Veronica gets a DNA kit as a gift and discovers that she is adopted. She decides to visit the countries of her ancestry and spends several weeks in Europe, going to Ireland, France, Italy and more. As she is a food consultant for restaurants, there is a lot of detail about the meals she has in each setting and the culture of each place.
Thank you to NetGalley for the e-book.

A wonderful story about family, healing, finding your path and how our journeys are supported by friends and family! While we travel with Veronica on an ancestral journey to Ireland, France, Copenhagen, Denmark and Italy with beautiful scenery, we are also treated to culinary delights in each destination. Then there's magical realism to boot which takes us on a journey back in time. This book feeds the soul and mind making a most enjoyable and relaxing read. You can bet I'll be searching for more from this brilliant author. My thanks to Harper Muse for providing a review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book held so much promise - a young woman finding her roots, travel to far away places, food and a touch of magic. It started off strong but quickly fell off for me. The writing style, dialogue and descriptions did not work well. This ended up being a “did not finish” for me.

Thank you net galley for giving me this opportunity to read 'The Wandering Season'.
I have thouroghly enjoyed reading this book.
Veronica is in essance a foodie. She has her own company "The Kitchen Muse" which she sources ingredients for other restaurants.
Her family - parents, sister and best friend think she should open her own restaurant.
At Chistmas Veronica's sister gives each of them a gift for doing a DNA test.
Veronica did hers and it came back as she had suspected in high school.
Avery, Veronica's sister gives her a month in Europe - Ireland, France, Italy and Denmark.
In Ireland Veronica meets Niall as Avery did all the arrangements of where she was to stay.
Veronica had visions of people who lived many years ago at each of the countries that she visited.
These are my own opinions. Again thank you net galley.

This was such a fun read! I enjoyed journeying along with Veronica as she explored her roots. Ireland, France, Italy, and Denmark were featured along with culinary delights, a little romance, and self-reflection. Reminiscent of Eat, Pray, Love, but better. Definitely grab this one for your summer read!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

The Wandering Season capitalizes on the magical beauty of travel, food, and love, delivering a compelling novel. Readers join Veronica on a beautiful, atmospheric journey to self-understanding. Aimie Runyan crafts rich descriptions of the setting and food, alluring the senses with details that transport you along Veronica's life and travels. The otherworldly dimension added by her visions of the past keeps the ethereal feel and adds a rich contextual layer to Veronica's history and character growth.

My only regret is not reading this as soon as I got it!

5 stars

Wandering for a season can lead to truths being revealed, new paths opening up and dreams coming true in the most delicious and beautiful ways.

Pursuing the unknown in her life led Veronica to answers she needed, fulfilling life enhancing relationships and a beautiful season of wandering. Imagine the possibilities…

Finding herself at a crossroads in her life, Veronica had choices to make. I am happy to report that she chose very well. Visiting a storied Irish castle opened the door to many new and needed experiences. Listening to the echoes from the past helped to sort out her current life and maybe even her future too.

Dreams weren’t just dreamt, they were brought to life and nurtured. I loved the elements of magical realism that were sprinkled throughout this delightful book. Veronica learned that wins are still wins, whether big or small and to not let anyone worry the joy out of the small wins.

Reading this book added a good measure of joy to my life.

Words came together in such a beautiful way to tell a story that I will remember for a long time. I really loved this book!

I received copies of this book from Harper Muse through UpLit Reads and NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All thoughts expressed in this review are mine.

Before going any further I hope the blurb gets corrected. She didn't go on her travels with an engagement ring. She was getting over the breakup of her relationship!

The things I liked about this book I really liked. For example, I absolutely loved the dialogue and the relationships between the main character, Veronica, and her sister and best friend. It felt completely authentic and natural.

I loved the parts about food and cooking and ingredients. I'm not a foodie by any means, but I enjoy reading about it.

I liked the DNA and adoption storyline and thought it was handled realistically.

What I wasn't keen on were the visions. They seemed off, somehow, too much like watching a video excerpt rather than an actual vision would feel. And although it was explained that Veronica had rusty school girl level French to explain how she could follow a fluent French conversation in one vision, it wasn't explained how she could understand the Italian dialogue in the next.

Other than that I enjoyed the book and it had a lovely ending.

This is another story I have really enjoyed.
Veronica Stratton life revolved around food, Veronica is a A specialty food broker, who loved to find good quality specialty food mainly for restaurants, and sales agent for finding and distributing food to her clients.
On a trip to visit her parents and sister for Christmas, and freshly out of a long term relationship, Veronica is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
Her sister as a Christmas present gives Veronica a DNA kit, which is the start to new discoveries. Growing up she had often thought she might have been adopted, but never said anything, and now it was out in the open.
Her sister and her best friend bought her a trip to the where most of her DNA ancestors had come from. So she had a month to visit four country's for one week each, Ireland, France, Italy and Denmark. For the most part small rural towns with a lot oh history. In all of the stops she had some magical visits from people who had lived in these homes, centuries or decades ago. She needed to find out how she was related to these people.
This was a story of self discoveries, love, food, Travel, friendships etc..
Great story and wonderful characters to enjoy.
I would like to thank NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for a copy of this book.

This was such an intriguing story as Veronica needed to figure out what she truly wanted out of life. I think so many of us do one of two things -

1. Go down the path our parents/loved ones want us to go down because we’ve been talking about that path since youth.
2. Think we know what we want and so we just go with it because we think it makes us happy.

Then we’re given an opportunity (or in Veronica’s case slightly forced lol), and we not only discover we were wrong in the path we chose, but we discover what truly will make us happy in an unexpected way. It could be in love, work, or simply way of life. I really enjoyed following Veronica’s journey in that. Runyan did a wonderful job at showing how we can get complacent in our lives, and sometimes having it shook up a little bit is truly for our benefit.

Some of my favorite parts of the book were of course when Niall was on the page. Not just the romance, but the food! I mean my stomach was basically growling the entire time I was reading it. But yeah, Niall was a great guy. Patient, charming, and just wonderful. But I’m glad that Runyan gave his character a pause if you will, and then focused on the time Veronica spent with her friend and sister. I think that was equally important to her character arc.

The Wandering Season is full of romance, self discovery, great food, and wonderful friendships. I recommend to readers who are looking for a beautifully written women’s fiction story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I was not required to write a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Content warning: There is some mild language (not a ton).

The Wandering Season is a perfect title for this wandering journey of a book. It is a slowly meandering story as our main characters travels to Ireland, France and Italy as she uncovers some answers from her past. I enjoyed all the food references and the slightly magical elements. I appreciated that the romance was mature and respectful. There is no crass language nor descriptive intimate scenes I enjoyed the portions with Niall in Ireland more than the others but that is only because of personal nostalgia.
I recommend this one if you are looking for a comforting, character driven story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book was not quite what I expected, but it was still good and the writing was really beautiful but so much of the story was just not as enjoyed by me!

A DNA kit is what leads to Veronica "chasing her DNA" so to speak - she travels to Europe to find where she belongs and then it was just... odd, with more questions than answers. The magic felt really surreal and there wasn't enough understanding of how any of it was working, so I really struggled to read through. The romance was also just not it - I LOVED their connection over food, and all of the food chats and cooking scenes, but just because you are a lover of rich & wonderful food doesn't mean you are soulmates.

Did Veronica REALLY wantto open that restaurant? Or was she just bullied into it? Cause it felt much more like bullying and uh - that's a no from me.

Overall the beautiful writing is what kept me turning the pages, and I'm eager to big up the author's prior work as it really touched my soul!

This story was so evocative with learning of being adopted and traveling to find out about Veronica's ancestry.
I love the romance mixed in, and was satisfied with how everything tied together.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC

One can only imagine having their family insist and pay for a trip to Europe to “find oneself” and possibly some history that links to their recent DNA findings. “The Wandering Season” by Author Aimee K. Runyan is a beautiful read of exquisite food, luscious landscape, designer fashion and family rich with unbound love.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Just when you think one’s life could implode, this was not the case for Veronica. Despite a recent breakup from her long time boyfriend, she travels back home to Estes, Colorado to embrace the solace of her family for the Holidays. Her younger sister has a surprise gift for the family , a DNA test. It’s all the rage and why not!. Veronica’s intuitions are found to be accurate in that she always wondered why she never had a picture from the hospital and why she was the only one in the family with bright red hair.

After grasping this information and processing it in sorts, Veronica’s family were so worried about her. They thought the best thing they could do would be to send her to seek out her history and her genealogy. After much encouragement, she decided to set out on this trip to Ireland, France, Italy, and Denmark, and along the way she not only found herself, but an Irish castle keeper, Niall that embraced her from day one. Along her travels, she would see “visions” of families and situations she needed to piece together and see how they related to her own story that she was trying to unfold.

This book left me hungry for decadent food, and a heart full of love for Veronica’s family and her future. An entertaining read, I highly recommend.
Thank you @harpermuse for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have not read anything by this author before, and was drawn to this book based upon the reviews. I struggled to get into it, and then once I got past the first couple of chapters and she started interacting with ghosts I was out. Not for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book even though I didn’t like it.

I fell into Victoria’s life as soon as I began reading. Learning her heritage was so intriguing & getting the opportunity to travel across the world to explore it is a dream I also hold.
The wonderful adventures she has, the foods she discovers, the people she meets & all of this related to who she is are nothing short of remarkable. I flew through this stunning novel, pulled into Aimie K. Runyan’s writing with fervor.

Thank you so much, Aimie K. Runyan, Harper Muse books, Harper Collins Focus, netgalley, & Uplit Reads for my early gifted copy!

Another winner from Aimie Runyan! I absolutely loved this book all the way down to my toes. It ticked all the boxes for me--an adoption/family history plotline intertwined with a love letter to food and travel, a smart, savvy woman trying to find her true path, a healthy dose of magical realism, and a wee bit of romance. The prose flowed smoothly, the characters were well-developed, and the pace was perfect. The descriptions of the places and the food were such that I felt like I was right there with Veronica, seeing the sights-- I could almost taste and smell the delicious food! My only complaint is that Denmark was short-changed. I would have liked it if she had stayed and immersed herself in the culture there as she did in the other locations. Even so, I highly recommend this one! Between The Memory of Lavender and Sage and this one, I'm not sure which is my favorite, but I will definitely read whatever she writes next!

Veronica Stratton, The Kitchen Muse, is a food broker, or food matchmaker between restaurants and food suppliers in Denver, CO, also freshly broken up with her boyfriend of four years. An ancestry DNA Christmas gift from her sister leads to a winter trip to Ireland, France, and Italy for a week each, to try to learn some family history. But she also happens to find a very handsome castle keeper in Ireland who has more in common than she ever could have expected, and may be worth staying for.
Then Veronica starts seeing visions of women in dire circumstances in the places she's visiting, women who may be her ancestors, and who also may be able to help her figure out which direction to go with her life.

Part foodie travel trip, part personal ancestry mystery, part empowering magical realism, The Wandering Season is for fans of any of these elements. It's romantic, fun, and will leave you craving delicious pastries, ravioli, creme brulee, and a visit to a castle or an old bookshop.

I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are solely mine and do not reflect the author, publisher, or affiliates.

How to you double rate a book? This is one of those books that needs a rating for what it COULD have been, and then for what it is. Sigh. The concept was great, and initially I thought it was heading in the right direction, with Veronica looking for family along the way of each location her sister booked for her, or at least for exploring places her family was from...nope. And there is the rub. Instead we get echoes of the past aka visions, that give Veronica some 'family lore' and along the way tidy up her personality to make her a stronger version. Buzzzzzzz. Please re-edit the book- take that stuff out, add in some contact with living breathing family that could show her the same strengths and the book might head back to 5 star land. But the vision stuff just makes you roll your eyes by the second instance and loose all substance with the book. SOOO much is missed on the adoption angle until the very end, and it just gets tied up in a bow. If you like books all over the place- rom com, family drama, mystical, fictionized history, then this book will appeal. Solid 3, but coulda been a 5.

I have only read one previous Aimie K. Runyan novel, but after reading The Wandering Season, I wish I had read all of her novels. I really enjoyed The Wandering Season, with its nicely developed characters and well thought out plot. The basic story is a late coming of age novel focused on Veronica, who is already in her mid 20s before she undertakes her journey into what for her will be the perfect life. The Wandering Season, is also a romantic travelogue, with terrific food descriptions and so many tasty details that readers will likely want to cook their way through this novel.

I enjoyed the magical realism, which included some insightful echoes from the past, which include messages for the future. The focus on small villages, rather than large cities, made this a far more enjoyable travelogue. Meeting small town life and people and events brings a degree of realism to this novel. The Wandering Season, is a well-plotted down to earth bit of storytelling.

Thank you to Harper Collins Focus and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I did enjoy this novel and could barely stand to put it down. I am obviously recommending The Wandering Season.

5 stars