Thank you so much @AtriaBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 06 December 2022)

SYNOPSIS | Two years have passed since the unexpected death of her husband & Natalie feels like everyone expects her to have moved on, but she is struggling to find her purpose. She has professionally given up her main passion in life (music) but she continues to play at a community piano when she starts to find very specific sheets of music of her husbands favourite songs which seem to have been left specifically for her.

WHAT I LIKED:
- the discussion around grief being a marathon & not a sprint
- music therapy is a focal point of this story
- that there is a HEA

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- I didn't find myself looking forward to picking this book up
- the pacing felt pretty slow throughout & that made the story feel like it was dragging at times
- since the focus of the story is in the "after" I didn't feel like I really got to see Natalie's personality from the "before"
- I could have done without the love triangle

Two years after her husband's death, Natalie is still struggling. She feels stuck--in the village cottage that was her husband's dream home listening to amorous foxes most nights. Her friends are getting frustrated with her inability to move on. Her one solace is playing the piano in a train station. It's a way to escape into the music that she once hoped to make her career but now has pretty much abandoned. After playing the piano, she enjoys a chat with Shauna, who manages the coffee shop in the train station.

Gradually, she meets new people though. Tom, a guy at a bar that her friends insist she talk to, turns up at the train station too. And Joe, a fellow patron of the station coffee shop, shares an unexpected bond with Natalie.

This book could be depressing, but instead it's enthralling and quite often funny. Natalie's good friends, Priya especially, and her sister, Jodie are perfect foils for her deadpan humor. Lia Louis writes unexpected, unique romances. #TheKeytoMyHeart #NetGalley

DNF at 36%. Sadly I was not invested in the storyline or main character. Still open to reading other books by this author.

This was a cute read, but I didn’t feel much of a connection to it. I could easily stop reading and come back later. This book was a little heavy and I think I was hoping for something with a few more lighthearted scenes. I really liked Natalie and Shauna’s relationship.

More Like 3 and ½ Stars ✨!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for my advanced copy of The Key to My Heart.

I enjoyed this one.
I've enjoyed all of Lia Louis's books .
She writes characters I can't help but become attached to and care about.
This book deals with loss/ grief but wasn't too heavy. There was a great balance of seriousness and humor.
The romance in this book was great as well.

Why This Book Wasn't 5 Stars-

I wasn't immediately sucked into the story. It took me a bit. When comparing The Key to My Heart to this author's back list this one is at the bottom for me.
It was still good but it didn't blow me away.

Overall- Recommend. I look forward to picking up whatever this author decides to publish next.

Lia Louis didn’t disappoint. I’ve been waiting desperately for her next novel and it was just as sweet as I’d expect from her. She gives me hallmark vibe but with a strong storyline. This book sucked me into it and left me with a book hangover. I just loved these characters and highly recommend to any hallmark lover.

Her hands glided along the black and white keys as the music flowed through her veins and transported her back to a time where her heart was most content. People bustled around her as her music filled the place. Each person with their own troubles and problems. She hoped the music could soothe whatever ailed them, as it was for her.

The Key to My Heart is a heavy journey of a romance that follows Natalie, a woman who lost her husband in an accident and is still reeling with grief. Music is her connection to the past with Russ, but also hopefully a spark to help her move forward.

Despite what this cover depicts, this is not a holiday/winter themed romance (it’s honestly barely set in winter), so know that before you go into it if that’s what you were expecting. It is also dealing heavily with grief and loss, so this is not a lighthearted romance to escape in. What this book is though, is a beautifully written journey of what it’s like to lose someone and navigate the grief that comes with their disappearance in one’s life. How feelings of grief manifest as guilt and fear, as well as the weight of being stuck. How none of those feelings are wrong. Lia has a way with crafting words that just make you FEEL as a reader. And while I wasn’t a fan of the love triangle in this story, I loved watching Natalie grow as a person, while still validating her feelings of loss and heartbreak.

Read this if you want a romance that really dives into the darkness of loss and how it’s okay to be in those feelings while still moving forward in life and finding joy in the small and big things.

This is such a sweet book, sad but also hopeful, a romance but also so much more. When this novel starts, it’s been more than two years since main character Natalie’s husband died after an accident, leaving her a widow in her early 30s. Her friends are all pushing her to move on, but she’s still not over it. But after starting to find sheet music her husband loved at the train station piano she sometimes plays at, plus encountering some new people, and a little help from friends and family, she finally slowly starts coming back to life.

Well, I loved Lia Louis’s previous books Dear Emmie Blue and Eight Perfect Hours, but I loved this one even more! So, it’s official - Lia Louis is definitely on my must-read list. Her books all blend a lot of emotion and melancholy into romance/contemporary women’s fiction/British chick lit - think kind of the vibe of Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You trilogy.

A bittersweet rom com. That for a while I didn't think was going to give me a happy ending but it ended up surprising me. And while I won't say it's a favorite read of the year I did enjoy it.

A very enjoyable story from a new author for me. It’s been three years since Natalie’s husband died in a bicycle accident, and her friends have been trying to restart her life for much of that time, but she is stuck. She just lives day to day, working at a job with her sister and existing in the cottage that Russ loved and planned on refurbishing for them.
Everyone keeps introducing her to potential suitors, but she has no interest. Her music is stagnant and she’s hasn’t written anything, much less play, until she finds a piece of sheet music in the piano stool of the piano in the train station. It was one of Russ’ favorites and she begins to play that piano, and the music continues to appear, each having a connection. She begins to move along, stepping out of her mourning and looking forward!
This is a story of committed love and what loss does when a partner is removed. It’s about struggle and the effort it takes to climb out of that abyss. In Natalie’s case, it took the love of her friends, and her love of music to help her climb out! The heart is a fragile organ, we need it healthy to continue living, and fortunately, Natalie was able to find that key, among the music in a train station, to heal and live.
Lia Louis is a skilled story teller, fun, interesting characters and a wonderful story. My thanks to the author, NetGalley,and Simon and Schuster for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

A beautiful story of love and loss, the cost of love and strength of grief. No one can tell someone how long they should grieve a loss, but it seems this is what is happening for MC Natalie. After the loss of her husband, Natalie struggles to consider moving on without him. Then, piano sheet music is left for her and she considers whether the sheet music is a sign? This book was a beautiful and painful read but I enjoyed it quite a bit!

3.5 ⭐️ for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

I think unfortunately this author is not for me. I ended up DNF this book around 20%, I just couldn’t get into it. I know others loved this book, so I highly recommend checking out their reviews!

A beautiful book on grief and love. This was my first Lia Louise book and I really enjoyed it. Beautiful writing. I felt the heartbreak and grief but I also felt the joy and excitement as Natalie felt it.

My heart was broken for Natalie. Lia Louise, I thought, did a great job making us feel stuck and alone and sad and as heartbroken as Natalie was. Natalie Fincher lost her husband, the love of her life, in an accident. When we meet Natalie it has been 2 years since her husband died. She is grieving and is stuck not being able to allow herself to start to heal and move forward due to guilt and grief. Then music is left at the public piano in a train station that she plays at and slowly she starts to feel a spark of emotion, excitement and thus begins her healing journey.

I loved all the characters in this book - Priya, Lucy, Jason, Jodie, Joe, Shauna, and Tom. Thomas Button. I loved Tom and his patient support for Natalie.

This book was a beautiful journey of healing. I don’t want to say moving on but a beautiful story about moving forward after a loss.

This was my first book by Lia Louise and I will definitely be reading more books by her.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and to Lia Louise for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a book with a full intertwined cast of characters and this delivers on this. Don't let the cover fool you, this is not a holiday book in any way whatsoever, but once you realize that it's easy to get pulled into the story. I loved seeing the character development here, and while she made some bad decisions, overall I was so satisfied at this ending. 4 stars!

Natalie’s husband has been gone for 2 years now and all her friends and family think it’s time she moves on. But she just can’t seem to. She seems to feel stuck in the life she had with him-a cozy, fixer upper cottage, cowriting a musical and a happy life until fate intervened and took him from her. As she struggles to find her way without him, she visits the Tube station near the hospital and plays the community piano for the people passing by. One day when she sits down, there is sheet music there-specifically sheet music that connects to her lost husband Russ. At first she thinks it just a coincidence, but as the days goon and more music that is connected to Russ appears, she wonders if he somehow arranged it for her before he passed, or maybe someone else is involved? Is it someone from the local coffee shop she frequents? Maybe someone from the music therapy group she attends? She turns to her friend Shauna for guidance and is introduced to her son Tom, who helps her work through the mystery. But is there more to him than he lets on?
There were times this dragged for me and I didn’t want to go back to it and at other times I enjoyed it. I think overall it was fine, just nothing super memorable.
Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

The Key to My Heart is the third book I’ve read from Lia Louis and I think it’s my new favorite!

When we meet Natalie Fincher, she is just going through the motions from day to day. Life has lost all meaning to her since she lost her beloved husband unexpectedly just over two years ago. She goes to work and she sees her friends enough to keep them from worrying about her too much. They all think she has been grieving long enough and should be ready to move on. I really loved how the author highlights how personal the grieving process really is and that there’s no set moment when a person should be ready to just get on with their lives. I also felt tremendous sympathy for Natalie because she was struggling so much. It was heartbreaking to see her just going through the motions and to learn that she has all but given up one of her life’s passions, playing piano, because she’s so lost in her grief.

Aside from loving Natalie, one of the big highlights of the book for me was when someone discovers Natalie has been anonymously playing at a London train station’s public piano and they start leaving sheet music on the piano for her to find. They leave it anonymously and it’s always one of her deceased husband’s favorite songs. I loved the little element of mystery that this added to the story and couldn’t wait to find out who was doing it and why. It also gave Natalie a much needed distraction as she continues to process her grief.

Aside from the poignant grief story and the intriguing sheet music mystery, I was also a huge fan of the “found family” that surrounds Natalie and helps her start to find her path forward. By the end of the story, Tom, Shauna, and several others who helped Natalie along the way, captured my heart just as much as Natalie did.

The Key to My Heart is a beautifully written story that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming as it explores grief and loss and whether it’s possible to find love and joy in life again after losing your soulmate.

Ooh my heart. This was a big warm cozy hug that occasionally brought tears to my eyes.⁣
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Natalie is 2 years post losing her husband in a tragic accident at the age of 33… im 33 and I couldn’t imagine. She feels stuck between moving forward and going back and isn’t sure how to get there to find her true self again.⁣
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Her friends are pushing her to get back out there but some days it’s too much. She befriends a coffee shop owner, plays piano in an abandoned piano in a subway, and joins a music therapy class. She meets two wonderful men along the way but isn’t sure if she’s ready. ⁣
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Both Tom and Joe help guide her in finding who she wants to be, while also opening up her heart and making her feel things she hasn’t in so long.⁣
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This journey she takes in her grief, as well as the journey Joe is taking in his grief, and Tom is taking in avoiding love after watching his parents difficult marriage over the years makes for such a beautiful heartwrenching and heart warming story that I binged all in one swoop. ⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Can grief ever be overdone? It came close in Lia Louis’ latest story of love and loss. However, her ability to transform a story of deep mourning, depression and anguish with humorous observations and dialog sets Louis apart as creative writer who gets it and is able to brilliantly convey the pain, and the fight to move forward after catastrophic loss.

Natalie Fincher has lost her everything - best friend, best mate, best love. She is not without friends who are worried and trying to help her. While they are her greatest solace they are also her biggest problem. She keeps disappointing them and herself - unable or unwilling to move past her loss. One step forward, two back. It is the tempo of loss. I love the characters, Natalie’s friends do exactly what good friends should do by trying to help her move past her grief and get on with her life. The men who come into her life are so perfect in their thoughts and mistakes. Natalie’s music and attempts at self-help are inspired and courageous. There is actually a lot of bravery in those who touch Natalie and her story.

Lia Louis is a very talented author and while this isn’t my favorite of her books it was a story well told. Thank you Emily Bestler Books / Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a copy.

First and foremost, please note that this is not a holiday romance. I feel this has been a point of confusion with the last two books written by Lia Louis. And if you go in with the idea that this is a fun holiday rom com, you are going to be disappointed. However, this story is so much more. It is a beautiful story of love and loss, of overcoming grief, and figuring out how to navigate life when without warning, the future you planned is taken from you. If you loved Dear Emmie Blue, which happens to be one of my all time favorite books, you will enjoy this one as well.

I thought this story had a great mix of themes. While romance isn’t the central aspect of this story, the beautiful love story that develops between friends is my favorite part of this story. I only wish we could have had more of the wonderful banter between the two. The way Louis develops her characters from story to story is always top notch. I feel as though I know them all inside and out. This then helps her to illustrate the significant growth her characters experience from start to finish, Natalie among them. By the time the story comes to its conclusion, I always feel as though her characters become my close friends.

I somehow managed to read this book via all three forms of media - a physical book, e-book and audiobook, and while I loved all three, my preference was audio. Victoria Fox did a remarkable job bringing Natalie to life and I think helped me to connect to her even more as a character. She also did a great job of narrating many other diverse characters, including our male MC. I think this would make a great immersive read in which you read the physical book alongside the audio.

Read if you like:
•heartwarming stories
•books about friendship
•character driven plot lines
•slow burn
•closed door romance

Thank you to Atria/Emily Bestler Books for my gifted ARC as well as my ebook via NetGalley. Available now.

I loved Lia Louis's novel, Dear Emmie Blue. I enjoyed last year's Eight Perfect Hours.
Her newest, The Key To My Heart, is solid as well. Maybe just not the right book at the right time for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my eARC for review.
Natalie lost her beloved husband Russ two years prior. We navigate the waters of loss with her, as well as her friends and those she meets along the way.
She often plays a public piano at a London train station, only to find someone is leaving sheet music in the bench; songs that mean something to her and to Russ.
It's a story about hope and the power of music in healing and memories.
For me, there was more banter and less emotion than I expected. However, it's a well-written novel that Lia Louis fans should definitely check out.
Released on Dec. 6.