In an effort to escape his family, Dylan decides to hike the Appalachian trail—but he never expected to run into love.
Dylan Taggart is on the run. His family is trying to put him in a school for psychologically challenged students, and he gets it—he has anger issues. But Believers Charter School is a complete overreaction. So he decides a six-month hike on the Appalachian Trail is the perfect place to hide out until he can legally drop out of school.
Dylan wanted independence, but being alone on the trail is more than he bargained for. Then he meets a mysterious hiker named Sophie, and the two begin to develop a bond he never expected. But will love be enough to escape what they're both running from?
Flo's Review
Stacie Ramey is participating in a book festival I'm attending next weekend, so I wanted to read one of her books before I go. The Secrets We Bury was my top choice, because I grew up in Tennessee, right in the valley of the Appalachians. Plus, I was just here over the Christmas holiday break:
First, let's discuss this cover. No. Sorry. It looks like they just tried to find a stock image photo that maybe could work with the story and this one was close enough. Except, it's not close at all. It's way off for many different reasons, but I don't think it's essential to this review to get into them. Luckily, I did not judge the book by its cover in this instance.
I really enjoyed Dylan's arc in this story. It was very realistic and so well done. In my professional life, I've come to understand individuals who experience the world the way that Dylan does, and again -- Stacie Ramey did a fantastic job getting inside his head. And as the story progressed, we, the reader, got to see how he was growing -- it was hard, and he struggled with it and failed many times, but in the end he was stronger. It was just so heartwarming.
This storyline was also addictive. I just kept flipping the pages because I wanted to see if Dylan got to this person or that person in time. Another really cool thing about this was learning about hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was really cool to learn about trail names, trail magic, all of it.
I loved that one of Dylan's struggles was interacting with people in a way that he thought was appropriate, and yet these people who normally didn't open themselves up to others did to him.
Overall, I really enjoyed this trip on the Appalachian Trail with Dylan, and I'm looking forward to meeting Stacie next weekend and telling her so!
