I loved this book. It’s a book with a big heart, and clear, sober eyes, I don’t want to give away the plot, but it’s a road trip, and adventures ensue, and there’s a merciless cat and a truly insightful barfly and the largest Alpaca farm in Kentucky, and at the heart of the book is hero so flawed it’s hard to call him a hero, yet there he is.

I love when an author clearly loves their characters - it doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen to them, but it does mean it’s all done to them with true care.

About the only book that this reminds me of is Michael Malone’s Handling Sin, which also had a car full of lovable, unpredictable characters and a heart just as wide-open.

Author Hartnett is sharp and funny and morbid and open to possibility. I can’t recommend the book any higher.

Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the advance reviewers copy.

Set in a small New England town, this is a story that is somewhat different from this author’s previous books, although it is not without its own charm.

This is a story of families broken by divorce, and the children their father decides to foster, who come into their lives, as well as a daughter who believes in her heart that the man who she calls her father, is not, in reality, her biological father. She has no proof of this, she just feels it in her bones. And so while her mother and her mother’s new husband are on vacation, she manages to convince her father to drive across the country to meet him in person.

Meanwhile her father has plans of his own, to find the woman he loved before he ever married his wife. A woman who is living in a retirement home in Arizona.

There’s a lot of charm in these pages, and a lot of growth as this father attempts to be a better father to those that he loves.


Pub Date: 29 Apr 2025


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Ballantine Books

(This is all in the first couple chapters; no spoilers.)
My first thought when I finished The Road to Tender Hearts was, "That was weird." PJ is a 63-year-old alcoholic who won $1.5M in the lottery a few years back and "inherits" his niece's 10 and 11-year-old kids. The kids grew up in an abusive home and have trauma. PJ wants to drive to AZ (from MA) to see his HS sweetheart and convinces his somewhat-estranged 20-something daughter to do the driving. They take along a cat that shows up out of nowhere and can predict when a human is going to die.

The road trip is a series of unfortunate events. There are far too many deaths, including unnecessary that add nothing to the story. The book is rather scattered and sometimes hard to follow. Overall, I wasn't impressed and wouldn't recommend spending money on it, but if you're interested, get it from the library.

I was drawn to Tender Hearts because the synopsis reminded me of the author’s previous book, Unlikely Animals. Indeed, there were a lot of similarities.

Both books center around kindly older men in their 60s who live in quirky, small New England towns. Both men are lovable screwups with a soft spot for children and animals. Both men are fathers to adult kids in their 20s, who surpass them in maturity.

Both books also feature startlingly precocious, troubled orphan girls. They’re the same age, their names start with the same letter, they’re both exceedingly intelligent and talented at singing. Both girls end up in the care of an older male relative- even the circumstances of the parents’ deaths are almost the same.

So, yes, I was expecting something similar to Unlikely Animals. Something lighthearted and quirky, funny and sad at the same time. That illusion was shattered very quickly.

In the first few chapters we’re bombarded with the following: child abuse, domestic violence, vehicular manslaughter, accidental poisoning, attempted murder, and suicide. That’s a lot of crime for a single day in a small town, but okay. You’re going to have to suspend your disbelief for this one.

It also didn’t help that the book never strayed from its lighthearted, quirky tone, which at no point matched the subject matter. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think traumatized, abused children losing their parents is funny or whimsical.

The two kid characters, Ollie and Luna, are orphaned very conveniently for the sake of the plot. PJ, their great-uncle, is appointed their guardian despite being a complete stranger to them. They’ve lived in the same town all their lives, but somehow nobody put it together that the kids’ despicable grandfather was PJ Halliday’s older brother.

As it stands, I can only imagine the author was trying to create a family situation where the kids are orphaned and the reader’s first reaction isn’t “Oh, those poor children!” but “Well, maybe they’re better off.” This family is so dysfunctional, so poisoned by decades of generational trauma and abuse that losing their parents was probably the best thing that ever happened to them.

PJ learns his high school crush, Michelle, has recently become widowed. She’s living in a retirement home in Arizona, so PJ decides to take a road trip and confess his love. He has this brilliant idea the same day the kids turn up at his door and decides he’ll just take them along. Since PJ isn’t exactly a responsible adult, he enlists the help of his daughter, Sophia, to come and babysit.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past the complete shitshow that was Ollie’s and Luna’s upbringing. Luna in particular is going through something really awful and I felt so horrible for her the entire time. I also didn’t find PJ’s antics funny or charming; he’s a geriatric manchild and giving him a sad backstory did not endear him to me in the slightest. Sophia is the only sane woman, but she’s so boring that I really have nothing else to say about her.

I’m sorry, I hate to review a book so harshly, but I honestly hated this.

This was a funny book! I did really enjoy it overall, even though there were a ton of super unrealistic things going on.... but it was still entertaining and it was well written, so it gets the credit for that. I enjoyed the journey that this book took us on!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

I can already picture this as a movie. It was a cast of interesting characters and an epic adventure to follow along. I thought the writing was good and it entertained me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.