Title: I’ll Run Away for the Holidays
Author: Stephani Hecht
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novella (83 PDF pages/22k words)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn
One Sentence Review: Overall a fine, holiday-themed read about seeing people in a new light and getting what you want.
THE BLURB
Scott Cooper has never liked the holidays. So when his best friend, Madison, asks him to travel to her childhood home to celebrate Christmas, he can’t refuse fast enough. Scott doesn’t even get along with his own family, so the last thing he wants is to get saddled with her relatives for a whole week of snow and holiday cheer. Madison is good at getting what she wants, though, and before he knows it, Scott finds himself in for a seventeen-hour drive back to their home state of Michigan.
Just as Scott is getting adjusted to the idea of having to deal with Madison’s crazy family, another one of her relations joins in for the car trip; her very sexy, very younger brother, Anson. Not only is Anson still in college, but he’s the baby of the family, both of which should make him hands-off for Scott. To Scott’s horror and joy, however, Anson doesn’t want Scott to keep his hands to himself. The younger man immediately makes it clear that Scott is the only present he wants to unwrap for Christmas.
Holiday miracles can happen to anyone, or so Scott would like to believe. And it will take true magic for him and Anson to survive the holiday with their sanity intact, let alone for them to find a happily ever after…
THE REVIEW
Scott reluctantly agrees to drive from Florida to Michigan with his best friend Madison for the Christmas holiday. His own family disowned him when he came out, and while he’s grateful Madison’s clan has practically adopted him, he isn’t looking forward to spending a week in the family craziness. They are barely on the road when she announces that they are stopping to pick up her younger brother, Anson, for him to make the trip with them. Scott barely can keep his annoyance in check; Anson had made a fumbling pass at him three years before, and all Scott can think of is how much of a skinny brat Anson was. He is surprised when he finds that Anson has grown into a muscled hunk who seems to be getting his life together. Trying to reconcile what he knows about Anson with young man in front of him, he can’t help but be confused and attracted. And Anson can’t help but still feel attracted to his sister’s BFF; he hasn’t stopped loving Scott since he was sixteen. It’s an interesting seventeen hours, and when they arrive, they have to contend with drunk Aunt Nora, reminders of an accidental turtle-cide, a missing Christmas tree and a grandfather giving a hearty “way to go” when the family discovers our heroes in a delicate position.
I’ll Run Away for the Holidays is the first book by this author that I’ve read, and I thought it was a sweet little tale about wanting acceptance, changing opinions and getting your heart’s desires.
What worked for me:
I thought this story started out great, with third-person narration from both heroes and good banter and dialog between the three characters on at least the first half of their drive. I thought that the majority of the characters were well-drawn, especially Anson as we get a preview of him before he has on-screen time via a conversation Scott and Madison have on the way to pick him up. This allowed for a bit of even further development as we get to get a sense of him as a teen. There is quite a bit of smexual tension, and I like that Anson seems to bring the tight-laced Scott out of his shell a bit and Scott gives perhaps some stability to Anson. Outside of a case of naming switching and a typo, I felt it was well-written and edited.
My issues:
The pacing in the beginning was fine, bit it felt a bit rushed to me after they arrive at the Mace house. Other readers may not agree, but I felt like scenes went by too quickly and some felt truncated.
A big deal is made about Anson’s deteriorating relationship with his father, yet there comes a point where his father says “Okay, I trust you,” and I didn’t understand it. To me, it seemed out of character for a man who was pretty upset with his son long-term. I would have liked to have seen some dialog between father and son regarding this.
OVERALL
Despite my few issues, I thought this a sweet holiday-themed read. Recommended to those who like contemporary romances with a bit of family craziness thrown in.
This is the problem that I have had with every book written by Stephani Hecht. They always start really well, and then fizzle out at the end for me. A wonderful review, Lynn, but because of my experience with this author in the past, I think I’ll pass 🙂
This was such a fun story. I’ll never look at turtles the same!
I like the sound of a road trip novel, plus there’s nothing like the holiday season to bring out interesting family tensions! This sounds good. Thanks, Lynn!
Lynn
I haven’t read many books by Stephani and those were a little while ago so I don’t remember that her scenes were truncated or went by too quickly.
However I’ll watch out for these traits because I’ll definitely be reading this one. Thank you for a lovely review.
It was a very cute story. Turtles lol.
I enjoyed this one a lot. I had read another Christmas story not long before where a friend came home and the family was right out of a Folgers commercial. ABSOLUTELY perfect, no one ever disagreed, Mom cooked perfect meals, Dad was open, no issues with the gay son, the house perfectly decorated, I think I would have cracked under the pressure. I enjoyed this one much more because while they weren’t completely dysfunctional, there was love in the family, they were more real and I would feel that I was okay to be less than perfect around them. Perfect families freak me out. I’m always sure one of them is an abusive ax murderer lurking under the surface.
I do enjoy Stephani’s work, but I suppose it’s one of those personal things like anything.
Sounds like I need to give it a try. I don’t think I’ve ever read this author before.
I agree with Aunt Lynn. I enjoyed the characters and the storyline, but the last half seemed a bit rushed and abrupt. I have read a bunch of Stephani Hecht’s books and while I like most of them, I sometimes am left with an odd sense of wanting something “more.” I wish I could describe it better.
That said, I did enjoy this book. It was sweet and funny and a lovely antidote for my holiday stresses.
Looks like a good choice for a sweet reading: it´s always good to have one handy after an angst streak. Thank you for your review 🙂
Grandpa and Aunt Nora were a hoot. It was a lot to pack into this story. I was hoping there would be some interaction with Scott’s family.
I thought this one was cute, but I agree with you that it seemed rushed toward the end. Still, I’m a sucker for a sweet holiday story.