This charming novel about found family is a gem. Kevin Wilson has a light touch with flawed characters and imbues them with a generous spirit. It’s the warmth and kindness in this book that overcomes any flaws. His writing and stories are a delight.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for an advanced readers copy.

I love Kevin Wilson and really really enjoyed this book! It’s a great story about forgiveness. You’ll laugh and cry in many parts of this story. This is a Great read!

This is only the second book that I've read by Kevin Wilson, but he's already solidified himself as a new favorite author. I love his writing. His books are depressing and sad, but at the same time, funny. Both have had a found family aspect that I enjoyed. I would highly recommend his books.

I continue to work my way through Kevin Wilson's back catalog and as he writes new books after I read and adored Nothing to See Here. His upcoming novel Run for the Hills tells the story of multiple children of a man who is in their life as a child but then leaves their mothers and breaks off communication. There is not much in common with the half siblings, but the thread of how they feel about their father runs throughout. Reuben "Rube" pulls up to Madeline "Mad's" farm that she runs with her mother in a PT Cruiser. He discloses that he employed a private detective to find his father's whereabouts and in the progress learns about additional families his father worked through after leaving Rube and his mother. He convinces Mad to join him on a road trip across the US to find other half siblings, en route to confronting their father in California. We meet Pepper "Pep", a star collegiate basketball player and Theron "Tom", a young budding filmmaker. Each character is quite different and have different reasons for wanting to see their father. The premise of this book was intriguing but I found as the half siblings made their way across the US that the plot sort of lost its momentum and I found myself not very invested in the outcome of any of the characters. I also found the ending to be pretty underwhelming. So this one was a bit of a miss for me from a quirky author I normally enjoy.

Thank you to Ecco via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson is a humorous, uplifting, very highly recommended road trip novel featuring half-siblings finding each other while on a cross-country journey looking for their father.

Madeline (Mad) Hill, 32 years-old, and her mom run their organic farm in Coalfield, Tennessee together after her father left twenty years years ago. Then Reuben (Rube) Hill, in his forties, pulls up to their farm stand in a PT Cruiser and informs Mad that she is his half sister. Their father left Rube thirty years ago in Boston. He hired a detective and knows of two other half siblings, Pepper (Pep) Hill, a 21 year-old college basketball star in Oklahoma, and Theron (Tom) who is 11 years-old and living in Utah. Rube has a last address of their father living in Northern California. Mad agrees to accompany Rube to meet Pep, Tom, and hopefully find the father who left each of them, reinventing himself along the way.

Hilarious, heart-warming, quirky, and hopeful truly describe this well-written cross-country dysfunctional family adventure. I was totally immersed in the intriguing and masterfully written story throughout and loved this story. It follows the siblings as they meet each other, travel together, and learn about how their father reinvented himself into a whole different person each time he moved on. They all grew up as single children so any sibling is a new experience.

The characters are all portrayed as unique individuals who are all very different from each other in personalities and interests, but they still see shared characteristics between them, with Tom being the exception which is explained. They also share the heartbreak 0f a father who left them when they were children and never contacted them again. It has an impact on them, as does the version of their father they experienced individually. They all have very different memories of their father.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson is perfect for anyone seeking an entertaining road trip novel. Thanks to Ecco for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Cute and quirky, like Nothing to See Here which I loved, but not quite as good as that one. I loved the characters, their bond, and their quest.

Kevin Wilson does it again, with all the strange charm and emotional heft I’ve come to love in his novels about messy, complicated families. Run for the Hills might be his most literal take on the “found family” trope: a cross-country PT Cruiser road trip to track down surprise half-siblings and confront the deadbeat dad who ghosted all of them, reinventing himself one family at a time.

The characters are classic Kevin Wilson: quirky, endearing, and unexpectedly profound. Watching these near-strangers turn into a family is the emotional heartbeat of the story.

It’s smart, weird, deeply human, and one of the rare books I rated 5 stars. Add it to your TBR! I cannot type this loudly enough. I LOVE KEVIN WILSON! (Please excuse my shouting.)

Thank you to @netgalley and @eccobooks for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

heartfelt and honest story about the messiness of family and the urge to protect the people you care about. It’s got that mix of humor and emotion Wilson does so welL.

Kevin Wilson has given us a book about 4 dysfunctional families connected by the same father. This quirky, light hearted book focuses on his four children who come together in search of their father. They have questions of him that they want answered.
Charles Hill has started and abandoned 4 loving families. Each family was dramatically different however each child he left behind was equally devastated. He was a wonderful father when he was present. Charles/Chuck/Chip has been an author, farmer, basketball coach, independent filmmaker and caretaker. His impression was so strong on his children that each of them has successfully followed in the footsteps of the father they knew.
The premise of this runaway father and his determined children was entirely unexpected. Imagine four strangers, with an over 30 year age difference, agreeing to travel across the country in search of a man who clearly wants no contact with them. It is a pretty tall order especially when one of them is a ten year old boy.
Their father has inflicted the same damage upon all of them and they share the same anger and hurt. However it is tender as the relationships build between the Hill siblings. The four learn to trust and even love one another. Mad, a true loner, becomes the glue that holds them together. Tom, the child, becomes a driving force while Rube acts childlike.
This is another coming of age story but while it was a fun read it unfortunately seemed to lack spark. Wilson left a lot on the table with his characters. What happened to Mad and her solitary farmer’s existence? Did Pep get the big offer after her amazing game? Why throw the curve in about Tom and do nothing with it? I felt the ending wrapped up too quickly with little resolution. I give it a 3.5

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ecco for an ARC of this book. These opinions are my own.

Tennessee author Kevin Wilson takes readers on a road trip with siblings to reunite with the father who left each of them. Rube, a mystery writer from Boston, hires an investigator to find his father who had various name changes, but kept the surname Hill. Rube learns he has a half-sister living in Coalfield, TN. Unannounced, Rube shows up at Madeline's rural TN farm and convinces her to travel to California to find their father. From there, the pair travel to Oklahoma University to meet their sister, Pep, who is an NCAA basketball star. The fourth stop is in Utah, to pick up Tom, an eleven-year-old, In their rented PT cruiser the four Hill unveil their stories of their father. As in any cross-country car ride, each passenger has his or her own thoughts that are interwoven with the plot details. Recommended for fans of road trip novels.

Kevin Wilson is back with another fun and quirky story!
This one is about four half siblings, previously unknown to each other …set off on a road trip across America,
in a PT Cruiser.. to find the father that abandoned them.
Filled with heart and humor, a really good story.
I will read anything this author writes!

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was interested in the premise - long lost siblings tracking down their dead beat dad who abandoned them all. But nothing ever truly became interesting to me throughout this story. The characters were somewhat flat, there is no driving action other than their journey, and the end was very anticlimactic. That said, I didn’t dislike the reading experience. It was just fine. In the end I wasn’t very excited about it.

There's something magical in Wilson's ability to tell a story. His characters are a little bit off, but they are so lovable, so real and so memorable. He then takes these characters and puts them in interesting situations. The dialogue is memorable, jumps off the page and fills you with joy even during a tragic scene.

I love reading his novels and Run for the Hills is one of my favorites. I loved all the characters in this story, especially Mad and Rube. The yearning for belonging and family and finding a sense of grounding is at the root of this beautiful story.

And of course life is never what we want it to be, it's always both less and more. As in all his novels, Wilson makes you fall in love with his characters.

with gratitude to netgalley and Ecco for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Kevin Wilson can write a great book that will have you laughing but also reveals a part of the human condition that resonates with me. This is a straightforward road trip book about half siblings discovering they’re related through their father. Each has been damaged by their father and that loss is revealed in different ways. I loved the characters, the plot chugged along at a nice pace, and the bond they created felt genuine and earned.

Such a wonderful read! Honestly I love the humor and heart and felt like it was the perfect blend of both. I liked the stories of the siblings and the weaving together in the end, it was really well written and heartfelt.

My first Kevin Wilson book was Nothing to See Here which I thought was terrific. This is another family story with unusual circumstances and just as wonderful.

Mad and her mother run the family farm in Tennessee. Mad's father left a note and fled town some 20 years ago with no further contact. But the women do a fine job of surviving and thriving without him although Mad has a lot of questions. Then one day Rube shows up on their doorstep. It turns out that Mad's father is also his dad -- same scenario. He hung around for 10 years or so (before Mad) and was a good father but then one day just left and never was heard from except for a goodbye note. Rube has hired a detective and discovered there are two more abandoned families and also that their father might be in California.

So, Rube proposes the ultimate road trip. His plan is to stop along the way and collect the four siblings, each ten years apart, and go to find their father and confront him. As awkward as it is, he does persuade everyone to accompany him and they make it to the coast.

The four bond, and help fill in the gaps left by their father's departure. There are adventures along the way. They each have a residual sadness in their life from his disappearance but this is not a melancholy book. Somehow the four have managed to emerge as thoughtful, competent mostly functional people despite their childhood lacking a dad.

An excellent read, with endearing characters and some unexpected events. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was fantastic!

Kevin Wilson’s characters really jump off the page and the familial relationships are so rich and complex. The story was plotted brilliantly and the language is beautiful. Even though the chapters were long, the story flowed nicely.

I can’t adequately describe how brilliant Wilson is with language in this story; it is somehow funny, poignant, painful, and achingly beautiful at once.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy readable literary fiction, touching family sagas, road trip quests, and relationship stories. Readers of these other authors might also enjoy this: Katherine Center, Kiley Reid, and Shelby Van Pelt.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley. I have really enjoyed Kevin Wilson’s work in the past, so I was excited to read this one. It was a little less quirky and weird, while still being offbeat. I liked that the premise was different, but there was something missing to really make it stand out for me. I was missing the deeper point or meaning or takeaway - for a book that seeks to be about family and abandonment, it was lacking the depth I needed.

Run for the Hills is pure delight! Kevin Wilson to put the fun in dysfunctional family here. Like his prior works, Run for the Hills features an eclectic cast of lovable and endearing characters written in his signature whip-smart wit. I love how Wilson captures small-town USA in his works and in Run for the Hills, he perfectly captures this in the sibling's road trip.

Run for the Hills is a humourous and at times emotional story that overall was an instant mood boost. The book also solidified why Kevin remains one of my favorite authors. This is my fifth book by him and proof that he truly does not write a bad book!

Kevin Wilson writes quirky stories with quirky, lovable characters. This book is about four half-siblings finding each other on their mad quest to confront the father that left each of them behind. The scenario is outlandish, but it worked, and by the end of it, I am so glad the siblings found each other, and can envision a future for them, as a family.