I started this one and it was very descriptive and felt very slow. I've heard great things so if you usually like Jenna's picks, give this one a try.

This book changed me. I’m not used to reading mystery/thriller but the strong literary characters kept me engaged. I’ve suggested it time and time again at the bookstore I work in.

Some books make you feel at home and grounded from the moment you start reading. Heartwood is one of those books for me. This is ironic as one of the characters, Valerie, has gone missing from the Appalachian Trail in the Maine Woods. Valerie is a nurse and has a very kind soul. Beverly is the Maine State Game Warden in charge of the search for Valerie. I liked the way Beverly's mind worked and related to her instantly. The search for the missing hiker is told from the POV of three women, including Valerie, Beverly, and Lena. I liked the way their stories wound together to bring all of the details to light. At times I could not figure out where Lena fit in to Valerie's disappearance. Very clever on the Author's part to bring her story in. As the search for Valerie goes on several themes emerge from the three women - motherhood and caring for others, working as a woman in a male dominated world, and survival. The ending had me on pins and needles with anticipation!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the DRC in exchange for my honest review.

Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

I was looking forward to this and went in with no expectations. That being said, this book was incredible. The author was great at weaving a storyline together and keeping the reader engagement and turning the page. I fell into the world so easily l, which has been difficult for me lately. The world building was just enough without being too much.

𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘺-𝘵𝘸𝘰-𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳-𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 200 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Absolutely beautiful writing, but the ending was just a bit lackluster to me. Still an interesting read about motherhood, resilience, self-discovery and loneliness.

Heartwood is a richly crafted tale that marries wilderness suspense with emotional introspection, anchored by nuanced female perspectives. It’s a deeply human story that asks: how do we get lost, and how are we found?

Heartwood is the story of Valerie Gillis, a hiker who goes missing on the Appalachian trail, and the people who are attempting to find her, including Beverly, a game warden, and Lena, an elderly woman miles away. While this book was billed as a thriller, it is a slow burn. Heartwood lingers on the characters and their inner lives, taking its time to let the plots converge. This is not a criticism—it is exactly the kind of thing I love in a thriller, and I relished every page. If you are looking for a smart summer read, this is the one for you.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

I love a book with multiple points of view, with some epistolary style elements, and dealing with family relationships (in this case, mothers and daughters). Better yet, this is set with a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail, so we get lots of trail details and through hiker lore. This is a really beautiful book and a fantastic summer read!

I love books about the AT. I love thrillers. So, I knew I had to read Heartwood by Amity Gaige. It's a book that is about more than survival. It's about the bonds between mothers and daughters, and it is also about the power of nature.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

Heartwood is a good Literary Thriller with solid character development, heartfelt relationships, and an engaging mystery. The book is well paced and told primarily via three POVs; Valerie, a middle aged hiker who goes missing in the latter portion of the Appalachian Trail, the Game Warden, dealing with her own neglected family issues, shouldering the responsibility for the search to find Valerie, and Lena, an elderly patient in a convalescent home who becomes obsessed and invested in the search for her from her patient room. Valerie’s POV evolves through letters written to her mom which facilitates the mystery as to whether or not Valerie is still alive. Questions abound whether her disappearance was accidental or maliciously intended. The mystery was well developed and kept me engaged throughout. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for giving me the opportunity to read this thriller.

I LOVED this book! Heartwood is such an interesting book with three very uniquely different POVs- the woman who is missing and her letters to her mother, a nursing home internet sleuth, and the park ranger on the search for the missing woman in the Appalachian Trail in Maine.
Even though this is definitely a more literary book, there is still plenty of suspense and thrills, actually! I couldn’t stop listening to it- I wanted to know how everything turned out. The storytelling is excellent, the pace is wonderful, and the setting is unique and vivid.
I will be thinking about this book for a long time and would love to reread it!

This was a suspenseful read! Loved the isolated setting and intensity of this plot. I was constantly left guessing, would definitely recommend!

I read Heartwood back in February and it came out back in April and yet here I am telling you it should be the book of your summer. If The God of the Woods was your 2024 beach read, this might scratch that same itch. It's about a search for a lost hiker but it's also about parenthood and the value of community and connection. Heartwood is propulsive but not superficial, and the sense of place and descriptions of nature are so immersive. The opening chapter brought me to tears. I've shoved it in a lot of people's hands and now here I am shoving it in yours!

Amity Gaige is one of my favorite authors, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on HEARTWOOD! There's a reason why everyone is talking about this novel: it is can't put downable! Suspesneful and gripping with Gaige's fantastic storytelling driving the story forward. A must read.

Heartwood by Amity Gaige is a literary mystery that blends the suspense of a missing-person case with a layered exploration of resilience, the need for connection and grief. It’s set in the rugged Appalachian Trail, following the disappearance of Valerie Gillis, trail name “Sparrow” who vanishes in the last and final stretch of a solo hike through Maine’s Hundred-Mile Wilderness. This is a book about the aftermath of a disappearance, not just for Valerie but for all those who are left behind. We see themes of trauma, marriage, and the desire for connection despite past mistakes.

I found Amity Gaige’s narrative to be multifaceted, it has multiple POV, which took a little while to get used to, but we hear from Lt Bev Miller - in charge of the search, “Santo” - a hiker who appears to have known Sparrow well, and Lena - a nursing home resident and online sleuth along with notebook entires, tip-line transcripts and detective interviews, they add a level of realism and kind of a who can you believe narrative. I have to say that there were some slow and meandering parts and sections, the shifting perspectives, added tension but it was distracting in some areas. Overall, I think it was a thoughtful novel, definitely more of a slow burn rather than a conventional thriller and was a solid literary fiction with a mystery twist book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Amity Gaige for the eARC of Heartwood in exchange for an honest review. Heartwood by Amity Gaige was published 01 April 2025!

When I was six years old, I got lost in the woods near my house with a few friends. It was dark and rainy and it felt like hours passed before we finally stumbled out onto the sidewalk. I have been deeply suspicious of nature ever since.

Still, kudos to those who want to tackle the outdoors. I tip my hat to the rock climbers and mountain climbers and hikers who think the best vacation requires boots, rope, and a special bag to poop in. Books about these adventurers aren’t my usual go-to, but Heartwood, the latest book by Amity Gaige, was blurbed by Jennifer Egan (note to publishers: Blurbs mean something to serious readers!) so I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did. Although much of the book takes place on the Appalachian Trail, it’s more of a man versus self than a man versus nature conflict. What does it take, mentally, to endure hardship?

When 42-year-old Valerie Gillis becomes lost on the Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail, Maine State Game Warden Beverly is put in charge of the search. As Valerie composes letters to her mother in her journal and later in her head, Beverly’s team interviews everyone who came in contact with the missing woman—including her husband Gregory and hiking partner Santos. But no one realizes that a retired Connecticut woman, conversing on the internet with a man she believes is a fellow nature lover, holds the real key in discovering what happened to Valerie. Will Beverly put the pieces together before it’s too late?

Heartwood is a much more cerebral book than I was expecting, and Gaige’s voice is more literary and poetic than most adventure thrillers. In her journal, Valerie explains exactly how she got lost, which lessens the suspense around Gregory and Santos. But she also contributes descriptions of the woods and her relationships. As she weakens from hunger, it’s not clear whether she’s describing reality or starvation-prompted hallucinations. Beverly is consumed with the search, but she also spends a lot of time thinking about the hardships she endured as one of the tallest children in her grade, and later as one of the only female game wardens in Maine. And Lena, the Connecticut retiree, introverted from her community and in a wheelchair, spends most of her time in her own head.

Another thread that links the three women together is mother/daughter relationships. Valerie adores her mother, who shows up at the search site and is so caring toward Beverly that Beverly wishes the woman could have been her own mother. As the oldest daughter, Beverly took over parenting of her younger sisters from a mother who struggled with addiction; now that her mother is in hospice, Beverly would rather help out in the search for Valerie than receive updates from her sisters. And Lena is estranged from her own adult daughter for reasons that are never quite explained.

Although there are multiple points of view, Beverly really stands out as the heart of the book and most compelling character. Giving up food and sleep to oversee the search, Beverly is determined to find Valerie alive. As the days pass and Valerie’s chances for survival dwindle, Beverly becomes even more committed to the mission. She is easy to root for in all aspects of her life.

As I cheered on Beverly, I wondered about her real-life counterparts, working in national parks and on the Appalachian Trail to keep hikers safe. What will happen to real-life Valeries now that Elon Musk is firing people like Beverly? What will happen to the Beverlys who have devoted their lives to these parks and the people who love them? What will happen to all of us?

This literary thriller was totally up my alley with the themes of mothers and daughters, nature and people who are outsiders. I also found the info about long distance hiking interesting and fresh. I found myself quite invested in the various protagonists fates and finished the book over two reading sessions which is unusual for me these days. I will definitely seek out future book by this author.

Heartwood really took me by surprise. It’s not a fast-paced book, but the writing is so thoughtful and layered that I found myself completely pulled into the story. Amity Gaige does an amazing job exploring themes like grief, identity, and the complicated ways families hold together (or fall apart).

The characters feel real—flawed, vulnerable, and fully human. The emotional depth here is subtle but impactful, and the way the story unfolds is both reflective and engaging. It’s one of those books that doesn’t shout to be noticed but leaves a mark if you give it the time.

My only reason for not giving it 5 stars is that parts of it moved a bit slowly, and some of the symbolism got a little heavy-handed. But overall, it’s a beautifully crafted novel with heart, insight, and staying power.

Perfect for fans of character-driven fiction that really digs deep.

Thank you Net Galley for my advanced copy of this book!

I love a story about nature and hiking. To be brave enough to attempt the Appalachian Trail is something I can't even imagine. This book was excellent in describing how and why people attempt it. It's about a woman who gets lost on the trail and her personality and an older woman in a nursing home who becomes a hero. Also the author describes in great detail all that is involved for the Conservation Wardens during a search and the personality of the Head Ranger. After reading this I have even more respect for them. I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend this story of three strong women!