Hideaway

by Monica Goertzen Hertlein

She wanted a hideaway. She found a home.

Mary’s worst decision yet, stealing from corrupt law enforcement, could land her in jail long enough to grow old. She flees the spaceport streets for a remote rural outpost hoping for refuge with Finn, the only person she trusts in the world. Despite the strangeness of agricultural life and her prejudice against the family that abandoned her surrogate brother, she finds a chance for love as well as safe haven while hiding the truth behind her visit to the farm.

Now she must decide whether to be honest with her found family and risk losing her last chance for a real home, or be exposed as a thief when the law catches up to her.

284 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2026

About the author

Monica is an accountant, sociologist, and novelist. She always wanted to write, but never thought it was a real job. After career and family, she returned to her childhood passion and writes the stories she loves to read: women having adventures and falling in love.

She has long believed that science fiction is a place you can reflect our world from new angles as well as imagine better worlds.

She has been published in Search for the Any Key, Impulse, Embark, Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8, Best of CaféLit 14, and The Lorelei Signal. Her entries to the Writers of the Future contest won Silver Honourable Mention and Honourable Mention. She grew up, resides, and writes in Saskatoon, on Treaty 6 Territory and the homeland of the Métis. She is a member of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, Saskatoon Writers’ Club Inc., and Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

Reviews

[Ashleigh Mattern · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

Hideaway is a fun science-fiction romance set on an alien planet inhabited by human settlers. The stakes are high for Mary, and author Monica Goertzen Hertlein doesn't let us forget them, even as Mary begins to form relationships with the family that shelters her. In romances, I appreciate it when the main character has more going on than just the love interest, and Monica does this well, with Mary forming female friendships, deepening her bond with her brother, pursuing her interests and growing as her own person. I was lucky enough to read Hideaway as a beta reader, and even pre-publication, it was a great read!

[V.L. Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monica blew me away with this book! I loved the sci-fi mixed with the farm aspect - very like living in Saskatchewan these days! The sci-fi was artfully done, augmenting the world but not the focus. The characters really did the show not tell with the tech. Monica is so creative and holistic with her characters too - the different personalities and relationships really read as authentic. The romance didn't feel rushed or forced, and you really enjoy the journey Mary goes on.

[Michael Nest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read Hideaway because it is outside my book-genre comfort zone and … I thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s like Star Wars (Tatooine) meets Yellowstone (the TV series). Mary is a headstrong interloper with a history she must hide, who gatecrashes a farming family ruled over by a steely-eyed matriarch. A fun compelling novel that imagines rural life in an inter-galactic future.