Run for the Hills is the third book I have read by Kevin Wilson. I enjoyed Nothing to See Here and Now Is Not the Time to Panic . Much like his previous books, this one has quirky, lovable characters. The story starts out with 30-something-year-old Tennessee farmer Madeline "Mad" Hill getting a surprise visit from her half-brother Rube, whom she never knew existed. It seems that their father has made a habit out of having children, raising them for 10 years or so, and then abandoning them and their mothers as he made his way across the country, reinventing himself along the way. Mad agrees to take a road trip with Rube to meet their other half siblings and hopefully catch up with their dad to ask him why he left them all. The story started strong, though unbelievable, but it quickly became a bit of a slog. You have to completely suspend all reality with this one. The humor at the beginning didn't last, and things just got more and more far-fetched as the story went along. The ending felt abrupt and unsatisfying.

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for a review copy of Run for the Hills.

I adore Kevin Wilson! He always brings together a group of people that are different but discovering more about themselves.

Madeline "Mad" Hill works the organic farm with her mother. A farm started by her mother and father but he left years before without a word. She often thinks of him but none more than when a man pulls up to the house in a PT Cruiser (a big joke in the book). He says he is Rueben "Rube" Hill and he is her half brother. Their father did the same to he and his mom but Rube has been searching for him since his mother died. So not only does Mad find out she has an older brother, she finds out there are more of them. The PI has found a sister Pepper "Pep" in college in Oklahoma and a younger brother Theron "Tom" in Utah. Rube wants Mad to travel with him to meet their siblings and confront their father in California. Their dad had an affinity to nicknames. He also recreated himself in each family.

The trip is funny and enlightening and when they reach their final destination, they find one more sibling with their father. Will there be forgiveness and understanding? You will just have to find out.

There was not one page that I turned that I could not wait to see where it went. I loved all the siblings and their differences and their similarities. So well written.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for a copy for review.

I should preface this by saying that I will literally read anything Kevin Wilson writes. So, when this book came up on my NetGalley feed, I jumped. At first, I was reminded of a book I read a couple of years ago called The Catch, by Allison Fairbrother, which also told the story of an errant, misunderstood father. But soon after I had that thought (and racked my brain to remember the similar plot), I realized this was going in a completely different direction. (I'm including this note to spare you the time I wasted on that rabbit hole.)

As I've come to love in Wilson's stories, his cast of characters is always quirky, but also, always pushing the boundaries of what I would consider quirky. One minute they are essentially unmoved, the next they're weeping mournfully or whooping with glee. They have powers that are not necessarily super, but they are all preternaturally gifted in odd and wonderful ways. This novel is a rollicking sibling-roadtrip-quest as only Wilson could write it, and I was so very glad to be along for the ride.

Absolutely adored this book. As other reviews I've read mentioned, the ending seems a bit anticlimactic, but I think to me, it was really the only acceptable answer? My head was spinning in other ways it could've ended--either gently or dramatically, but I found myself content with it.

The more I read of Kevin Wilson, the more he's becoming a must-read author for me. So many times I'll find myself laughing at something totally preposterous that seemingly comes out of left field. Though vaaastly different, reading his works to me gives me a comfort that I find in Fredrik Backman's writing. It's different and memorable and fun and also devastating.

Mad Hill and her mom have been working their farm in Tennessee for 20 years, since the day her day left them without a word. But she's okay. Then Rube shows up to the farm in a PT cruiser and tells Mad that she is his half-sister. He also was left behind by their father. But he hired a detective to track down his dad and discovered there are more half-siblings. He convinces Mad to go on a road trip to meet them and find their dad. As you would expect from Kevin Wilson, this book is full of fun, quirky characters, the storyline is intriguing - their dad seemingly became a new man each time he left his family. We learn the whole story. And as dysfunctional and chaotic as it is, they realize they are family - and a much larger more interesting family than they could have imagined.

A different take on found family. Follow the Hill family as they find each other on a journey to find the mysterious man who was their father. I enjoyed this quirky story. Probably my favorite Kevin Wilson novel yet!

Kevin Wilson has really set a high bar for himself. I love his magical cozyish writing. If I had not read Wilson’s books Now Is Not the Time to Panic, and Nothing to See Here, I would have rated this one higher. And it’s not the story or the writing. It’s great! I just didn’t find this one as inspiring and hopeful as his others. This one is sadder. That’s all.

This found family in the truest sense. Rube shows up on Max’s farm and declares himself her half sibling. And he wants to road trip with her across the country to confront the father that left each of them decades ago. Oh, and they need to pick up a couple more siblings along the way. Mad is rocked by this story of the father that loved her and then left and she agrees to go. This book is all about the journey and the found family. (The destination fell a little flat in comparison, but that’s on purpose.) I loved the journey and wanted more journey. Definitely a must read if you enjoy Wilson’s other works. If you are new to Kevin Wilson, I’d read one of his others first. Then come back to this one.

Thank you netgalley and eccobooks for the advance digital copy. All opinions are mine!

Five stars! This book was such a delight.

Mad and her mom have been running their little farm for 20 years, just the two of them, when a guy shows up out of nowhere and says he’s her half-brother. Turns out their dad had a whole other life, and now there are more surprise siblings to find. So obviously… road trip.

It’s funny, heartwarming, and just the right amount of weird. I was smiling at the book the whole time and even laughed out loud more than once—thankfully from the safety of my own house. Every sibling is their own flavor of quirky and chaotic, and I loved them all. The dynamic was so good it made me want to text my own siblings just to say hi.

The audiobook is excellent, too. This would be perfect to listen to on a summer road trip with snacks and zero expectations.

I won’t spoil anything, but there are definitely a few moments where I just sat there thinking, “wait… what??” in the best possible way.

Loved this one.

Thank you Ecco books for the free book to review.

His name was Charles Hill. Or Chuck, or Chip, or Carl, depending on the profession or the phase of his life he was in. About every decade, Charles decided to disappear from the life he was living and reinvent another one. What he left behind were children from four different lives, including Madeline (Mad), a 32-year old woman running the family organic farm with her mother. Her staid life is upended when her 40-year-old half brother stops at the farm stand and introduces himself. Mystery author Reuben (Rube) Hill just lost his mother in Boston and hired a private investigator to find is long lost father, jack of many trades and nicknamer extraordinaire. He tells Mad what he found instead were two sisters and a brother spread across the country and he invites her on a road trip in a rented PT Cruiser to collect them all (and any others that may turn up) and confront the runaway father they shared. Eventually joined by 20-something Pepper (Pep) and 11-year-old Theron (Tom), the four newly minted siblings not only try to piece together their histories and figure out the story of their mystery absent father, they bond over them in ways that take them by surprise.

Kevin Wilson, whose previous works include The Family Fang and Nothing to See Here, excellently writes memorable, quirky characters who are at times hilarious when they are not tugging on my heart strings. Run for the Hills was a fun read once I got past the speed with which each character accepts the idea that their father could have other families and jump into a vehicle with these strangers. But I also get that they want answers from their father as badly as the others. I enjoyed the idea that each character lives in cities that span the country, which lead to each child chronologically. I also celebrate that many of the characters were unique individuals, whether attributed to personally or neurodivergence. Overall, Run for the Hills is a fun, quirky read.

Thank you to HarperCollins for the e-ARC of this book through NetGalley, which I received for my honest review.

#RunfortheHills #NetGalley #kevinwilson #books #bookreview #bookreviewer #bookstagram #nerdventureswithbooks

I finished this one several days ago and still am not quite sure what I think of it. I read "Nothing to See Here" and loved it so it wasn't necessarily Wilson's writing style that left me unsettled. Given my experience, I'll review this with some pro and cons...

Pros:
- Quirky characters that were flawed but lovable
- Unexpected humor (PT Cruiser thread)
- Found family (that is actually family in most cases but they were previously unaware the others existed)

Cons:
- I'm not sure the story really resolved anything
- Dragged at times and I slogged through it
- I had a hard time buying into the father's basketball storyline

I think this might be a case of picking up the wrong book for me at the time and I may revisit this one at another point when I may be able to better enjoy it.

Overall: 3.25/5 rounded down

Kevin Wilson does such a great job writing the bizarre ins and outs of families, found and otherwise. The premise was as delightful as it was ridiculous, and I loved every single character in the book. Just perfect.

A fun return to the writing world of Kevin Wilson. Once again he produces a cast of quirky but loveable characters, this time in the form of half-siblings who never knew any of the others existed. While the ending left me wanting a little more resolution, I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent tagging along on this quirky roadtrip.

Madeline and her mother run a farm in Tennessee. Her father abandoned them years ago, “Mad” learned to accept her life and move on.
One day, a strange guy in a PT Cruiser shows up at the farm claiming to be Mad’s half-brother. Reuben “Rube” tells Mad there are other siblings. He invites her on a road trip to meet them, and hopefully they can track down and meet their father.
They want answers!
This is a story about being isolated and alone one day then discovering you have a beautiful family the next day!
Each character has their quirks, but none of them ever thought they would have a big family to lean on.
Run for the Hills is about finding family and bonding with them. It’s about learning to trust and allowing yourself to be vulnerable. It’s about siblings bonding and discovering they actually love each other.
This is fun-filled book with some emotional detours. It’s a feel-good summer story. It’s about the beauty of finding family-under surprising circumstances!

A book about siblings who thought they were their parent's only child, until they discovered each other. Rube, the oldest, decides after his mother has passed away, that he is going to find the father that walked away from him and his mom. He hires a detective and discovers there are at least 3 more siblings. As he journeys to find them, he finds that the man who was his father was a man who couldn't ever accept responsibility and stay in one place, and not only that but he changed his entire identity with each new place.

The story is full of humor, sad moments, angry moments and detailed descriptions as the siblings travel to meet their father.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kevin Wilson and Ecco publishing for my ARC.

I want to live inside this authors brain for a day. He writes the most realistically complex characters in asinine situations, and it’s so compellingly readable.

I was excited to read Run for the Hills, Kevin Wilson's latest novel. Having discovered Wilson when someone in my book club selected "Nothing to See Here," I became an instant fan. "Nothing to See Here" tells the story of Lillian, a young woman hired by her friend Madison to care for twin stepchildren with an unusual condition: they spontaneously combust when agitated, their skin bursting into flames. This peculiar premise is Wilson's style. He is strange, and "Run for the Hills" continues his resume.

The story opens with Madeline "Mad" Hill, a 32-year-old organic farmer in Tennessee. Her solitary but content life is upended when Reuben "Rube" Hill, a 44-year-old writer from Boston, appears at her farm. He reveals that he is her half-sibling, and their shared father—who abandoned them decades ago—left behind a trail of other half-siblings across America. Rube wants Mad to join him on a cross-country road trip to meet their siblings and confront their father, who now lives in California.

Mad agrees (naturally, or we wouldn't have a story), and the two pile into a rented PT Cruiser (an odd but fitting choice) to begin their journey. Their duo grows into a trio, then a quartet from Oklahoma to Utah. The beauty lies in their differences—each sibling varies wildly in age and interests—while their shared experience of abandonment and lingering questions about their father bind them together.

Each scene sparkles with Wilson's trademark blend of humor and heart, melancholy and absurdity. The dialogue is whip-smart, and the banter sizzles. While abandonment is a rather serious issue, the book maintains a lighthearted tone through hijinks and bizarre road trip adventures. Though Rube's success in convincing his siblings might seem unlikely, the story's swift and delightful pace makes it believable.

I found how quickly the siblings develop protective relationships with one another to be very touching; their "found family" dynamic is sincere and relatable. It evokes Little Miss Sunshine vibes, exploring themes of family, self-acceptance, and finding meaning in life's absurdities. If you’re up for something strange, something that balances humor with emotional depth, then, well, “Run for the Hills.”

First of all, I was surprised at how not "strange" this book was. I have never read another Kevin Wilson book but my understanding is that they are usually quite peculiar and have strange, unnatural aspects. "Run for the Hills" is much more grounded. The strangest part of this book is how strange the narrator believes herself to be, when in reality she lives a fairly straightforward life. With that being said, the characters are loveable and interesting. The ending is a little unfulfilling but not necessarily in a negative way, more so in a realistic way. Humorous at times, this book definitely has cozy vibes and I wonder if the audiobook would make for the perfect road-trip listen.

2025 has indeed been a tearjerker year, and it’s absolutely the year of the road trip story.

QOTD: What’s a 2025 bookish trend you’ve noticed?

Here’s another quirky book full of lovable, unique characters to follow along on the journey:

𝙍𝙪𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨
by Kevin Wilson
253 pages
@eccobooks
Thank you @jointertulia for the finished copy!

Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely, she sometimes admits, and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.
This one has more of an understated humor and less sarcasm than the Road to Tender Hearts, but I fell for this cast of characters just as hard.
Great beach read.

#currentlyreading
#bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram

Whenever I pick up a Kevin Wilson book, I already know that I will be in for a zany and wild ride through a weird yet heartfelt story alongside a cast of characters who are quirky and eccentric, but in a loveably delightful way. In this instance, the “ride” is a literal one, as the central premise revolves around a road trip that four half-siblings embark upon to locate their long-lost father.

Madeline “Mad” Hill’s solitary yet “okay” life living on a farm with her mother in Coalfield, Tennessee is suddenly upended when a young man named Reuben (nickname “Rube”) shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her half-brother. As it turns out, their father, Charles Hill, is a serial abandoner – he walked out on Rube and his mother 30 years ago, changing his name and starting a new life on a farm with Mad’s mother, only to walk out on her and Mad 10 years later. But Rube and Mad weren’t the only ones abandoned – their father actually did the same thing two more times after them, leaving behind a college-age daughter named Pepper (“Pep” for short) in Oklahoma and an eleven-year-old son named Theron (who goes by “Tom”) in Utah. Rube invites Mad to accompany him on a cross-country trek to not only find their other siblings, but also try to locate their father so they can confront him and get answers. Though Mad thinks this is a crazy idea, she ultimately agrees to go with Rube and together, they set off on a road trip unlike any other. When Rube and Mad locate their other siblings and trade stories about their father, they are shocked to discover that he took on an entirely different persona with each “new life” he started. These facts about their father, along with other secrets they uncover, deepen the siblings’ determination to find their father and figure out what exactly is going on (and perhaps more importantly – why??).

I will admit that, at first, when I read this outlandish premise, I honestly wasn’t sure if it was going to work, as it sounded a bit too off-the-wall to me. But then I remembered that this is Kevin Wilson – an author who has the unique talent of taking the zaniest of premises and turning them into fun, delightful, emotionally nuanced stories that may not always be believable, but are always full of humor and heart. I loved the four siblings at the center of the story and was truly moved by their earnest efforts in trying to navigate their newfound sibling relationship while at the same time reconciling the impact of their father’s actions on their lives. With that said, I’m not really sure how I feel about the ending – I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t say too much here, but I think this is an area that would make a good (and interesting) topic of discussion.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and highly entertaining read. Sure, there were some moments where I felt like I had to suspend disbelief somewhat, but those were few and far between – plus there was the emotional payoff that made things worthwhile in the end. I definitely recommend picking this one up, as it makes for a fantastic summer read!

Received ARC from Ecco via NetGalley.

In this newest Kevin Wilson novel he gives us a road trip with 4 half siblings who are traveling cross country to find their dad. Their dad has left all of them at some point in their lives so they go in search to find out why.
I have loved all of Kevin Wilson novels so I was so excited to get his latest in an advanced copy.. I always love his quirkiness and his characters. The first part of the novel was just what I expected. We get background on "Mad" the main character, then we get introduced to "Rube", who drives up in his PT cruiser. He wants Mad to join him on his search for the rest of their half siblings and then to find their dad.
The novel has long chapters and too much introspection from Mad. It was not my favorite Kevin Wilson novel. It just didn't have the quirkiness and humor I was expecting. Also, I did not like the ending. It felt like it was unfinished.
Overall I give this 3 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for an advanced E book copy.