There’s something magical about these books.
I don’t know how to explain it, but this book has it too.
Lia Louis is one of my favorite authors. She writes wonderful characters that make you root for them.
In this book, you’re rooting for Natalie. A woman who had a loving husband, that she sadly loses too soon. We find her two years later trying to figure out if she should have “moved on” already— her friends certainly think so.
Things begin change when she finds music sheets in the public piano she uses to play.
This book is full of grief, hope, love, music, acceptance, and as I said magic. Not because there’s literal magic, but because the words are magic.
If you’ve never read any of her books, please do!

So, I'm conflicted with my rating, but I'm giving it a 3.5 stars.

This story was good, I enjoyed it, but it was marketed wrong. It's marketed as a Christmas Romance... it is not about Christmas/the holidays AT ALL and it's not really a romance either. It's 25% about the budding romance (there's also a love triangle I didn't love) and 75% about Natalie getting over her grief. It's a women's fiction novel - and in that vein, it was good. Maybe a little too wordy/introspective for me, but it was good.

But I went in thinking holiday romance, so... that dampened the experience slightly when the book is so clearly NOT that.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest book by Lia Louis. 5 stars for a must read romantic book. If you haven't read Eight Perfect Hours and Dear Emmie Blue by this author, stop and do that immediately! These books have cemented Lia Louis as a must-read author for me.

Natalie was living her dreams - happily married to Russ they just bought a cottage to fix up, her music career ready to explode. Then it all came to a literal crash when Russ dies and her best friend and partner, Edie, shares a secret. Over two years later, Natalie is still mired in all those hurt feelings. But when someone starts leaving sheet music in a train station piano bench where she sometimes plays, she starts to feel a hint of hope and excitement.

This is a wonderfully written story that will pull at all your feelings but will give you hope after grief and loss. I loved all the characters and you will feel for each of them as they navigate life. I especially loved the ending - don't miss this one!

Lia Louis is such a talented writer, I have loved all of her books so far. The Key to My Heart is a story about grief and all the ways that one processes it (or not). lt's a story about family and friendship, about loss and forgiveness, love and healing. There is also some romance, but it’s not the main focus, the book is really about Natalie’s journey following the death of her husband a few years prior.

I loved Natalie and I was rooting for her the whole time. I also loved Tom, the awl award way they met, how they were connected, their text conversations, their friendships and how sweet and kind and funny he was. I love is how Natalie grew through the book, how she made new friends, how she found her way. And what I loved most is Lia Louis’s usual writing style, the little details that make the story while, the witty banter, the funny scenes, the humour to balance the grief.

As soon as I saw that Lia Louis was releasing a new book, it immediately went on my to-be-read list. Did I need to read the synopsis? No. Did I have to see the cover? No. Ever since I read Dear Emmie Blue, I have been a big fan of this author’s writing, and she has never steered me wrong. She has quickly become one of my go-to authors. If she writes it, you can be sure that I’m going to read it.

The Key to My Heart was everything that I had hoped it would be. With a wonderful cast of characters, a heartfelt story, and fabulous banter, this book had it all. I knew that this book was going to be special as soon as I began reading it.

Two and a half years after her husband’s death, Natalie is still going through the motions of living life. I was immediately invested in Natalie’s life. I felt for her, I wanted her to find peace and happiness again. I always try to put myself in the character’s shoes, and in all honesty, I could completely understand why she would feel stagnant and lost. With that being said, I still wanted to see her living and thriving again, and I was more than eager to embark on that journey with her.

When someone starts leaving sheet music in the train station’s piano bench, Natalie is intrigued. These aren’t just any songs; these are songs that meant something to her and her late husband. This gives her a spark, something to focus on, a bright spot to her days.

Throughout Natalie’s search for the anonymous source of the music, she had encountered a few people who just seemed to “get” her, who understood her grief and pain, or who just knew how to bring a smile to her face with a few kind words or some humorous banter. Oh, yes! I particularly enjoyed the chemistry and back and forth with a particular friend.

As a fan of slow-burning romances, this one was done to perfection. Absolute perfection! The author took her time to develop the story and the relationship, never allowing it to feel forced or rushed. Everything transpired in a smooth and authentic way.

The Key to My Heart was emotional, romantic, and hopeful. I felt torn between wanting to read it all in one sitting and savoring every word in order to make it last. Upon finishing it, I was not only over-the-moon in love with this book but also sad that I had to say goodbye to these characters. This book will definitely be making my list of favorite books of 2022!

*5 Stars

Oh my heart. This book. I’m obsessed. It pulled at every heart string I have and I even found myself tearing up multiple times! I absolutely loved that Louis made this book such a realistic account of grief and the toll it takes on all of your relationships. Classic British women’s fiction with great romance mixed in - I promise this one will give you all the feels!

What to expect::
•Realistic grief descriptions and expectations
•Great character growth
•DREAM MAN TOM!!!! I’m in love.
•Tom’s mom - also in love with her!
•Side characters that felt like real life. Some sweet, some you wanted to shake.
•Music and music therapy themes
•All of the seasons, despite the very wintery cover.
•The absolute perfect final scene that made me both swoon and cry 😍😭

All of the stars for this one. I wouldn’t change a thing!!

The Key To My Heart is the story of how Natalie navigates her day-to-day after her husband suddenly dies (due to a tragic accident.) At a loss, Natalie uses her love for music to cope and help her find her new normal.

I loved reading how Natalie began to blossom and open up again with the help of Shauna and Tom. I did appreciate the fact that this story focused on the sad points which made it more relatable.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I appreciate the fact that Lia Louis kept the integrity of loss instead of masking it.

Thank you NETGALLEY, Lia Louis, and Areia Books for the digital Arc of this book.

Even before I knew the title of Lia Louis’ latest book, I was anxious to read it. My third book by the author, The Key to My Heart is everything I knew and hoped it would be. Heartfelt, tear-inducing, and swoon-y. If life would have allowed, I would have read this one in one sitting. For me, Lia Louis can do no wrong!

We meet Natalie at a very low point in her life. It’s been almost three years since her husband Russ died and she can’t seem to move on. She’s stuck in the cottage they bought together to restore, something Russ wanted more than she did. She hasn’t been able to make any decisions, still dealing with bad pipes and loud critters. But she hides her sorrow well from her friends, still joining them on nights-out so they won’t worry about her, covering her pain with humor each time they try to fix her up with someone new.

Her music career has come to a screeching halt since she’s had a falling out with her best friend and writing partner. She’s been unable to write anything new. Her only musical outlet is playing a public piano at a London train station. When sheet music connected to her past starts to show up in the piano bench, a journey to discover the source takes her down new paths and in surprising directions. I loved all the mentions of music and artists throughout the book, as well, which always makes my music-loving heart happy.

Louis does a great job of weaving her stories, making surprising connections while treating her readers with intelligence. She’s a queen at showing instead of telling. I’m always so impressed by her ability to make that happen. Instead of filling early chapters with backstory, she jumps right in, letting her characters reveal their own pasts through their interactions and experiences.

The Key to My Heart is packed with wonderfully well-rounded characters. From Natalie’s old friends, who she feels are obsessed with seeing her happy again, to the new friends she makes on her search for answers. I loved every minute of this romance, cheering Natalie on as she struggled to find her new path, finally opening her heart to a new love.

It’s impossible for me to pick a favorite Lia Louis book. I’m impressed by each one, from Dear Emmie Blue to Eight Perfect Hours, which is a rare thing. I know The Key to My Heart will stick with me and make my list of favorite books for the year!

I’ve had the same reaction every time I’ve finished a book by Lia - I immediately want to go back to the beginning and read it again. The stories she weaves together draw you in and you’re then caught in the web of reading along as the story unravels. But it never unravels the way you expect and at the end, I want to go back and piece it together, pay attention to the bits she left for the reader and notice the nuances knowing the outcome.

This story is full of the grief of young widow Natalie, but also of lightness and life, of music, friends, family, risk, bravery, sadness and love. Very few books make me cry but Lia’s gotten me twice now, dang it, and Natalie’s story wound it’s way around my heart. Grief is a strong theme and it’s explored very authentically. As much as there’s grief here, I also read a lot of the story with a smile on my face, a warmth in my heart and strong curiosity as Natalie comes back to love through the mystery of who’s leaving special sheet music at the train station piano where she plays twice a week. It’s very quintessentially a Lia Louis story of serendipity.

This book does a fantastic job of encapsulating what it looks like for someone to be going through a long-term grieving period. Natalie was written extremely well and made my heart ache because I have gone through something similar (not quite the same experience, but close enough). It made me cry just because of how true and real I personally know those emotions and feelings to be.

If you want to read this book to the fullest level of surprise, don't read any reviews on Goodreads because you will see names mentioned in there that aren't mentioned in the back of the book blurb and can ruin the surprise. Just my personal recommendation. It was so fulfilling to watch the story play out to fruition.

Overall, if you want a holiday(ish) book to read that will make you feel all the emotions, this is the book for you.

The Key to My Heart is another poignant and heartwarming story from Lia Louis, who is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. This time we meet Natalie, still grieving the loss of her husband Russ two years after his death. And she's stuck. Stuck in her grief. Stuck with the fixer-upper cottage that her husband adored. Stuck with a life she never planned for. She's not really living, she's merely surviving.

As a musician without a current musical career (another side effect of Russ's death), she finds some comfort in playing a piano for strangers in a train station. Then one day, sheet music mysteriously appears at the piano. A piece of music connected to Russ. And then it happens again. And again. And Natalie can't think of anyone who could possibly know that these specific songs had meaning for her. Except for her husband. Her deceased husband. Did Russ somehow arrange this whole thing before he died? Is there something supernatural at play? How and why is this happening?

The Key to My Heart is a slow-burning, G-rated delight. Two men come into Natalie's life as friends, each one leading her closer to reopening her heart. Strong female friendships support Natalie's journey of self-discovery, something that the world needs more of. The big reveal of the music mystery is handled nicely. And the grand romantic gesture at the end? One of the best ever. I loved it so much I cried! Definitely recommend this one if you want all the feels.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Atria Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a fan of P.S I Love You, you'd enjoy this book (I absolutely love that movie, so I absolutely LOVED THIS BOOK!!!)

Natalie loses her husband two years ago from a tragic car/bicycle accident. Before her husband Russ passed, she worked at a piano school and was writing a musical with her best friend. At the funeral, her best friend Edie tells her something that causes them to no longer speak to each other. Natalie loses her husband, best friend and basically her job all at once.

Here we are two and a half years later, Natalie spends her two days off (Tuesdays and Thursdays) playing a piano in a train station and then goes and gets coffee at a coffee shop also in the station. She soon starts to find sheets of music left for her at the piano. Not just any sheet music, but songs that were her late husband's favorites or remind Natalie of him in some way.

Is Russ leaving this music behind? Is someone playing a prank on her? Is it her family and friends? On the way of finding out who is doing this, we follow Natalie working at her mom's boutique, being set up at bars by her friends, going to music therapy, and so much more.

This was my first Lia Louis book and I am so excited to read more. This is one of my new favorite books! I couldn't put it down and couldn't stop talking about it. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy!

Another outstanding book from Lia Louis!

Let me start by saying I’ve been a fan of the author since I read Dear Emmie Blue, which was recommended to me by a friend. I cried my eyes out with that one, and this new book gave me all the wonderful heart-wrenching feelings all her previous books had given me. I’m a sobbing mess at times.

If this book is in your TBR, I highly suggest just reading the blurb and not much else. If you start going through every Goodreads review, you’re bound to see some specific character names in there, and just mentioning certain names feels spoiler-y to me. It’s pretty much the same case as with her book, Dear Emmie Blue. I feel like the magic of the journey reading this book isn’t as gratifying if you already knew the characters as going in blind.

The book centers on Natalie Fincher, whose life is upended when her beloved husband dies. Two and a half years later, she is still as lost as ever. Overcome with grief and unsettling feelings; she started playing at the station’s public piano. She unexpectedly received sheet music of songs that were deeply personal between her and her late husband.

It’s to the author’s credit how beautifully written the thoughts and process of grieving are. Natalie’s sadness, frustration, and aloofness are written with a rawness that anyone who has grieved can relate to. There’s also endless confusion with your feelings and decisions. I think the subject of guilt is written with tenderness and eye-opening. Another theme delves in the book that I enjoy is how people around a grieving person change as well. Like, there’s a before, and after of the person they know. How do you all go from there? Especially when one is grieving still, and the others seem to move on with their lives? Or, frustratingly, trying to make YOU move on when you’re still in a jumbled mess.

I also really like the storyline, and I’m invested in the light mystery of the music sheets.

I don’t want to spoil the romance part of the book, so I’ll keep it vague and say that I love it, the spark, the banter, the slow burn. I’m also pleasantly surprised and happy with the last few moments of the book.

This is now my current favorite Lia Louis book!

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for the eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lia Louis for providing the ARC.

Lia Louis is perfect at crafting heartfelt stories that tug on your heartstrings, and this one is no different. The way she weaves Natalie's story is amazing and visceral. You can feel her raw emotion depicted through Louis' masterful writing, You see how strong and resilient she is, and how deeply the death of her husband affected her. While this book is a love story, it's also a story of growth, change, and acceptance.

Another beautiful story from Louis.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for the electronic advanced copy.

Lia Louis writes great, sweet contemporary romances. You can recommend her books to your mom/grandma without blushing. They are all closed door, but you still feel the chemistry. The Key to My Heart explores love and grief. Music plays (pun intended) heavily into the plot as seems to be a theme with Louis's books that I've read. Natalie is a musician whose husband Russ dies after a tragic accident. While he was in the hospital she played the piano, but she's had trouble connecting with her art since his passing. Her only outlet is a public piano at a Tub station where she plays anonymously. She starts finding music that seems to connect to her husband and their love story. The mystery gives her a spark and a purpose.

Without giving too much away, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book as it didn't connect with me right away. But the end left me in tears, so I definitely got there. If you need the push to keep reading, let that be it.

Natalie is lost, and understandably so. Her husband died suddenly and at a young age, and she's going through the motions. Beyond her husband's death, there were some other factors that left her floundering. So she plays piano at the train station, and she's made friends with Shauna, a motherly type who runs the coffee shop.
The music keeps appearing, and part of the enjoyment of the book is the mystery of where it is coming from. Natalie also befriends two men, Tom and Joe, and it is interesting to see how those friendships develop and how Natalie opens up and moves forward. They help show Natalie that there may be a chance at love again in her life. She and Tom have great banter and fun, and she and Joe go on fun outings.
I wanted Natalie to find comfort and to figure out what she really wanted and needed. She gets there eventually, after a lot of grief-stricken moments. It was a good story, and I enjoyed reading it.

Natalie lost her husband Russ to a tragic accident two years ago. An accomplished pianist and songwriter, she played to him in the hospital every day until completely giving up on it and launching her musical after his death. No one knows that she’s started playing again recently at the piano at the train station. But when pieces of sheet music are left for her, songs that are close to her heart and meaningful to her and Russ, she loops her friends Priya, Lucy, and sister Jodie in to help her figure out who is leaving the music for her. This includes her friend Shauna who owns the coffee shop at the station, as well as Shauna’s son Tom who seems to be hanging around the station a lot. During her quest to get to the bottom of it, while still processing her grief, she joins a music therapy group, where she meets Joe, who also hangs about in Shauna’s coffee shop. The pair become close, spending a lot of time together and Natalie begins to question if she should be moving on from Russ and be open to the idea of dating again. Meanwhile she’s spending a lot of time with Tom as well, as he seems to just get her and is helping her with her house, the fixer-upper that her and Russ bought just before his death. As time goes on, Natalie begins to see a future before her, where before she only saw grief and despair and nothing, she now sees possibilities. But first she has to solve the mystery music as well as decide what, and who, she wants.

I absolutely loved this book! It’s equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming. I loved the characters and their journeys. It felt like an authentic experience, the emotions and events, the way it might in real life and not the easy, speeding/towards-a-happy-ending that so many books do these days. I enjoyed seeing Natalie open back up to her friends and the possibility of love again, and rekindling her love for music I. A way that helps people the ways it helped her. It truly was a beautiful story.

Natalie begins to receive sheet music for her husband's favorite songs at a piano in a train station. This is about two years after her husband has passed away suddenly.

This book sounded so good and I had heard such good things, but after reading a few chapters, I did not feel that I could continue. Normally, I would not review it, but I do feel that a book should hook you in those first few chapters and this did not do that. I just did not like Natalie at all.

This book is probably a great book for others, but not for me.

The Key to My Heart was a lovely book about grief and love. Natalie Fincher's husband passed away two years ago. With his death, she also lost her music. She stopped playing the piano with the exception of occasionally playing at the train station on her way home. She starts finding pieces of sheet music left at the piano and thinks it might be a sign from her late husband, Russ. She tries to figure out who is leaving the sheet music for her but along the way finds out more about herself and her grief.

I enjoyed this story and the characters witty banter. I loved Tom and Natalie's relationship. The beginning hooked me in but then I felt that the middle was a bit slow. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Book Review: The Key To My Heart

The Key to My Heart is a beautifully written book about grief, healing and love, with music woven through it all. I intentionally listed grief and healing first because they take center stage. Natalie is a widow who lost her husband 2 years ago. Now she feels stuck, frozen in the picture-perfect life they built, without him there. While this book addresses some heavy themes, it is ultimately heartwarming and cathartic.

This is my third book I've read by Lia Louis and I really enjoyed it, I just absolutely love her storytelling. I think she writes amazing characters (including secondary characters) that you can't help but love. Natalie is vulnerable and feels genuine, I was extremely invested in her journey! And Tommy Button (IYKYK) is just 😍. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. I think Louis is really gifted when it comes to balancing intensity with wit and humor. Seriously, this book - a book about grief - made me laugh out loud.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The Key To My Heart will be out this Tuesday, 12/6.