I am a huge fan of Kevin Wilson’s previous novels, so as soon as I saw this upcoming title, I knew I’d be in for a treat.

Wilson’s books tend to have a certain blend of cozy quirkiness, more than a touch of dark humor, and really unique “found family” character dynamics. Run For the Hills combines all of that plus a messy unexpected road trip plot and a host of extremely lovable characters connected in a really specific way- they’re all half siblings and strangers to one another, trying to track down their estranged father.

Their father, Charles Hill, has the really problematic tendency to abandon his family for a new life, wife, and kid to match each of his subsequent wild dreams. It’s hard to be excited about meeting this dad and finding out what happens after that- how does a man like that redeem himself? Throughout the novel I wondered how the conclusion of the road trip and the story would come about. It’s hard to pin down what exactly I’d want as an ending for a story like this. I think the resolution we got was appropriate enough, but I would have love to see more of these characters getting to know one another and determining what their futures would look like. I just wanted a little more for this cast of characters I grew very attached to. Is it wildly optimistic of me to hope for a sequel? And a movie adaptation?

Overall, this was a really fun and hilarious book. Kevin Wilson really has a knack for warming my heart without being overly wholesome. I’d recommend Run For the Hills to those who have enjoyed any of Kevin Wilson’s previous books as well as fans of Annie Hartnett (who also has a zany found-family road trip novel out this spring!) and the movie Little Miss Sunshine.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for the opportunity to be an early reader for this title, which is available now!

I forgot how much I love this author’s writing. Well, I didn’t forget, I just needed to read his latest and was instantly reminded how quirky his characters are and how wildly imaginative and off-beat the plot while at the same time a tender story unfolds.

Unbeknownst to Madeline who thought she was a single child, turns out her father, who is not the man she knew, has left behind others, whom she will come to know when she embarks on a road trip with Reuben, who claims to be her half-brother.

In these pages, it’s not just an adventure or discovery of family, it’s an exploration of the power of intense emotions, acknowledging the pain and accompanying feelings, and how it shaped who they became. What Wilson does so well is take ordinary words and turn them into something extraordinary, leaving this reader tickled. Somehow a character can go from staring at a stranger to an “afternoon weirdo.” Equally touching is discovering newfound love so profound it can cause an aching vulnerability, which leads to a better understanding of how people cope or perhaps don’t. This and more are what Madeline and Reuben contemplate as they embark on a discovery to find their father and other siblings, while the magical sense of pride they feel meeting another person related by blood, leaves them in utter awe and equally dumbfounded by their father’s absence.

Heart-filling and equally heart-piercing. My kind of story.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECCO.

𝑰𝒇 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌, 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒚, 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅? 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅.


In Kevin Wilson’s latest novel, when children are abandoned by their father, Charles Hill, they discover he has left them with differing versions of himself. More bewildering, half-siblings exist, children like breadcrumbs, who know nothing about one another. The novel opens with Madeline “Mad” Hill (32), working the organic farm with her mother Rachel that was started when her father was around, before he vanished from their lives. Their hard work has been featured in popular magazines, aside from regulars, new people are not uncommon, so when a man shows up in a PT Cruiser and asks her if she is Madeline Hill she never imagines he would drop news leaving her stunned. He tells her he is her older half-brother, and his name is Ruben Hill. It has been thirty years since he last saw their father, for her, over twenty. Whether it is a good omen or bad, she doesn’t know yet, but finally she has someone beside her. As the story of Ruben’s life unfolds, so too does the early version of her father, who Charles or “Chuck” was with Ruben and his mother. Nothing aligns with the version she knows, not even his place of birth, but both Ruben and Mad have carried themselves as the person Charles was trying on for size while he was living with each of them. Those people couldn’t be any more different.

Lonely Ruben convinces her to ‘re-create the migration’ of their father, meet the children “half-siblings” he left behind, and get to know one another along the way. Thinking about the heaviness, the pain of being left behind, she feels it is the one thing all his children likely have in common. Maybe together they can understand what made him take flight, escape responsibility, create families with no intention of seeing them grow up. Not even giving them a chance at a relationship with him, leaving barely a trace, only an imprint of him upon each child. But as they travel, they meet with more mystery until they are sick and tired of the quest. How can one man be a farmer, writer, filmmaker, even a coach with a star athlete child? Who was/is Charles and who are they without him? Did they even ever need him, this stranger who cannot hold on long enough to complete his projects, who seems to only enjoy his creations at the begining?

The beauty of the novel relies on the children, at different stages of their lives drawing together, while Charles is nothing more than a flicker. What answers can he really supply that will change the hole he left? “It’s complicated” doesn’t begin to describe the reality they now all face, but at heart a new sort of family could be born, one that can hold steady whether Charles continues his disappearing acts, or roots himself in place.

It’s a unique story about family, abandonment, and the stories we tell ourselves, how we become under the shadow of another. It gives us pause to think about how we define ourselves, whether with the weight of those present or the burden of those who’ve left. While there is dysfunction in Charles, his children are wonderful. Kevin Wilson takes ordinary people and places them in unusual circumstances, and it always makes for engaging reads. I’ve been in a weird state of mind lately; this was a fitting novel.

Yes, read it.

Published May 13, 2025

Ecco

Thank you to Ecco for the ARC of Run for the Hills

Kevin Wilson has done it again! Created a quirky premise of a story with characters I couldn't help but absolutely love! Mad and Rube and Pep and Tom. The unlikeliest grouping of people and siblings thrown together in a very strange twist of fate. There wasn't anything particularly enchanting about any of the characters, but I loved every single one of them in their own way! Each of these characters had depth and personality beyond surface level. They all had very complex emotions along with complex personality traits, largely related to their dad leaving them. This isn't a situation that most people would run across in their lifetime, however, it does deeply explore the idea of sibling relationships and handling a parent that is struggling with mental illness. Wilson has created a story with humor and lots of love. It is the true epitome of found family.

Run For The Hills by Kevin Wilson hit the shelves today. Happy Book Birthday! I had loved Wilson’s previous book, Nothing to See Here, so I was excited to see if he would offer up another quirky, interesting and entertaining read that people will be talking about for years this time. He did.
‌
Rube started this epic road trip in Boston where he set out to find the father who left him and his mother thirty years ago. Driving a rented PT Cruiser, he stops at a farm in Tennessee to meet his half sister, Mad. Mad has been helping her mother run a successful organic farm since her dad left her twenty years ago. Rube informs her that they share the same father and that there are other siblings to meet along their way to California. He convinces her to go with him and this journey of discovery beings.
‌
Each sibling adds to the story of their dad and the very different lives they had with each version of the same man they knew. They learn about each other and themselves while on the way to California to confront Mr. Hill.
‌
This made me laugh, and more importantly, it contained some of my favorite things- books, the University of Oklahoma, and Sonic Drive-In. The four main characters were well written and their connection was unique and believable. Loved it!
‌
Thanks so much @EccoPublishers and @NetGalley for my copies of this book.

Madeline Hill, a farmer in rural Tennessee, is shocked when a man arrives claiming to be her half-brother. What follows is a hilarious and sometimes emotional cross-country adventure in a car you’ve probably forgotten about. I don’t want to give away anything else, but you will find yourself laughing and feeling all the feels while reading this one.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book, but I really enjoyed the cast of characters and their adventures on their drive to California. It’s definitely worth a read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for an advanced e-copy of this book.

Happy pub day to Run for the Hills by one of my absolute favorites, @KevinWilsonAuthor! I’m so grateful to @eccobooks for an e-arc and to HarperAudio for an ALC.

Madeline Hill’s dad left her and her mom twenty years ago, and since then she’s been helping her mom run their farm. One day, out of nowhere, Rueben Hill shows up (in a PT Cruiser of all things) claiming her dad left him and his mom first thirty years ago. He’s her half brother and he’s hired a detective to locate their other half siblings sprinkled all across the U.S. and their dad. Rueben is going on a road trip to find all of them and asks Madeline to join him.

I can see how this book might not be up everyone’s alley. But if it is up your alley, you’re going to love it. I’m not sure what to say in a review to help you figure out which camp you fall in. I will say this one is not super plot heavy—although things, some of them crazy, happen. But the characters are so well-drawn and specific it’s hard to believe they’re not entirely real. As always, the author does such a beautiful job of not judging his characters—imperfect as they might be. Even with the insanity of the set up, everyone in the story is treated with a degree of kindness I wish we could demand in the real world. Wilson also has a way with detail that is incredibly special. There are clearly themes of what makes a family at the root of this story as well as how one parent can define who we become, I absolutely adored being in this world.

Madeline (“Mad”) Hill and her mother enjoy some celebrity after being featured in national magazines for the organic produce that they grow on their farm in rural Tennessee. One afternoon at their roadside stand, Mad is approached by a stranger “dressed like a man who designed golf courses, who owned four different Subway franchises.” Mad assumed he had seen one of the articles, but the man introduced himself as Reuben (“Rube”) Hill, Mad’s half-brother, claiming that they shared a father.

Rube and Mad compared notes, and their father’s narrative was inconsistent. While he was married to Rube’s mother, he went by the name Charles Hill, who was raised in Boston, sold insurance, worked in advertising, and was the writer of detective novels, much like Rube who is a successful mystery author, but who has been terribly lonely since his mother died. When he lived with Mad’s mother, he went by the name Chuck Hill and claimed to have grown up on a chicken farm in Maine. He bestowed on his daughter a love for the land, but a fear of relationships: “Mad had avoided being left, she supposed, by not having anyone arrive.”

Rube encourages Mad to join him — in his rented PT Cruiser — on his quest to connect with the other children sired by their serial dad and then to confront him in California where the private investigator whom Rube had hired said he now lived. Rube and Mad take off on their crazy family road trip and, because this is a Kevin Wilson book, it is filled with charm and whimsy and humor. When Mad reconciles herself to the idea of accepting three half siblings into her life, she reasons: “It was nice to know that it wasn’t a hundred. A hundred kids? Thanksgiving? It would have been a nightmare.” As the journey continues, these abandoned children begin to savor their makeshift family and to realize that maybe it was enough. Thank you Ecco and Net Galley for an advance copy of Wilson’s latest novel which will delight his legion of fans.

I am posting on release day! It's a shocker. But what is more shocking is how gentle this novel is, considering it's dealing with an awful lot of big issues. These siblings all have their own wackiness, whether due to their father running off on all of them (separately! At very different times!) or because that's how the world works. I think this is more gentle than many of Wilson's novels, and I'm not sure I loved it as much as the three of his books I've read previously. Nothing to See Here has really stuck with me! That said- this is a road trip novel. There are adventures. There is simplicity and complication in learning to love and forgive... or at least move forward. I liked the relationships most and the plot was propulsive.

Four stars. Go on a road trip with these new-found brothers and sisters and you, too, will wonder how a man can reinvent himself so many times, and be such a good dad, while being the worst.

I've enjoyed several of author Kevin Wilson's books - I really appreciate his irrelevant humor! Happy to have gotten my hands on his latest, "Run for the Hills", which is a big-hearted U.S. road trip about a group of half-siblings of very different ages in search of their long-lost and deadbeat Dad. I also really liked that it was set in the pre-iPhone days of 2007 when paper maps were still in use & a PT Cruiser was still a cool car. (I could also live w/o the basketball, but ok). Overall a good look at what really makes a family and I did likethe way all the storylines wrapped up (my biggest peeve however were the very long chapters, especially for the page count). My sincere thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for my advance readers copy.

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.