Book Review: Runaway by Daniel Z Knight

Read September 28, 2025

Rating (3 stars)

A quick, sweet read

“Runaway” is a novella that covers a fair amount of ground in very short order. I loved that Jason was a man who truly just wants to help, to offer support to a young woman with no one else to turn to. Cassey is just doing her best to escape a bad situation. Given the novella’s length I anticipated insta-love, but their relationship has a much more organic flow.

The age gap between the two isn’t too large, but it did start to feel awkward when Jason told Cassey about his 14 year old daughter who died “a couple years ago,” making her only 2 years younger than Cassey. THAT made me flinch just a tad, not gonna lie. But after that, I lost myself in their story pretty quickly and was able to look past it. As Cassey said, 13 years difference isn’t that big a deal.

A couple things that did stick with me: the author wasn’t able to decide on the book’s POV and the text tended to flip between present and past tense. Chapter 1 starts in third person from Jason’s perspective, but two paragraphs later, with no explanation or indication, it switches to first person inside Cassey’s head. And it flips back to third person narrative later in the book, albeit briefly. Plus one moment Cassey is telling the story in past tense and then it would flip to present tense and back again. It was confusing and instantly snapped me out of the story each time it happened. With a little more attention to editing this would be a stellar read for anyone looking for a quick HEA with minimal drama & strife.