The Road to Tender Hearts: A Novel
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death—by the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals
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Readers say *The Road to Tender Hearts* is a fast-moving, funny-yet-heartbreaking novel with complicated family dynamics, grief and second chances. Re...
This is a beautiful and strange story.
Hartnett creates characters that feel frustratingly real. PJ is not an easy man to love, but you understand the choices he’s made, even when you don’t agree with them. You see why the people in his life feel the way they do about him, his wife's exsasperation, his daughters anger and somehow, like his “single-serving friends,” you end up loving him and all his red flags.
His relationship with his daughter is especially compelling. It’s messy, complicated, and at times incredibly frustrating, but it never feels hollow. It doesnt feel forced or faked.
And then there’s Pancakes.... he stole the show. I will always love a book that includes a subtly sentient animal, and Pancakes delivers. This comforting cat adds something quietly magical to an already layered story.
Despite its heavy themes of grief, regret, and second chances this book is genuinely funny. I found myself laughing out loud at moments, caught off guard by the humor woven into the darkness. The balance between levity and heartbreak is handled so well that neither undercuts the other.
At its core, The Road to Tender Hearts is about allowing your self to forgive and trying again at love, at family, at being a better version of yourself, even when it feels like you’ve already failed, even when you feel like its too late.
Hartnett creates characters that feel frustratingly real. PJ is not an easy man to love, but you understand the choices he’s made, even when you don’t agree with them. You see why the people in his life feel the way they do about him, his wife's exsasperation, his daughters anger and somehow, like his “single-serving friends,” you end up loving him and all his red flags.
His relationship with his daughter is especially compelling. It’s messy, complicated, and at times incredibly frustrating, but it never feels hollow. It doesnt feel forced or faked.
And then there’s Pancakes.... he stole the show. I will always love a book that includes a subtly sentient animal, and Pancakes delivers. This comforting cat adds something quietly magical to an already layered story.
Despite its heavy themes of grief, regret, and second chances this book is genuinely funny. I found myself laughing out loud at moments, caught off guard by the humor woven into the darkness. The balance between levity and heartbreak is handled so well that neither undercuts the other.
At its core, The Road to Tender Hearts is about allowing your self to forgive and trying again at love, at family, at being a better version of yourself, even when it feels like you’ve already failed, even when you feel like its too late.