I enjoyed reading ‘Run for the Hills’, it has warmth and wit. I must say it is not my favourite Kevin Wilson book but I will be recommending it nonetheless.
The siblings and their journey was a good read but I couldn’t see Rube and Mad as adults and every time their age was mentioned I was surprised.
The book had a satisfying ending.

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I started Run for the Hills, especially after reading Wilson’s book, Nothing to See Here. (That plot still baffles my mind. It was ingenious). Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I adore stories about family, and the twists and turns with these newfound siblings getting to know each other warmed my heart. They each have their own unique personalities, and I loved getting to know them all. I would recommend it.

I like Kevin Wilson's books a lot, but I think this one is my favorite yet. He is just so very good at creating these quirky characters in messy situations that feel very real. The premise of the story, like his other books, seems a bit far-fetched at first glance. However, by the time I was one page in, I had forgotten any doubts I ever had. I was immediately wrapped up in this story.

The story is set in motion when a man shows up out of the blue on the doorstep of Mad Hill's farm and claims he is her half brother then shares they actually have more half siblings spread out around the country. The plan is to round up their long-lost siblings, track down their missing father, and get some answers.

I absolutely love a good road trip story, and the characters in this one were exceptional company. I loved seeing how each sibling's life was so wildly different and watching them form connections with one another.

I cannot wait to recommend this book to everyone! It is really that good.

This riotously humorous, heartwarming and deeply moving novel grabs onto you and never lets go.

Madeline (nicknamed Mad) has grown up helping her Mom run their family farm after her Dad suddenly abandoned the family twenty years earlier and disappeared without a word or a trace. Since then Maddie and her Mom have become famous for their amazing eggs and featured in innumerable magazine spreads. But Mad’s life has been full of hard work and loneliness until the day that Reuben Hill (Rube) pulls up in his PT Cruiser to share that he is her half-brother. He informs Mad that their Dad abandoned him and his Mom in Boston before moving to Tennessee. He has hired a detective who found an address for their Dad in California as well as identifying addresses of other siblings. Rube is off on a road trip to confront him, and Mad, with her Mom’s support, makes the spontaneous and scary decision to tag along.

They want to check out two other kids he fathered, who turn out similarly abandoned by their Dad. They both want to meet them and see if they want to join them. What’s crazy is that with each new family iteration, their Dad completely changed his profession, came up with a new variant of his first name, and given each child a similarly catchy nickname. Each child has grown up unaware of the others and raised as only children spaced about a decade apart. They each feel that when he was with them, their Dad was great and supportive. But their father’s abandonment has left different emotional scars for each, and they slowly build trust to share these vulnerabilities as well as childhood stories with each other.

As the adventure ratches up with new stops, attending a championship college basketball tournament in Texas, and new siblings, they begin to form the deep bonds as a emergent new kind of family. Hilarity also ensures, with the cross country trip taking comical twists including the fate of the PT Cruiser itself. Each sibling is unique, fully realized, and compelling.

They race to find their Dad with a litany of unanswered questions, including what kind of man totally abandons those he loves and is emotional reparation even a possibility?

Thanks to Ecco and Netgalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Title: Run for the Hills
Author: Kevin Wilson
Publisher: Ecco
Genre: Humor Satire
Pub Date: May 13, 2025
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages: 256

Our protagonist Madeline “Mad” Hill is a thirty-four year old farmer in Coalfield, Tennessee. She is managing the family business with her mother. She loves the farm life- in fact prefers her chickens over people especially since her father abandoned them when she was ten.

One day Madeline while busy on their farm, a man who looks to be in his early forties named Ruben (Rube) claims to be her half-brother. He states they have the same father—who abandoned not only them but other families – she therefore has other siblings ~
Ruben tells he hired a PI to locate the siblings and discovered that their seventy year-old dad is alive living in California.
Ruben invites Mad to go on a road-trip with him. At first she refuses but curiosity gets the best of her and she joins him.
FAMILY TREE~
• Reuben "Rube" Hill (42), Dad -Charles Hill, mystery writer, Boston, Ma.
• Madeline "Mad" Hill (32), Dad- Chuck Hill, an organic farmer, Coalfield, Tennessee.
• Pepper "Pep" Hill (21), Dad- Chip Hill, basketball coach, Fort Smith, Arkansas.
• Theron "Tom" Goudy (11), Dad - Carl Hill, a cameraman living, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Now that four Hill siblings found each other, they are heading off to find dad!
I was curious and it was kind of fun read but wasn’t the humorous story I was expecting.

I was drawn to this story as our delightful next door neighbors here in Southern California have five chickens that make a delightful clucking
sound each morning. However our wonderful neighbors just moved to ~ you guessed it – Tennessee!

Want to thank NetGalley and Ecco for granting me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for May 13, 2025.

Kevin Wilson’s new book, Run for the Hills, is a delightful story. That elusive “light read” that is smart, funny, well-written, and has zero sappiness. Charles (aka Chuck, Chip, Carl) Hill is a great dad. The problem is, he disappears without warning, leaving his adoring children behind. And then he starts a new life and a new family. But this isn't his story as much as it is his offspring’ who find out about each other and try to find their father. You will fall in love with Rube, Mad, Pep, and Tom.
Thanks, Netgalley, for the arc of this book.
This book will be released on May 15, 2025. Preorder from your favorite indie bookstore. It is a joy to read.

I love Kevin Wilson and his weird, quirky characters so much. This one follows a group of siblings, newly known to one another, on their cross-country adventure as they attempt to reunite with their long-lost father. It was slower-paced, charming, and lots of fun.

In this story, 4 half-siblings go in search of their long-gone father and reflect on how he and his absence changed their lives. The book has Wilson’s trademark eccentricity combined with a refreshing earnestness; this combination is what makes him one of my favorite authors. While the book was slow in spots—I took a break at about 40% done—ultimately I picked it up and read the last 60% over the course of two days because it did what I have come to expect from Wilson’s books. I cared deeply about the characters and needed to resolve their storylines. All in all, a solid read!

Oh how I love the forward motion of a road trip novel, and yet, this is one story that, despite the journey, closes full circle. Kevin Wilson has crafted yet another quirky and delicious gem of a novel, as we follow the unexpected quest of 2 siblings who set out to find their absentee father in a PT Cruiser. While the story is told predominantly in Mad’s POV, we are treated to the unique perspectives and experiences of her siblings as the story unfolds. While this is not a story without conflict, I found myself joyfully sinking into the “found family” trope wrought by this heartwarming, yet dysfunctional bunch. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for my gifted ARC.

Heartwarming and frustrating wrapped in one quirky punch! This book will take you on an emotional roller coaster.

A brother finds his sister who together find their other sister who then team up to find their brother to track down their father. A snowball effect that will bring both smiles and frowns while riding in a PT Cruiser. That’s as much of synopsis as I’d like to give you.

To Charles/ Chuck/ Chip/ Carl, I really highly dislike you and your reasoning for what you did was AWFUL. I really expected a better excuse, but nope. Just an idiot guy. Thank god he was able to leave behind fabulous children. And thank god they were able to find each other because they absolutely deserved that and I totally wish them the best.

Pub. Date: May 13, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for my early copy!

Since her dad left when she was 9, Mad has been working on their Tennessee farm with her mom, slowly building a following for their organic crops and free-range eggs. Then one Saturday a man rolls up in a PT Cruiser, claiming to be her half-brother, Rube. His dad left him when he was a kid, and as an adult, Rube hired a private investigator to see what became of his absent father. As it turns out, his father, insurance salesman and mystery author Charles Hill, moved to Tennessee to become an organic farmer, then reinvented himself in Oklahoma, Utah, and finally California, each time leaving a wife and child behind. Before she knows what's happening, Mad is on a cross-country road trip with Rube, following the trail of their father, meeting siblings, and preparing to face the man that left them all behind.

I loved Wilson's dysfunctional-family novel "Nothing to See Here," and I had high hopes for this one too. It's not bad, and really focuses on the bonds of siblings, rather than a multigenerational family. It's not entirely believable, if only because I'd find it really hard to hop into a car with someone I just met, even if he is my half-brother, though the story is a fun one. Still, it doesn't hold a candle to the spontaneously combusting children of "Nothing to See Here."

4 1/2 stars
A car pulls up to Mad's house and in it is a man who claims to be her half brother. He is on a roadtrip to find their other half siblings and invites her to come along on the quest. Of course she says yes. Mad and Rube pick up the other two that they know of and continue on to California. A wild roadtrip full of discovering who they are together, who they were with their father and who they can be now that they know of each other. Sweet and funny just how we love Kevin Wilson stories but also full of deep soul searching and poignant moments. This will make you want to call your siblings and catch up! Readers who want deep characters and family drama but with a giggle along the way will love this.
My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

4.5--Buckle up for a memorable road trip between four siblings who discover the bonds of family as they head across the country to confront the father who left each of them as he continued to reinvent himself. I thoroughly enjoyed Kevin Wilson's latest and all of the characters: Rube, Mad, Pep, and little Tom each wove their way into my heart as they not only discovered each other, but became their own family in the process. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the DRC.

A literal found family - four half-siblings discover each other when the oldest begins searching for their mutual father, who abandoned them each over the last 40 years, head out together to find and confront the man who left them behind. As their bonds tighten and their conversations about the man they're seeking delve into the differences and similarities in their respective families, the traverse the country and end up discovering a fifth half brother, a mere toddler. Sweet and endearing, it's both a road trip novel and a character study about the affects of a father's absence, and the years spent together. Quick read for fans of Wilson and also for fans of authors like Fredrick Backman or Maria Semple.

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

What's one impromptu road trip with siblings you didn't know existed until they drive into your life in a P.T. Cruiser?
🐔🚗
Mad lives on a successful working farm with her mother after her father walked out on them twenty years ago without a word. She's accepted her lot in life, mostly. When a guy pulls up to their home and introduces himself as Rube her half-brother who their father also walked out on before she was born it opens a door for an adventure Mad never could've imagined. Rube tells her that through the work of a P.I. he has tracked their father's movements and discovered half siblings scattered across the country. He invites her to join him on his quest to meet the string of abandoned siblings their father left in his wake. He also has a lead on their dad's whereabouts and wants to track him down as well. The siblings soon realize that their dad reinvented himself in both name and profession with each new family.

What was their father looking for in creating all these families he ultimately turned his back on?

This study of a quirky family was written in an accessible manner. It was so easy to picture everything as I read. I love the feeling of novels that a reader can sink right into, and Wilson's prose was just the ticket. There's a lot to unpack here. The plot being a simple one worked to the novel's advantage because the grand characterization was at the forefront. These characters popped off the page with authentic voices. Looking for connection by collecting scattered pieces of their father's dysfunctional story to form a picture of their untraditional family is an eye-opening journey. From experience I know how much of an impact a parent walking out has on a person. I kept hoping this little group would find closure or stronger self-identities.

Will these siblings find the answers they set out to discover?

The pages flew by without a lull in sight. I'm so glad I went along for this ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for providing an Advance Reading Copy for review. All opinions are my own.

Kevin Wilson is one of the funniest authors out there! The circumstances in his books are just wackadoo enough that they work, and his characters are so rich and drive the story forward!

This entertaining read by Kevin Wilson brings together newly discovered siblings who share a father and embark on a cross-country road trip to find him. The characters are unique and likeable, and while the storyline is a little outlandish, the reader won’t mind because they are already drawn into what’s happening. This is a feel-good read, but not simple in plot or feelings.

I had no idea what the plot of this book was, which I think is the correct way to read this book. I'm shocked by how much I liked it. Also, the Salt Lake parts were clearly well researched, which makes me think the other locations were as well.

I was looking forward to this book since I have read others from this author before. I was intrigued by the siblings finding each other and the mystery of why they were all abandoned by their father . I was not satisfied with the ending-too many loose ends and not enough answers for me. The journey that the newfound siblings take was interesting and at times funny but that was not enough for me to rate it much higher.
Thank you to NeGalley and Ecco for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.