Run Baby Run

by Melissa Lenhardt

A mother, a daughter and a road trip that’s about to take a hard left turn in this heartfelt and witty story about the sacrifices we make for love.

Darcy Evans is getting married. In a week. To a man who is her childhood dream come true. But a late-night confession from her best friend changes everything and before she even has time to unpack it, she must endure a road trip to the ceremony with her estranged mother, Marja. It was always the two of them against the world…until Marja ghosted Darcy three years ago. No car in the world has enough room for all of their baggage.

The drive from Austin to Chicago is nostalgic, claustrophobic, incredibly messy and exactly what both women need. As they each find themselves at a crossroads in their lives, long-held secrets are revealed—ones that reshape Darcy’s memories of the past and forever alter the future she’d recently been so certain of. She hadn’t known what a reunion with her mother might bring, but sometimes following your heart means taking a path you never planned…and finding a love you never imagined.    
 

Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Fiction, Queer, Audiobook, Romance, Adult

352 pages, Paperback

Published June 13, 2023

About the author

Melissa Lenhardt writes women’s fiction, historical fiction, and mysteries. The New York Times called HERESY an “unapologetically badass western” and “an all-out women-driven, queer, transgender, multiracial takeover of the Old West.” Heresy also won the 2022 Audie Award for Best Multi-Voiced Performance. Her debut women’s fiction novel, THE SECRET OF YOU AND ME, was the first LGBTQ+ novel published by Mills and Boon in the UK. A lifelong Texan, Melissa is currently traveling the world as a digital nomad.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

DNF. The structure, plot and characterisation really need a development edit, and it's full of errors and missing words. The hell's going on at M&B?

[kelly ♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

my favourite character was the dog

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

You ever get the feeling the author got bored while writing the book and had to keep changing things just to keep themselves interested? "Okay now a different pov. Okay now it's a crime novel. No wait back to the mother daughter relationship. No wait now lesbian romance." And god, the romance shit got far too sugary sweet. Long endless chapters of "I love you and I love this about you and I love loving you and..." blah blah blah. Both romances had long saccharine sugary passages that risked rotting your teeth if you lingered on them too long. At one point a character says "I'm not going to tell you about our sex life," and my reaction was "thank you jesus."

In the end, none of the storylines were given enough weight to feel like they had satisfying endings. I was just grateful to be done with it and the characters.

[Ava · Rating 1 out of 5]

Devastatingly bad, in a way that makes you say "Oh honey, no..."

It's full of stereotypes, chaos, millenial cringe, inaccuracies and lack of depth, but somehow the thing that made me just fully give up, the final nail in the coffin if you will, was the fact that the author thinks that "lo siento" means "you're welcome" in Spanish, and repeated it as such with confidence at least three times.

[Cynthia Vega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god, I was not expecting a book full of plot twists! I think my head did explode a little. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book before publication.

Darcy is successful self-made entrepreneur and travel writer from a small town in Texas. Raised by a single mother, she builted a life she is now proud of and do not resemble at all the poverty she grew up in. She is about to get married to the perfect man, who turns out to be Darcy's best friend, Chloe. Everything seems perfect from the outside, until one week before she gets married, Darcy's mother, Marja, asks her to join her on a road trip. This doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize Marja ghosted Darcy three years ago. Darcy is pressured to accept, and ends up flying to Texas to reunite with her mother and drive up together to Chicago.

When Darcy meets Marja in Texas, she almost doesn't recognize her mother. This woman owns a glamorous refurbished Mustang and kind of looks like Charlize Theron. Nothing like the woman Darcy grew up with. So, what has her mother been doing the past three years?

This is where the plot twists start. Seriously, one after another, and they're so good. I'm always in awe when an author can pull that off. I was glued to the book for 2 days until I finished up. It's well written, funny and shocking. I'm surprised not many people are talking about it!

Bottom line: This is one of the those books you can get into knowing nothing about it and will actually make it more enjoyable. This is the book that will pull you out of your reading slump. You're welcome.

[Katie Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much, so much character development, twists and turns such a good fun gripping read 📚

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Marja.
I'd forgotten what the synopsis was before i started this and was surprised and it was great. Read this in less than two days! I could think of a couple very minor questions that i'm curious about, maybe fleshing out a couple side characters a little more, but i loved it regardless.

Thank you netgalley :)

[Lady Olenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaah so good! A mixture of Ocean’s 11 and Grey Gardens. The plot twist was insane and kept me going. I should have been asleep 2 hours ago but I can’t rest until I know how it ends!

Marja was crafted so brilliantly. I mean all the characters were. That’s why the story worked so well. But Marja….. ooof! What a character! If she was real she deserves a Nobel price for resilience. The writer mentioned that this book was basically about unconditional love and sacrifice. The beauty of it all is the fervour of how that unconditional love is shown between the characters. It’s so strong and pure, it’s like looking at the sun. Beautiful but you’d have to shut your eyes if you stare too long because of its intensity.

[Annine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I expected. I thought the writing was good and fun, but the plot could've been better fleshed out.

CW: murder, bullying, mentions of previous rape and grooming, impregnation without consent, cheating, mother cutting off contact with her child

SPOILER: As a person who doesn't want kids I hate when characters who don't want kids (and are very clear on that and have multiple reasons for why) change their minds.

[Victoria Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. Run Baby Run is a story about a mother/daughter road trip that takes a few unexpected turns. Marja and Darcy are driving back to Chicago from Texas for Darcy’s wedding and along the way, they slowly unpack their collective emotional baggage and also learn some new things about each other’s current state in life.

This book had a good premise and I was excited to get into it. Overall, it was interesting but, at times I struggled to get through it. I had a difficult time connecting to the characters, which I think made me struggle a bit. Also, while the twists and turns kept the plot interesting, I think I was expecting a different kind of story.

All in all, I think this would be an enjoyable story for contemporary fiction fans and I think would make for a good book club pick!

[Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book where she should have had the abortion

[Jessica Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🚘🐕🧳📷👩‍💻

Ok, so be gay do crime is my kinda my jam, so when I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to read this. Not only did this book meet my expectations, but it went over and beyond. Three bisexual main characters. Two late coming-outs, two gay awakenings. One set of friends to lovers, One forbidden love couple. One group of amazing found family and best of all, nearly everyone is queer. And there is Helen the dog!

This book was funny and intriguing. It made me want to read it from start to finish without putting it down because I had to know why Marja didn't talk to her daughter Darcy for three years. It made me want to know what was going on between Maja and the FBI agent. It made me want to know how Darcy was going to deal with the confession of her best friend that she loved her, and what she was going to do with the information and the fact she was meant to be marrying her best friend's brother. It had me gasping out loud in several places, and laughing out loud and several others. It made me cry when love lessons were learnt and everyone realized they deserved to be loved, no matter what happen in their pasts. This book was great.

The plot was amazing. The writing style was unique. I loved how the author brought the reader into the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good old criminal on the run book, but also to those who like reading about mother/daughter relationships. And those who like it when the dog is really the main character. Just kidding. Honestly, I recommend this book to everyone.

Thank you, to Melissa Lenhardt, Netgalley, and Mills and Boons for a copy of this eArc. This review is left voluntarily.

[Kelsey Rhodes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars! This. book was so much darker than I thought it was going to be based on the premise. I will say that the author did a great job of creating well-developed characters. I think for me, I'm just not a huge family drama story and that's the direction this book took. It just wasn't for me, which led to an average reading-experience.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

[Maliha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS.

the writing, the characters, the plot, the build up, the dialogue, everything about this was so beautiful. I am in awe, and also kind of in love. I am so glad that I read this but so mad that this over.

edit: I think I enjoyed every page in this book, even the acknowledgments were fun!

[Emerald Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was hard to finish and truly one of the worst books I've read this year. This reads like a BuzzFeed article that goes on for 150 pages.

Seems to not understand several concepts: gold star lesbian, the word bombshell, basic Spanish, anything about people past stereotypes, parental rights, gay marriage being illegal in Indonesia, commas, dogs.

[Babet · Rating 4 out of 5]

eh? rollercoaster? wilde rit en mijn fav personage was een hond. ja, dat zei ik.

[Fatema · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining, but the plot was so ridiculous and I couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters.

[Jaci]

Saving rating for Sept book club!

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the story started out messy: Darcy is forced into road-tripping with her estranged mother a week before her wedding by her guilt tripping MIL, while just having been confessed to by her best friend Chloe (who is her fiancé’s sister). This sounded like a great relationship drama with a (hopefully) cathartic ending where problems are worked out and resolved. This is not that.

We get a few good chapters of character building, where it really starts to showcase the relationship and personalities of Darcy and Marja (her mother), when Marja shoots a man and reveals that she has turned on the cartel and they will be taken into witness protection. From then on it’s a combination of cartel attacks, some Marja relationship drama, some Darcy - Marja relationship drama, some Darcy - Chloe - Michael relationship drama and then all of the above. With it all ending the book with Michael trying to baby trap Darcy, who says fuck being childfree, it’s a piece of Chloe as well, let me just change my whole life for this. Nothing feels resolved and it gives the vibes that everyone is pretty much stuck in the ending the received.

For what it’s worth, with how the author writes, what I had assumed was the story (as per the summary on the back of the book), could have been a really good book. Figuring out her relationship with her mother and seeing how it affected her relationship with Eloise (her MIL, that became a mother figure to her when she and her mom were estranged because she latched onto the first nice mom she found through her friend) and how that affected her relationship with Michael (her fiancé), whom she has been steamrolled over on most major decisions, but didn’t feel like she could push back too hard as it would damage her new pseudo-family relationships and possible leave her isolated, especially from her best friend (who knew the whole time that Michael was scum, especially because he purposefully “threatened” Chloe with his sway over Darcy, who then chose not to tell Darcy in case she decided Chloe was in love with her — which she was). This dynamic has very interesting connotations and could take up a book (maybe two) with just getting Darcy into therapy to realize her own worth and be able to stand up for herself. This is book I was promised and not given. There is plot and not progress in the relationships and tbh I only kept reading because I thought there would be, but no, just plot points no character growth.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I keep vacillating between one and two stars, but since I usually save my one star ratings for books that were so bad they made me angry, I guess I'll stay with two - for now. This book started out with the potential to be a fun thriller - two women in danger, money laundering, cartels, WITSEC, etc. - but suddenly, it became a romance novel with each woman, mother and daughter, awakening to the realization that they were in love with other women. The plot completely stopped, key points were discarded (like the man Marja shot and killed at the rest stop - no big deal?). There's an attempt to tie it all together at the end, but by that time, it was such a farce that it was completely unbelievable.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

When this book popped up on NetGalley it immediately caught my eye as the cover is really good fun and the premise sounds like a cute, easy read. The book ended up being drastically different to what I expected, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.

We enter the story with a hungover Darcy travelling to meet her mother, Marja, for a road trip to her wedding destination that she very reluctantly agreed to. Marja shows up accompanied by Helen, a mini golden retriever, who needs to pee every 2 hours and barks anytime anyone swears.
Darcy and her mother haven't spoken in years, since the latter seemingly randomly cut contact out of the blue. This is by no means the only source of drama in the book though, as it turns out that the night before the road trip, Darcy's best friend Chloe professed her love for her and they shared a kiss. Quite a problem when Darcy is due to marry Chloe's brother Michael in a weeks time!

So far this was all exactly the sort of book I expected to read, but it took a distinct turn when the FBI got involved and it turned out Marja was on the run for money laundering! I don't want to give too many spoilers but the rest of the book includes hiding in shady motels, shoot outs, pregnancy tests, secret lives, and more than one dead body.

There are some incredibly profound moments, as well as a few where you have to suspend your disbelief as I'm not 100% sure they'd be plausible. The writing was fast paced and easy to follow, and the majority of the characters were well fleshed out and believable. I think the author could do with enhancing the descriptions of friends Jess and Ella though, as they largely became one person to me.

I enjoyed the development of Marja's love story alongside Darcy's, and the look into how your upbringing can influence your future mindset. Whilst some of the decisions both Marja and Darcy made were questionable, it was easy to see the love still held between them, and it was nice to see how the barriers between them eventually fell.

Overall it was definitely not the book I was expecting, but it's definitely worth a read! I think it would benefit from an updated blurb to include a better idea of what to expect, as well as some trigger warnings for readers.

Thanks to Mills & Boon for the ARC.

[Kirsty (BookBlogger) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Run Baby Run by Melissa Lenhardt

Blurb

A mother, a daughter and a road trip that’s about to take a hard left turn in this heartfelt and witty story about the sacrifices we make for love.

Darcy Evans is getting married. In a week. To a man who is her childhood dream come true. But a late-night confession from her best friend changes everything and before she even has time to unpack it, she must endure a road trip to the ceremony with her estranged mother, Marja. It was always the two of them against the world…until Marja ghosted Darcy three years ago. No car in the world has enough room for all of their baggage.

The drive from Austin to Chicago is nostalgic, claustrophobic, incredibly messy and exactly what both women need. As they each find themselves at a crossroads in their lives, long-held secrets are revealed—ones that reshape Darcy’s memories of the past and forever alter the future she’d recently been so certain of. She hadn’t known what a reunion with her mother might bring, but sometimes following your heart means taking a path you never planned…and finding a love you never imagined.    

My Opinion

I am not entirely sure what I have just read, I had one idea in my head as to what this book was going to be about but it turns out I was completely wrong. There was so much more to this book than the cover and blurb suggests it definitely took me by surprise. There were some great plot twists to keep the reader interested. I listened to this as an audiobook and for me it worked well.

Rating 4/5

[N.L. Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darcy is about to get married, but while she hasn't spoken to her mother in three years, she is about to meet up with her to take a road trip back to the wedding.

But it's within this small space of time that the secrets of the last 3 years will be uncovered, true love with shine through, relationships broken and rebuilt and danger won't be far behind them.

This was not the narrative I expected and it completely kept me on my toes; in a good way.

This narrative is told in first person with multiple points of view of the different characters which carry the narrative along. All the points of view were female highlighting an incredibly strong group of female leads.

I didn't have a favourite in this as I liked all of the characters and felt how strong they were throughout the novel.

A really lovely read with expected twists and characters you can't help but smile and be happy for.

[Clare Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This road-trip book was so far up my street it knocked on the door and said, "get in the car". And I'm so glad I did.

A road trip for Darcy with a mother who ghosted her for three years, a dog who's tetchy about profanity, in the aftermath of finding out Darcy's best friend loves her, which is all kinds of complex because the best friend is the sister to the guy Darcy's due to marry in a week. But none of that is the shit that's about to hit the fan.

Snappy, twisty, with very messy people. Best I can compare it to - as if Louise survived Thelma, hijacked an Emily Henry novel, and it all took a queer turn.

Brilliant, hilarious, sexy, romantic and pulls off a running (barking) dog joke that the author made work for an entire book - that's some genius there.

It's a trip. A really glorious trip.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darcy's meant to be getting married except...Chloe, her fiancé's sister just kissed her and she kissed back. Now she's got that swirling through her brain even as she's trying to figure out why her mother Marja, who has been ghosting her, wants to road trip with her. So, why not take off with her mom and her mom's dog? Well, as it turns out, Marja's got a big (big) secret (no spoilers) and that's where this goes a bit off the rails. These two have a lot of baggage from Darcy's childhood and they're working their way through that even as they dodge law enforcement and bad guys. I liked them, I liked the dog, I like the way Lenhardt incorporated humor. But know that this might not be for everyone. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

[Clara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Up until the sudden plot change, I was really into this book. But then it randomly becomes less about a mother and a daughter’s relationship, and more about a drug cartel, the feds, and witness protection? All while a family drama also happens and one of the MCs fiancée baby traps her?
So basically, it had amazing potential and then it all went south. The plot was all over the place, discombobulated, and messy. I feel like the author wrote down a bunch of random ideas and went: yes, I want all. Also, the dialogue was poorly written, and I couldn’t actually immerse myself in the story. It felt fake and not natural.
I wish I would have liked it, but it was too much of a mess (and not a hot one).

[theweebookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the synopsis I thought this would be a book I would really enjoy, however, there was a lot more to it including guns, the FBI and lesbian relationships. I think this may have been updated to reflect this.


I did enjoy the book and reading Darcy and Marja's backstory and why Marja had gone silent for a few years.  There was a lot of emotion during their journey. The book was quite fast paced with plenty of plot twists.


I did feel, however, that some of the dialogue merged together a lot which confused me and I had to keep stopping to try and work out who was speaking. 

Thank you Mills & Boon and Netgalley for my ARC copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Heather Balog · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped listening to this audiobook with only 45 minutes left in it. I could not take another moment with these characters where everyone discovers they're madly in love with their best friends. Like seriously, has anyone ever heard of platonic love in this book? And all of a sudden everyone is gay and never had any inkling they were gay before? It started off with thriller/suspense potential and ended up being a sugary-sweet romance in which the only character I enjoyed was the dog.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining! I laughed out loud at parts of this book! A road trip with Darcy, her mother and a dog called Helen in a ‘69 Mustang. “After traveling almost nonstop for a decade, nothing much fazes me. But none of my experiences prepared me for six days in October that started with a road trip in a 1969 Mustang with my mother, an incontinent, evangelical dog and a woman from my mother’s past.
Most of this story is true.”
Highly recommended!

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story starts off on a high of hilarious scenarios and I thought it would be a funny lighthearted book. I could not have been more wrong although I did get a laugh throughout reading, I was not expecting so many different plot twists and the mystery was one I found impossible to solve. It was like reading about Thelma and Louise crossed with Sherlock Holmes. I love the little dog and his timing of barking! Overall I had a ball reading this book!