Welcome to Litsy!

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I was fortunate enough to attend a book club session with Amity Gaige during the Read With Jenna Book Festival. Hearing her speak about her inspiration and process had me so excited to read this. Her passion came through on the page. Yes, it‘s a story about a lost hiker, but it‘s much more. The perfect mixture of adventure, friendship, mystery, and homage. Well fleshed characters, too. Loved it!

Valerie walks the Appalachian Trail and gets lost in Maine. To keep sane she writes letters to her mother. In the mean time a search project is led by Lt Beverley, a woman with a past too. And there‘s a retired armchair sleuth also looking for Valerie.
It‘s a light pick for me, not as good as Sea Wife

📸 Egina, Greece

Five FULL BLOWN stars for this one! I loved the different perspectives and various media. I was completely enthralled by the suspense of the missing hiker and whether or not Bev would find her. I love the way Gaige is able to connect characters. I love what this novel says about family and mistakes, reconnecting and forgiveness. I remember the real-life missing hiker (the one searchers were so close to finding) that Gaige based this novel on.

I‘m continually thrown off by these lines above the page numbers. My brains registers them as a page break, but they‘re not. Every page…😵‍💫

This is a tremendous story about a through hiker lost toward the end of her AT adventure in Maine. But it is also about relationships of women and women who are different, in unexpected roles and the sisterhood that can be formed between strangers. It‘s also about healing family. A five star read for me!!!

It‘s been a long time since a book made me stay up past my bedtime. This one was so worth it though. It‘s one of those books where the story is about one thing (missing hiker in Maine) but really it‘s about something else (women.) I loved this. Might be my favorite all year.

Finally a quiet night on the porch. Got a good book, baseball is on, and my candle is lit.

Starting one of my most anticipated summer reads tonight. Hope it doesn‘t disappoint!

Here‘s an idea: all emotions start out as love. Later thst love is worked on by the forces of luck and suffering. Hate is just soured love. Fear is wounded love. Longing is homeless love. Love, not pain is the mother. Love is the taproot.

Thank you Helen for the birthday card and this book 😘 I can‘t wait to read it! 🖤 @squirrelbrain

This is mostly a story of mothers and daughters. Three women and their life with their mothers and daughters come to life while searching for one of the women lost in the woods.

Really enjoyed this one. An ongoing rescue mission and the story of three woman and their families as background.

Definitely page turning! In this case, audio pages. 😉

Amazed at how safe the AT historically has been re: crime given how isolated it is in some segments.

Oh my gods. The ending of this book just gutted me. But in a good cathartic way. This is about a woman who gets lost while hiking the Appalachian Trail. But it‘s about so much more. The descriptions of the trail, the hikers, the environs, the search, the searchers, the family, shows how much more complicated the Appalachian Trail actually is and how unprepared most of us are to be out in raw nature. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Suspenseful read about a lost Appalachian Trail hiker, a Maine game warden leading the search, and an older woman following the hunt online. The three women's stories intersect, and they also include poignant observations about love, loneliness, and the wilderness. Recommended.

No woman is a star. No woman is a god or a tree or a magician. But for a while, in your arms, the universe was the right size, and I knew where I was 🤱

I truly enjoyed this one.

I realized that I really like stories like this, where a hiker must battle not only their own inner self but also the harsh surroundings of the trails and all that it entails.

Even though I figured out the mystery early on, the writing was so captivating that I just had to keep listening.
The audio was extremely well-done.

Just starting this and it looks promising. I love Maine, and have always secretly wished I could hike the Appalachian Trail (I'm nowhere near in shape for it, but there's something appealing about the idea). Looking forward to a good read!

A tender story about mothers an daughters and the beauty and danger of nature. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

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An introspective wandering through the woods. I found myself rewinding at times just so I could luxuriate in beautiful sentences. The characters were magnetic, enhanced by the multicast audiobook narration. 🎧

I never quite knew who the MC was until I realized the focus would remain on three POVs as one goes missing on the Appalachian Trail of Maine. There is a mystery here but mostly it serves as the catalyst to reveal the life stories of those 3 women each with ownership to that mystery. …I can imagine this as a book Jenna‘s production company might adapt for screen.

While there‘s a missing hiker and the search for her is at the core of the narrative, this isn‘t really a mystery/thriller. It‘s about three women - Valerie, the missing hiker; Bev, the Maine Warden leading the search; and Lena, an elderly woman in Connecticut who remotely aids the search - who they are, what formed them, and how they navigate through the world. It‘s well-written, engaging, and I was invested in the outcome from the beginning.

An irreverent review to Netgalley:

Thanks so very little for making me want to cry. I miss my mom. I miss my mom everyday. If my mother made me the person I am today don't thank her for that either.

There were some portions where I deeply hoped Valerie‘s disappearance wasn‘t going the way I feared it might. And it didn't. Still, it did end in poignancy for me. 'Cause I miss my mom.

I give lousy book reviews, sorry about that.