HEARTWOOD ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. When nurse Valerie, becomes lost on the Appalachian Trail, searching for her becomes a tough mission, with limited clues and limited supplies. This book was just way too slow for me. Nothing kept me on the edge of my seat, and I felt nothing happened til 75-80% through. That being said, I liked the writing and characters. I just felt kinda bored? Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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

Publication date: 04/01/2025

This is a Wilderness survival story literary fiction novel and I loved it! My favorite trope, fiction and nonfiction, is any outdoorsy/wilderness story. This novel follows the viewpoint of three women. First, we have Valerie, who was hiking the Appalachian trail in Maine, when she disappeared. The reader knows what happened to her through journal entries as letters to her mom. The second character is Lieutenant Beverly of the Maine Warden Service, who is in charge of the search and rescue of Valerie. Thirdly we have Lena, who is a retired woman who acts as an armchair detective trying to help find Valerie through the internet. This book is adventurous, tense and emotional with a medium pace. I personally think it is a mix of plot and character. I hope whoever reads my review picks up this book because I really enjoyed it and I recommend it if you like outdoorsy stories.

This was a wild ride!
Set on the Appalachian trail a woman is lost and descends a little bit into madness. I wasn’t quite sure how all the characters intertwined, but I was riveted and felt the emotions of Beverly so vividly. Well written and executed, I could not put this one down.

4.5⭐️/A-

Whoa. This book was absolutely stunning! It’s like stepping into the Maine wilderness—haunting, beautiful, and full of secrets. The kind of story that grips you and doesn’t let go.

Valerie’s letters to her mother? Heartbreaking. You can feel her exhaustion, her fear, her will to survive. Meanwhile, Beverly is out there leading the search, balancing duty and personal struggles, and Lena? Unexpectedly delightful as she pieces things together from a retirement home. Every POV added depth, making the mystery even more compelling.

It’s not just about what happened to Valerie—it’s about resilience, connection, and the ways we find (or lose) ourselves. A slow burn in the best way, with tension building toward an ending that delivers. Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This is a bit above a 3, because there is some beautiful writing going on here, but ultimately, the story just dragged too much for me to rate it higher. The story is told from three different perspectives: Valerie, the lost hiker; Lt. Beverly, the warden leading the search for Valerie; and Lena, a wheelchair-bound retiree who's connection to the others only becomes clear later. Really, each of these sections reads more like a character study than anything else. Valerie's sections are written in the form of letters to her mother that she writes while lost, the other two are told more traditionally, with a few snippets of news reports, interviews, and tipline calls related to the case mixed in here and there.

Initially, the story moves along well, and I enjoyed learning about the backgrounds of the characters. Gaige writes well, and some of the Valerie sections are downright poetic. That said, for a relatively short book, the story felt like it was spinning its wheels for quite a while in the middle. I realize that matches the plot of the story - the investigation is spinning its wheels, and therefore, so does the story - but it went on long enough without any new developments that I began to lose interest. Lena's sections, in particular, sometimes felt as if they were coming from an entirely different book. Obviously, you know she must eventually connect to the main storyline at some point, but it takes so long for her to do so that, unfortunately, a lot of her storyline wound up feeling tangential.

In the end, this was worth reading, but only if you're going in with the expectations that it will be a more slow-paced, literary read.

This story sucked me right in and I read it in one day. I really enjoyed the details about hiking the Appalachian Trail, the friendships formed and the heart it takes to make it thru. The characters were great - the missing hiker, the friend she'd been hiking with, the leader of the search and rescue team and the armchair detective. All different viewpoints who added greatly to the story.

This was a very interesting slow burn novel that had a multitude of different POV‘s and definitely keeps you on your toes when you’re trying to figure out what’s going on! I love the different POV‘s because they switched relatively seamlessly between each other and let you have those reflective moments in different character Perspectives.

I love the fact that it was set in the Appalachian mountains because I’m a big fan of mysteries/horror/suspense novels that are set in this area because of the lore behind it!

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one and it is a good novel if you’re looking for something to curl up without a cold day and be enthralled with the suspense within the storyline!

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I couldn't put this down. I found myself throwing out all kinds of theories while reading the different POVs, trying to figure out how they all connected and, while I did get the big one while it was happening in the story, it didnt make a difference for how much I enjoyed the book.

Im not sure what genre I would put this in, mystery, lit fic, women's fiction? I think it was a great combination of all of the above and definitely recommend it to my friends who enjoy those genres

Absolutely compelling, wonderful book. A suspenseful novel about the search for lost hiker in the Maine wilderness. Loved the disparate characters, particularly Beverly, the Maine State Warden leading the search. Beautiful writing and a riveting story line -- a winning combination.

I loved this book. It isn’t just a story about a woman missing from the Appalachian Trail in Maine, it’s about other interesting characters as well—Bev the game warden, Lena a senior citizen who is estranged from her daughter we and the residents at her senior living facility, her hiking partner…. The difference POVs worked well and made this so much more than a missing person story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Heartwood is a beautifully written survival story of 42 year old nurse, Valerie Gillis (trail name Sparrow), seeking the solace of the trail after serving and burning out during the pandemic. When Valerie goes missing just 200 miles before Mount Kathadin on the Appalachian Trail, a literary mystery unfolds between the most unlikely cast of characters.

Heartwood is told in three distinct female POV with interview interludes from her best trail friend, Santo.

The first POV is from Valerie, aka Sparrow's, perspective. As the hours bleed into days, we see Sparrow writing poetry to her mother in order to calm her spirit. Beverly, the stoic and steady Maine game warrant, is charged with the rescue effort. We see her caring interior monologue as she pressures herself to find Sparrow. Beverly cares deeply for her Maine community and has the chops to find Sparrow after a storied career in a male dominated field. Our third POV enters as mobility challenged, lonely assisted living resident, Lena. She seeks solace and comradery amongst a reddit thread. This leads to some epic armchair detective work in Sparrow's rescue.

All of our characters undergo emotional growth and transformation in the interconnected story. In addition, the descriptors of the natural world envelope the reader into the dense forest growth that make up the Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail. Heartwood is a unique novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this literary mystery.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for an advanced copy of Heartwood. This novel debuts April 1, 2025.

Valerie Gillis has been hiking the Appalachian Trail. When she fails to arrive at a designated meeting point, her husband reports are missing. We are provided information through letters Valerie writes to her mother while her whereabouts are unknown.
Lieutenant Beverly is in charge of the search for Valerie. She is dedicated to finding her while dealing with her own personal issues.
The third POV comes from Lena. She lives in a retirement community in Connecticut and seems fixated on Valerie‘s disappearance. Details slowly emerge that explain why she’s so distraught over this missing person.
As the story progressed, more and more details are provided by each of these characters. I found it to be a slow burn mystery, with the author exposing just a bit more information with each chapter(or sometimes more questions).

I thought this was a really compelling and unique literary fic and it was unlike anything I’ve read before. Suspenseful, melodic, poetic, tragic. This had the whole gamut of human experience. The switchbacks were hard to navigate at times and sometimes there was too much exposition for my taste. I was hooked though and had to finish! It was lovely.

Thank you for this ARC! I loved this book. It is told in multiple POV, which I always enjoy. It had adventure, redemption arcs and strong female characters, making it the complete package. I loved the pacing and the mystery. I highly recommend this book.

Truly suspenseful, this novel tackles the problem of finding a lost hiker on the Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail. But just as compelling is the role of motherhood in the lives of many of the main characters. The author has done a great job letting the inner lives of those characters speak for themselves during the times of anxiety, fear, and hope. There are a few secondary characters that I felt didn’t add a lot to the main story line. But the novel was well worth reading for the nature descriptions and the humanity of the searchers.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC to read and review.

Heartwood is told by several narrators: Valerie, who is lost on the Appalachian Trail; Beverly, who leads the search and rescue mission to find her; Santo, her hiking partner; and Lena, whose role we do not realize until the end. The story comes together beautifully, with lots of suspense. It's a thriller written in beautiful prose.
I grew up alongside a Mid-Atlantic portion of the Appalachian Trail. The atmosphere of the trail and the energy of the hikers (who I interacted with for years) are spot-on. Wonderful job, Amity Gaige!

Heartwood's premise rides on the author's ability to keep a reader engaged, and unfortunately Gaige really struggled with that. While I agree with other reviewers that Valerie's disappearance was engaging enough at the beginning, by the 50% mark, I was so tired of slogging through Lena's perspective that I audibly sighed every time I reached another one of her chapters.

Bogged down by random character inserts and their never ending ramblings about god knows what, by the time I reached the end of this book, I felt like I'D hiked the Appalachian Trail. I can tell how much research Gaige did for this novel, but unfortunately it was not the novel I thought it'd be.

I just turned the last page and man, what an absolute banger this book is. I did not know much about it when I started so didn’t have huge expectations. What a surprise!! The characters are vivid and complex. The relationships with one another are beautiful while also being realistic. Flawed characters are all the more beautiful for it. And the suspense! I was on the edge of my chair. As someone who has no sense of direction, I have immense respect for hikers who have a trail as their only lifeline. Such a gorgeous story.
Special thanks to NetGally for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

✪✪✪✪✪: the vibes mysterious

This is my first 5 star book of the year and giving it this rating really is because the story is tight, and even the things that you don't necessarily understand how they fit, end up fitting so well. Following the search for missing hiker Valarie is terrifying. The longer it goes on and the more the clues either don't add up or aren't found at all, the greater the feeling of despair permeates this story.

Add to that the POV of Valarie, speaking to us through her journal entries she writes to her mom to try and stay.. alive? sane? grounded? maybe all of it, and it quickly becomes obvious that something is very wrong. as her true story unfolds, Gaige ups the ante with the despair. This book doesn't shy away from the danger of hiking or nature, and it is not out of the realm of possibilities that our story ends with Valarie found... but how?

The Lena POVs don't always feel like they belong, but as the story moves along, there is a brilliant reason for her inclusion. I really ended up liking her POV because it was the story of an outsider, but someone sort of also on a parallel path of understanding.

Heartwood is a beautifully crafted, emotionally gripping novel that takes readers deep into the wilderness—and the human heart. The multiple POVs are masterfully interwoven, each voice distinct and compelling, adding layers to the mystery of Valerie’s disappearance. From Valerie’s poetic letters of survival to Beverly’s relentless determination and Lena’s unexpected detective work, every perspective brings something unique to the story, building tension and emotional depth.

The atmospheric writing vividly captures the rugged beauty and haunting isolation of the Appalachian Trail, making the setting feel like a character itself. The novel explores not just the physical search for Valerie but also the emotional journeys of those connected to her, weaving themes of hope, resilience, and redemption.

With its intricate storytelling and heart-wrenching revelations, Heartwood is a moving and unforgettable read. It’s suspenseful, poignant, and beautifully reflective on the ways we find ourselves even when lost.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC. Add this one to your TBR—it hits shelves on April 1!