situation in the forest that doesn't seem to be physically possible, but other than that this is a great read.

This was my first thriller I read by Lucy Clarke, and it did not disappoint! The atmosphere, set in the middle of nowhere in the Norwegian mountains, was so perfectly eerie! I love that the prologue began with the murder and then gave alternating timelines that kept you guessing as to what actually happened. Combine that with the short chapters, secrets being kept, foreshadowing, and all the creepy lodgers that have ominous warnings, and you have a girls’ trip gone so WRONG, but so great to read!

This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! It was such a tense thriller. I could not put this book down! This page turner was so fun trying to figure out the bad guy. The setting was so descriptive! Also loved the friendships being tested and seeing the outcome.

I could not get into this book - I really wanted to like it but I enjoyed her previous thriller, ONE OF THE GIRLS. Her books are very atmospheric which is appealing but this was not grabbing me at all and too slow for my thriller-book taste.

I’m so grateful to have received an ARC for this book that I’ve been looking forward to reading. I read One of The Girls last year and enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading something else by the author. I enjoyed the book it was very easy to read and had short chapters which made it feel fast paced. I do feel like the beginning was dragged out a bit I would have liked to get in to the action a little quicker. I liked how I wasn’t able to guess the ending even if it was a kind of a let down for me which is why it lost a couple of stars. But I still really like Lucy Clarke’s writing and will definitely be reading more from her.

This was a pretty decent books. It was definitely a page turner and there were so many plot twists I didn’t see coming because they were so far fetched. But honestly I didn’t mind how crazy each plot twist was because it kept me saying wtf wtf wtf WTFFFF. but thank you Lucy Clarke for giving me a reason NOT to go on long hikes. New fear unlocked.

A thriller surrounding four best friends where everything and everything goes wrong. While the beginning was slow, about 1/3 of the way in the plot picks up - secrets are revealed, friendships are tested, everyone is suspect, and there are plenty of twists and turns to make up for a slower beginning. Lucy Clarke is great at setting the eerie scene among the Norwegian mountains, and conveyed the tension throughout the plot very well. Like some of the other reviewers, I felt the ending fell a bit flat, but overall, I enjoyed this read.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book was everything I was hoping for and more! Four lifelong friends vacation annually. This year, it is Liz’s turn to choose and she is desperately seeking something different and life changing. Rather than a usual beachside holiday, Liz opts for a physically demanding hike to an infamous mountain in Norway in hopes of a cathartic experience. Although reluctant, her friends join her but they quickly find that the trail to Blafjell Mountain is more dangerous than they anticipated. Four friends embarked on a journey and only three of them returned. I absolutely fell in love with these characters. The author did such an incredible job of giving them each their own story with their own individual twists and turns. Overall, this was a fantastic thriller!

Slow to start as we learn about each of the characters in this friend group. It did pick up a bit! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. A three star book in my opinion.

Two couples go for a hike seemingly unprepared when disaster strikes. Things are not what they seem and there are some twists and turns. I loved the natural setting and the characters were necessarily unlikable. A good read and an author I will follow.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

With her marriage in jeopardy, Liz and her husband decide on a trial separation. Looking to reset her life, Liz takes the opportunity to use this time to catch up with her closest friends on a hiking trip in Norway. But things quickly go awry, and without cell service and a malignant presence seemingly following them, Liz worries that she'll never get the chance to make it home and set her family life right.

This was a nicely paced thriller with the type of Scandinavian setting I quite enjoy. Once things start going off the rails for Liz and her friends, you're never sure what's about to happen, who the "bad guys" are, or who will survive, and the last quarter of the book flew with heart-stopping action. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to more from this author.

Special thanks to Penguin/Putnam for allowing me to read a copy of this book to review through NetGalley.

This was a good thrilling read! It made me a little nervous to go on a hike but I think that just proves the authors writing style was effective! The story started a bit slow but once it got going, I was hooked. I found myself flying through the pages to see how this hiking trip would unravel! This was my first Lucy Clarke novel, but I now understand the hype and hope to read her backlist!

Round up to 3.5 stars.

Quick, page turner that you are able t breeze through. Although this was not my favorite Clarke book, it still kept my interest even though I had a few f the surprises figured out pretty early on..

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book!

I have to say I enjoyed this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat excited to turn the page.
The beginning of the book is a bit slow while introducing each character’s and their back story but now we know who’s who and their relationship. Once they get onward to Norway 🇳🇴 it picks up and doesn’t slow down.
I really enjoyed how much conflict Lucy writes about between the 4 friends and how she transitions each chapter to their point of view, it’s flows very nicely.
This was my first book by Lucy thanks to NetGalley and I can tell you this won’t be my last.
3.5/5

Page turning thriller with a twist you don’t see coming! I really enjoyed reading this book. There were multiple plot twists I never could have anticipated and once the characters were on the mountain and hiking the story was a fast read and really great. Four friends reunite for their yearly get together. This year it happens to be hiking a mountain in Norway which is much more challenging than any of them expected. Fraught with weather, danger, and plot twists galore this is a great page turner! Five stars. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!