fantastic, well written thriller about the woods and drama and all that thats really well written! i loved the characters and the setup. 5 stars. tysm for te arc.

Valerie is a nruse who decides to hike the Appalachian Trail to recover from caring for patients during the pandemic.
When she misses a check in with her husband, Beverly, a Maine state Game Warden, oversees the search and
rescue operation. Interviews with AT hikers and family members provide more information about Valerie while
her journal to her mother details what happened. Bev deals with the lack of progress made while pushung
aside dealing with her mother's situation. Lena, a resident at a nursing home, may have information that will help
locate Valerie. Multiple POVs add to the story.
#Heartwood #Simon&Schuster #NetGalley

I loved this book! Beautiful prose, humor, unique characters- excellent! Wonderful commentary
on mother-daughter relationships without being sappy or cliche. I would strongly recommend
this book and look forward to more work novels from Amity Gaige.

I really enjoyed this book. I will not rehash the storyline as that can be found in many other places.

The characters are so well developed, somewhat quirky and quite memorable. The author did a great job of integrating the elements of the wilderness with the wildly contradictory personalities. There is a bit of suspense as well as the themes of redemption and finding your way in the world.

Put it on your TBR list for April 2025.

Thank you to Nagalli and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

A story told by three women. One is a hiker who gets lost on the Appalachian Trail. One is the head of the search team scouring hundreds of acres to find her. And one is an elderly woman who lives in an assisted living facility. The story alternates from character to character and we find out how their lives intersect. A realistic feel to being lost in a huge forest and having to depend on your smarts to keep going while people are out there looking for you.

Thanks for the ARC Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley!! I'm a big hiker and was immediately sucked into the world of this book. I couldn't put it down. I've often dreamed of having the time to hike the PCT or Appalachian, and despite the events of this book, it still sounds amazing to me. I have a friend who grew up and was a forest ranger in the parts of Maine where this takes place and was talking with him about it, and it really seems like Amity Gaige did the research on this. Great story, and a fun suspenseful read!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A woman hiking the Appalachian Trail goes missing, and the community searches for her. The main storylines are the missing hiker and the lead warden,also a woman. The terrain in Maine is harsh and the conditions are brutal.

Heartwood is an interesting but also somewhat odd book, especially the Reddit conspiracy threads discussion. The overarching story is the search for a missing Appalachian Trail hiker, Valerie Gillis, in the woods of Maine, a search which proves frustratingly difficult. However, it is also a story about mothers and daughters, as the main characters— Valerie, Bev (the Maine game warden leading the search), and Lena (a retiree whose connection to the search is a strange one) — think about their mothers and/or daughters and their relationships. They also think about their place in the world, as none of the women really “fit in” in a conventional sense.

I enjoyed the discussion of hiking the Appalachian Trail and the discussion of foraging, especially how much nature has to offer if we care to look closely enough. Some of the best parts of the book are the interviews with Santo, a fellow Appalachian Trail hiker who is definitely not the stereotypical hiker, and who formed a bond with Valerie (Sparrow) during the time they hiked together.

4.5 ⭐️ Literary, atmospheric, and beautiful! This is a slow burn character driven mystery told from three different perspectives. Valerie is a 42 year old nurse who goes missing while hiking the Appalachian trail. She tells her part of the story through poetic journal entries to her mother. The second perspective is the search and rescue mission as told by Lt Bev, the Maine game warden. Intermingled with these story lines is Lena, a 76 year old woman in a retirement home who is following the search mission as she grapples with her own fraught relationship with her daughter. I loved the writing, which is poetic but also very accessible, the setting, and the exploration of the mother- daughter relationships. While the underlying focus involves finding the missing hiker, this is not a thriller but a literary mystery and a reflection on the characters connections with others and their place in the world. The story is still very propulsive and hard to put down. Overall I highly recommend this for those who enjoy more character driven, literary mysteries.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Absolutely loved it! This story evoked a multitude of emotions for me – wonder, appreciation, respect, admiration, despair, anxiety, exhaustion, hope. I was riveted to the plot, couldn’t wait to discover the outcome and raced through the pages. Then I’d stop and reread passages where the flora and fauna were so vivid I could smell them. I felt as if I was in that forest. In an earlier life I did my share of hiking and mountain climbing. I’ve never considered any sort of trek or race, certainly not anything like the Appalachian Trail as Valerie does. Now she’s hopelessly lost in the Woods of Maine. An entire team led by Beverly of the State Game Warden and many volunteers are going to spend exhausting days to find Valerie. I know we’re all tired of Covid stories. Don’t let that deter you from reading this. I appreciated a realistic viewpoint from Valerie as a nurse. It was relevant to the story as were her letters to her mother. I also truly enjoyed Lena’s character and how she was woven into the plot. Her life and acquaintances at her assisted living center were touching to read about. The plot has several focal points including complicated mother/daughter relationships. This was a tense and suspense filled, edge of your seat, impactful story. One of my favorites this year. This was beautifully written novel from an author new to me. Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster (via NetGalley) and the author, Amity Gaige, for providing an Advance Reader Copy of “Heartwood”. Publication expected 04/01/2025. These are my honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

3.5 rounded up. I was expecting more of a hiking adventure story. That said, the book held my interest and I could not put it down.

This book surprised me. It had deep, original, interesting characters, even the minor ones came to life. It was a story of a search for a missing woman but it was also a search for meaning, for love, for relationships between mothers and daughters. Moving, insightful, it brought me to tears a few times and full of truth. I loved it.

3.5⭐️ I like wilderness survival/thrillers and enjoyed most of this book except one character/plot element that I don’t want to give away. I very much liked Lt Bev and the aspects of the story that focused more on the search/hike.

“A riveting wilderness suspense novel—a gripping journey—a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine”.

Imagine….
“Like a lot of people, you’d always wanted to hike the legendary Appalachian Trail. Since taking the plunge, you have hiked through mud, water, pain, and heat. Maine is even harder than you heard it would be. One difference is the density of the woods. Walls of vegetation hem you in on both sides.
In the past, when the trail got hilly and punishing, you stared at your boots, willing yourself forward one step at a time. But now, you raise your head. You pause. Somehow, for some reason, you step off the path”.

Valerie Gillis is forty-two years old. She has vanished two hundred miles from her final destination. She’s alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the experienced-determined Maine State Game Warden.
She is tasked with finding Valerie (*Sparrow* is Valerie’s hiking nickname).
Beverly will eventually concede that finding Valerie/Sparrow ….. is a different beast — a whole new ball game in finding a missing person.

Lena Kucharski is a seventy-two year old birdwatcher. She lives in a Connecticut retirement community. She becomes an unexpected armchair, detective.

We will be introduced to many other supporting characters that round out the investigation of the story.

“Here’s what we know. On the morning of Monday, July 25, Valerie Gillis awoke early at Poplar Ridge shelter, said her goodbye to two female southbound hikers with whom she bonded the night before, and continued her journey north. She had a cell phone and appropriate gear and supplies, and was in a fine mood. There’s no cell service on that stretch of the
trail, but her husband was set to pick her up for resupply at a trailhead the following day.
She was almost done with the northern portion of her hike. She smiled for a snapshot just as she turned to leave. Then she vanished”.

Valerie/Sparrow …. writing in her journal:
“I never really minded being a small person. Of course, my statue greatly influenced my life. I was teased a lot, mostly affectionately. Treated as a toy. Shrimpy, Low Pockets, Tinker Bell. I used to cry about it. But every kid was teased for one thing or another.
“Small women have to be nice. Not just because we need the occasional assistance and reaching things, but also because we sense the inherent dangers of being easily lifted—well, seized”.
“But now. Now, I would do anything to be visible. To be large”.
“I WANT TO BE SEEN”.

There is still a lot more. We don’t know as we turn the pages.
The storytelling is told from several points of view. I found it all very and grossing.

I’ve been hiking most of my adult life. Sometimes hiking more than 50 miles a week. I’m slowing down now at age 72 and sometimes have to manage injuries that come and go. But the first time I ever got lost on a trail was ‘this’ year.
I tell ya — it was scary! It was uncomfortable!

This book is beautiful. It’s not only a missing person story -it’s not only suspense - the writing highlights literary and atmospheric brilliance.
I felt the discomforts - the fears - varying emotions.
And…. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Heartwood is a genre blending story of a woman who goes missing on the Appalachian Trail. Valerie Gillis vanishes 200 miles from her end point, excruciatingly close to the culmination of her goal. Valerie is a forty two year old nurse who has taken a leave of absence from work to hike, a very surprising choice as she has no background in hiking or camping.

Bev is a seasoned Maine game warden who is tasked with the search for Valerie. After decades of service, Bev is approaching retirement and reflecting on her career as one of the only female wardens and on her choices to isolate herself from relationships. Meanwhile, we also read from the perspective of Lena, a resident at a retirement home who is an avid bird watcher and armchair detective.

Told from the perspectives of these three women, Heartwood also integrates mixed media and does not use traditional chapter organization. I found this interesting but also unevenly executed in relation to the pacing of the story. Overall I thought the exploration of motherhood and estrangement themes were surface level at best. I kept reading to find out what happened to Valerie, but this isn't a story I'd return to or strongly recommend.

I *loved* Amity Gaige’s Sea Wife and I was so excited to read her new one…I’m happy to report it did not disappoint! I love a good mystery/thriller, and when those elements are combined with gorgeous writing, of course that’s even better. Heartwood is centered around a mid-life woman who decides to hike the Appalachian Trail and goes missing, kicking off an exhaustive searched helmed by a veteran Maine State Game Warden (one of first women to hold the role). These characters make up two of the POVs through which the story is told, along with an elderly woman who happens upon some very relevant information when she strikes up an online friendship with a young man who’s *not* who he seems to be. I’ll leave that where it is and finish by saying this novel is perfect for fans of Liz Moore’s God of the Woods and Angie Kim’s Happiness Falls. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my review copy!

“Heartwood” is an atmospheric story of Valerie who gets lost while hiking the Appalachian Trail. It is told in multiple POV’s so you can easily get absorbed in the how’s and why’s of searching rugged terrain with zero clues.

After working as a nurse during the pandemic, Valerie feels like she lost a part of herself and wanted to be alone to figure some things out. Her choice to hike the AT brought her many of the answers she was seeking, but also brought an unexpected darkness that she had to fight through.

I loved the descriptions of the Appalachian Trail, the highs and lows of the hikes and how hard the Search and Rescue teams work to find lost hikers. The story is written beautifully and the plot is unique. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader copy.

I have never read a book by Amity Gaige before but am wanting to read her backlist after reading her latest, “Heartwood.”

I really enjoyed this one and didn’t want to put it down! It is told from a variety of formats including interviews, journal entries, and various POV. I kept wanting to read with so much variety between chapters.

The plot was really interesting to me and I enjoyed the characters. I felt like they were well developed and I was rooting for them all! I love how the story was intertwined and slowly showed the reader how they were connected. There is a connecting theme of mothers and daughters that was explored in each of the characters and I found that interesting as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

This is a tender-hearted thriller, semi-reminiscent of “God of the Woods”— changing perspectives, intertwining lives that center around a disappearance. Enjoyable read.

What a twisty, atmospheric read! I LOVED the setting and the different POVs throughout. Highly, highly recommend.