If I were only allowed to give one piece of advice before I died, I would tell you never to read Runaway Love by Melanie Harlow. To put it lightly, I would rather take the SAT every day for the rest of my life than willingly read this book ever again. 

Now I know that sounds dramatic, but I am not exaggerating when I say pigs will fly before this book is opened by my hands again. Originally, I was attracted to the pretty color of the cover. I especially loved how the sides of the book were covered in painted kisses. I thought that idea was cute and much better than the silly cartoon covers that have become the new standard for romance novels. Because of this, I, unfortunately, judged the book by its cover and bought it. 

The story follows a woman named Veronica Sutton who, shocker, runs away from her terrible fiance at the altar. She realizes that she had changed so much of herself to fit into the mold of her ex-fiance that she lost herself. This book should have been a journey of her rediscovery; going after her dreams again and grasping the parts of herself that she had let go. 

Sadly, this is not the path the book goes down. Instead, Veronica runs from one emotionally abusive man to another. Austin Buckley is the most toxic man I have ever read about, and somehow, he is supposed to be her soulmate. 

Austin is a single dad of two who hires Veronica as a nanny for the summer. He is so controlling and manipulative that I actually had to stop reading for a few days because I needed a break from him. Austin somehow has the emotional maturity of a toddler; constantly overreacting and getting angry. 

At first, I thought that Austin would get some character development by the end of the story, but I, again, thought wrongly. He is meant to be a “perfect man”, and while some moments with him were bearable to read, most of the time, I had to physically restrain myself from throwing the book across my room. 

Additionally, Veronica Sutton is not a lovable character by any means either. She also reminded me of a toddler, yet instead of not being able to control her emotions like Austin, she acted like a child who didn’t have a fully developed frontal lobe. All of her sentences always ended in exclamation marks for some reason, and it bothered me endlessly. 

Overall, I didn’t enjoy the author’s writing style, the characters, or the plot of this book. I have read many poor books in my life, and this one is definitely up there. Of course, there were some good elements too, or I wouldn’t have finished it at all. I liked Austin’s two children. There were times when they acted older than the two main characters which I found interesting. For that reason, I gave the book one star.