There are few authors who have mastered quirky unconventional novel writing like Kevin Wilson. I never know what awaits me when I start his books, but I know it will an experience unlike any other.

RUN FOR THE HILLS is a bit of a misnomer as there isn’t much running taking place. It’s more like a slow, meandering journey to a place you never expected to be with companions you find along the way.

Madeline “Mad” Hill was living a quiet life on an organic farm in rural Tennessee with her mother and her chickens. Responsibility for the farm fell to Mad after her father abandoned their family a decade before. Enter Ruben “Rube” Hill, a brother she didn’t know she had who arrives on the farm with an incredible story—his dad who is also her dad abandoned him too and did the same to at least two other previously unknown siblings. Together they set off on a cross country mission to meet their other siblings and track down their missing dad.

And herein lies the beauty of Wilson’s writing. Their road trip starts as a quest for answers and quickly becomes a vehicle for building the family they each so desperately need. The characters are unique with each sibling separated by a decade and with vastly different interests. Their conversations are hilarious, yet demonstrate depth of feeling and the frailty of the human heart. This is a quietly beautiful book of finding peace and completeness.

“That was all family had to be, at the most basic level, someone seeing you, even if you didn’t know what they saw.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Kevin Wilson has such a unique voice and his most recent book does not disappoint! Loveable and real characters make this story a quick read. I love his insightful observations on life and people. I will always recommend Kevin Wilson!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco Books for an advanced reader copy of Run for the Hills in exchange for my honest review.

The story revolves around siblings whose father leaves each one of them to start a new family.

Each child exists solely because of their father's desertion, which is an interesting slant to a sibling story, but the ending was disappointing. I found myself wanting more.

<u><b>Run for the HIlls</b></u>
Kevin Wilson
Release Date: May 13, 2025

ARC courtesy of Ecco and NetGalley.

Abandoned as a child by her father, Madeline “Mad” Hill is now 34, living with her mother in a farm in rural Tennessee. One day, a PT Cruiser stops by bringing Rube Hill, apparently her older half-brother, who has hired an investigator to find their father, as well as other half-siblings across America, and now wants Mad to come with him on this zany trip. How can you resist a story premise like that?

With his signature combination of wit and emotional depth, Kevin Wilson will have you laughing and crying, riding along on this wacky adventure. The writing is sharp and engaging, with a pacing that will keep you turning the pages. The characters are richly developed, with their own quirks and insecurities. They are all flawed, but with their defining moments as well. At heart, this is a thought-provoking, introspective sibling novel that will leave you thinking about your own family relationships under a new light.

4 stars

Kevin Wilson is one of my favorite authors. When I received the ARC for this one, I screamed like a fan girl because I have been waiting for a new Wilson book for years.

Run for the Hills has all the things I've come to love about Wilson's writing. It is a heartfelt story with a weird premise that follows flawed characters as they discover who they are and where they belong in the world.

This is another excellent read by one of the best authors of today's time.

Kevin Wilson's novels are always full of humor and heart and Run for the Hills is no exception.

Madeline is working on her farm when a stranger appears and tells her that he is her half-brother and that her father has several children, spread all across the country. Mad and Ruben set off on a trip to meet these siblings with hopes of confronting the father that abandoned them.

Truly some of Wilson's best writing, you really feel in the midst of the characters inner turmoil but the dark subject matter, characteristic of Wilson, is perfectly broken up by moments of dark humor and levity.

Kevin Wilson has done it again! Imagine a cross-country road trip with your siblings, that you have known for less than a week. This was such a fun, heartwarming read. I think Mad was my favorite character. She seemed like the most stable sibling, with the greatest understanding of her father than any of the other kids at the end. The book made me laugh, made me tear up, made me cheer for them all.

Of course the story stretches reality a little bit, but in this instance, I didn't mind. I thought it was just delightful.

Kevin Wilson is an author I will go back to again and again. He just has a way with writing families and I find I cannot put his books down. I cannot wait for the next one! If you like often humorous stories about quirky families and road trip stories, this one is for you!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review a digital copy of this book. All opinions are mine and freely expressed.

If you really love an author, it hurts when you find a book that doesn't wow you as much as the others. Well, this is that book for me. I love the fun characters Mr. Wilson dreams up to share with us along with the unique situations they find themselves in. But this one didn't have the sparkle and zing that I have come to expect. At points it felt lost and directionless (funny for a road trip book, right?) and the ending felt like the book just wasn't sure how to truly wrap up the story. Highlights of the book were the character interactions as the various "kids" got to know each other and learn about the differences in their shared father. I'd still recommend this book but would advise to expect a slightly more thoughtful and less quirky story.

This opens in Tennessee, where Mad is running a farm with her mom and not doing a whole lot else. One day, a strange man shows up and introduces himself as her brother, Rube, who is on a roadtrip/quest to locate his siblings and father. Turns out, their father serially created and abandoned families across the US, leaving his children with various baggage as a result of his disappearances. After the shock wears off, Mad becomes just as consumed as Rube with the need for answers - and to find the rest of their siblings. Since it's a Kevin Wilson book, their trauma is played for humor and, eventually, some heart warming resolution.
Having been kind of Meh about Now Is Not the Time to Panic, this exceeded my expectations.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Like other Kevin Wilson books, the family at the center of Run for the Hills is not your normal family. Madeline Hill (Mad) is kept quite busy by keeping the Tennessee organic farm she and her mother have made into a successful business that has been featured in several magazines. One morning while staffing the farm stand, a PT Cruiser drives up the road to the farm. It's driver is Reuben (Rube) and he has news, not only is he her half brother, equally abandoned by their shared father, but their are more families! Somehow Rube convinces Mad to join him in a cross country journey to meet these other broken families but also to confront their father.

It is very much a book about the journey. Mad has been treading water in her life, kept busy at the farm and using it as her excuse not to leave the if not comfortable, at least steady rut. Joining Rube they discover that their father was a man of reinvention but both have been shaped by his absence in their lives.

It's mostly breezy and fun, but also rather anti-climatic. If they do reach their destination, what will have changed? Their father was already a ghost, just memories, what is the closure of abandonment?

While the initial meet of Rube and Mad sets the stage well with the book's premise, and Wilson runs with the absurdities of trying to form connections with others who've been abandoned, you know where it is going from the start.

Recommended for readers of Kevin Wilson, quirky family drama, or the treasure was what you found along the way.

What would you do if someone showed up in a PT Cruiser one day and told you that they were your older half-brother? Is the answer to jump in the car for a road trip to find your other half-siblings? Cause it is certainly not mine. But also, my dad didn't leave me as a child, resulting in multiple other families...

Mad runs an organic farm in Tennessee and joins her previously unknown brother, Rube, to drive across the country and collect their other siblings before finding their father, a man none of them have seen since he left that family. The idea of starting a new family each decade was baffling to me. The idea of willingly driving around in a PT Cruiser was also baffling. Thankfully, this was handled with mild humor.

All in all, this was a really fun book. It is not my favorite weird family road trip book for this year, but I did really enjoy it.


Thank you to Net Galley and Ecco for the ARC. All opinions are my own!

What happens when four children, fathered and abandoned by the same man, find one another? And what unfolds when they decide to track him down on a road trip in a PT Cruiser?

Kevin Wilson has one of the most distinctive voices in fiction. His storytelling carries the same quirky charm you’d find in a Wes Anderson film but with a flavor entirely his own — and in print.

The complexity of human and family relationships in this book is profound, especially given the relatively short page count. I adored these characters and will revisit them often.

I’m still processing my feelings about Run for the Hills, but it is unquestionably excellent.

Plot - 4
Writing and Editing - 5
Character Development - 5
Personal Bias - 4
Final Score - 4.5

Thank you so much to Ecco for my advanced review copy! My opinions are my own!

Run for the Hills is out on May 13th, 2025!

Kevin Wilson’s books are always guaranteed to make me laugh with how quirky they are and make me feel warm and fuzzy from how big-hearted they are. This one definitely made me laugh out loud a few times. All of the siblings in this are so unique and the road trip story was fun. Though I did really like it, at times it felt slow and I wanted to know the characters in more depth. I really loved Nothing to See Here so I think I might be a tough judge but I wanted a bit more humor and a lot more time with the characters because I loved all of them. I also felt like the ending was abrupt - I don’t know what a better ending would have been but it just felt a little unfinished. 3.5 stars rounded up. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

In this familial road trip novel 4 half siblings are thrust together after learning about their father’s secret life. When Mad’s dad left when she was 10 she never heard from him again. Over 20 years later she’s surprised when a man named Rube shows up claiming to be her half brother. He has the same father and was born 10 years prior to Mad when his dad disappeared when he was 10. Join these sibling as they find their other half siblings and confront their father about his habit of abandoning his families.

I typically enjoy Kevin Wilson's books because of the quirky characters and unique plot lines but this book was a dud.

The premise is interesting. The book begins when a man shows up at a woman's house and reveals himself to be a long lost half sibling. He explains that he has tracked down their father and they embark on a quest to reunite with their siblings. The siblings are children the father has left in his wake. As they make their way across the country they collect siblings along the way all the way up until they reunite with their father.

I feel as if this book would have been better suited as a short story. Some of the scenes dragged on. What I was most disappointed in was the characters. To me they read as idiotic and much more immature than some of their ages. When we finally met the dad he was aloof.

This book could be for readers who enjoy the exploration of unconventional familial relationships and dynamics and or readers who enjoy books about chaotic journeys. Unfortunately it was not for me.

I am a fan of Kevin Wilson, so I was excited to receive this ARC and was not disappointed. "Run for the Hills" has plenty of quirky characters to get to know and love, and the story involves a sibling road trip for those of us who love the road trip novel. Highly recommended. Pub Date: May 13, 2925.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

#RunForTheHills

I LOVE Kevin Wilson! If you haven’t read anything of his yet and you’re a fan of Fredrik Backman, you need to pick one of Wilson’s up! Wilson has the some knack for creating quirky lovable characters!

Heartwarming, quirky and hilarious, this book will easily be in my top reads of the year! The characters, 4 siblings taking a road trip after just meeting for the first time ever, are endearingly dysfunctional ❤︎ This is a short read (256 pages) that has so much packed into it. I can’t say enough good things about this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco Publishing for this free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Run for the Hills was my first Kevin Wilson read. I have heard about his other books being funny and satirical but also emotional, so that is what I expected here. It definitely was lighthearted and emotional, with a theme of found family along with a roadtrip/quest trope. But apparently I am in the minority of reviewers for thinking that “Run for the Hills” is barely a “funny” book, let alone satirical. Or maybe somehow the satire went completely over my head? That being said, it is definitely a fun road-trip family book.

The story follows the POV of Madeline “Mad” Hill, a 30-something farmer who one day randomly meets a half-brother she never knew she had. They decide to drive across the country meeting their other half-siblings, and consequently finding their father that left them all during childhood.

I liked the clear structure of the road-trip quest, picking up siblings along the way. There are chapters of quick flashbacks and one POV chapter from each sibling interspersed regularly. I thought the ending was satisfying. Overall, though, this was a slightly better- than-average 3.5/5 read for me.

The characters label this a Quest story from the beginning. It is a cross-country drive where siblings discover and get to know each other for the first time and search for their father. He sequentially had different skills and interests for each of his children that he shared with and passed along to them. Some scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, but what the children are truly seeking is serious business...a search for self, siblings, and father.

When four half-siblings learn of each other's existence and bond throughout a road trip across America to learn about their shared, mysterious paternal figure, a tender-hearted chosen-family story emerges.

In classic Wilson fashion, there is a balance between the heartfelt and hilarious, and this will be a perfect summer read. Dare I even cringe and suggest that it's perfect for a road trip.

While the premise was interesting and the desire to learn about each new sibling and the eventual story of their father drove (hehe) me to finish, I can’t say there was much else that kept me involved. The characters were clearly defined in their own archetypes, but overall felt flat and one-dimensional. I now know insta-family is not a sub-genre or trope I enjoy (or insta-anything for that matter).

While this isn’t anything that will change your world, it is fun, perfect for the summer, and something I think people will enjoy. I loved NOTHING TO SEE HERE, so this was a little bit of a disappointment, but they’re two different novels and hard to compare.

Thank you Ecco and NetGalley for the e-ARC.