A Heartbeat at My Feet: A Novel

Fate has a sense of humor in this witty, heartfelt tale of love and second chances told in two perspectives—a woman in midlife desperate for something new, and a lost dog seeking his purpose.

After years of dreams deferred, Josie Ballard’s life is about to change. She and her husband are off to Sorrento for a summer adventure, but on the eve of their departure, Josie discovers his infidelity. Devastated, she leaves her faithless husband, heading for the sun-drenched Italian coast. Alone, future unknown.

Five thousand miles away, Cicero, a rather snobbish terrier of indeterminate breeding, is likewise living an upturned life after his beloved human’s passing. Heartbroken, he wanders the wilds of Pompeii. When a flustered tourist with a kind smile appears in the ruins, clutching her tote bag and map, Cicero and Josie collide like the two lost souls they are.

In a series of turns as twisty as Sorrento’s streets, Cicero leads Josie to her second act: Hugo, a charming and somewhat contrary local bookseller. Against a backdrop of quaint villages, sun-dappled olive orchards, and the shimmering Mediterranean Sea, Hugo and Josie embark on a friendship that just might tiptoe into romance, with little Cicero to help them along the way—for dogs, he reasons, are nothing if not experts when it comes to love.