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.

Amity Gaige is a new author to me, but I will look forward to checking out her other work after enjoying Heartwood so much. I loved how she took the reader deeply into the perspective of so many different characters. The journey of trying to find and rescue someone that is lost, when we are all somewhat lost ourselves was a beguiling experience. Learning the occasionally difficult life of the warden and the ‘it takes a village’ mentality of the good people along the Appalachian Trail, especially in Maine, was enlightening. I can now check the AT off my bucket list, as I it sounds a bit over my life skill pay grade. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

When Valerie goes missing from the Appalachian Trail in Maine, game warden Beverly is brought in to lead the search team. Miles away in a CT retirement community, Lena hears the story and becomes interested, investigating online clues. As the story unfolds, we see both Beverly and Lena’s points of view, interspersed with Valerie’s journal, written as letters to her mother. It’s an interesting journey as they race against time to bring Valerie home.

This was really lovely.
A story about a woman who goes missing, while hiking the Appalachian Trail, and the search to find her— broken up into multiple perspectives.
Each character had something to contribute, and all wove together by the end.
Propulsively written, impossible to put down, and I took away a little bit from each of the characters in here.

Amity Gaige has written a thrilling story about three tenacious women. It is beautifully constructed in such a way as to seamlessly pull these very different women together. One of the women Valerie, more commonly known by her trail name Sparrow, is missing on the northern most portion of the Appalachian trail. Bev is all in as the lead of the search and rescue unit deployed to find her. Lena is a wheelchair bound retiree who is dogged in finding out what happened to Sparrow through an online link she thinks may help. The story is told through multiple POVs that link seamlessly. It is a mystery because it is unknown how she got lost and if Sparrow will ever be found alive.
Sparrow refuses to give up. She must overcome multiple obstacles in order to survive. We are able to get her POV as she imagines letters to her mother as she wanders alone and afraid, but determined, through the woods. Bev is a woman ranger in a man’s world who constantly has had to prove herself again and again. In each missing person case she emotionally invested and in the case of Sparrow you can feel the strength of her desire to save the young girl. It seems almost strong enough to push the hounds forward as they follow the scent. Lena seems like the outlier, the piece that doesn’t quite fit until she beautifully falls into place.
If you liked “God of the Woods” you will love this book. It has the right balance of mystery, tension and character building. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 5 stars from me, I couldn’t put it down. Thank you Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy of this extraordinary book. This opinions are my own.

This was a fantastic book. I really enjoyed every second I spent reading it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Definitely a genre blend book which is always welcomed and refreshing. The women in this book were just so bad ass. I can always get behind strong women. It had enough suspense and mystery to keep my interest while still being invested so deeply in the characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed Gage’s Heartwood, a suspenseful story of a woman who gets lost in the wilderness. This book combines the perspectives of Valerie/Sparrow’s letters, Lt Bev (Search & Rescue), and Lena (online sleuth). I really enjoy how the story was narrated, plus the story pulls you in - at no point did the story feel boring.

.Told from many points of view that not only maintain their individual integrity, but also advance the plot without letting it get ahead of itself. Valerie has gone missing off the Appalachian Train in Maine, necessitating a search that runs into more days than feasible led by Bev, a Maine game warden on the verge of retirement. Concurrently, there is Lena, a 76-year-old resident in a Connecticut retirement home. How these stories overlap and intertwine with startling insights into their interior lives is masterful. I plan on looking up Amity Gaige's earlier works.

I really loved Sea Wife, so I was excited to pick up another novel by the author, this one centering on a woman who goes missing from the Appalachian Trail. There is a mystery element here, but it's not a fast paced twists and turns book full of red herrings. Instead it's reflective of the conflicts between mothers and daughters, connection and independence, and choosing paths where women are the minority. I read this in a weekend and liked it a lot! It feels similar in pacing and vibe to a book like Tim Johnston's The Current.

A woman is missing while hiking, and it's up to the main character to investigate and find her. But we also get a lot of insight into the main character's life and family, and we learn how she became who she is and what motivates her choices. It's interesting and grows on us.

"Like the Amish raise their barns, Mainers search for each other in the woods. It's what we do."

Oh my. I really am at a loss as to how I want to approach this review. Well, first off, I didn't just read this book: I inhaled it. This struck a chord so deeply and so purely that I was racked with chills at the end. I felt this was a beautifully-told, masterfully-constructed tale, that, on the surface, is the story of a woman lost in the Maine woods. But it's more than that. To me, this was the story of three very different, very strong women. I don't want to ruin anything; just read the book.

I'm sad that I'm finished with the story, and I will absolutely read anything the author decides to put to paper...

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

Heartwood is a wilderness suspense novel that will make you think about life, love, and relationships. Valerie Gillis, a forty-two-year-old nurse, is hiking the Appalachian Trail and vanishes almost 200 miles from her final goal. She has her journal with her and writes letters to her mother while she waits for help. Beverly is the Maine State Game Warden in charge of finding Valerie. She is tough as nails and will not give up the search until Valerie is found. Another character central to the story is Lena, a seventy-six-year-old bird watcher who lives in a retirement community in Connecticut. Lena becomes an unlikely internet sleuth for Valerie. Will they find Valerie in time?

The heart of this story is the mother-daughter relationship. The author weaves the stories in and out beautifully. I love the letters Valerie wrote to her mother. I can’t say more without giving anything away. Sometimes the pace lagged a little for me and I wished it had been a little faster. I appreciated the detail on trails, hiking, and search and rescue procedures. I loved the idea behind the name Heartwood. This is a special book and I look forward to reading more from this author. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing this book for review consideration via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

"Heartwood" presents a distinctive approach to the suspense genre. The story centers around Valerie Gillis, a 42-year-old hiker who mysteriously vanishes while trekking the Appalachian Trail in Maine. As she navigates her way back, Valerie shares her innermost thoughts through poignant letters addressed to her mother. Meanwhile, Beverly, a dedicated game warden, spearheads the search efforts for Valerie. Additionally, Lena, an elderly birdwatcher residing in a Connecticut retirement community, takes on the role of an amateur detective. The narrative unfolds through the varied perspectives of these three women, creating a compelling and engaging experience. The suspense builds as readers are left questioning whether Valerie will be located in time, making it a thrilling addition to any reading list.

I was afraid this would be a rip of Cheryl Strayed — wow was I wrong! This tale of the deep wild woods of Maine had me captivated and enthralled. The language magic Amity Gaige used created characters and descriptions of such depth and truth. I have hiked in some beautiful places but nowhere as challenging as the AT. I am familiar with all the areas evoked so beautifully and that enriched my experience immensely. But the most wonderful thing about this book is how character driven it is. Very very highly recommended you will not want to eat or sleep till you’re done!