First published 2025
PJ Halliday sits in his usual bar stool in Pondville, Massachusetts, nursing another drink with his lottery millions doing little to ease the pain. His eldest daughter died suddenly. His marriage crumbled. Three heart attacks have left him living on borrowed time. Then he spots an obituary that changes everything. His high school sweetheart Michelle Cobb is finally widowed and living in an Arizona retirement home. PJ decides to drive across America to win her back. But tragedy strikes again, leaving him guardian to his estranged brother's orphaned grandchildren. Most people would cancel the trip. PJ packs the kids into his car instead. He recruits his aimless twentysomething daughter Sophie as babysitter and picks up an unexpected passenger: Pancakes, a death-predicting therapy cat who showed up at his door. The road trip becomes PJ's shot at redemption, but his damaged heart may not survive another round of love and loss.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, redemption
Setting: Arizona, Massachusetts, Pondville
Period: contemporary
369 pages · Paperback · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: death