Ashley Shea’s Reviews > Heartwood > Status Update
Ashley Shea
is 33% done
The part that's currently thrilling is not the mystery of "could this be foul play" but just the nervousness of Lt. Bev trying to figure out where Valerie is. Sure there's all sorts of questions about her marriage or her hiking companions but through the letters, we're let in on Valerie's mental state and while she seems OK, you're like "is there some desperation here? to fall off the map?" It's too soon to know...
— Mar 18, 2026 04:45PM
Like flag
Ashley’s Previous Updates
Ashley Shea
is 49% done
I just noticed that the 3 MCs are completely different perspectives: 1st person present, epistolary (1st person past), and 3rd person present. Why?? And to finally get some insight into what happened to Valerie, I can't help but be frustrated with her, even as I want to murder the person that got her lost. Otherwise, you can clearly see the trajectory of the heart of the story, with the mother-daughter relationships.
— 7 hours, 14 min ago
Ashley Shea
is 10% done
I can see where the author is trying to make it a thriller and I'm all for it, but when you start your book with a letter to a mom from a 42-yr-old female missing hiker who needed a break from being a nurse after COVID, and her search is being led by a near-retirement female park warden... This is not a thriller. This is a women story. I'm here for that too as a 42-yr-old who would like to disappear into the woods.
— Mar 17, 2026 04:12PM
