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Review: The Guncle Abroad

The Guncle Abroad The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

🌅The Guncle Abroad isn’t just a sequel—it’s a reunion with your favorite cocktail-wielding, caftan-loving uncle who can turn any family drama into a comedy of errors. Five years after his summer crash course in parenting, Patrick O’Hara’s career is on the rise again, but his love life is in shambles after a breakup he can’t quite justify. Enter his niece, Maisie, now a sharp-tongued teen with a flair for Stephen King novels, and his nephew, Grant, an 11-year-old gamer with a bottomless appetite for gelato, magic, and presents. When their father announces a wedding in Lake Como, the kids enlist Patrick to sabotage it—never mind that Patrick actually likes the bride.

What follows is a European escapade of sibling squabbles, cross-generational snark, and Patrick’s own midlife identity crisis, complete with “Guncle Love Languages” ranging from the finer things in life to the joys money can’t buy. Along the way, Patrick faces unexpected competition for “favorite relative” status, navigates the prickly territory of teen emotions, and wrestles with the question of whether he’s ready to let love back in.

Steven Rowley delivers what fans of The Guncle came for: razor-sharp banter, laugh-out-loud set pieces (yes, there’s a Sound of Music 🎶singalong), and genuine warmth. That said, the emotional stakes aren’t quite as raw as the first novel—Patrick starts this story in a better place—so the story arc leans more into midlife self-discovery than deep grief. A few subplots, like the kids’ flip-flopping feelings about the wedding, feel stretched thin, and I sometimes wished we spent less time on adolescent antics and more on Patrick’s adult relationships. I definitely wished for more time with Emory this time around.

Still, Patrick remains the irresistible heartbeat of this series—funny, flawed, and endlessly quotable. Whether he’s philosophizing over mimosas (“I suffer from a rare condition where my body doesn’t produce its own alcohol”🍹) or doling out hard-won wisdom about love and identity, he’s the kind of fictional character you wish you could invite to brunch. This is a warm, witty escape about family in all its messy forms, and even if the sequel wasn’t strictly necessary, I’m glad it exists—because time with Patrick is always time well spent. Solid 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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