Book Review for The Wandering Season by Aimie K. Runyan

 

The Wandering Season by Aimie K. Runyan

Published:  April 1, 2025 by Harper Muse

Genre:  Contemporary Ficton

Taken from Goodreads:  Unraveling the tangled roots of her family takes her places she never expected. 

Veronica Stratton, a specialty food broker with a business riding close to the margins, visits her parents in idyllic Estes Park for Christmas. With the holiday comes a DNA test from her younger sister and an engagement ring from her longtime boyfriend. The test confirms her secret she's adopted. The ring rattles her even more, and she realizes that she might not be as ready to commit as she'd thought.

With so much that she'd counted on suddenly falling apart, Veronica is looking for an escape. Inspired by her best friend, she plans to go to Europe to see four of the places listed on her DNA ancestry report. She treks to County Mayo in Ireland; the Dordogne region of France; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Tuscany in Italy. She hopes to learn a bit about where her family lived and to make more connections for her struggling business, but she finds that each stop brings her visions of her ancestors that raise more questions than they answer. And among those pressing questions is how brooding Irish restauranteur Niall Callaghan will fit into her visions for the future.

My Thoughts:  Veronica is a character that has lived a good life.  She has parents she loves, a sister who she is close with, a best friend that she can share all her secrets with.  She finds out she is adopted and a trip abroad is taken to find her roots.  

I enjoyed watching her travel to the places that her DNA led her to.   The places she visits and the people she meets make her feel more comfortable with herself and more aware of who she is.  Niall becomes a part of her life, a part that she did not even know she wanted.  She accepted what he could offer but stayed true to what her journey was to be.   I like that she did not change her travels for him, but she kept him in her mind as she looked at her future. 

Aimie K. Runyan wrote a book that came to life for me.  I could picture the places traveled, the food eaten, and the people met.   I looked forward to curling up and picking up the book every chance I can.  

Thank you Harper Muse for a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Meet Aimie K Runyan (taken from her website):  From even my earliest years, I loved jotting down stories and really, really bad poetry. I dabbled in the world of the short story for a long time, until I finally sat down one fateful February day and decided that my beloved short story, “Days of Plenty” deserved to become a novel. I felt (and feel) it was a story the world needed to hear. More importantly, I knew that after thirty-three years of life, seven years of marriage, and two children, I finally had the life experience to tell it. Thus, Promised to the Crown was born.

Since Promised, and its little sister Duty to the Crown, I’ve moved forward in time. Daughters of the Night Sky was a complete departure from my earlier works, but the stories of the long-forgotten female pilots on the Russian front in World War Two deserved to be told. Girls on the Line, the story of the intrepid women who served as phone operators in World War One was another story I was thrilled to bring to the page. Ruby remains one of my favorite heroines. My subsequent novels, Across the Winding River and The School for German Brides largely delve into the personal nature of war and the people who are forever changed by it.

I am also thrilled to be moving into contemporary fiction. The Memory of Lavender and Sage, set in the lush hillsides of Provence, explores the life of Tempeste Luddington, unmoored after the death of her father. She seeks out her purpose in the small village of Sainte Colombe where her mother was raised. Along the way, she learns some shocking truths about her mother’s past…and herself. Delving into the emotionally-charged world of Women’s Fiction is a challenge I am so excited to undertake. I hope to create vibrant characters, lush settings, and heartwarming dramas that will transport the reader to a different place. Consider it “Virtual Vacation Fiction”.

Before transitioning to full time writing, I taught French to high schoolers, with occasional stints into English, Public Speaking, and Competitive Forensics. When I’m not writing or wrangling my wayward kiddos, I enjoy hiking, baking, sewing (especially costumes), music (especially live), theater, movies, and all things sacred unto Nerd Culture.

I’m proud to be a member of the Tall Poppy Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Pikes Peak Writers, and the Women’s Fictions Writers Association.