@eccobooks | #gifted Sometimes connecting with a book…or not can be a very bizarre thing. I read two road trip books nearly back to back recently. Both were from authors I’ve loved. Both involved a lot of humor and quirky characters, qualities that usually work for me. Same, same. Right? Nope. Sadly, I failed to connect with the first book (see yesterday’s review), but happily, the second book, 𝗥𝗨𝗡 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗦 by Kevin Wilson, did everything I was hoping for.⁣
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As is typical, Wilson took an out there premise and made it seem almost normal. In this case we have a pair of adults who find out they share a father. The two couldn’t be more opposite and the little time each spent with their father couldn’t be more different, but there’s still something there. Both are hurt and confused about these differences and why their dad left families he seemed to love. Further, it appears they’re not the only siblings their dad has abandoned. As promised, the two set out on a road trip to find the others and their wayward father.⁣
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I liked these characters so much and thought Wilson did an excellent job developing fresh sibling relationships under trying and sometimes rather madcap situations. This was a story with heart made even more sweet because of its well-placed humor. Wilson achieved a perfect blend of the two. All that is why, despite a rather rushed ending, 𝘙𝘶𝘯 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 was yet another winning book from Wilson, a definite auto-buy author! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Road trip anyone? If so, we have a fun ride planned for you. Madeline “Mad” Hill and her mom live and thrive on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. They have done well here, despite the sudden disappearance of her father twenty years before. Mad is in her early thirties now and one day a man shows up at the farm and states that he is her older brother “Rube”. Her father had a previous family in Boston that no one knew about. Rube had hired a private detective and it was discovered that the father had abandoned other children across the country. Mad and Rube decide to visit these other siblings and eventually track their father down for a familial showdown.
I have enjoyed several of Wilson’s books and his latest continues that trend. They are entertaining reads with a lot of heart. He adores writing about families, dysfunctional or otherwise, and I like tagging along.

Thank you Net Galley for supplying me with an e-galley.

I can see why this one has been hit or miss...⁣
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But it was a hit (albeit not a perfect read) for me!⁣
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Summary ⁣
In this funny and heartfelt novel, four half siblings (previously strangers to each other) set off on a road trip across America to find the father who abandoned them. This gem combines Wilson's signature dry humor with a moving story of family love and discovery.⁣
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As someone who experienced a father abandoning his family to start a new family and as someone who has half siblings that make a life with a dysfunctional father completely worth it, I fully connected with this story. I don't think it was as funny as most summaries suggest but I was okay with it because of how much I loved the characters.⁣
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I think the piece I wish the story included was why the father chose to repeat his toxic and destructive behavior four times, it would have helped the genuineness of the whole premise for the story -- and saying in one line that he probably had some mental health issues wasn't enough.⁣
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Thank you@netgalley and @librofm for this advanced listening copy! Run For the Hills came out on May 13th and it would be a great book to add to your summer reading list.⁣
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Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this quirky, fun and thoughtful book!

I've enjoyed both other books by Kevin Wilson so when this one came up I knew I'd want to dive in! I'm glad I did!

This is exactly the kind of book I really enjoy because it's unique, funny, but also has a lot of warmth to it. Quick and light, you'll laugh out loud numerous times but it will also make you feel something.

This story centers around found family when a bunch of random people find out they are all the children of a man who basically went from family to family. Its a great premise for a book and you can relate to each character in this book which is one of my favorite things about Wilson's characters.

I read this on kindle as an ARC but I'd love to eventually listen to the audio as I feel like that would be a super enjoyable experience. This book also might be a fun, light read for a book club who needs a break from heavier books.

Highly recommend!

Kevin Wilson is an author who doesn't know how to write a bad book. Run for the Hills is no exception. The only difference is this book is shorter than most and has notes of sweetness too. It still has all the humor we expect from Mr. Wilson but I just felt he really wanted to tell a different kind of story. Just under 250 pages and it's a book that you could put in your purse or book bag and pick up and out down and just savor each chapter and have that desire to go back to it and still feel connected to the story. Its about siblings who didn't know they were sibling and end up finding each other and want to meet their father. They jump in a CT Cruiser and head across the country meeting quirky characters and figuring ot what it will be like to meet their father and what it will truly mean to them. I just loved this book. My sould needed to read something like to forget the world! raed it and enjoy. Thanks to Ecco books and Netgalley for the read.

Summer 🤝 road trip books. Kevin Wilson’s latest release follows a loveable crew of siblings who have never met before as they embark on an epic road trip to track down their missing father— a man who disappeared from each of their lives without warning years (or even decades) before. Along the way, adventures abound, as they do on any good road trip!

RUN FOR THE HILLS was less quirky and original than the other books of Wilson's that I’ve read, but his signature wit and frankness were definitely still present. I felt so much warmth and tenderness for the characters and appreciated the later-in-life coming of age story for the older siblings. This impressively struck the balance of uplifting, but never saccharine.

There were a few areas that left me wanting more, though. There’s a pretty narrow focus on their missing father in the book, which makes sense given the circumstances, BUT I couldn’t help wanting a little more insight into the characters’ broader lives. I also didn’t find the ending wholly satisfying. It felt a bit anticlimactic after so much lead up.

To put it in road trip terms, I enjoyed the journey more than the destination here, but I’d still recommend this as a warm, hopeful book with an edge. In particular, if you love stories of found family, pick this one asap!

🌟🌟🌟💫/5

Kevin Wilson's new novel "Run for the Hills" has a lot of heart and tells about a group of half-siblings on a road trip to find their estranged father. Their father has periodically left his family behind and started anew in different parts of the country. The story has a lot of humor and strong character development.

"So you're just on a fact-finding mission to create an oral history that explains the actions of our dad? You're going to each family and kind of upsetting the order of their lives?"

Attention, Elon Musk! You're not the ONLY serial-fatherer out there.
(Just the creepiest!)

Four recently acquainted siblings head for California to find their father, and discover why he left each of them only to create a new family in another state.

A new Kevin Wilson book is always cause for celebration, so I'm not sure why I didn't enjoy this one more. Perhaps its because the novel seems more plot than character driven. Maybe it's because I just finished Ariel Courage's Bad Nature, a similarly themed road trip tale about a woman on a collision course to reunite with her father. (And, in my opinion, Courage did it better.) Or, maybe it's just me . . .

Give this one a try. You may enjoy the trip far more than I did.

Run For the Hills is a road trip book. And a search for a father. And like all Kevin Wilson's books, it's not your basic story.

What do you do when your father up and vanishes?
How does that impact your childhood, your young adulthood, your middle adulthood? Four different times, Charles Hill has left a family. Four disparate siblings team up to find him.

It's heartwarming and heartbreaking. There's near death and reaffirming of life. There's similarities and differences and love and anger. And a PT Cruiser.

Kevin Wilson puts so much heart and soul in his books. They are always a treat, and quirky and thougt provoking. Read it!

I love stories that are centered around siblings. So a novel about a roadtrip with recently acquainted adult siblings, was the perfect story for me.

Reading this book felt like meeting a stranger in a bar and having them drunkenly tell you their life story. You’re interested and highly entertained, but you know they’re leaving some things out. You desperately want to know those things. You’re begging them to tell you more, but they vomit on your shoes and make a run for the restroom. You’ll always remember the moment. And you’ll always wish you knew more.

Cute road trip book, but, honestly was a little hackneyed for me. I loved Kevin Wilson’s earlier novels, but this one didn’t quite hit for me. A recent road-trip book that I enjoyed more was Annie Hartnett’s The Road to Tender Hearts.

A winning, instant classic roadtrip story of found family. Wilson's tale of surprise siblings hunting down their serial-abandoner father is full of heart and reminds us that even the most prickly people deserve and need love.

This book is such a delight. The characters could not be more perfect or lovable. The plot is unique and well executed. As the journey in the PT Cruiser begins, so does the reader’s discovery of the the characters’ personalities and the lovely blossoming of their new sibling relationships. As each new person is added to the car, so is the amount of the love, compassion, and spunk. Their little found family is such a beautiful thing to watch bloom. There are many unanswered questions at the end, begging the question of a sequel? I would totally read it! Won’t get those Hills off my mind any time soon! Infinite thanks to NetGalley and Ecco Books for the wonderful privilege of reading the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. I couldn’t be more thrilled with this book!

I was delighted by this heartwarming, captivating story of an unusual kind of road trip - several half-siblings who had all been abandoned by the same father and who had never met before.

I have loved all of Kevin Wilson's previous books and the quirky characters in this one live up to what I've come to expect: interactions among slightly odd humans that build into relationships and remind readers of what life is all about. Love and connection.

Funny and poignant, I truly enjoyed embarking on the journey with the unusual found family of half siblings. I did have a few questions towards the end and it seemed like something was missing or unfinished. A bit anticlimactic but still well worth a read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ecco publishing and the author for granting me the opportunity to read an eArc of this intriguing and lovely novel. It was published on May 13, 2025, so go grab a copy!

Once again, Kevin Wilson writes a story that is like no other. It's bizarre. Made is living her lovely farm life when Rube pulls up and introduces himself as her half-brother. Together they set off on a road trip to find their long lost dad who defected from both their lives, and also to discover other half-siblings that exist from their father's secret families whom he has also left along the way. It is a road trip of discovery and they find they are not alone in the world like they thought and so much more. Interesting with some humor, but eclectic. many thanks to #
net galley #kevinwilson for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Kevin Wilson never disappoints. Crisp writing with humor and emotion. A sweet story about the family we are born into and the family we make for ourselves.

Road trip books often aren't for me, but I love Kevin Wilson, so I picked this up anways. I'm SO glad. The sibling story took any cliches away and grabbed me by the heart and pulled me all the way through. This is perfect summer reading.

Their father was a good parent, until he upped and disappeared from their lives, one by one, never to be heard from again. That is until Rube Hill shows up at Mad Hill’s organic farm and suggests a road trip to find their two half siblings and their father.

I love a good road trip, but road trip books can be hit and miss. This one is a hit! I love Wilson’s ability to combine a quirky unique group of characters into a heart warming found family. This is a deep character study filled with both hope and redemption wrapped in humor and sentiment. I loved the quiet nature of the book including the ending, which can seem somewhat anticlimactic, but I found fitting. This is my second book of Wilson’s and I will need to go back and read his other books!

4.75 rounded up.

A family road trip in a rented PT Cruiser. What could be better? Add in a bunch of half siblings that dont know each one exists and the quest to find the father that abandoned them all and you have Run For The Hills.

The four siblings are all unique in their own way, including a nickname and passion that can both be attributed to their missing father. The nicknames make sense to each other, the passions? Not so much!

As the four drive from TN to CA, they gain so much more in each other than they ever lost when their father left. The story and characters are quirky, unique and easy to like. Their journey and relationship is heartwarming and special. Definitely a lovable book.

Advanced reader copy provided by Ecco and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

Kevin Wilson delivers another thoughtful, off-kilter story that balances humor and heart with his signature style. Run for the Hills is both funny and unexpectedly moving, full of characters who are strange in all the best ways—flawed, real, and quietly resilient.

The book explores how we run from what scares us—and how sometimes, the running leads us right where we need to be. Wilson’s wit is sharp but never cruel, and his warmth sneaks up on you. It’s not a loud or flashy novel, but it lingers.

Overall, it’s a satisfying, quietly powerful read that sticks with you.