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Pub Date Mar 05 2025 | Archive Date Mar 04 2025
Simon & Schuster (Australia) | Simon & Schuster Australia

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Description

A young woman stuck in a rut is dragged by her grieving grandmother to hike the Inca Trail – but can a holiday heal heartbreak, or will longtime secrets tear them apart? A heartwarming novel from the acclaimed author of Someone Else's Bucket List .
 
Heather Russo is miserable – work is non-stop, her love life is in tatters and she's in a total rut. But Heather's not the only struggling woman in her family. Her mother, Sandy, is finally separating from Heather's womanizing father, while her grandmother, Bonnie, is grieving her third husband by carrying his urn everywhere she goes… even the supermarket. She's had enough of wallowing, though, and plans a surprise girls' trip: they're going to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!
 
Heather is a reluctant hiker – until she meets charming Owen on the trail and things start to get interesting. But, of course, that's when Bonnie decides to share some long-held secrets that just might send Heather and Sandy over the edge. Will they even make it to the summit?
 
With every twist on the trail, Heather learns more about her family – and herself – than she anticipated. And as her time with Owen becomes precious, she's forced to reconsider what she really wants for her future.
A young woman stuck in a rut is dragged by her grieving grandmother to hike the Inca Trail – but can a holiday heal heartbreak, or will longtime secrets tear them apart? A heartwarming novel from the...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781761425059
PRICE A$32.99 (AUD)
PAGES 336

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Average rating from 3 members


Featured Reviews

The characters especially the protagonist is highly relatable through her struggles and dealing with family and death. It's another emotionally charged story that is a timely reminder to enjoy life. While the background of the story is sad the forefront is fun and engaging.

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I think this is a major contender for my top read of 2024, surprisingly since it has to compete with every book I've read so far and it's currently the end of November.
Amy T. Matthews does an incredible job of capturing the differing perspectives of our three generations of women and gives them each a complex personality that has it's own strengths and flaws. These women love each other deeply but aren't without their arguments and secrets, which slowly unfold as they tackle a trek up to Macchu Picchu. At the same time as they physically tackle their hike, they are also battling their own inner struggles with grief, and the highs and lows of both familial and romantic relationships.

Through this book we mostly follow the perspective of Heather, the youngest of our three characters. I found her extremely relatable as a current day woman who acknowledges mental health and the impacts our upraising has on our own habits and relationships.
Her mother Sandra is one of our other main characters though tends to take a backseat in terms of perspective shift, we only see things from her POV once (if I recall correctly) and her role tends to be as a bridge between her daughter and mother and as a source of conflict due to the current state of her affairs. We often reference Sandra in relation to how others see her and reflect on her current situation, rather than actually hearing it from her and really getting to know her character. This wasn't a down fall in my opinion though as I was more interested in Heather and Bonnie's story arcs.
Bonnie is the other character we follow in this book and I was absolutely enthralled with her chapters. Matthew's has captured such a range of characters in what feels like such an authentic way, and reading Bon's perspective really felt like chatting to my grandmother and hearing stories of her life.
I don't want to go too far into the plot to avoid spoilers but this book just made me feel so strongly and I really enjoyed every moment reading it.

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