Roman Dial wrote a story full of emotion and memories as he reminisces about his young adult years and the early years of having a family. He has had much experience going on hikes and being in the outdoors, sharing his expertise with his son. When his son goes on an adventure to Costa Rica but doesn't check in by the determined date, Roman begins to search for answers and his son in an unknown country. I found this part of the story to be most intriguing and a rollercoaster. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publisher! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

This was a book that you want to keep reading to find out what happens. The first half of the book describes the author's life, what he was like as a teenager, then meeting his wife. Roman Dial is an extreme adventure seeker and a biologist. Their first child is a boy, Cody Roman Dial, who is taken along crazy wild adventure trips with his Dad at a very young age. He grows up with the adventure and biology, so when he becomes a young adult he is well versed in wilderness adventures.

On an extended solo trip through South America Cody, who started going by Roman to take after his Dad as a young child, he ends up in Costa Rico. At this point Cody Roman didn't have a cell phone, never took to social media like facebook and didn't have a GPS unit. However he did keep in touch with his family with frequent emails. So when two weeks go by without hearing from Cody they know something is wrong.

The second half of the book is about trying to find Cody and what happened.
A good read.

A beautiful, heart wrenching novel about adventure, love, grief, family. Adventurer’s Son is part travel memoir, investigative journalism, edge of your seat adventure. I highly recommend this book.

** I received an electronic ARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

The first section really dragged, but once the search was on, I couldn’t put the book down. I’m relieved that the family was able to find Cody Roman. An aside: The author made a comment along the lines of sending your kids to daycare was letting someone else raise them, which is crap and made me dislike him.

While the premise of a father's journey into the jungle to search for his son was intriguing, this book was not for me. At least the first quarter of the book is spent on detailed backstory of the author's life, which may bore those who are not adventurous types.

This book was okay. Not great, but decent. In some aspects it rambled - the history lesson was necessary but it just dragged for me. Once Roman was having his adventures and then went missing, it picked up a bit, but then it kind of dragged some more. I understand that all of it was needed information - it's what actually happened to find the young man that went missing. But not being much of an "adventurer" myself it was just a lot of names and places and techniques being lobbed at me and not all of it registered. I ended up having to skim a bit of it. Three stars, with the caveat that it's not the books' fault, but mine.

I will leave a review on Amazon or B&N on Feb 18, 2020

I found this to be a heart-breaking story of a father's 2 year search for his missing son. I enjoyed the earlier parts of the book as father and son explored and forged a unbreakable bond. Later as his son goes missing he will search relentlessly for any sign of his son. How far would any of us go to find our child. This was a well written story, and I would recommend it to others.

I received an Advance Readers Copy from NetGalley and the Publishers, and this is my fair and honest review.

Having spent some time in areas close to those described within the pages of The Adventurer's Son, I was motivated to read this book. Though I am in no way an adventurer, I do enjoy reading the escapades of those who are enthralled by the thrill.
The adventurer's Son starts out with the background of the author, Roman Dial, as a way to project forward how his son came to be in his final resting place. From an early age the son, Cody Roman Dial, accompanied his father on what might be adventurous to some and outright insane to others. I fall a bit in the middle. Nonetheless, they were adventure buddies from the start with and without Dial's wife, Peggy, and daughter, Jazz.
When Roman realizes he has failed to check on Cody Roman's return from within a deep off-trail hike in a dangerous area in Central America, he desperately tries to make contact. When Cody Roman doesn't respond a two year search for his son begins.
Lots of introspection into Roman's part of why this might have happened are peppered within the story. Also great memories of past treks, close encounters with the dangerous landscapes, and current observations of threats along the trails while they search for Cody Roman. Many friends, officials, multiple country politicians, and professional search and rescues individuals weave in and out of the tale. As many people who will pick this book up will already know the outcome, the reader will still find themselves pulling for the Dial family and the return of Cody Roman.
It's impossible to keep up with all the individuals names in the different countries that are involved with the life of Roman Dial and then add the newcomers to the search and it creates a bit of confusion for the reader. Roman Dial does accomplish what he set out to do: honor the memory of his son and the relationship they had.