Heartwood
By Amity Gaige
Simon & Schuster, April 2025, 320pp.
The Short of It:
Riveting story with characters you wanna root for.
The Rest of It:
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. ~ from the publisher
I picked this book up on a whim. It was a late Thursday evening, and I had just turned the last page of my current read, so I went looking for something to quickly dive into. Heartwood was it.
Books set outdoors always appeal to me. I’m a desk jockey at work, so the idea of traipsing through a forest or along a trail makes my heart sing, especially when it’s happening in my imagination and there are no mosquitoes to deal with. Heartwood delivered that feeling beautifully.
From the start, there’s a very real sense of time slipping away. Valerie only has so much of it out on that trail. Lost, alone, and with limited supplies, the people searching for her are highly experienced, but they also know that with every passing day, every ticking minute, the chances of rescuing her alive grow slimmer. Very slim.
Beverly, a Maine State Game Warden, leads the search team on the ground. Then there’s Lena. At 76, she lives in an independent senior community, keeping mostly to herself and avoiding the other residents. But Valerie’s case catches her attention because the missing woman reminds her so much of her own daughter—whom she hasn’t seen in decades. Soon, Lena becomes an armchair detective, piecing together clues with the help of an anonymous online friend.
Friend? Or someone hiding behind a carefully constructed online persona?
I found this story to be just the right mix of personal backstories and the heart-pounding urgency of a clock running out. I flipped through the pages as fast as I could. What a satisfying read.
These days, with everything going on in the world, satisfying reads can be hard to come by. They have to compete with our busy minds and the constant stream of bad news around us. But Heartwood? It checked all the boxes.
Highly recommend.
Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
I really enjoyed her first book but this one was hard for me to connect with. Your review makes me want to give it a second chance !
I connected with this one because I am an armchair hiker. LOL. Nah, I hike but I’ve always wanted to do a BIG hike. Not like she did though. Getting lost and all. I liked the older character, Lena, a lot. This is the only book I’ve read by this author. I will check out her others.
I just finished composing my review for this one a day or two ago. You liked it quite a bit more than I did. I listened to the audio and wasn’t impressed. Glad you enjoyed it, though, Ti.
I didn’t mention this in the review but the bits with Lena rang very authentic to me. My MIL moved to one of those swank senior communities and it was just like the book. The people, the events, etc. That authenticity got points with me.
Glad you liked this one. I liked it too, though found it a little uneven in parts. I liked Bev quite a bit but tired of the focus on Lena. Still it has a good search & ending to it. My thoughts are here: https://www.thecuecard.com/books/in-the-beach-bag/
You are so right that a satisfying read takes on more urgency and happiness these days. I see my reading as total escapism from all the horrible news in the world. I love to get lost in a book for a couple hours.
I like the idea of hiking but rarely do it.
Out here, there is a short window where hiking weather is perfect and then bam, it’s too hot and the rattlesnakes make an appearance.
I am now glad I placed this book on TBR now that I’ve read your review.
I really enjoyed it. Hope you do too!
Hiking is amazing, and I’m always worried I’ll get lost if I ever do a back country hike. I like the sound of this one.
I learned how to use a fancy technical compass when I dabbled in long distance hikes. That was a very useful skill to have.