Three women struggle with their relationship with their mothers as they all evolve and find themselves. As Valerie sets out on the Appalachian Trail to find peace in her relationships and work she stumbles across a young man who leads her astray. An older woman who became friends with the young man online realizes he knows about the missing hiker. After investigating she finds a picture and this leads them to find Valerie. Valerie must do what she can to survive being lost on the trail for nearly 12 days. All three women come to terms with their mothers and strive to improve. This was an easy-to-read novel that kept me interested as the characters were well-developed and easy to relate with. Heartwood gets to the core of relationships and how at times we must step away from everyday life to get better insight and find ourselves.

Pretty good book. Never heard of this author. I would read another by them. Good story line and plot and theme. It kept me on the edge the whole time.

This slow-burn, multi-POV mystery and suspense novel revolves around the disappearance of 42-year-old Valerie Gillis near the Appalachian Trail. Her husband, expecting to meet her at their designated point, grows increasingly worried when she fails to arrive.

We gain insight into Valerie’s harrowing experience through letters she writes to her mother while lost in the wilderness—alone, hungry, exhausted, and on the verge of breaking down. Another perspective comes from Lieutenant Beverly, a dedicated Maine State Game Warden leading the search. She’s fully committed to her work, often at the expense of her personal life, while navigating her own family crisis involving her mother’s declining health.

The third POV belongs to 76-year-old birdwatcher Lena, a reclusive woman in a Connecticut retirement community who turns into an armchair detective. She stumbles upon a mysterious online friend with compelling conspiracy theories about the dark secrets surrounding the Appalachian Trail—secrets that even law enforcement hesitates to investigate. Could Valerie’s disappearance be tied to something far more sinister? As time passes with no trace of her, the chances of her survival dwindle.

Did her husband or a fellow hiker play a role in her vanishing? Or did the emotional toll of her burnout as a nurse during the pandemic push her to a breaking point?

Overall, this novel delivers a gripping mystery with a heartfelt exploration of motherhood, self-discovery, loneliness, and resilience. While the pacing is slow at times, the well-drawn characters and suspense kept me invested, eager to find out Valerie’s fate. I’m rounding my 3.5-star rating up to 4—it’s a well-written women’s fiction novel with a compelling mystery that keeps you on edge until the very end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I found this book to be quite difficult to get through. I found myself struggling to stay engaged. The plot, centered around the disappearance of Valerie in the Maine woods, had potential, but the execution fell flat for me. One of the main issues I had with the book was the sheer number of characters. The alternating narratives of Valerie, the Maine State Game Warden Beverly, and the seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher Lena, were overwhelming. I felt that there were too many perspectives, which made it hard for me to connect deeply with any of the characters. The constant switching between narratives disrupted the flow of the story and left me feeling disoriented. Valerie's poetic letters to her mother, while an interesting idea, felt disjointed and did not resonate with me. I found the suspense and tension that were supposed to build around her disappearance were lacking, and the story did not evoke the emotional response I was expecting.

Even though this wasn’t the book for me but it might be what you are looking for.

I love how this book is written from three distinct points of view. Two of them are so clearly connected. The third doesn’t reveal itself until much later. While it is a story of the Appalachian Trail and those who undertake it, it is also a story of finding yourself out there in the wilderness and realizing what ultimately makes you happy.

Sparrow is trying to do a flip flop on the AT. Starting in Harper’s Ferry, hiking to Maine, then ferrying back to Harper’s Ferry and continuing the rest of the trail south from there. Her ‘treasure’ spouse is the one doing all the driving. Meeting her at checkpoints. Taking her to hotels for a break. Restaurants for real food. Until Sparrow misses a checkpoint.

Lena is the elderly scientist and forager, living in a retirement to death community. She has one real friend in the facility and mostly lives online talking to her Reddit buddy. They’ve never met, but she thinks him to be the master forager and outdoorsman that he portrays on the message boards. They have a private message conversation that goes back and forth for quite a while. Lena is lonely. She doesn’t think herself lonely, but estranged from her daughter, she truly has no one but the stranger online, and Warren, her community friend who goes foraging with her.

As a Maine Warden, Bev protects the massive outdoor lands of Maine. Search and rescue have been her forté, But that’s not all she does. She gives tickets, fines, and even breaks up domestic disputes in town if needed. When the call comes in that Sparrow has missed a check-in, Bev does what Bev does best. But when days pass and the mystery of Sparrow’s disappearance deepens, Bev wonders if her luck has run out. Will they ever find Sparrow?

As someone who loves the mountains, I would never dream of trying to through hike either the Pacific Crest or Appalachian Trail. I applaud those who do. I love to read novels like this that immerse me in their worlds, but don’t require any muddy boots or hunger. Gaige has done such an amazing job of not only making the Trail a character in the story, but writing such deep characters. I fell in love with them all.

Strongly recommend!!! If you loved Wild, you will love Heartwood.

Amity Gaige's "Heartwood" follows Valerie Gillis, a nurse who goes missing while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine. The story unfolds through multiple perspectives, primarily focusing on Valerie's struggle to survive in the wilderness, Beverly Miller's search efforts as a game warden, and Lena, a retirement home resident whose connection to the story feels tenuous. Valerie writes fragmented letters to her mother, revealing her physical and emotional journey as she tries to stay alive in the Maine woods. While Lena's narrative initially seems disconnected and somewhat frustrating, her perspective offers an intriguing outsider's view that subtly echoes the book's underlying themes of absence and maternal connection. Beverly leads the ground search, wrestling with her own internal conflicts, while Lena contributes an unexpected layer to the investigation. The book moves between Valerie's survival, the search efforts, and the intricate backgrounds of the characters, exploring loss, resilience, and the complex bonds between mothers and daughters.

Highly recommend this thriller about a missing hiker on the AT. It was atmospheric and engaging, It was told from multiple POVs which helped propel the story.All the characters were well rounded. This was a page turner. Unread it in one sitting!!

Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Received as an arc.
Valerie a 42yo nurse hiking gets lost on the last leg of the Appalachian trail in Maine. Her food and medication are running out . The wardens bring seasoned veteran warden Beverly to head up the search.
Valerie takes to writing letters to her mother in her journal to try to keep her sanity. She’s not a true outdoors person designed to forage, hunt food, or start a signal fire.
Bev and her team of search and rescue are at their wits end trying everything in this dense woods to find her. Now they’re dealing with a government anti torture training facility.
Hundreds of miles away an elderly woman living in an assisted living home named Lena hears of Valerie’s story and plays sleuth trying to piece the facts she gets from internet
5⭐️

Heartwood lives at the intersection of "missing person mystery/thriller" and "tales from the Appalachian Trail". This book offers fiction readers a chance to wander in the woods. So many good AT books are nonfiction accounts, so it is a fun change to see an author use the trail as a fictional setting, while still crafting on research and reality.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an early digital copy of HEARTWOOD for review. It’s scheduled for publication April 1!

I love a mystery that has the feel of literary fiction, and that’s exactly what Amity Gaige has accomplished with HEARTWOOD. This is a beautifully and uniquely written survival story told from several points of view and with a sharp focus on character development.

Forty-two year old nurse Valerie, trail name Sparrow, disappeared into thin air while hiking the Appalachian Trail in the heart of Maine, and game warden Beverly is doing all she can to find her. Meanwhile, a seemingly unrelated woman living in an assisted living facility is following the case closely, along with her online friend: a man who seems to be losing touch with reality.

HEARTWOOD is the kind of book that takes you a while to puzzle out and fit all the pieces together. Gaige explores the concepts of complex mother/daughter relationships, forgiveness, family, the lasting effects of the pandemic, and survival. The descriptions of trail life and prose that reflects the beauty of the outdoors set this book apart.

If you’re looking for a thriller or a really twisty mystery, HEARTWOOD isn’t really it. However, it’s rich and complex and builds suspense masterfully.

I could not put this book down. The descriptions of the wilderness and the three narratives made the plot suspenseful. Lena's story was the weakest, but the poetic prose kept me turning the pages. Would recommend.

I thought this story was fine. Aside from the use of mixed media throughout the story, nothing about it was particularly interesting to me.

I honestly don’t have too much to say about this book. I liked it enough but wasn’t blown away and I liked that it took place in the wilderness..

This is my first Amity Gaige read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Heartwood is the story of the search and rescue mission for a woman who has gone missing while through-hiking the Appalachian Trail. The novel follows journal entries from the hiker, interviews with another hiker on the trail, perspectives from the woman leading the search and rescue mission, and an interwoven story of a woman in a retirement community who is following the case. I’m not sure how much the retiree added to the story - I found myself wanting to move quickly past her sections to make it back to the search and the gorgeous (and ominous) descriptions of the Maine wilderness and insight into the AT through-hiker culture. That’s not really a knock on the book though - more of a compliment on how much I liked the other sections! This book would be a great read for anyone who loved God of the Woods, The Candy House (unsurprisingly, Jennifer Egen blurbed this), and Big Little Lies. This would be an excellent book club pick as well. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a review!

This novel beautifully explores the bonds between mothers and daughters. The three rotating points of view work well to complete the puzzle. There are also elements like interview transcripts, etc., which I did not enjoy quite as much, but which contributed to the overall quilt-like structure.

At times the secondary characters feel like after-thoughts,

Readers looking for a thriller or suspense novel may be disappointed by HEARTWOOD; this is really more of a literary novel that happens to have some suspense elements. The pacing is not that of a typical thriller.

The author is excellent at providing the right amount of sensory detail.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

This novel came together in the end and was overall satisfying, but one of the three narrators, Lena, really didn’t resonate with me, which threw me off for the majority of the book. But, thankfully, the other two narratives were compelling enough to pull me through.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige offers an intriguing exploration of the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, however those connections may manifest. The story immediately grabs the reader's attention, opening with the disappearance of Valerie Gillis during her hike on the Appalachian Trail. The narrative primarily alternates between the first-person perspectives of Valerie herself; Beverly, a Maine State Game Warden; and Lena, a resident of a Connecticut retirement community. As the suspenseful search for Valerie unfolds, readers are kept on the edge of their seats until the very end.

Gaige masterfully builds suspense, cleverly incorporating interview transcripts, message board discussions, and evocative prose. While the core characters—Valerie, Beverly, and Lena—are compelling, the supporting cast feels less developed. Santo, Valerie's hiking companion, comes across as a caricature of a Bronx native. Valerie's husband, despite being consistently praised by other characters, remains unlikeable. The other wardens serve primarily as plot devices, and even Beverly's mentor falls into the trap of stereotypical, borderline misogynistic "good ol' boy" tropes.

Despite these flaws, Heartwood held my attention, compelling me to uncover Valerie's fate. Gaige's prose is poetic yet accessible, and her ability to create vivid, sensory-rich scenes is commendable. Ultimately, the engaging story provides a solid, thrilling read perfect for a weekend escape.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for a NetGalley copy of Heartwood by Amity Gaige.

This isn’t a book I wanted to fly through- but not because I didn’t enjoy it. I wanted to sit in the beautiful prose, think on the story and the characters. Heartwood moves from a story of hope to one of desperation and fear, which helped the plot feel fast-paced despite the descriptive writing style.

Though, yes, this story is suspenseful- there’s urgency and uncertainty- between the writing style and the inclusion of complex relationships, it reads a little more like literary fiction. It is plot-driven, though, so I wouldn’t categorize that way, but Gaige struck the perfect balance of beautiful- almost poetic- writing and strong storytelling.

I loved all three women’s storylines. Through each of these main characters- Beverly, Lena, and Valerie- Gaige explores the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. These women’s backstories and side-stories made Heartwood layered in a beautiful way.

It was so fun trying to piece together how Lena’s story would connect with Valerie and Beverly. But the main mystery- what happened to Valerie on the Appalachian Trail and whether she would be found in time- truly kept me invested. I loved how we get Valerie’s perspective through her poetic journal entries to her mother- not only was it a unique way of unraveling what happened to her, but it also helped keep us in the dark about her status.

I was not expecting how frequently the pandemic would be mentioned. This story takes places years after, but shows the lingering effects on people’s lives, relationships, and mental health. I might not have requested Heartwood had I known the pandemic would be such an integral part of the story; but, despite that, I’m glad I read it.

I’m a little conflicted on the ending- I loved it but I needed a little MORE because it wrapped up rather quickly. Gaige made me invested in these characters and I wasn’t quite ready to let them go without knowing a little more of their stories. Even still, it made me cry. I won’t say whether those were tears of happiness or sadness; to find out, you’ll have to read this book! ;)

Heartwood comes out April 1, 2025. I plan on reading her previous work- Sea Wife- soon!

(This review is currently posted on my Goodreads and will soon be posted on my Instagram.)

4 out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Heartwood begins as an outdoor story along the Appalachian Trail - the kind of novel that would appeal to outdoorsy types or those involved in wilderness work. But shortly it turns into a suspenseful what-the-heck-happened story that would appeal to any fan of mysteries. The writing feels like a documentary, and indeed many of the details are accurate descriptions of search and rescue, management of public lands, and mental health issues. The characters begin to feel familiar and their plights real as the woman with no survival skills and the expert adventurers invested in finding her spend day after day in an effort to accomplish a rescue rather than a recovery. The author skillfully blends issues of the day with the struggles of a lost person and those who search for her to create an insightful trail through the agonies of unsuccessful searchers, fear and hunger, and the tantalizing little clues that might or might not lead to success. The can't-put-it-down plot and what-if-that-were-me writing make it a memorable read likely to be passed on to friends.

Heartwood drew me in from the beginning. As a reader, we share the worries and fears of the family and rescuers as they search dense forests for the lost hiker. At times the story drags on, but that only reinforces the senses of agony and frustration on the part of the searchers. Bottom line, an interesting story on a non-conventional topic, highly recommended.

Heartwood is a beauty of a book. Told in mainly the different perspectives, the list hiker, the Lt. Ranger determined to find her, the elderly forager states away,
mining the clues, Gaige's novelexplores hope, love, mother-daughter relationships, what it means to be lost, and what it means to be found and in the process, what it means to be human. Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for the opportunity to read this wonderful eArc. 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️