The Road to Tender Hearts

November 13, 2025 /

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.

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