I love a good road trip romance and Running Hott is that and more. This is book four in Serena Bell’s Hott Springs Eternal series and it’s a winner! The novel is a lighthearted story, with plenty of spice and humor and it kept me smiling.

Not only has Eden Becker been jilted at the altar–her groom ran off with her car full of precious quilts! She needs help to get them back and Rhys Hott, her (unwilling) wedding planner, comes to her rescue.

Why is Rhys unwilling? Well, Rhys and his four brothers each must complete tasks that their grandfather chose in order to keep the land they grew up on and save their sister Hannah’s business. Hannah has a wedding planning business in Rush Creek and Rhys is tasked to be in charge of several weddings over the next two months and all of the weddings must actually happen as planned. Rhys doesn’t want to be the first brother not able to get his assigned task done and cause their family to lose their land to Blue Iron Mining.

His sister, Hannah, meets with Eden (the bride) to share with her about how Rhys will be handling the final planning of her wedding, but it’s made more complicated because Eden and Rhys have a history! Rhys represented her awful ex-husband in her disastrous divorce and Eden doesn’t think much of him. Rhys feels bad about how her divorce went. He was attracted to Eden, disliked his client, and hated that she lost a lot of her savings in the settlement. But worst of all, she only got half custody of her adorable rescue pup. Rhys convinces her that he will do a good job with her wedding. He tells her all that’s left is to make sure the wedding runs smoothly, without a hitch…but of course it doesn’t!

Not only does the groom, Paul, not show up for the wedding but he takes her car that’s full of quilts she needs for a quilt exhibit she is putting on. (Eden has a big quilt supply business in Rush Creek.) She soon realizes she’s more upset about the missing quilts than Paul being a no-show at the wedding. Rhys and Eden head out on a road trip together to find Paul and rescue the missing quilts. Rhys wants to help Eden because he likes her, but he has a bit of a dilemma because if the wedding doesn’t go through, he won’t be able to satisfy the stipulations of his grandfather’s will. Soon they are traveling by car and then by air across the country and by the time they are back home in Rush Creek, it becomes clear that Rhys and Eden are fabulous together. They both grew up without much love and affection and find comfort sharing with each other about their past. There’s plenty of spice, with a memorable steamy scene out under the stars.

Eden has gone through a messy divorce and then was left at the altar and now she is wary of jumping into a new relationship with Rhys. Meanwhile Rhys, who has always been cynical about love, is ready to take a chance with Eden. While this all made sense, it still created barriers to their relationship that they needed to work through which I found a little frustrating. They get help and advice from the other Hott brothers which adds a lot of humor to the story.

This is another heartwarming story full of humor and spice from Serena Bell. There was some sabotage in each book of the series that hasn’t been resolved yet and I look forward to finding out who is behind the trouble in Tucker’s Story, Hott, Hotter, Hottest, the final book in the series, coming in 2026.