It’s a book you can read quickly and won’t need an entirely focused environment. If this were a movie you’d be able play it in the background and not worry about missing much. This is my type of thriller.

(Review for NetGalley)

I loved the 4 storylines that intermingled throughout the whole plot! I didn’t expect Joni to join the trip, let alone ruin and save it all in one moment!

I also didn’t expect the drug storyline but it obviously helped to keep the story moving and give the suspense of Blafjell and it’s spookiness!

I just didn’t love how long it took to get into the storyline and sometimes how the storylines had so many moving parts, it was at first hard to keep up with who was who! Especially the men of the lodge that played a huge portion of it all in the end!

If you’re looking for a quick thriller in nature; this is your read! But not too much depth!

I really wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. It was full of fluff to me. These 4 women have SO much conflict within their lives and each other. It just wasn’t for me. I would give it a 3.

“You can be anyone in the wilderness.”

The Hike is the newest thriller by Lucy Clarke and it sure delivers suspense! Set in the Norwegian wilderness, four lifelong girlfriends take a vacation together each year – alternating who picks the location. Of course, this is usually a great holiday spent relaxing on the beach with drinks, but Liz this year – a doctor going through personal issues – decides that this year’s trip will be hiking up the Svelle Trail and climbing Blafjell mountain. Unfortunately, their trip begins with news that there was a girl that looked like Maggie that went missing on this same trail last year. Then, they realize they are not the only ones on the trail, and become suspicious when they find clues that something nefarious is going on entirely. We know not everyone comes down alive – but who? And how?

Clarke knows how to write a mystery – narrated by all four lead women characters – the chapters are short and leave you quickly wanting to start the next one. Liz, Maggie, Joni and Helena were all so distinct, but well developed and fit together perfectly.

“Wild camping” is not my definition of fun – and I do not think I would join in on this girls’ weekend, but the scenery was ideal to create the requisite ominous feeling, even described here as “the other.” I would definitely be the girl getting lost in the woods, complaining about getting back to the lodge, scared about everything!

I did enjoy the central themes focusing on friendship, being true to yourself, joy following struggles, and abilities to overcome. However, I don’t particularly see four inexperienced hikers setting out on a four-day hike by themselves, or them just happening to stumble into something as potentially dangerous as they did. . . sure, makes for a good story, but may not be believable or realistic (as a fiction novel, do I care though?).

Overall, this was a thriller worth the read. You know where it’s headed but the twisty journey is suspenseful and fun. The characters make it interesting despite the fact that some of the plot is a little out there. I haven’t read a bad book by Clarke yet though that I didn’t like! I give this 3.8 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“That feeling of unease, of not being alone, that isn’t immediately explicable…”

Four women with a various secrets go on a hike in the middle of nowhere where they are placed in isolation from the rest of the world thorugh lack of phone service. What could possibly go wrong? Well someone dies. it was a quick read, told through various POV'S of each of the four women and the owner of the lodge. I enjoyed it. A solid 4 star.

Loved it!! I was so excited to read this because I fell in love with the author's books after reading Swimming at Night. The story definitely didn't disappoint. I was hooked from the start and kept wonder who dies and which girl did it!?!? Norway sounded beautiful, but climbing a mountain, hiking and camping for four days would not have been my ideal vacation. It really seemed like a bad idea. None of them had any experience and only Liz seemed fit enough for hiking. The girls made one bad judgement after another. Liz ignores all warnings and continues the camping trip, even though there's a storm approaching. Maggie gets lost in the forest after her other three friends keep walking and completely forget about her. The blisters and backpacks that are way too heavy. Almost getting killed in a mudslide. Stealing drugs!!!!! The list is endless. So many secrets. Joni was probably my least favorite of the friends. I hated what she did to Liz. Liz was probably her closest friend. There were so many twists and turns. I never expected what was really going on in the forest or who was involved. This was definitely the worst vacation ever and Liz should never be able to pick the destination again.

Definitely recommend the book. It was a great mystery/thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. Loved the characters, writing style and story. Look forward to reading more books by the author. Loved the cover of the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from PENGUIN GROUP Putnam through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Lucy is one of my most favourite authors and each of her books is wonderful.
This book which I read in one day (I just could not stop) contains lots of tension, twists, emotional and philosophical thoughts. I also like the way she describes nature.

This was such a fun, adventurous thriller!

Four women, each at different crossroads with their lives, go on a trip to hike a challenging mountain. When a woman is found dead at the bottom of the mountain, Maggie, Liz, Helena and Joni are forced to face their complicated pasts and secrets in order to stay ahead of the killer on the mountain.

This is a perfect summer popcorn thriller, but I also found myself extremely grateful I was only reading about hiking and not actually hiking! The way the multiple POVs revealed the story was perfectly paced, and the ending was totally wild!

I loved this one! The main reason for that is I really connected to the characters. They all felt fleshed out and 3 dimensional. Usually when you have a group of women in a thriller they tend to be catty, mean-spirited, and just plain unlikeable. This one still has friendship drama but it came off as authentic and they were still genuine friends. I really really enjoyed that aspect of the story. I realized part way through the book that at least one of them was likely to die and I was so worried for which one it would be. I won't tell you if I was correct or not 😉 but the fact that I cared enough about them to worry says a lot. The pacing was good, slow and steady and then fast short chapters that had me frantically flipping pages. I highly recommend you add this one to your summer tbr.

Title: The Hike
Author: Lucy Clarke

Every year, four friends, Liz, Joni, Helena and Maggie, vacation together and take turns choosing a destination. This time, it was Liz’s choice to hike the mountains of Norway instead of the typical relaxing beach vacation that they usually take. Not everyone is thrilled with this choice but they all look forward to spending time together. When they arrive, their fears become a reality when they learn that a young woman disappeared a year ago on the exact trails that they plan to hike. They are also warned about the dangers of this specific trail but they go anyway.

I thought this was a suspenseful read that held my attention throughout and kept me guessing! I loved that as I was reading this, I had a clear picture of what the mountains and their experience looked and felt like. The story is told from the points of view of each of the four friends. As the story develops, details about their friendships unfold and secrets are revealed. Meanwhile, another storyline unfolds as you learn that a body has been found. Is it one of the women or someone else and is there a killer on the loose?
I definitely recommend reading it to find out!

I want to thank @netgalley and @putnambooks for this ARC copy!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Four friends go on a hiking trip, hoping to unwind and reconnect. They find something in a cave that has bad guys chasing them and they are trapped by a mudslide. One of them also looks like a girl who disappeared, and her ex boyfriend is a creepy stalker. In this book, trust no one other than each other if you want to survive. I found the book to be good with a surprising twist at the end. You'll all wish you had friends like these although it doesn't seem that way at first. I received a free copy for my honest review.

Couldn’t put this one down! For friends on vacation, hiking a mountain in Norway. They do a trip every year. Liz picked the location this year. They all come with their own baggage and secrets. Told in alternating perspectives of each women and also from Leif, the lodge over, called out to rescue or recover a woman seen on a ledge.

Great writing, amazing suspense and full of whodunnit. So much wrapped up into this one book. Read it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Four women who are lifelong friends plan an annual vacation together with each taking a turn in selecting what the group will do. Liz has the choice this year and she picks an aggressive hike in the Norway mountains for her girlfriends who are not really the athletic type. What could go wrong?

I initially liked the story and the way the chapters alternated between the four women so that you got to know the characters, what was going on in their lives and how they fit together. Once the story shifted to the mountain hike, it became a bit far fetched that a 4 day trip to summit a mountain in winter and to return, for a group that normally did the beach was a hard sell for me. The added plot lines and running around took away from the story as a whole.

Its a fun quick read with likeable characters but not as good as the author's past novel.

The Hike is my first Lucy Clarke novel. The story follows four lifelong friends from childhood who embark on a multi-day hike in Norway. The story begins by setting up each of the four characters, Joni, a singer, Maggie, divorced with a daughter, Helena, single who may be pregnant, and Liz, who is recently separated with twin children. Each is going through their own internal struggles, but they are excited to get together for their trip. Their trip to Blafiell Mountain does not go as planned with the discovery of a female body lying at the base of the mountain. The identity of the woman and the truth about what happened add a nice mystery to the story. The thriller then begins with the four friends going through their own journeys.

The pacing is slow as the characters and their backstories are set up. I usually am on the fence with this flow as there are moments, I enjoy it as it lays a nice foundation, but, at the same time, it can come across as boring since the plot takes a bit to pull you in. As I was going into this with the thriller genre in mind, the slower build up with the characters made this read closer to women’s fiction. Once the mystery aspect begins with a possible killer on the loose plus the amazing setting of the Norwegian wilderness, this novel was more difficult to put down. The story contains multiple POVs, which was nice to get inside the head of different characters. The chapters are shorter, which is great for keeping the reader interested, but it was sometimes a little jarring to have sudden changes. Overall, this was a nice introduction to the author and a fun thriller.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Liz, Helena, Joni, and Maggie are four lifelong best friends. Each year they go away on vacation together. Their vacations are usually beach trips that involve relaxing and drinking on the beach.

This vacation is a little different. This year Liz chose to go to Norway to hike the Blafjell Mountain. This year someone doesn’t make it back alive.

The hike is intense at times and I was wondering what will happen next. There are many twists and turns throughout the book that will shock you. This is a very good suspenseful book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Lucy Clarke for the ARC of this suspenseful thriller that will have you creeped out in the best way possible.

3.5 stars

Lucy Clarke did something that I haven't felt in a long time- she created an incredibly creepy atmosphere for a perfectly creepy suspense novel. No, there is no gore or much blood at all. But the suspense kept me going.

The first half took a while to understand, listening to the dynamics of these four women who have been friends for life and really trying to understand their motivations for agreeing to this trip to the mountains with no experience hiking. That threw me for a loop, especially due to the locals warning our main characters about the dangers of this mountain. But, hey, they went anyway.

I will say the novel turned into what I wasn't expecting. Instead of just a middle-of-nowhere thriller, there were elements scattered about and plot twists that gave the book a much more interesting quality.

What I loved most about Lucy Clarke's novel is the description of the environment. Every scene was set where I could perfectly imagine the view and, admittedly, feel the terror that comes along with it. While the characters left much to be desired morally, the atmosphere and environment more than made up for those shortcomings.

Thank you NetGalley, G.P. Putnam's Sons, and Lucy Clarke for the advanced copy of The Hike in exchange for my honest review.

I unfortunately decided to DNF this one about 25% in. I was in no way connecting to any of the main characters (I found them all very genuinely unlikeable) and the story just wasn't gripping me.

I will not be reviewing this on any consumer sites aside from NetGalley as I did not finish it and don't feel that is fair.

The Hike was definitely what the young kids are calling “mid”. Not amazing, not horrible. Just kind of a middle of the road thriller. The books is slow going as it sets up some backstory. The excitement picks up once it gets going and the end if kind of wild but all in all it was decent. If you like thrillers or enjoy this author you would probably enjoy The Hike.

I’ve enjoyed Lucy Clarke’s books in the past and was excited to receive a copy of The Hike. The book did not disappoint! The story depicts a group of long-time friends, each with strikingly different personalities and lifestyles. As the plot progresses we discover secrets they have yet to share with each other. I appreciate the use of different POV’s as a plot device; it creates a relationship between the reader and the characters. I am also a big fan of unexpected twists and Clarke certainly kept me guessing as to “who” the victim on the mountain was. This is a must-read for those readers who want a twisty psychological thriller.

This is my second book by Lucy Clarke and it confirmed that I definitely enjoy her writing style. I did think the story was a little slow getting going, but once it did I couldn’t put it down. The story is told from alternating perspectives and in two timelines and I liked that we got small pieces to keep putting together to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t the most twisty ending I’ve ever had, but I liked it. Liz and her childhood friends take a vacation together every year and this year is Liz’s turn to pick. Liz decides they need to go to Norway and do a hike up a mountain to do something different and challenge themselves. Once they get going it is clear they weren’t truly prepared and this mountain hike might just be more than they bargained for.