The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis is a touching story about grief and healing, with a unique musical twist. While the plot is heartfelt and the characters are relatable, some parts felt a bit slow and predictable. Overall, it’s a sweet and emotional read that fans of contemporary romance will appreciate. 📚

A true friends to lovers romance where Tom just supports Nat as she navigates life as a widow and the ebb and flow of grief.

I absolutely loved The Key to My Heart and its story about love and grief. The author did a fantastic and thoughtful job exploring the theme of grief and complex relationships through the pages of this story. While this is a sweet romance, there is also a depth and richness through the real and honest characters and the circumstances they walk through. In fact I was sad to part with the characters by the end as they felt like friends. Lia Louis is fantastic at what she does and is an author I will read time and again. Be prepared for this book to leave you with all the thoughts and feelings to process. I highly recommend!

Many thanks to Atria and Netgalley for the gifted e-copy!

The characters are well-drawn, with their emotional journeys adding depth to the narrative. The romantic elements are sweet and moving, and the author’s ability to capture the complexities of relationships shines through and I had a lot of fun reading.

I really enjoyed The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis. This story is about grief, and love. I loved Natalie. I enjoyed the mystery of who was leaving the music, and I appreciated how her grief journey was presented. And Tom and Joe were both great characters. I’ll definitely be looking for more from Lia Louis!


Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the e-copy of #thekeytomyheart.

Lia Louis is a favorite author and once again, she nails a perfect mix of romance with deep character development and a very human process: grief. I loved this book.

This is my third Lia Louis book and once again I enjoyed this author’s writing and story immensely. I admit though, that it took me many months to finally read it because as we know from the blurb, Natalie gets the rug swept out from under her when her husband Russ suddenly dies. And it’s now two years later and she still hasn’t moved forward at all. I knew reading about grief would be very difficult to do, but Lia also does it in such a way that I felt almost insulated from the emotions the story was evoking.

I very much empathized with Natalie for all she was feeling. She had her husband for such a short period of time, and she really doesn’t know how to move out of this grief and stagnancy she feels. Her family, on the other hand, think it’s been plenty of time and she now needs to get back out there in the world and look for love again.

I especially loved how Natalie finding the sheet music started to bring her out of her shell of grief, and the new friendships she built, as well as repairing the ones she had before her husband died. Overall, even though the book had a sad theme about it, it also had some funny and entertaining parts as well, and I’m glad I read it.

I have read the three previous books by this author, and at this point, Lia Louis does not disappoint.

This book focuses on Nat and her struggles to overcome her grief after losing her husband, Russ, in an accident two years prior. Her friends are trying to get her to go out and meet people, but she is reluctant to do it. She still goes to the crematorium every week, and she stops to play piano in the train station two days a week. Music has become hard for her after Russ died, so playing in the train station is the only time she does it. When she finds a printed sheet of one of Russ's favorite songs left for her at the piano, she feels excited about life again.

There are a few different things going on in this book, and I really liked each part of it. First is the mystery of the music being left at the piano in the train station. Second is the friendship she strikes up with Tom, a man her friends tried to set up her up with. Third is the music therapy group Nat joins and the man, Joe, she meets there. And fourth is the development of her relationships with her friends.

Each part of the plot is important and doesn't feel like too much. Natalie struggles with these relationships and trying to determine exactly how she feels. She battles her guilt over Russ's accident and being the one who survived. She doesn't know how to move on but her friends are trying to push her to do just that. Even though these themes are heavy, there is funny dialogue and interesting scenes that lighten things up. Louis does a great job of balancing the tough stuff with the heartwarming stuff so that the book, overall, feels good to read.

I was very emotionally invested in this book and definitely recommend it!

I have to admit - I started this book a while ago and I could not get into it. I picked it up the other day and was completely sucked into the story and ended up absolutely loving it. I think it goes to show that some books just need to be read at the right time. I loved the mystery element of this book and also how tenderly and honestly she writes on the topic of grief and loss. Overall, I really liked this one. Heavier than just a normal "rom-com" but I found myself laughing out loud while reading a few times also. Full of emotions, loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley & Atria Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this one and thought it was a great exploration of grief and personal
development but it just didn't have anything special to me. I would definitely recommend this to anyone struggling with grief just as something to read and potentially learn from, but for me personally I didn't get a ton out of listening to it. I may not be the best audience for it or it just wasn't the book for me, it happens. I will say I found the main character to be a bit annoying but besides that it was an overall cute read.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Sometimes our expectations are too high and the poor book doesn't live up to them and becomes dull. Like this one.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

I really loved Lia Louis' EIGHT PERFECT HOURS so I was excited to check out another heartwarming story from her, but this one unfortunately didn't capture that same magic for me. I think the music aspect just personally wasn't as interesting to me so I had trouble getting engaged in the story.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Key to My Heart follows Natalie, a young widow who finds friendship in unlikely places. Mysteriously, sheet music of her favorite songs keeps popping up at the piano of the local train station. She likes to play the piano there randomly. The music that mysterely appears, happen to be songs that remind her of her late husband. Natalie befriends two different men and has mixed feelings with both until secrets become revealed and she chooses which one is worth her happiness.
The first 35% or so of the story was absolutely boring, and nothing really happened. Luckily, the story picked up and the characters became more likable.

This book gave me all the feels but it was such a great story of learning to love and move on after loss. I will definitely be reading more of Lia Louis in the future.

I mostly enjoyed this, but it did take me a month to read because it didn’t really grip me.

I didn’t get holiday romance vibes from this either.

I always enjoy the author’s writing though and will continue to read their future works!

Lia Louis does it again with her novel The Key to My Heart. The story was captivating and magical just like Eight Perfect Hours. I look forward to what Louis does next!

I enjoyed Eight Perfect Hours, so I was delighted to receive a copy of The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis. This is a book about having it all and then losing it and then finding oneself again. It's a book about love and grief and the power of music to heal.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Started off a tad slow, but then I ended up loving Natalie and her journey. There are lots of moments of deep grief and sadness and Louis did a really beautiful job of showing how grief and healing is not linear. Lia Louis is definitely a must read for me!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.