Yesteryear

 

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Fiction

2026

Narrated by Rebecca Lowman

Finished on July 2, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

I can't remember when a novel was as popular as Yesteryear, but with such opposing opinions. Many readers either gave up early on or disliked the book, calling it trash or poorly written. Others, who may have eagerly awaited long library waitlists, enjoyed the tale, happy to chat about it with friends and book groups. Whatever your opinion, one can't argue that this is the most buzzed about novel of the year. 

I went into the audiobook prepared to dislike the story, but was surprisingly captivated by Burke's ability to pull me into Natalie's world(s). Several years ago, I saw an Instagram story which showed a mother of several children making lunch for her family. She made fresh bread from a sourdough starter, cheese with milk from one of their cows, as well as other items, all in her quaint farm kitchen. Not unlike the beautiful photos in Ree Drummund's (Pioneer Woman) cookbooks, Hannah (Ballerina Farm) gave viewers a glimpse inside a home that may or may not be all that it appears. I guess I was naive to think that women like Drummond and Neeleman were doing all the work to create delicious and hearty meals from scratch, and yet, if I'm not mistaken, they have a staff of assistants behind the scenes prepping and styling every shot and angle. As with Natalie's online image in Yesteryear, not all is as it seems. Nannies, producers, farm hands, etc., are all there to make life look easier than it truly is. 

Online influencers, whether those promoting products related to nutrition and health, or those styling classic wardrobes (like my daughter, Fashion Jackson) have become so ubiquitous and profitable that young children aspire to be influencers when they grow up. Perhaps I'm biased because I've seen how hard my daughter works to create content for her followers, but I do believe that not all influencers are frauds. And perhaps that's why I was less critical than other readers of Yesteryear.

Plus, I had to keep listening to find out what the heck happened to Natalie! Not only is this a work of satire, but there's a strong element of mystery, as well. I thoroughly enjoyed the audio production, and I will probably watch the series once it hits a streaming platform. 

A Month in Summary - June 2026

Little Whale Cove

June 2026

We rarely see hot temps on the coast, but the above photo was taken on June 14th when we hit 80 degrees. We grabbed some cold drinks and headed out to the back deck before the sun disappeared behind the trees. It was wonderful to sit outside, soaking up the warmth of the sun, listening to the birds sing. Fortunately, the sunny weather stuck around for a family gathering later that week. My three brothers and some of their family members, as well as our granddaughter, came to visit over the course of a week. Good times!

My reading didn't seem to suffer from the busy month, and there were a few winners in the bunch. I'm eager to read more by Sally Hepworth and Liz Moore. I have one more of John Boyne's in my stacks for this summer's reading challenge, but I'll wait until August to start that one.

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne (4/5)

Long Bright River by Liz Moore (4.5/5)

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth (4.5/5)

Upgrade by Blake Crouch (4/5)

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (4/5)

Gave up on:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Mink River by Brian Doyle

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano

I'm sure these books have their merits, but I've grown too impatient to stick with a book that doesn't grab me early on.

Movies & TV Series:

Unfamiliar - We enjoyed this series about two former spies living in Berlin with their teenage daughter.

Sherlock - We decided to re-watch this series, but stopped after a few episodes because they were so familiar.

Project Hail Mary - Watched this with my husband and my mom. We all read the book and agreed it was so much better than the movie. I liked how Rocky was portrayed, but overall this was a disappointment.

Oppenheimer - Very, very good.

Lee - Also very, very good. I wasn't prepared to be so moved by the story. Kate Winslet is outstanding as Lee Miller.

 

Visitors:

My heart is full!

The Safekeep

 

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Fiction

2024

Finished on June 28, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Booker Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2024)

National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction (2024)

Women's Prize for Fiction (2025)

Publisher's Blurb:

An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

A house is a precious thing...

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.

I finished this debut novel late last night and am glad I hadn't given up on it. The Safekeep is a quiet and unique tale, nothing like any novel I've read about post-World War II. The writing is lovely, but it was slow to draw me in, possibly due to the frenetic pacing of the book I read prior to this one. 

Isabel and Eva are complex, nuanced characters, both lost and broken in their individual lives, ultimately finding comfort with one another. It's a moving story of self-discovery and love, and yet the explicit revelation of Isabel's sexual awakening felt unnecessarily excessive, leaving nothing to the imagination. It didn't help to move the narrative forward, but rather became a distraction. The final chapters, however, rewarded me with an ultimately moving, and hopeful, conclusion. I look forward to reading more by the author in the future.

Recommend.

Upgrade

 

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Fiction

2022

Finished on June 22, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

Upgrade is the third novel by Blake Crouch that I've read and enjoyed. As with Dark Matter and Recursion, I was quickly drawn into the story, the pages practically turning themselves. Similar to my reading experience with Crouch's books, as well as Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, I found that I could read about science, and specifically molecular genetics and genetic engineering, without getting hung up on the specifics. Published just four years ago, this timely novel struck several chords with how our nation (and world) is evolving:

And I was struck again with the awareness that I was alive in strange times. There was a palpable sense of things in decline.

Africa alone had four billion people, most of whom were food insecure and worse. Even here in America, we were still crippled by rolling food shortages, supply-chain disruptions, and labor scarcity. With the cost of meat having skyrocketed, most restaurants that had closed during the Great Starvation never reopened.

We lived in a veritable surveillance state, engaged with screens more than with our loved ones, and the algorithms knew us better than we knew ourselves.

Each passing year, more jobs were lost to automation and artificial intelligence.

Crouch's characters are rich and fully realized, and the dialogue flows smoothly. And yet, by the halfway mark, I grew impatient. The momentum of the story was beginning to wane. I pushed through and finished, but what I thought would be a 5-star read dropped down a full point. The author has sold the rights to Amblin, Steven Spielberg's company. I enjoyed the 9-episode Apple TV series of Dark Matter, and look forward to watching Upgrade once it hits a streaming platform. 

If you haven't read Blake Crouch, I recommend starting with one of his previous books. This one is somewhat underwhelming.

Dark Matter (4.5/5)

Recursion (5/5)

Mad Mabel

 

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Fiction

Narrated by Hannah Fredericksen and Jenny Seedsman

2025

Finished on June 15, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

From Sally Hepworth, the New York Times bestselling author of The Soulmate and The Good Sister, comes a twist-filled, darkly funny mystery about the two kinds of people no one ever expects to be murderers: little girls and old ladies.

Meet Mad Mabel.

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street, Kenny Lane, for sixty years--longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past that she has worked exceedingly hard at concealing. Because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.

When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light. Who was "Mad Mabel" fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?

Told with Sally Hepworth's twists, humor, charm, and heart, Mad Mabel is a novel that weaves past and present together--through the power of justice and redemption, and all the way to its stunning conclusion.

Oh, how I loved this audiobook with its outstanding performances by both narrators. I could easily keep track of the alternating timelines and various characters, eager to drag out my daily walks in order to continue listening. Haughty and cantankerous, Elsie reminded me of Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, although underneath it all, she is tender and loving. This book had me laughing one moment and was tugging at my heartstrings in the next. The power of female friendships, young and old, shines throughout this rich developed story. 

I spotted one twist early on, but there is quite a surprise toward the end that had me gasping out loud, followed by tears welling in my eyes. Mad Mabel is my second Hepsworth novel and I'm now eager to read more. 

Highly recommend!

Long Bright River

 

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Fiction

2020

Finished on June 14, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then, one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.

Having read and enjoyed Liz Moore's recent mystery, The God of the Woods, I was excited to pick up Long Bright River. There is something about a great mystery that pulls you in from the opening lines. The pacing is taut, the dialogue engaging, and the pages flew, keeping me reading late into the night. Long Bright River is a few pages longer than my previous read (The House of Special Purpose), but it took half the time to finish reading. I looked forward to returning to Philadelphia, eager to find out what was going on with Kacey, as well as Mickey and her young son, Thomas. I've never been to Philadelphia, but Moore writes as if she knows every street and neighborhood, specifically that of Kensington. There are a few red herrings, and a twist that I never saw coming. As I read, I found myself thinking back to Dennis Lehane's excellent mystery, Small Mercies. Coincidentally, Lehane has blurbed Long Bright River. I concur!

"Long Bright River is a remarkable, profoundly moving novel about the ties that bind and the irrevocable wounds of childhood. A riveting mystery...I loved every page." —Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author 

Long Bright River is not simply a mystery, but also a story about what makes a family, as well as a harsh examination of the opioid crisis.

Highly recommend.

 

The House of Special Purpose

 

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne

Fiction

2009

Finished on June 5, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the author of The Absolutist, a propulsive novel of the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs.

 

Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign.

Eighty-year-old Georgy Jachmenev is haunted by his past—a past of death, suffering, and scandal that will stay with him until the end of his days. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to St. Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the czar, in the early twentieth century—a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution. As Georgy overturns the most painful stone of all, we uncover the story of the house of special purpose.

I bought The House of Special Purpose at Parnassus Books four years ago while visiting my daughter and son-in-law in Tennessee. I always make an effort to buy at least one or two books from an independent bookstore while traveling, and having read a few of Boyne's novels, this one caught my eye. Not wanting it to languish on my shelves much longer, I decided it would be one to read this summer, as I love a hefty book to sink into during the longer days. 

Spanning seventy years, separated by past and present, and clocking in at almost 500 pages, this one took me two weeks to read. At times I was thoroughly engrossed in the lives of Georgy and Zoya, but there were also moments when I grew impatient with the details, silently complaining about the drawn out length of the tale.

Ever the critic, I found one irritating error, which the editor should have caught. Boyne's main character, Georgy, has received birthday gifts from his wife and one-year-old daughter. Little Arina later asks, "Father," she said, sounding so serious now, the way she always did when she had a question she considered to be of the highest importance. "Whose present is the best, mine or Mother's?" Either Georgy has an exceptionally bright toddler or her age was misstated earlier in the chapter. 

I have now read five of John Boyne's novels, and while The House of Special Purpose was worthwhile, it's not one that I'd like to read again. Having said that, I would like to read more about that period in Russian history. I might give The Romanov Sisters (Helen Rappaport) a read later this year. If anyone has any other recommendations, please let me know.

My Reviews of John Boyne's Novels:

The Absolutist (5/5)

A Ladder to the Sky (4.5/5)

The Heart's Invisible Furies (4.5/5)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2/5)

A Month in Summary - May 2026

Port Townsend, Washington

May 2026

What a fun month! We celebrated my husband's 74th birthday, and my mom's 93rd. No photos, but we went out for a nice dinner. And there was cake (twice), too. My mom has been doing her PT for her hip, and her recovery has gone very well. So well that Rod and I decided to take an RV trip up to Port Townsend and the surrounding areas. Two of my brothers came to visit my mom while we were away, tag-teaming their time so she wasn't alone for too many days. Rod and I enjoyed our R&R, reading, walking, sitting in the sun, etc. Our good friends joined us in Nehalem for the last three nights, which was also fun. The weather cooperated for the most part, especially in Port Townsend, which made for enjoyable walks into town, as well as watching two eagles and a half dozen blue heron fishing on the spit. I even spotted a otter scampering down the sidewalk in front of our RV! He looked like he knew exactly where he was going.

You would have thought I'd get a lot of reading in, but I gave up on two books, and only finished one while on our trip. I'm about a quarter of the way in on my current read, and while I'm enjoying it, it's taken me over a week to read 150 pages. I'm hoping to make more progress today between folding laundry. I did manage to get a lot of reading in before our trip, and finished six books for the month. My favorite was Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, which is excellent!

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (4.5/5)

Kate & Frida by Kim Fay (3/5)

Wreck by Catherine Newman (4/5)

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (4/5)

Heart the Lover by Lily King (4/5)

Clear by Carys Davies (3.5/5)

Gave up on:

The Wild Beneath by Kelly Anderson

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor

Movies & TV Series:

Remarkably Bright Creatures - This is the rare case in which the movie is better than the book. My husband and I both got choked up at the ending.

The Nordic Murders - Meh. Not great, but not terrible. Not sure if we'll watch any more of this series.

Ted Lasso (Season One) - I know I'm late to the party, but I'm so glad I decided to give this another try. We watched the first episode several years ago and weren't impressed. This past month, I watched the first season by myself and loved it. Lots of laughing out loud, which is always great. 

Detective Hole (Season One) - I  haven't read any of Nesbo's books, but this series was quite good. Very gritty and dark, but very good. 

Travel:

Nehalem Bay State Park, OR

Quinault River, WA

Point Hudson, Port Hudson, WA

Quinault River, WA

Neahkahnie Mountain

(looking toward Manzanita, OR)

20 Books of Summer

 

It's that time of year again! I love this annual reading challenge. It helps me stay focused on the books that are on my shelves, some of which that have been there for several years. In addition to the backlist titles, I have quite a few new releases that I'm eager to read. 

Here are some details about the challenge. 

• 20 Books of Summer is hosted by Annabel at AnnaBookBel.
• The #20BOS26 challenge runs from Monday June 1st to Monday August 31st.
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15, or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR. (If you think you’ll only manage 5, that’s fine too.)

You can find more about this challenge on Annabel's site. My personal cut-off date lands on Labor Day, which this year is September 7th. It's nice to have an extra week to wrap things up. I haven't included book group titles or books that I'll read on audio, so my final results will most likely be a bit different from my original choices.

 

Have you read any of these? Which should I start with?

Clear

 

Clear by Carys Davies

Fiction

2024

Finished on May 20, 2026

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

1843. On a remote Scottish island, Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep. Unaware of the stranger's intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and in spite of the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them. Meanwhile on the mainland, John's wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission.

Against the rugged backdrop of this faraway spot beyond Shetland, Carys Davies's intimate drama unfolds with tension and tenderness: a touching and crystalline study of ordinary people buffeted by history and a powerful exploration of the distances and connections between us. Perfectly structured and surprising at every turn, Clear is a marvel of storytelling, an exquisite short novel by a master of the form.

Slow and gentle to start, Clear reminds me of When the Cranes Fly South, another slim novel of a solitary life. The book's quiet tone, full of emotional depth, evokes a strong sense of place, as well as characters who come alive in Davie's spare details. Learning to communicate with one another, Ivar and John become friends as their time together continues on the isolated island. I was pleasantly surprised with the final outcome, and was even tempted to start reading from the beginning again, but my overall rating doesn't reflect that inclination. Maybe with a second reading, I'd be more apt to bump that rating up to four stars. Clear is one to discuss with others, maybe with a book club. This deeply affecting story will appeal to fans of Claire Keegan and Marilynne Robinson.

Recommend.

Heart the Lover

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Casey Peabody #2

Fiction

2025

Finished on May 17, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

You knew I’d write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and their free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off-campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. Youthful passion is unpredictable though, and she soon finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, Jordan is living the life she dreamed of, and the vulnerable days of her youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, Jordan returns to a world she left behind and is forced to confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship, and the transformative nature of forgiveness. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

I've been looking forward to reading Heart the Lover from the moment I heard it was to be published. I loved Writers & Lovers, and was eager to read another novel by Lily King. (I thought I read Five Tuesdays in Winter, but find no record of it, so I guess it slipped by me!)

I liked Heart the Lover well enough, but two of the three main characters annoyed me so much that it made it difficult to really enjoy the story. It wasn't until I reached the halfway mark that I was finally hooked. Those chapters are King's strongest, and I couldn't stop reading until I finished the book. It was almost midnight, and my husband was sound asleep next to me. It was all I could do to not start sobbing, which I rarely do while reading. The ending just about gutted me!

I only marked one passage, but it's one that I think most readers can relate to:

'You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you're reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.'

I understand that this is both a prequel and a sequel to Writers & Lovers, although I fail to see those connections. I'll do a little research to see what others have to say. Having zipped through Heart the Lover fairly quickly, I'm tempted to read it again, followed by a re-read of Writers & Lovers. 

The Road to Tender Hearts

 

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

Fiction

2025

Narrated by Mark Bramhall

Finished on May 13, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

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—from the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals.

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads an obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also figures he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter, adrift in her 20s, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a second shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it.

My first thought as I read the publisher’s blurb was that 63 is not old. I’m 64, and I certainly don’t think of myself as an old lady. PJ may be middle-aged, but he is not an old man.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, here’s my review:

I started listening to this audiobook after hearing so many great things about the book. But about ten minutes in, I was ready to stop. At first, I didn’t like PJ; he came across as very annoying and needy. I also wasn’t sure about the narrator’s voice. The next day, I decided to give it another chance, and I was hooked. I laughed out loud and fell in love with the characters, especially Luna and Otto. Those two kids reminded me of Bessie and Roland in Kevin Wilson’s dark comedy Nothing to See Here. Then there’s Pancakes the cat, who brought to mind Marcellus the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. Not only is Pancakes able to predict death, (and Marcellus is dying, of course, so there's that additional connection between the two animals), but both animals are highly intelligent with an uncanny ability to observe and understand the humans around them, acting as a sort of observant, wise "Greek chorus."

I’m not sure how the humor comes across in the print edition, but the audiobook is excellent and anything but predictable. Fans of quirky, chaotic stories like Nothing to See Here and So Far Gone by Jess Walter are sure to enjoy this book. And who doesn’t love a good road trip tale?

Recommend.