Run to You by Rachel Lacey
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: August 30, 2016
At the beginning of August, I reviewed Rachel Lacey‘s Rock with You (of course, I did. It had a rock star in it!), and I said that it was hard to make a good short story and that I’d give her another chance. Run to You was that chance and it was worth it!
Gabby has come to Haven after ending her relationship with Brad. She wants to be her own person and stand on her own feet. She is most certainly not looking for a relationship, even after she meets former Olympic swimming gold medalist, Ethan Hunter.
Ethan is also not looking for a relationship, but when his dying grandmother, Dixie, says that she would like to see him find someone before she passes, he gets Gabby to play pretend relationship with him.
Both Gabby and Ethan are extremely likeable characters and I loved the fact that neither of their careers was very ordinary. Gabby is a computer guru who designs games and Ethan is starting an adventure company, Off-the-Grid Adventure, with rock climbing and zip lining. Their falling in love was a nice trip with both of them dragging their heels at different points. There is a lot of heat between them and a really great skinny dipping scene!
Dixie, Ethan’s grandmother, is a wonderful wise woman and I enjoyed her presence in this story.
However, there were a couple of stereotypes that I was hoping would not be. Gabby’s ex-boyfriend, the abusive Brad, makes an appearance and he’s just as awful as one would imagine. When Ethan intervenes between Brad and Gabby, she overreacts saying that she could handle it herself. That scene didn’t work from me. If I were in that situation with a big guy bearing down on me, I sure would be very happy for any intervention. My self-respect or self-esteem wouldn’t even enter into the discussion. My self-preservation, however, would be doing a happy dance.
Minor tangent: the above scene has repeated itself in about three novels I’ve read lately. Hero intervenes between stupid jerk and heroine and the heroine gets pissed off and turns on the hero. Now, especially in the case of this novel, the stupid jerk has shown that he can be abusive. Unless you, as the heroine, have developed incredible self-defense skills since the last altercation, why would you ever say anything other than: well, thank you very much for saving my butt? (It’s not feminist, if it’s stupid.) If anyone can enlighten me as to this current trend, I would be much appreciative.
Gabby’s parents also make an appearance and I had wished that they would have been painted a bit more complicated than they were. Perhaps they were brought in as foils for Dixie.
All in all, Run to You is a sweet, uncomplicated, well-written romance with likeable characters.
Ethan’s two friends, Ryan and Mark, who are like brothers to him and are his business associates in Off-the-Grid Adventure, will be in Lacey’s future novels in the Risking It All series and I look forward to reading their stories as they seem very different characters to Ethan.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
From Amazon: Run to You
rating: 
(4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies)