From the start I couldn’t stop. I needed to now what’s going on. I loved this book and it’s really well written and I will for sure more from this author.

This book was alright, it kept my interest but I didnt really connect with the characters. It left me with alot of unanswered questions. I found there was parts where I really liked it but there were parts I couldnt really stand.

Their chemistry is undeniable, but the complicated NYC criminal justice system doesn’t leave room for real feelings. Keeping their emotions in check isn’t easy. Where the heart is concerned, no one is bulletproof.

Just too cliche for me

This had a Blair Witch Project vibe to me. Something scary out in the forest but you can't see it. You just hear it. Things are happening but you can't figure it out. It is the unknowing that is just so creepy.

I liked the romance aspect of the book. It wasn't really full on because the spookiness was the driving force. But it seemed believable for the circumstance they found themselves in.

I thought it was suspenseful and also a bit of an adventure.

The only thing I didn't like was that it didn't feel like there was any resolution.

‘From the woods’ is a brilliantly tense and chilling page turner. This was my first novel by Charlotte Greene and it was perfectly paced and the central characters well incredibly well developed across the entire book.
The story follows Fiona, who reluctantly joins three friends, on a hiking trip in the isolated Colorado mountains. Her best friend Jill won’t take ‘no’ for an answer on joining them on a journey through an unspoiled landscape but when she meets their guide, Roz, things begin to look up for Fiona. Time away off-grid should be a perfect escape but they soon realise that they aren’t alone and danger is lurking just beyond the trees.
I really enjoyed the way Greene drastically changes pace as you would see in a great thriller film but never loses the thread of building the relationship between Fiona and Roz as they try to steer danger away from the others. I particularly love the character of Fiona and how she places so much worth on how others see her, that she cannot see her own strengths but by having someone believe in her she becomes stronger than she ever thought possible.

Thanks to Netgalley for copy of book in exchange for honest review

5 Stars! This book is a page turner!

A group of friends take yearly trip and this time is hiking/backpacking in to the mountains of Colorado. This is a once in a lifetime experience very few a year get to do. It will just be them in the woods or so they think. As we set off up through the beautiful mountain range that the author vividly describes, things start to take a turn. Couple hours in, the guides are mystified by strange carvings and symbols. They realized something is very wrong. Girl were they right. As the group thinks of the bonding experience they will have, they realize they are not the only ones out there. They are being followed or rather one step behind the strangers in the night.

Was readable but found it quite anticlimactic. Disappointed, thought ending would be more than it was. The general premise was interesting but some of the actions taken by the MCs were incomprehensible in the situation they found themselves.

The story is fairly basic, or so you think. If you've read anything by Charlotte Greene you will understand that just isn't her style.

Its starts with a group of friends, Fiona, Jill, Carol, and Sarah who decide to go backpacking in the remote Colorado mountains with the help of a guide called Roz. Once the friends are out in the woods, for from civilization they find themselves been hunted by something. The storyline progressed from there and they find themselves running for there lives, and being forced to separate from each other,

I got the chills with this story. Which in turn hooked me. And without dropping a spoiler, how it ended, that kind of stopped me in my tracks. You'll see what I mean... I did have a few issues tho, the main one was, and has been mentioned by other readers, why did Roz not allow the group to have watches, mobiles, or compasses? I'm no girl scout but I found that extremely odd. But I'm not here to argue...

I give was given a copy for an honest review. I give it 3.9 stars.

I loved this! The tl;dr: a sweet romance wrapped in a tight thriller.

To expand a little, this book was a delight. The characters are extremely well drawn - I think we all know a Jill, the pushy best friend of Fiona, the protagonist. Fiona goes on a true journey of self discovery and romance, all during a very creepy set of mysterious circumstances in the deep woods. That romance is also very charming, as the two characters gradually pull together despite their perilous situation.

Speaking of that situation: without spoilers, it hints at a much wider backdrop of secret organizations (and perhaps magic?) going on in the wilderness that can only be reached by days of hiking on foot. I hope it turns into a series and expands on the antagonists!

Lastly, it's clear the author knows her stuff when it comes to the outdoors! There's enough detail to satisfy hiking nerds, and for lay folks it really highlights the growing risk for the characters.

Highly recommended!

An all lesbian novel with no awkward questioning of sexuality or weird ex-boyfriends? Okay, there was the issue with the girls being hunted by a group of killers, but other than that - or especially because of that; I can't shy away from a good thriller - this book was perfect.
The romance was very subtle and there was much focus on character development and building up a strong, believeable thriller which, hopefully, be receive a second novel because that ending really left me hanging there...

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

It all starts innocently enough: a group of friends decide to go hiking/camping in an area of a national forest that is only open to a small number of people each year. Then it all goes spectacularly wrong.

Before that happens, though, Fiona has to be prodded into joining her friend Jill and her married friends Sarah and Carol. Fiona and Jill have the usual sort of non-assertive/almost bully relationship that is fairly common in fiction.

But talk her into it they do, and he four head out to meet their guides and Roz, the leader of the guide company. Of course Fiona is drawn to her immediately, and Roz to her,even with the rather brash Jill acting like a twelve year old.

At first, it's a pleasant ride on the horses, but they hear what sounds like someone chopping down a tree - which means someone else is on the trail who should not be there. when Roz and two guides scout up ahead on the trail, they come back a bit skittish. When asked what's wrong, they don't say and the group keeps going until they reach the first camping area.

Fiona and Roz are in that scoping out phase of one another, and it's one part sweet and one part trope. There's lots of staring, the "accidental" brush of hands, etc. Meet cute in the middle of a forest.

It turns out that Roz and they guides had found runes cared into trees, and when Fiona and one of the others go to the latrines, they find more. The group now has a decision to make: do they continue, or turn back? Continue it is, even with the awareness that someone is in the forest an carving weirdo runes into trees, setting bear traps, and digging pits. This is the part in movies where someone realizes there's a killer on the loose, and instead of barricading themselves in their house with a shotgun, they've left a sliding door open and hear noises in the basement, so they go down into the basement, without turning on any lights, to see what it is while you scream, "Are you out of your mind?

That should give you an idea of what happens next. People vanish from the camp site. Someone falls into a bear put. Another gets a big chomp from a bear trap.

There's a mystery to solve, and solve it they do, although I had a hard time believing the ending, it was still an okay book. Everyone finds that well of strength within themselves, pushing themselves into doing things that in their other, "real" world they could never see themselves doing, and I think that's a very good thing that people as a rule should be doing in their part of the world, even if it seems to them o be inconsequential: thos small steps add up.

If you're looking for sexytimes scenes, there are none in this book - something I kind of enjoyed after reading two other books with what seemed like one per chapter. Nothing against the sexytimes, but if you're not writing erotica, where those scenes are the point of the story, throwing in too many scenes of that type in genre fiction really is a detriment to the story.

I'm giving this a four out of five, as the book is written well enough, the bad guys sufficiently creepy, and someone finds their strength that they didn't even realize they had.

Thanks to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for the review copy.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Long time friends Fiona and Jill have a great friendship as long as Fiona follows Jill's lead and dosen't question Jill's authority.

They've known each other since high school - through coming out, college, relationships and group vacations.

Fiona lacks self confidence and allows Jill to bully her into decisions.

Jill is opinionated, abrasive and self centered.

Sarah and Carol are newly married friends who round out this social group. They add a bit of balance to Jill and Fiona's dynamic. Carol seems to be the only person who can reign in Jill's single mindedness and attitude.

The women embark on a two week trek, off grid, through a pristine section of forest in the Rockies. They hire an experienced, confiden, attractive guide for the trip of a lifetime - Roz.

Jill questions Roz's leadership from the the first moment. Fiona is immediately attracted to Roz and embarrased by Jill's overbearing behavior.

The forest is idyllic until things go very wrong. The guide assistants disappear in the night, taking the group's horses, phones.

Roz wants to abort the trip and return to report the issue - Jill overrides common sense and the trip spirals out of control

Survival may not be an option as the women face stalking, injuries and group tensions as they try to make their way out of the forest.

The plot is tense detailing fear, determination and the testing of relationship bonds. The romance thrown in is one calm spot of the chaos.

The ending is open ended for a sequel. I'd be interested in a sequel to see how Fiona and Jill continue to grow.

A pleasantly paced romp with a bit of mystery and fright thrown in. Great Iockdown read, but not precisely breaking any moulds. Good classic pulp read.

I'm very conflicted by this book. LOL

I enjoyed it. The writing is good, the story flowed. I liked the characters. I'd try this author out again.

But - there I wasn't expecting the horror aspect (I didn't mind - I liked the addition) and it left the story kind of hanging. There isn't a resolution to all the threads in this story. You're left wondering what you missed. If it's going to be a series, great, but a mention of such would have been better than being left in the lurch with the suspense aspect.
The romance closes off fine, it's the side story lines that are kind of left open.

2 stars
First let me say...anyone can write a mystery action thriller if they dont have to SOLVE the mystery. I read and read and read .....it seemed very long....waiting to find out who and why was someone setting traps, carving on the trees and shooting at this group of women hikers. And guess what...you never find out. Totally open ended. I was soooo disappointed.

Well if 2020 isn't enough of an adrenaline ride for you then this book may do the trick, it's a cultish thriller/horror story about 4 lesbians that go on a guided hiking holidays in the woods. Everything starts well and then all of sudden bizarre signs are carved into trees and their horses and helpers go missing, until their main guide butch lesbian Roz tries to get them all to safety. Things go from bad to worse, whilst the tension totally builds, this is not for the faint hearted nor for reading late at night! The ending is a little abrupt, stopping and then an epilogue which leaves space for a sequel. The characters are a little less developed apart from the main friendship between Jill and Fiona. Here I must comment that in two out of the four new American lesbian books I've read recently the main character has a best friend who is absolutely awful to them and a major bully. I'm not sure if this is a reflection on the polarisation in US politics right now but as a trend I'm not sure it works. If it is meant to add narrative tension, it doesn't, because all I wonder is how and why on earth these people are friends. In this book Fiona is the main character with Jill as the bullying friend, their connection is a puzzle to me and almost takes away from the drama of the story. It's also hard to have empathy for a character as vile as Jill, the other couple barely feature and its hard to get a sense of them. As a horror/thriller the author builds tension well and makes you keep reading to find out what will happen next and if they'll ever escape this wood!

With thanks to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was okay. It was entertaining and kept me reading but I never really felt immersed or connected with the story. I was stuck at home today because we got over 3 feet of snow! This is the most snow, from one storm, in my lifetime. Just so you can picture it, the snow actually comes up past my waist. I had to tunnel out of the house and my road was so bad that the only vehicles on it all day were snowmobiles. My back and shoulders are killing me from shoveling and snow blowing so I’m a little grumpy tonight. The book was a nice distraction to take my mind off the aches and pains but it wasn’t what I was hoping for.

The funny thing is I feel like I read a different book than everyone else. Not in what I thought of the book, but what the book was actually about. Everyone is using the horror tag and even the paranormal tag and I’m left scratching my head. And when I say everyone I don’t just mean my friends and other reviewers, but even the publisher put those tags on. I just don’t get it because to me this is classic action/thriller. I didn’t really get the horror vibe from this and I saw nothing paranormal at all. Everything that happened could be explained so why is it paranormal? This book reminded me a bit of Gerri Hill’s The Target, Cari Hunter’s Desolation Point (I’m listening to the audio and am not finished yet so my opinion on the similarities could change), and it reminded me of Ice Tea’s 90s movie Surviving The Game. They are all classic action/thrillers to me and this book had that same feel. I think the most horror-ish thing about this book was the title. And actually the two horror/paranormal books Greene has written, Gnarled Hollow and Legacy, both I absolutely loved. So I’m going to stay in my own little world, by myself, and keep thinking that this was not horror/paranormal and then I can still say that I love all of Greene’s horror books.

I guess I should get to the review now after that rant. I’m late to this review so I have read many others and I agree with a lot of both the likes and dislikes that other reviewers mentioned. I personally have trouble with books where lots of stupid choices are made. They are going in the woods, on a special hike for two weeks with no civilization around, and their guide tells them no phones, GPS, watches, or anything. It was so ridiculous I had trouble getting over it. I can understand the phones since they would not work out there anyway (except you would think they would want to take pictures) but the rest was just too unrealistic. Even hikers going on just a day hike use things like emergency beacons. But in this book no GPS, no sat-phone, and no beacon, nothing for a professional guide to have. Someone could get bit by a snake, break their leg, have a heart attack, anything could happen and often does while hiking. I understand making the characters helpless for the story but do they have to make such dumb and unrealistic choices? Why not have the beacon’s batteries die. Have the sat-phone drop in the river and stop working, something like that would have such a better feel than dumb character choices. And of course shortly after this happened, the characters make a decision that is ten times worse than not bringing safety equipment. It was really hard for me to get past these awful choices.

Stupid choices make me think badly of the characters and it affects how I feel about them. Many reviewers have mentioned this already but one of the characters is horrible. Her mood swings make the story feel almost jittery, I wish I could better explain it, it’s just not pleasant to read her parts. I grew to like the two main characters but even that was a little difficult since one was a doormat for half the book. There is a slight romance and it’s very sweet, but this book should be read because you want to read a thriller, not a romance.

I think the last issue I had was the unanswered questions. The who, how, and why where the big three I was disappointed to not get an answer to. It’s funny but at the 95% mark I had this epiphany and thought I figured out this big twist and I was really excited. No, I actually was way wrong and unfortunately while the main story is resolved, important things are just left hanging. As I said they all had probably explanations so again the paranormal factors escape me but again not having answers is giving me this confusion.

This was not the horror book I thought I was getting but it was an okay action/thriller read. While sapphic horror is making a tiny rebirth, it is still way too few and far between in books. Greene did so well with Gnarled Hollow and Legacy that I truly hope she will keep writing in the horror/paranormal genre. This was just a bump, and actually I’m going to be weird and not even count it as horror anyway so I can still say she is 2/2.

From the Woods by Charlotte Greene begins with a group of friends taking their annual girls trip to a remote wooded forest that spans through Colorado and Wyoming for an epic hike. Their past vacations have always taken a turn for the worse and they are hoping this year will be an improvement. Enter foreshadowing!

Fiona our main character wants to bail on the trip, but she knows she can’t because her “bestie”, Jill is pretty much a bully and will force her hand to come along on the trip. You see for years, Fiona has had a crush on their mutual friend, Carol, but know Carol has married Sarah and will be bringing her wife along on the journey. So, all of this sounds like a really good time, yeah. Nope not a good time to be had I promise.

So, our group of four heads to the woods and meet with expect hiking guide, Roz and her crew. Roz and her team will be taking this band of friends into the forest for their adventure. Pretty much from night one, all hell breaks loose.

At times this book is downright creepy, definitely spooky and at times erratic. While the premise was intriguing, the plot had holes in it that were never resolved, and the character development left a lot to be desired. Other than surface emotions and personality traits, I never felt like I knew these characters. I for the life of me could not figure out why Fiona, Jill, Carol, and Sarah were friends, especially friends that take yearly vacations together. Roz is cool but you never get to know her and her attraction to Fiona felt forced.

This mystery could have been so much better than it turned out to be. You are just left with so many questions? I get that this may be the start of the series but After I finished the book I had no idea where this one left me. If you want some creepiness and don’t mind the romance being thin this is the book for you. 2.75 stars

“Sometimes the best things are hidden in plain sight. But don’t worry. Once you’re back in these woods, it’ll seem like you’re a million miles from anywhere.”

When 4 friends went on an expedition trip into a deep and untouched forest that welcomed only up to 8 persons via 6 permits a year, they believed it to be a trip of their lifetime. And it was, a trip that changed all their lives forever.

Fiona, the smallest in physique among the 4 friends, was roped into the trip by her manipulative best friend Jill. Lacking in athleticism, she was captivated by their guide, Roz, who was fit, confident and well versed in all her Amazonian glory. However, the deeper the group went, the more they were isolated, and without connectivity from civilisation, strange sightings and sounds started to play with their minds. Are Roz, her friends and Fiona prepared for what is coming for them? With a fight in their hands, can she really survive what’s out there?

The writing was fluid, the story was suspenseful, pulsating and left everything to the readers own imagination. A recommended read if you are up for it.

I just reviewed From the Woods by Charlotte Greene. #NetGalley

A group of friends known for their disastrous and unfortunate trips in the past agree to once again head out on vacation together. This time Fiona, Jill, Sarah and Carol agree to hike a protected and isolated region of forest stretching from Northern Colorado to Southern Wyoming.
Fiona would rather not go on the trip but is bullied by Jill to train for the hike. Fiona and her low self esteem are also worried her attraction to Carol might make things awkward now that Carol is married to Sarah. It turns out being attracted to Carol is one of the least awkward things about this book.

There are stories where you don’t connect with one character and it spoils the entire read. This was the case for me with Fiona’s friend Jill. Her wild swings of emotion drag down the story and disrupt what little plot is there. One moment she is confident and bossy and the next she is weeping and apologizing for her erratic behaviour. I was hoping the story would pit these friends against the dangers which lurk in the woods aided by their guide Roz. I was also hoping Fiona would discover the strengths she thought she lacked. A little romance with the tour guide would be the added bonus. There are some rushed romantic moments but they are overshadowed by Jill’s emotional outbursts, clunky dialogue and events which leave the reader with more questions than answers. A big plus is the author’s ability to ramp up tension. The mystery in the woods packs some teeth yet there is no resolution. Is this the first book in a series? If not, the plot holes and unbelievable events which occur in the woods are so far fetched they become laughable.

I admit my dislike of most things paranormal jades my opinion of this book. Those who are better able to suspend belief might find this an entertaining read. Four stars for the tension and promise of a mystery to unravel. Two stars for the one dimensional characters and the unresolved and often pointless things that go bump in the forest.

ARC received from publisher via NetGalley for review.