My favorite kind of weird, wonderful book. If you liked Annie Hartnett’s other books, or Family, Family by Laurie Frankel or Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, you will love this one too. We join a motley crew of PJ, a loveable screwup who has spent down his lottery fortune, his semi-estranged daughter, his newly acquired distant relative children, and a supernatural and mischievous cat on a cross country roadtrip. Dark and funny and sweet and absurd, all my favorites.

PJ is a rather aimless 63 year old millionaire lottery winner who, through a series of strange events, becomes guardian to his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Though he doesn’t really have much of a relationship with his daughter, he believes he can take good care of them, at least for a while. The
kids, his adult daughter and a one-Earle’s cat set out on a road trip to surprise his high school first love who has recently been widowed. Along the way they face their share of mishaps and foibles.

I had a really hard time with this book—it was a slog for me to get through. The narrative was all over the place and I felt the humor fell flat a lot of the time. I think the author was going for a Kevin Wilson type novel but didn’t achieve it.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

I LOVED this book. I can't stop talking or thinking about it. I've enjoyed Annie Hartnett's other titles but nothing can compare to this one.

4.5 stars

✨I 100% chose this book based on its gorgeous, colorful cover, and I’m so glad I did. What a charming and endearing story of new beginnings, family, found family and navigating the elder years.

✨At the heart of the story is a main character that is tragically flawed yet potentially hopelessly lovable. When I say flawed, I mean he’s a drunken, hoarder bum that you can’t imagine having any redeeming qualities. You’ll have to read the book to find out for sure.

✨Other characters include two orphaned children, an ex-wife and her new husband, a semi-estranged daughter and a cat that is equal parts absolutely adorable and a harbinger of death. Each one is fleshed out with care, and I fell in love with every one.

✨This is a big-hearted story told with depth, warmth, humor. I highly recommend.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Precocious children
✨Cats with questionable morals 😹
✨Heroic anti-hero main characters
✨Found family
✨Blended family dynamics
✨Road trips
✨Starting over narratives
✨Deep stories laced with warmth and humor

Yep this is why I read. When you get a good book and sit down and open to the first chapter and forget everything but that world. This is that kind of book.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed in the cross-country element going on through this book. The characters worked well overall and was realistic and enjoyed the feel of this. Annie Hartnett wrote this perfectly and wanted to read more.

Annie Hartnett is a master at telling a warm, feel-good story. PJ, the town drunk, is a likable fellow. He is on good terms with his ex-wife and fiancee, so much so that he walks to their house every morning and eats breakfast. Sophie, his adult daughter may be the only person that really dislikes him. Well, except for his dead brother, who still plays a large role in family dynamics. When a horrific incident occurs and PJ's nephew and niece become orphans, PJ has no choice except to take care of him. He enlists Sophie's help and the four of them are off on a road trip to find PJ's old girlfriend. The whole drive I was rooting for PJ to stay off the alcohol, for Sophie to understand her father, and for the children to make it through a very tough time. This road trip is in turns funny, heart warming and just plain crazy. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary digital ARC. This review is my own opinion.

The Road to Tender Hearts made me laugh and packed a serious emotional punch to the gut all in the same page. I loved PJ, flaws and all, and I loved the kids, sass and all, and I loved Sophie, drama and all, and I loved Ivy and Fred and Kate and most of all I loved Pancakes. I can't recommend this book enough!

Thank you to Net Galley for this amazing ARC! I thoroughly enjoyed this book from Hartnett’s unique writing style and use of perspectives to every one of the characters she included. If you want a sweet, feel good story, The Road to Tender Hearts is for you.

After reading and loving both Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals, I was thrilled to see the author has a new book coming out. The Road to Tender Hearts has all of the signature elements I love from Annie Hartnett. The characters are well developed as are their sometimes unconventional relationships and families. There is a touch of magical realism and I loved the humor throughout the story. I’m looking at you, Pancakes!

If you haven’t read this author, start with any of her books as you simply can’t go wrong. I will be getting a hardcover for my bookshelves as soon as I can and I will review the audiobook once I get a copy. Many thanks to @randomhouse @netgalley @annie_hartnett for an ARC of this unique

Spin the emotional wheel on this one. It is : funny, sad, quirky, love filled, thrilling, and amazing!
PJ Halliday is million dollar lottery winner and a 50 something dad. Sophie is a 20 something daughter of PJ. Luna and Ollie were PJs brothers grandchildren until they became orphaned. And last but not least is Pancakes the cat, who can predict when someone is close to death.

One day PJ reads in the paper that his high school sweetheart has become a widow. PJs heart is all-a- flutter. This is second chance to win her heart. He sends her flowers and decides to visit her at the Tender Hearts retirement village in Arizona.

Before he can finalize his road trip plans he receives a phone call from social services saying his brothers grandchildren until, Luna and Ollie , are orphaned and would PJ consider taking them in. PJ says yes.

Luna and Ollie arrive and start to get settled in when PJs daughter Sophie shows up worried about her dad.

Despite all the confusion PJ announces he wants to drive to Arizona and win back his high school sweetheart. So they all pile into the car, Pancake the cat included.

And so begins the amazing journey, “ The Road to Tender Hearts”.
Annie Hartnett has created characters that live and breathe on the pages. As a reader you will become part of their family riding in the backseat of the most unforgettable road trip ever!

Open the book to the first chapter, spin the emotional wheel and begin an amazing road trip with your family the Hallidays.

I sincerely want to thank NetGalley for the advanced readers copy of, “ The Road to Tender Hearts.”

I absolutely loved this zany, wild, hilarious road trip story. The characters are all flawed but you love them and are rooting for them and for all their heartbreak, grief and trauma they are still willing to open their hearts. This novel is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. PJ is a divorced, alcoholic, lottery winner in his 60s who decides to travel from New England to Arizona to reconnect with the one that got away Michelle Cobb. He inherits his niece and nephew who have their own sad backstory and he takes them along for the ride. Along with his daughter who he is distanced from. Theirs even a cat named Pancakes who can predict who’s next to die. It’s weird and wonderful and hopeful and poignant. I loved every second of it! I love this author and I will read everything she writes. So different, so talented, refreshing and like nothing else out there. A huge five stars from me!

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged and it only took a few days to read. I think this is going to be a good book club option for several clubs. I plan recommending to my book friends and I look forward to reading more by this author.

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.