A Heartbeat at My Feet by Kristin Judd
A Heartbeat at My Feet by Kristin Judd is a warm, uplifting story about starting over when life suddenly takes an unexpected turn. Josie Ballard arrives on the Italian coast expecting a long awaited holiday with her husband, only to discover a betrayal that changes everything.
Rather than returning to the life she once accepted, Josie chooses to stay in Italy and begins searching for something she may have forgotten along the way: herself. Meanwhile, Cicero, a wonderfully opinionated terrier with impeccable manners, is coping with the loss of his beloved owner and wandering through the ruins of Pompeii. Their unlikely meeting becomes the beginning of a journey neither could have planned.
With Cicero’s help, Josie encounters Hugo, a charming local bookseller, and gradually discovers that a new chapter can be both frightening and exciting. Set among the sunlit villages, olive groves, bookstores, and sparkling Mediterranean scenery of Italy, the novel blends gentle romance, humor, grief.
Told through alternating human and canine perspectives, it offers an especially charming look at love, companionship, and the courage to begin again.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Key Ideas from the Book
Who Should Read This Book
Rather than returning to the life she once accepted, Josie chooses to stay in Italy and begins searching for something she may have forgotten along the way: herself. Meanwhile, Cicero, a wonderfully opinionated terrier with impeccable manners, is coping with the loss of his beloved owner and wandering through the ruins of Pompeii. Their unlikely meeting becomes the beginning of a journey neither could have planned.
With Cicero’s help, Josie encounters Hugo, a charming local bookseller, and gradually discovers that a new chapter can be both frightening and exciting. Set among the sunlit villages, olive groves, bookstores, and sparkling Mediterranean scenery of Italy, the novel blends gentle romance, humor, grief.
Told through alternating human and canine perspectives, it offers an especially charming look at love, companionship, and the courage to begin again.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Heartwarming story about second chances
- Delightful and memorable canine narrator
- Beautiful Italian setting
- Gentle romance with genuine emotional depth
- Excellent balance of humor and tenderness
- The relaxed pacing may feel too gentle for some readers
- The romance develops gradually
- Readers looking for conflict may find the story quiet
- Cicero’s perspective may take some adjustment
Key Ideas from the Book
- It is never too late to choose yourself. Josie’s journey shows that a painful ending can also become the doorway to a completely different life.
- New beginnings rarely arrive looking perfect. Sometimes the best chapters begin with disappointment, uncertainty, and a decision to step outside the familiar.
- Grief and healing can take many forms. Josie and Cicero experience very different kinds of loss, yet both discover comfort through an unexpected connection.
- Friendship can change the direction of a life. Some of the most meaningful relationships appear when we are not looking for them.
- Home can be a feeling rather than a place. Italy becomes the setting in which Josie begins to understand what belonging and happiness mean to her.
- Love does not always arrive dramatically. Sometimes it develops quietly through kindness, companionship, shared moments, and the freedom to be yourself.
Who Should Read This Book
- Readers who love heartwarming contemporary fiction and stories
- Fans of second chance romance and later in life new beginnings
- Dog lovers who enjoy memorable animal characters and canine perspectives
- Anyone dreaming of an Italian setting filled with villages, bookstores, and Mediterranean charm
- Readers looking for a gentle, emotional story about grief, healing, friendship.
Home → Fiction → A Heartbeat at My Feet by Kristin Judd
Updated September 30, 2026
Updated September 30, 2026
Two lost travelers, two points of view
Josie Ballard is preparing for a long awaited trip to Sorrento when she discovers her husband’s infidelity. She goes to Italy without him, carrying the shock of a marriage ending and no convincing plan for what should replace it.
Cicero is lost in a different way. After the death of his beloved human, the opinionated terrier wanders around Pompeii searching for purpose and stability. When he meets Josie among the ruins, the novel’s alternating perspectives bring together a woman who has deferred her own ambitions and a dog whose grief has dismantled his world.
Cicero is lost in a different way. After the death of his beloved human, the opinionated terrier wanders around Pompeii searching for purpose and stability. When he meets Josie among the ruins, the novel’s alternating perspectives bring together a woman who has deferred her own ambitions and a dog whose grief has dismantled his world.
The one minute decision
Choose A Heartbeat at My Feet if you want later in life reinvention, an Italian setting, gentle romance, and a canine viewpoint that has its own emotional arc. Cicero does more than arrange a meet cute: his bond with Josie helps lead her toward Hugo, a local bookseller, while both woman and dog reconsider what home might mean after betrayal and loss.
Skip it if an animal narrator, measured pacing, or a low conflict romantic development is unlikely to work for you. The story’s momentum comes from recovery, companionship, and small choices rather than a plot built around external danger.
Skip it if an animal narrator, measured pacing, or a low conflict romantic development is unlikely to work for you. The story’s momentum comes from recovery, companionship, and small choices rather than a plot built around external danger.
Book club questions
- What can Cicero notice about Josie that she is not yet prepared to name about herself?
- Does traveling alone give Josie freedom, or initially make the life she lost feel more visible?
- How do grief and betrayal create different kinds of loneliness for the two narrators?
- What would choosing a second act require Josie to stop postponing?
Read next on Pippla
- Our Secret Summer - for another trip that becomes a route through grief and reinvention, with Ibiza adventure and workplace romance rather than a canine co narrator.
- Summer State of Mind - for burnout, second chances, and unexpected caregiving in a close coastal community rather than a solo Italian escape.
- Remarkably Bright Creatures - for grief, belonging, and an observant nonhuman perspective, with an aquarium mystery instead of romance led travel.
