5 stars because this was such a joy to read! PJ Halliday lives in a small town in Massachusetts. He is neighbors with his ex-wife, best friends with her fiance, lottery winner, and alcoholic. He is a hot mess of a character. PJ suddenly finds himself the guardian of two young siblings, Luna and Ollie, who have just been orphaned.
Along with a stray cat, named Pancakes, and PJs daughter Sophie, they embark on a quest. Anyone who loves quirky, loveable characters, books about road trips, and books about found family will love this heartwarming book as much as I do. I am so grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this ARC with me

PJ Halliday is a lottery winner, but he doesn’t always feel so lucky - his oldest daughter died, his marriage fell apart, he’s got a serious drinking problem, and he’s already had 3 heart attacks. But now his high school sweetheart is suddenly single again so he decides to pack up and head to Arizona to win her heart. That is, until his estranged brother’s grandchildren show up on his doorstep with no one to take care of them. Now he’s got passengers to take along with him.

I hadn’t read any Annie Hartnett before but had always heard great things about her quirky books. And I can see why she’s so beloved. The story had humor and heart, it covered tough topics while never wallowing in grief. And it had just enough zaniness to keep the pages moving wondering what would happen next.

I found pieces of the story repetitive, especially in the middle, but even so I enjoyed going on a ride with all of these characters, learning more about them, finding out how they’d all come together, and seeing this group of misfits form their own family. Plus, a cat named Pancakes who can predict death? What more could you want.

So happy to receive an ARC of the author’s new book having enjoyed her previous works and this did not disappoint.
Another winner! I so enjoyed reading this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books.
The highlight of the book was of course the characters - they all captured my heart especially the animal companion Pancakes. PJ is a delightfully flawed man with a heart of gold. I loved his spirit of adventure and searching for a family and happier times.
The road trip PJ embarked on with his daughter and his niece and nephew was epic. Lots of laugh out loud moments to temper the tragic aspects of all their lives. How they came together was most memorable and beautiful. The reader sees the small parts of America and the people who live there - a great travelogue.
The sensitivity with which this author writes again astounds me.
I would love to see this on film!
Highly recommended for readers who love an emotional roller coaster ride with a brilliant resolution.

PJ Halliday is a million dollar lottery winner who spends his time and money at the local bar. He learns through an obituary that his rival has died and his first love is now free. Before he can set off on his cross country trip to win back his true love, tragedy strikes the small town and PJ becomes the guardian of his brother’s grandchildren. This does not deter PJ’s plans and so he, the children, his estranged daughter and a death predicting cat named Pancakes set off on a mishap filled adventure.

This is not a quirky, comedy filled story. It delves into the triggering subjects of alcoholism, abuse, murder, suicide, death and grief. The characters deal with the effects of these tragedies as they make their way on a cross country road trip. The main character, PJ, is an irresponsible man child who has lived too long with others taking care of him, being seemingly unaware or uncaring of the burdens he places on those around him him. The children and the “talking” orange tabby were the most endearing parts of the story.

I found this to be quite readable, and did want to know how everything was resolved, but have an overall mediocre review of the book.

I thank Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The absurdity and the heaviness were a mismatch for me in this case. It strangely reminded me of Little Miss Sunshine, so if that movie is your cup of tea, The Road to Tender Hearts may be a hit for you. I had a hard time with the completely untethered to reality social worker component, even in a kinship placement, as well as the main character’s abrupt and somehow easy turn to sobriety.

PJ Halliday is 63 year old tender-hearted, lonely alcoholic who won the lottery years ago, but has already drank through his winnings. His only living daughter is angry with him, and his ex-wife is marring his best friend. PJ is tired of being all alone even though everyone is constantly taking care of him and decides to road trip across America to find his long lost love from high school, (who he hasn’t seen since the night they met). Just when you think it cannot get more complicated a tragedy occurs and PJ inherits two children and a cat. He doesn’t let that hiccup stop his master plan at happiness, he just brings them along!

You Better Buckle Up For This Roadtrip!
From Massachusetts to Texas to Arizona, with death constantly at their heels, this found family will fall apart and fall together while pulling all of your heart-strings along the way!

The way Hartnett perfectly blends humor and death is simply exceptional! You will fall head over heels for these characters and all the tragedies they endure. Even when they start to get on your nerves just a little, something tragic happens to lure you right back and make you have to know how this all ends!

The allure of these characters was unending! It was dark, so warm-hearted all at the same time, I loved every moment of it! I definitely need more PJ and Pancakes! 🥰

This was my first novel of Annie Hartnett and I loved this one so much more than I thought I would going into it, I cannot wait to dive into her back list now!

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review, it was an honor.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Ballentine for the ebook of The Road to Tender Hearts, by Annie Hartnett. I loved this adventure story about found family, family drama and learning how to overcome some of the most difficult of obstacles.
The story was set in Pondville, MA where PJ Halliday lives alone as a divorcee. His ex-wife Ivy and his best friend Fred also live together as a couple just a few of doors down from PJ. They have decided to go to Alaska on a cruise and have not asked PJ to join them, which leaves him very upset. After hearing that his high school sweetheart has just lost her husband he decides to take a trip to Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to seek her out.
In the meantime, he has learned that his brother's son's children have been orphaned due to their parents getting into a drunk driving accident. He is approached by a social worker to see if he is interested in caring for them and decides to give it a go with the help of his youngest daughter Sophia. His eldest daughter Katy was found drowned in her prom dress several years ago, which causes PJ to tailspin into alcoholism, hence his divorce to Ivy.
Oh, did I forget to mention that they meet up with a cat called Pancakes who can predict death? He was from a nursing home where he was there as a comfort animal. Unfortunately, Pancakes escapes from the care center but fortunately he finds PJ. and is taken along on a family journey.
There are elements of comedy to this novel as well as sadness. But the author does such a great job mixing up the two to give some relief. Each of the characters were vividly depicted and I actually felt like I was along with them for the journey. Annie Hartnett did such a great job with the ending. I highly recommend this read to those who are looking for a warmhearted, cross country adventure story.

A perfect book and one that is hard for me to discuss.... funny, comforting, and playful without sacrificing depth and complexity, especially when it comes to the lives of children. quick and smooth pacing with some very serious themes (check TWs).... reminds me of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS and MATILDA. a book I will learn to write from, for sure

This is such a sweet story about 2 kids who need a family and the broken family who need them right back. Add in a cat named Pancakes who comforts people who he knows are about to die and you have a heartwarming well done story that I’ll be recommending to everyone.
**thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review**

PJ Halliday lived in Massachusetts down the street from his ex-wife and best friend. They were traveling to Alaska when PJ was notified that his brother’s grandchildren were without parents, and he was named as guardian. Luna believed her real father was a Hollywood star and was set on seeing him and confronting him at a celebration in Texas. PJ also was made aware of the death of a friend of his who married his high school crush. He enlisted his daughter Sophie to ride along with him, Luna, and Ollie and Pancakes the cat first to Texas and then to Arizona. PJ has a lot of problems, the biggest is his drinking. As they travel across the country, they encounter some very interesting people while getting to know one another. The characters are endearing, PJ, Sophie, Ollie, and Luna, just want to find someone to care about them and make their lives better. Great story!

warmhearted, unique, well written, with interesting, realistic (if not always nice) characters, and some very well-written themes. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

The Road to Tender Hearts is an incredibly sweet, funny, and bittersweet story about family. The characters are highly dynamic and round, and the prose is ingenious. This book filled something inside me like I had been waiting my whole life to read it. I am at a loss for words, finally finishing it after reveling in its pages. This book is unexpected and irreverent, with an unconventional yet loving family at the center of it, and I cannot recommend it enough! I'm in a post-book daze after reading this remarkable piece of literature.

Equal parts quirky and sad, this is a special book. If you loved the movie Homeward Bound as a child of the 80s/90s, you will like this one.

Almost everything in this book worked for me. The characters are flawed and believable, but also very, very funny. PJ, an elderly retired mailman and former lottery winner, goes to his ex-wife's house very morning to enjoy breakfast with her and her new gentleman friend. Pancakes the cat (who has a knack for sensing when a person is living their last days) is both a menace to the bird population and a comfort to people who are dying (even if they don't know it yet). When PJ is named guardian of some family members he didn't even know existed, they embark on the road trip of a lifetime and have some hilarious adventures along the way.

The "found family" element of this story is strong and I enjoyed it very much. There's a lot of sadness in this book, but it has a tremendous amount of heart and hope.

If you read Annie Hartnett's previous book Unlikely Animals and enjoyed it, this one should be a home run for you.

4.5 stars. Big thanks to the publisher for an ARC!

An old man, his daughter and two orphaned children set out on a road trip to find his recently widowed high school sweetheart. It’s amazing how light and fun this managed to feel while covering so many dark topics. Big Little Miss Sunshine vibes. This author has such a singular, whimsical style that won’t be for everyone but really works for me. It’s the kind of book you could recommend to anyone and they’d find something to love in it.

Thank you to @RandomHouse and #NetGalley for the DRC of #TheRoadtoTenderHearts. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I'm a fan of Annie Hartnett. I like the way she writes quirky, flawed characters you fall in love with and stories that are just a little fantastical, but still plausible.

The book starts with a tragedy that quickly brings our characters together. When Luna & Ollie are suddenly orphaned, CPS places them with their only living relative - their grandfather's brother - who they have never met. Uncle PJ is a bit of a mess - divorced, alcoholic, prone to heart attacks and running out of money after winning the lottery. But he's got a plan. He'll take the kids on a road trip to Arizona. They'll see America on the way to Tender Hearts, where PJ plans to propose to his recently widowed high school sweetheart. What could possibly go wrong?

I really fell in love with these characters and seeing their transformation throughout the story.

Annie Hartnett is back with another zany, heartfelt story, which opens with an animal moment that only Hartnett could pull off. Pancakes the cat resides at a local nursing home in Pondville, a small town nestled in the armpit of Massachusetts. The animal's presence, we discover, isn't comforting like you would expect to the home's elderly residents mainly because when Pancakes come a-knocking, whoever he visits dies shortly thereafter. When word breaks out in the local paper that the nursing home cat can predict death, residents run from him, one patient jumping out of their window to escape the Agent of Death. But Pancake's adventures are just beginning as he finds his way into the arms of sixy-three-year-old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday after running away.

With PJ's ex-wife officially moving on with someone else and his lottery winnings quickly running out, he is searching for a fresh start. He learns from the obituary of his high school rival that his first love, Michelle Cobb, is finally single. Convinced this is his chance at happiness, PJ plans a cross-country road trip to Arizona to win her back.

But life throws him another curve ball, and PJ suddenly becomes the guardian of his estranged late brother's grandkids. PJ considers canceling the trip, but Ollie & Luna smartly pitch why they can't return. Hartnett writes, "Kids need time to grieve after tragedy." It was something Ollie read in one of the books at the foster home. "We need time to trust our new caregiver and adjust to life after loss. We might withdraw or act out or even get violent." Luna was impressed with this pitch. He wasn't usually clever like this. She was the clever one, and he went along with it."

The pitch is a roaring success, so PJ packs up the kids and his adult daughter Sophie for support and hits the road with the cat in tow. A luck would have it, Luna believes her biological father is a soap opera star, and a side trip to reunite her with her dad at a soap opera convention becomes a perhaps misguided but heartwarming side quest.
The shenanigans we go on with this hodgepodge crew are hysterical and written in a way only Hartnett can manage. Pancake's special gift for predicting death persists in alarmingly dark ways on the road, Luna shoplifts and carries a purse filled with hysterical oddities from their travels, and Sophie's bond with her dad renews as the two discover more about her years growing up. Your heart will be pulled in all different directions, especially as the story concludes with a gorgeous twist.

I loved every minute of this laugh-out-loud road trip adventure, which contained heart-aching surprises and hilarious comedic bits that showcase Hartnett's unmatched timing for spinning an incredible story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me with an ARC of Annie Hartnett’s newest novel, The Road to Tender Hearts. In exchange for the early copy I offer my honest review.

Annie Hartnett really knows how to create quirky whimsical stories, as Rabbit Cake remains one of my most favorite debuts of all time. So when I read the blurb for her newest novel I was sure Road to Tender Hearts, would be another memorable reading experience. Unfortunately, this book didn’t land quite right for me. It was too goofy, too absurd and wayyy too heavy. I felt a lot of the themes explored here were very similar to both of Hartnett’s previous novels. I love the playfulness of Hartnett’s imagination but I’d like to see her try her hand at something slightly different- Sorry, but this book falls into the borrow not buy category for me.

Come for the humor, the summer road trip vibe and the found family trope done to perfection, but stay for the insights on humanity and a fresh perspective on what storytelling means. I laughed and cried multiple times. This is truly the kind of book you should just dive into without knowing too much of the premise, but in my mind it takes the very best elements of the following books and blends them into a beautiful but unique whole: The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman, The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel, Family Family by Laurie Frankel, The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman, Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson and Starter Villain by John Scalzi. That may sound like a lot, and IT IS. Hartnett does so much that you’d think it would be too much, but it is absolute perfection. I’ll be thinking about, laughing about and crying about this one for a long, long time.

Thank you so much to the author, Net Galley and Ballantine Books for the early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a delight. Make no mistake, this book is dark. Like, a lot heavier subject matter than I expected, especially with such a lovely book cover like this one! Almost every type of abuse is mentioned here, and death is a constant theme, but despite this, it still somehow manages to maintain its levity and lighthearted humor without ever feeling cloying. This is difficult to do and I feel like the author balanced this really well.

The characters were so incredibly frustrating at times (looking at you, PJ) but yet still so lovable and you were rooting for them the entire time. They were all so so openly flawed, but I think that is what made it work. It flowed so well, I laughed out loud, felt for these characters, and was so pleased with the way this all wrapped up.

I’m now on a quest to read the author’s backlist. This was really a gem and I recommend to all!

The Road to Tender Hearts publishes on April 29, 2025 and I know it won’t be for everyone, but damn was it the book for me.

If you are familiar with Hartnett’s previous works you will already anticipate that TRTTH is going to be a little weird—and you would be right, it’s just the right amount of weird. The book starts with a murder suicide and segues into a heart-warming road trip with the most endearing cast of characters—PJ an optimistic alcoholic who is off on an adventure inspired by his mother (and to escape from traumatic memories of loss), siblings Ollie (who is the sweet to his sister’s sour) and Luna—who are on the search for Luna’s possible soap-star biological father, Sophie the newly unemployed, unmoored, and running-fanatic daughter of PJ, and Pancakes the tabby cat, a harbinger of death.

TRTTH is equally touching and hilarious. There is an abundant amount of tragedy and trauma that fills the pages (consider this a sign to check out the TWs) but the levity and story of family, forgiveness, and redemption far outshines the suffering.

The journey from Massachusetts to Arizona was an outlandish amalgamation (say that 3 times fast) of hurt and hope, loss and love, tears and triumphs, with the best collection of unique and lovely characters that I can recall being in a novel (even the side characters that we spend a mere several pages with were fantastic). I loved this book and I cannot wait for everyone else to read it.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this advanced digital copy.