The Key to My Heart - Book Review

The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis
Publication: December 6, 2022
Pages: 352 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ✰✰✰✰

Sweet Spark: Natalie was such an inspirational character. Despite unexpected widowhood while her friends were still getting married and having babies, she's determined to keep on keeping on.

Natalie isn’t really worried about her life since her husband Russ died. She just goes on existing. She has the folks she visits at the coffee shop, and she finds some solace in playing the piano at the train station. Everyone else seems to want her to have more, but it’s not their life, is it? 

Eventually the time comes where she finds herself somehow moving on. A practically required night out with her friends introduces her to Tom, who keeps turning up even though she had never noticed him before, and then a recommended music therapy group has her spending time with Joe, who she does recognize as being around before, but always as part of the background in her predictable life. 

This charming and unique story earned 4 out of 5 stars. As a young widow, Natalie wasn’t the usual young-ish woman searching for love at the bars with her friends. Her friends were having babies and living their full, developing adult lives, and she wasn’t sure where that left her. She didn’t want a new love; she wanted what she already had with her husband, but she now had to move on without him. Her reluctance to accept the life she truly had to deal with now was just part of her appeal. 

The details of the ending were somewhat unexpected in a pleasant way. This is a great and heartwarming book with likable characters who each had their own flaws. The story could be enthusiastically enjoyed by those who enjoy family dramas, starting over, and interesting ideas of where love may be found.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my electronic copy of this book. Receiving it for free did not influence my review.