Just A Regular Boy is the latest heartwarming family drama from Catherine Ryan Hyde. Somehow she manages to publish two of these lovely stories every year, and this one doesn’t come out until May 2023, but I needed a guaranteed Good Read after slogging through my last book, and she’s the closest I know to a literary Sure Thing. Somehow she manages to take similar elements - a brave, thoughtful young person, a sad or challenging situation, a new friendship, and animals, and still keep her stories both haunting and hopeful. I read this in less than a day and once more fell in love with her characters.

Rémy is only five when his paranoid widowed survivalist father Roy takes him to live in a remote cabin in the Idaho wilderness, to escape the “conflagration” he’s sure is coming. For a while they do manage to live in complete isolation, but then Roy dies, and Remy is left on his own. When he finally runs out of food, he is forced to venture back into the civilisation he’s been taught to fear. Injured, mute and terrified, he needs a protector. Luckily, a few hours away in Boise, experienced foster mother Anne has decided she needs to find another child to rescue, in spite of her rocky marriage. With patience, kindness and love, two wounded souls will help each other heal.

“There was a hole in “home.” It felt as though this odd little adventure was her best shot at filling that hole, though she knew in her conscious brain that the hole was in her, and not in the house or the family.”

This is told from Rémy and Anne’s alternating viewpoints. The first chapters are tough to read - I felt so angry at Roy, for willingly inflicting such a harsh environment on a young child, but you know from the blurb that Roy’s not going to survive. He’s not abusive, just deluded, but his neglect makes for harrowing scenes. Anne’s an interesting character - initially prickly and one track minded with her saviour complex, but my sympathies grew as we learn what made her so driven to welcome damaged children into her home. The relationship with her husband Chris was believable and moving: “ “I know how important it is to you,” he said. In that moment it came into Anne’s head, for the first time in a very long time, that her marriage might just be strong enough to hold up after all.” And I loved the way Remy’s new adopted siblings take him under their wing, and the smart kindly therapist Dr Klausner.

There weren’t any great surprises as to how this would turn out, but she manages to include a number of serious topics without this becoming depressing or dull. It’s set during the first year of the pandemic, and includes relevant details without dwelling on it. As ever, the young central character can seem too good to be true - the pace of Remy’s recovery was somewhat hard to believe, but hey, it’s Christmas and I enjoyed the warm fuzzies.
4.5 rounded up. Thanks to NetGalley and Lake House Publishing for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily. Just A Regular Boy is published on May 2nd.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the copy of Just a Regular Boy. A new book by Catherine Ryan Hyde is always a treat for me so I was excited to read this one. The beginning, when Remy is just five years old and he and his survivalist dad attempt to live off the grid, is harrowing. I stuck with the book, knowing Hyde would have a positive, hopeful spin on the story. I loved how this was a pandemic story, with Covid woven subtly and skillfully into the storyline. I also appreciated how we were told how much time passed between scenes, so we got an idea of how long the rehabilitation was taking.
As usual, the characters were vivid and easy to connect with. Parts are heartbreaking, but if you’re looking for an ultimately heartwarming story of human resilience and kindness, you should read this book. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Out there is chaos, the collapse of society, and so much to be afraid of. All that matters is freedom.
An orphaned boy raised by a survivalist wends his way into the real world in an emotional novel about hope, fears, and found family.

The moment I read the description, I knew I needed to read this. The concept was great and as much as I wanted to enjoy it, I had to skip some parts. The concept was great, but sadly, I had to drag myself through it.

Maybe sometime in future, I would love to give this another try.

This book is based on dystopian misery and is written in a third person but with dual POV of Remy and Anne.

Remi was five years old when his mother died and his survivalist father took him to live out of no where in the woods near Canadian border far away from his home Pocatello.
To the readers who don't know what survivalist means, it means a person who stockpiles weapons and food for the apocalypse and who thinks world especially government is coming to take away their guns and freedom.
So his father, Roy Blake tries to imbibe things into young Remi in his own way. Like he doesn't want Remi to call him dad but Roy since he thinks Remi is his equal and not his son which I think is downright cruel to Remi because he is just a five year old who needs his father after his mother's tragedy and should be expected to be a grown up equal.
At some point while reading the book I felt like I could not continue reading it and I needed a break from all the emotional distress the boy had to go through.
Life is double edged sword and it is not all about just happiness, warmth and love but also about pain, sufferings, confusion and helplessness.
One cannot avoid the otherside of it completely and the author has done a very fine job of describing his misery and confusion.
Due to his father's unexpected death and other series of fortunate events, Anne becomes Remi's foster mom and he eventually realises his father teachings and thought process was wrong.

There are several aspects or matters discussed in the book which makes you actually pause and think it through it which is really insightful and brainstorming experience. The extract of one such case is when Anne tries to explain 'approaching strangers for help' to Remi:
"See, now I would tell you just the opposite. I would tell you if your were in trouble to go to a police officer, but maybe not just a random stranger. But, anyway, here's the point I am trying to make. He was right to tell you not to talk to strangers. Anybody in their right mind would teach their kid not to talk to strangers, because now and then a stranger can be terribly dangerous for a child. So I am not going to tell you 'No that was wrong'. What I am going to tell you is .................... that was too much fear of strangers. If you are in that much danger, the stranger would have been better bet. There's such a thing as too much fear, but there's also not enough fear, and somehow we have to find the right spot in the middle."

I really loved the way author has narrated sensitive matters in the book and her approach to getting issues resolved.
This book is highly recommended to readers who like a little of dystopia with intense emotions, connection and a HEA.

This was my second new Catherine Ryan Hyde novel THIS WEEK! And in danger of being repetitive, I must wonder again at how she does it. Each novel has relatable characters and kindhearted ones. Each novel tells a message story, each one is well written and gripping. Keep 'em coming, Catherine. I will read them.

Remy' is a five year old boy whose father, a survivalist, has taken him to live off the grid in a forest in Northern Idaho. The isolation is hard on both, made harder by the boy's being instructed to trust no one, especially no one with a uniform who could be from the government. How the boy becomes a feral survivor is a large part of his tale.

Obviously written during the height of the Covid pandemic, ryan Hyde inserts masking and hospital overcrowding.

Anne is a foster mother of two children she and her husband Chris have adopted. A third child was taken back by her mother and Anne is anxious to replace the third child in the family. Chapter alternate with Remy and Anne's perspectives. There is psychology (a wonderful therapist), fear, deprivation, pain, and deeply felt emotions. There is even an effort to understand mass shootings and fear of what the world is coming to.

It would have been a Five Star rating but for the sermonizing about the innate goodness of some people and the hard to believe Remy's suffering and yet miraculous recovery and eventual happy solution.

Thanks Lake Union Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book when the library was not open.