Janet Ake has always loved words and the stories they create. That's why reading and books are two of her favorite things. It's no surprise that she grew up to become a librarian. Retired now, she has the time to pursue her other favorites like hiking, snorkeling, and writing. Seeing her name on the cover of a published book has been a life-long dream that's now come true with the publication of her first novel, Her Beautiful Mind. She has more stories just waiting to be shared.
In this romantic adventure, a 24-year-old math prodigy, reeling from a personal and professional betrayal, makes a sudden decision to escape her humiliation and anguish by taking a solo hike on the Appalachian Trail.
Everyone who hikes the Appalachian Trail has a story, and Ariella Dobbs' tale is especially painful. Betrayed by Hudson, her friend and business partner of four years and lover of one night, Ari has lost her business, heart, and confidence in one phenomenally unpleasant meeting. After learning that Hudson was not only stealing the security software she had created, but also moving to Italy with Gia, a fiancee he had apparently been secretly living with for two years, a devastated Ari flees New York City for the Georgia hills where she was raised. Determined to shake off the shame and hurt, she sets out to hike all the way to Maine on the Appalachian Trail. Rechristened with the trail name of Ella, she begins to rebuild herself,
body and soul, strengthened by the long miles of strenuous hiking in the heat, rain, and cold and healed by the glories of nature and the warmth of new friends made on the trek. Bolstered by these new bonds based on sharing the rigors of the trail, Ari finds she is no longer the "shy, socially awkward, part Cherokee math nerd'" she thought herself to be but a "badass, competent, woods-wise woman." And perhaps one who might be ready to hear Hudson's side of the story.
Ake gives her romance an injection of nuance and a complex backstory in her depiction of Ari's background as an orphan raised by her part-Cherokee grandmother, a math genius, and a woman insecure about her rustic roots once she reaches the New York business world. Her self-discovery on the long trail is reminiscent of other works, notably Cheryl Strayed's
Wild, but it is nonetheless engaging and touching. Precise, lyrical descriptions bring readers into the ancient mountains where "tiny purple violets, each plant a nosegay of fragile blooms and foliage," hide on the forest floor. The ending is likely to come as no surprise, but, as is evident on the trail, the fun is in the journey.
A captivating tale of love, friendship, and self-discovery among hikers in the Appalachian Mountains.
~~~Kirkus Reviews