The Road to Tender Hearts
The Road to Tender Hearts ~ Annie Hartnett
PJ Halliday, an alcoholic hoarder who lives down the street from his best friend, who is also his ex-wife. He doesn’t need to work because he won 1.5 million in the lottery, which makes him popular at the local bar. He and his wife had 2 daughters, but the elder daughter died on her prom night many years prior, an event which contributed to his heavy drinking and the dissolution of their marriage.
Pancakes is a strangely prescient cat who has the ability to know when someone is going to die. When he senses their imminent demise, he goes to them, so they are comforted by a purring cat in their lap. The folks at the retirement community where Pancakes lives start to feel like perhaps Pancakes is actually the cause of death, or at the very least, they don’t want to hang with him anymore, so he ends up living with PJ.
PJ is the unknowing great-uncle of Luna and Ollie, two young kids who are left to his care when they are orphaned. PJ decides this can be a good thing, but he wants to take a road trip from his home in Massachusetts to a retirement community in Arizona, Tender Hearts. So he borrows his ex-wife’s fiance’s car (they are on vacation in Alaska for the summer), packs it up with the cat, the kids, and his adult daughter, Sophie, and off they go. Why are they going to Arizona? Because before PJ met his wife, he was in love with Michelle Cobb, who is recently widowed. PJ decides to make the trip and propose to Michelle. What could go wrong?
That’s a lot, right? A lot of info, but honestly, no real spoilers, that’s just the setup. The Road to Tender Hearts is a charming, well told, lovely story, full of deeply flawed characters that I loved. Highly recommended.
10 Comments
Nicole MacPherson
Another one in my queue! I’m still far down in the queue, will report back.
J
I predict you will love it. I predict I will be replying the same comment to everyone who hasn’t read it yet.
Karen Meg
This looks like a great read, thanks for the reco!
J
I hope you give it a try, really good.
Elisabeth
I’m on the waitlist. Birchie RAVED about this book (I think, right? It was Birchie), and I feel like Stephany did to.
Like Nicole I’m wayyyyy down on the waitlist, though.
Birchie
Can confirm the rave! I was so skeptical of the book going in and it took me just a minute to get into it, but once I was hooked I was HOOKED. I cried at the end when the story reveals why the cat was following PJ (spoiler: PJ does not die).
J
It took me a bit to get into it as well, but once I was in, I was all in.
J
It took me forever to get to it, and when I did I had very little memory of what it was about. Which I kind of love about a wait list, I go in blind.
Jenny
Everyone seems to love this book! To be honest, that kind of made me not want to read it, but… it does sound good. And there’s a cat! Okay fine. I’ll put a library hold on it.
J
You will love Pancakes!