The Trail of Lost Hearts

Wren Waters is adrift in her grief after a couple life-altering events that have shattered her trust in men.  With prodding from her best friend, she finally gets back out into the world and discovers a love for geocaching.*

During a solo geocaching trip to Oregon, Wren meets Marshall Hendricks, a kind and handsome psychologist and fellow geocacher who comes to her rescue in a dangerous moment. When he suggests they team up on their quests for the week, she finally agrees. She doesn’t know that Marshall is also grieving a major loss. Perhaps fate has brought them together?

As they get to know one another and Wren shares more about what’s happened to her, she finds a sympathetic and supportive friend in Marshall and a small spark of hope for the future. Unfortunately, the more she opens up and talks about her grief, the more Marshall seems to shut down about his. 

As they grow closer, will Marshall ever let his guard down about his past? Furthermore, can they realistically have a future together? I’ll just say that things get very complicated on the path to those answers, but I enjoyed their journey!

This is my first read by Tracey Garvis Graves and it was such a touching and sweet story! It highlighted grief and healing in a way that felt genuine, which made me care for both Wren and Marshall.  Their relationship was believable, and it was so refreshing to see two MCs with flaws and vulnerabilities. Their journey was messier, but also more relatable than a typical romance. I also liked that they were in their mid-thirties, which gave the story a welcome maturity.

My one and only complaint is that the dialogue occasionally felt oddly formal and unnatural to how people actually talk.  This has happened for me before in books by Isabelle Allende and Jodi Picoult, where the author has important ideas they want to share about certain topics - in this case grief - but it sounds like exposition on that topic being awkwardly forced into dialogue. Thankfully, MOST of the time that wasn’t the case - it just stood out when it was.

All in all, I really liked this and would gladly read another book by this author! I recommend this to those who enjoy a gentle romance with emotional heft, and who don’t mind a little open-door spice!

★★★★ 

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and author Tracey Garvis Graves for this digital ARC to honestly review. It’s due to be published on March 26, 2024.

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*Geocaching is an outdoor activity that involves using an app and GPS coordinates to locate caches of hidden items.