Ah, I'm really disheartened about this one. I wanted to like it so much and I gave it so many chances but I just couldn't get into this one. I am really thankful to Lucy Clarke and Putnam Books, but I'll just have to share my ARC with someone else.

3.5 stars rounded up!
The Hike begins with a dead woman's body lying on a mountainside in Norway. She is unnamed. Who is this woman and how did she die?

Liz, Helena, Maggie, and Joni have been friends forever and lead their own busy lives. They make it a tradition to get together once a year for a girls trip. This year Liz is insistent on a grueling hike in Norway. Helena and Maggie begrudgingly accept. Joni, a famous rock star, is radio silent on the group texts about the upcoming trip. No one is surprised since she has flaked on them in the past. But she joins them unexpectedly in the lodge the night before the hike.

But they all have secrets they've hidden from another. Marital separations, possible pregnancy, wounds from the past. Day two of their hike the group gets off course and the weather turns and suddenly this girls trip turns into a fight for their lives.

The book alternates POVs from the four women during the hike, as well as chapters popping in called THE SEARCH, from the POV of Leif who is on a search and rescue mission for a woman's body in the mountainside.

I liked The Hike, though it took awhile for it to gain steam. But about half way in I was hooked.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam books for the ARC for my honest review.

This definitely has potential but unfortunately I just wasn’t drawn into it like is had hoped I would be. I feel like I was way more surprised by the twist in One of the Girls than this one.

The Hike by Lucy Clarke is my favorite book of the year! I loved the idea of long time friends coming together yearly for a trip. This time. however, they are all hiding something from each other. At the same time, they are met with the danger of the difficult hike, as well as danger from someone behind them. Do yourself a favor and pick up this great thriller!

Lucy Clarke has written another breathtaking thriller in The Hike. The action is swift and intense. The drama is high throughout this adventure mystery. The characters all have quirks, issues and troubles which make them very relatable. The Norway setting is well-described - at points, even the crisp, cool air and clean nature smell invade the room.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read this ARC.

WOW!! What a ride! Amazing book! A little mystery, a little thriller, and a bit of women’s fiction all rolled into a wonderful book. Four women who are childhood friends go on holiday every year . Liz decides they will go hiking in Norway for this vacation. I don’t want to spoil it except to say it leads to many adventures. I felt like I knew each of these women. This book will stay with you a while as there’s something to relate to with all four of these women. Now I must go and buy more books by this author!

A getaway with your closest friends that includes an adventurous hike. What could possibly go wrong? Everything…

This book will make you never want to go on a hike again! It’s so atmospheric and you can just feel the impending doom. The building sense of dread really kept me turning the pages. Secrets come spilling out and it’s so hard to know who can be trusted. There are so many intense moments that had my anxiety escalating higher and higher. Highly recommend checking this one out!

Thank you so much NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the gifted copy!

Lucy Clarke has been a go-to author for me and this one did not disappoint! A quick thriller that keep me interested and I couldn’t put it down!

Three friends find their way to Norway to escape for a girls trip and to get away from their crazy lives. Liz who is experiencing troubles with her husband decides to pick Norway as the girls trip since it is her turn to pick. Liz has found that during COVID walking has made a difference for her so she chooses Norway to hike Blafjell. She asks her friends to come along and hesitantly they decided to come. Nobody other than Liz has actually prepared for this hike even though Liz has been sending them preparation and training videos. The fourth friend, a well known traveling artist, is on tour and can’t come. After a horrible evening she decides to leave her boyfriend and tour to join the friends in Norway. After surprising them in Norway things start going wrong. The women start off for the 4 day hike the next day and are quickly told there is bad weather coming and turn around. Liz decides that isn’t happening and she keeps them going! But is that such a good idea? Will they return safely after completing the hike?

This was a quick and fast thrill ride! I love Lucy Clarke and all the novels that she has written! She has always been able to keep me on my toes and pushing me to find the answers in her novels. It is a very well written book and allows you to also see the beauty of Norway. This novel was a very suspenseful and thrilling ride. It was also a book that I could relate to in some ways when it came to the characters. Each character had flaws and family problems that anyone could relate to. I would recommend this book!

super exciting story!

I was up all night finishing it- It's so fun to learn more about each character as you go along, and the multiple twists at the end are definitely worth the wait.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

Exciting, fun, great story. I was up all night finishing it - it’s impossible to put down. You learn more about each character as you go along, and the multiple twists at the end are so worth the wait.

Five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC! 💖

This book was one I didn’t want to put down! It both made me never want to hike again…and also spend my life hiking to similarly gorgeous places as the women saw in the book.

The premise was pretty simple—four lifetime friends decide to hike a difficult mountain in Norway. But then problems arise. Some of their own making, some unexpected, and some sinister. And just like all good thrillers, everything is related.

I loved the dual timeline and the twist. Even before the twist I was on the edge of my seat! The characters were deeper than I originally gave them credit for—and by the epilogue, they had really been through the self-discovery phase of their lives.

Overall, an edge-of-your-seat thriller that I recommend!!

Was drawn in by the cover and title of this book. This was my first Lucy Clarke read and I was not disappointed!

Four best friends take a girl’s hiking trip, but not all of them make it out alive! 😱

3.5 ⭐️ I liked this one! It was a fast read that intrigued me right from the prologue. The first half gave subtle foreshadowing, creepy vibes and plenty of options for our villain. I enjoyed the Norwegian mountain setting - I don’t think I’ve read a lot (or maybe any 🤔) books set there before. My one negative is that starting around the 50% mark there were a few too many dramatic elements thrown in for effect, which started to feel contrived and unnecessary, in my opinion. Overall though, I still thought it was a good time! I didn’t fully piece together the mystery and there were plenty of twists that kept me interested along the way.

My thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for an advance copy of this eBook, out 8/29/2023.

Four friends reunite for a hiking trip in Norway and soon start to get the impression that they are being followed. As they continue their journey, another mystery--a missing girl from the past--starts to unfold as these friends navigate their own treacherous mountain adventure.

As an avid reader of thrillers, I was so excited to embark on this adventure! I really enjoyed this book and felt like the pacing was well suited to the structure of the story. I also really appreciated the character development surrounding these four friends. As the story unfolded, I felt like I was right alongside them during this hike and experiencing this adventure too.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! Four long-time girlfriends embark upon a hiking adventure in the Norwegian wilderness--the question is--will all of them safely return? There is plenty of foreshadowing--right off the bat we know that a woman's body is discovered at the bottom of a cliff--but who is it, and what happened?

The author does a great job of maintaining suspense--doling out little bits of information and secrets from the womens' pasts that really made me want to keep reading. She also did a great job of creating interesting, multi-dimensional characters. And the setting was amazing--I felt like I was right there with the women on their grueling adventure.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Every time I dive into one of Lucy Clarke’s novels, I cross my fingers and hope that it’s going to be just as good as the last one of hers that I’d read. And yet again, I was thrilled to find that The Hike somehow managed to live up to all of my rather high expectations.

In each book I’ve read by Clarke, I’ve always been particularly blown away by her deft ability to build consistent and ever ratcheting suspense. This time around, not only was that true, but with each revelation, something else was twisted to reveal a new puzzle filled with just as much intensity. This managed to create an ebb and flow to the unease that kept me on tenterhooks throughout. Even better, it meant that not once was I able to guess where this one was headed.

Speaking of the plot, well-written and beautifully organized, this multiple POV storyline took me on quite the ride. Starting off with a buildup that felt a tad more like women’s lit than thriller, the slow burn quickly caught fire into a rip-roaring explosion of suspense. And the further along the hike the women got, the higher my heart rate seemed to rise.

If I had to name my absolute favorite part of this book, however, it would have to be the relationships at the center of the plot. A tale of reconnecting friends and life’s unexpected turns, it was heartwarming but also filled with true-to-life problems that occur when you put more than two people together in a friendship. And, ultimately, this led to plenty of plot charging drama that put the thrills in thriller.

The only minor issue I found as I flew through the pages was within the near perfect climax. Unlike anything I’ve ever read before, the wonderfully long, drawn-out crescendo managed to maintain quite the adrenaline fueled scene. And while the vast majority of it hit just the right chord, there were pieces that rang with a bit too much melodrama. Don’t get me wrong, I could easily see it playing out just the way it was written, but, nevertheless, it felt a bit over-the-top all the same.

Ultimately, however, I was thoroughly hooked from the very first page. A quick, easy read imbued with plenty of foreboding, compelling yet complex group dynamics, and characters who will make you wonder who to trust, I just could not get enough of this one. In fact, it would make one heck of a thrilling movie or TV series, so I’ll be crossing my fingers on that score. Done and dusted, this one was an absolute home run for me and I cannot recommend it enough for all of you out there looking for your next great read! Rating of 4.5 stars.

Trigger warning: drug use, death of a parent, landslide, drug addiction, pregnancy, infidelity, mention of: cancer

Helena, Maggie, Liz, and Joni have been friends since childhood. Even though their paths in life went in different directions, they remained friends, and even go on a vacation each year together. This year it’s Liz’s turn to make the decision, and craving a change she plans a four night hiking trip in the beautiful mountains of Norway. But soon they realize that the beauty of the mountains are hiding a deadly secret, With the novel being told in the 4 different POVs, I felt it did a good job of not just building the suspense but the relationship between the friends. This was a quick thriller, that kept me guessing. Lucy Clarke is now one of my must read authors. Thanks NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Fast paced, keep you on your toes, chilling book with a beautiful backdrop of Norway.
If you have read and loved previous books by Lucy Clarke you won’t want to miss this one!

Very suspenseful- will keep you guessing! A story told in 4 different POVs of four friends in very different places in their lives. Never a dull moment in this book!