“Three Keys” is by Laura Pritchett. I found the summary to be interesting - how to move on after the death of a spouse and try to rediscover yourself. However, while she’s on this self-discovery and reminiscing journey, she made what I found to be sometimes odd (if not troublesome) choices. The main character seems to constantly be on the verge of a mental breakdown, have issues with money (sometimes she has enough for a plane ticket, other times needing to barter), and gives names to things (that you need to keep track of when she refers to them later). I think this book with be attractive to some readers who like slightly quirky main characters, but it didn’t work for me. However, great eye-catching cover.

I was nervous going into this book because the main protagonist is a middle-aged widow and, being half her age and not a widow, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to connect with her or enjoy her journey. Boy was I wrong!! I absolutely loved Ammalie and her story! Laura Pritchett’s love for nature and preserving our planet was so evident in every word and I craved being in a cabin miles from people while reading this book.

Ammalie has recently lost her husband, her son isn’t talking to her, her sister is battling cancer and their relationship has frayed, and she just lost her job, so this is a great time to head out on an adventure of self-discovery! I found her journey so hilarious and beautiful and bittersweet!

She meets so many beautifully unique humans (and animals) along the way that mold her into a whole new Ammalie. An Ammalie that has new sexual encounters, an Ammalie that is passionate about helping those who are forgotten or in hiding, an Ammalie that enjoys making jewelry, an Ammalie that saved lives, and the list could go on.

My only warning to future interested readers is that this book gets a little hippy dippy. I LOVED this aspect, but I know I have people in my life that wouldn’t enjoy it as much, so I know I won’t recommend it to everyone.

Also a plus: this cover is gorgeous!!!

Three Keys is about a fifty five year old woman whose husband has passed away, her son has gone to college, and she loses her job as a waitress. After she finds three keys to places from her past, she decides to take a roadtrip to Colorado, Arizona, and New Zealand and stay in those locations without the owner knowing.

I liked this book. I didn't love it. Ammalie is a great character and I loved her. I had a lot of issues with her essentially squatting in these places without any repercussions. Who does that but a mentally unstable woman and she didn't seem that mentally unstable to me. Next, the social and environmental undertones of it's ok to break the law if you are doing it for a good cause gave me pause. It was good, but not great.

To say Ammalie is in a mid-life crisis is an understatement. Without saying what the three keys are, suffice to say she has lost her identity, or people and things that were tied to her identity. She decides that it's time to find herself by travelling to disparate places, meeting people, and dealing with life. It took me awhile to get interested in Ammalie's story, but once I did, hold on for the ride.

Three Keys was a tough book to rate. There were moments of enjoyment while reading and there were moments of “what in the heck am I reading right now”? Unfortunately, there were more what the heck thoughts than moments of enjoyment.

The main character Ammalie is struggling through her own midlife crisis and has to take an actual journey to find herself which I can appreciate as a lot of women hitting this age range, becoming empty nesters, probably would love to do at some point.

What I struggled with most was that she seemed to be on the border of a nervous breakdown with weird tangents. She also had this very weird system of justification for stealing, breaking into places, and lying to people. Ammalie tried to justify it by helping different people later on or by leaving a place nicer than she found it. And it all turned out okay.

Some oddities beyond the above-mentioned items - she has money, then she has no money and has to trade labor for a place to sleep but then she has money to buy a plane ticket and expensive supplies. How? She names everything which sometimes makes it hard to follow if you don’t remember all of her names for things.

I did appreciate how the main character grew and found the answers she needed about herself by the end of the story. The interactions with the people she meets along her journey are some of the best parts of the entire story and this is where the book shines the best!

What a journey Ammalie is on. If there was a book that captured the thought of it is about the journey not the destination, this is it. In the process of trying to find answers, she finds herself. I enjoyed this one very much. Thank you for the opportunity to read this one early. I much appreciate it!

What a great novel! Three Keys by Laura Pritchett beautifully captures the essence of navigating life's transitions, particularly during midlife. Through Ammalie Brinks' journey of self-discovery as a newly widowed empty-nester, Laura Pritchett masterfully portrays the intricacies of personal growth and finding a new sense of identity. The people Ammalie meets on her adventuring aids in her healing and adds to the depth of the storyline. Laura Pritchett's storytelling is both original and refreshing, offering readers an emotional exploration of resilience and the pursuit of authenticity. I look forward to reading more from Laura Pritchett in the future!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. A beautiful story with well-developed characters and the writing was well done.

I am kind of aghast. Unfortunately for me this was incredibly tedious and I am not sure I have anything positive or constructive to report. I could not get through more than a few pages sometimes without having to stop and audibly express frustration either to the nearest human or animal (I have two children and four pets that follow me around me around, I am never alone). Needless to say they did not get it. I did not get it. But, POSITIVE SPIN I am kind of proud of myself for finishing it.

Everything was given a name, including inanimate objects and bodily functions. So many rhetorical questions and rehashing of events. Things were internally inconsistent. I really couldn't tell how long this person was in any given place or what the actual budget was here for these adventures. One minute she's begging people to wash dishes in exchange for a meal and the next she's ringing up craft supplies for her non-hobby or leaving wads of cash for misunderstood criminals. And my lord was this woman thirsty for anything or anyone who looked her way, sometimes doing a complete 180 in a subsequent paragraph.

I wish it was autobiographical so I could be like wow what a story but this is fiction and I do not know why this was written. The ending was downright painful to experience. And I have yet to encounter a book that needed an epilogue less than this one.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review and I withhold my thanks at this time.

Three Keys by Laura Pritchett is a mid life crisis that has all the potential for a great future movie.
Ammalie’s son has grown up, her husband stays in the basement doing projects.
Her life suddenly changes and all she can think to do is get a glass of water.
She decides to take the Three Keys she has kept from her husband’s travels and see if they still work.
This is the exciting part of the book! The experience of her lifetime and finding out what matters most to her.
The story was slow at times for me and I would lose interest, but I kept reading and it would catch my interest again.

I thought I’d enjoy Three Keys by Laura Pritchett, however it was challenging for to engage with. I did not resonate with the main character and found the the narrative to be meandering. My star rating is not an accurate depiction of the story as I set it aside unfinished at about 25%.

Adventure awaits no matter what your age! Ammalie is a widow who decides to travel to three different places because she has three keys she has been holding onto. Each key connects in some way with her late husband. What I did not expect from this novel were the choices Ammalie would make. I was never quite sure what was going to happen and it made for an exciting and even emotional read.

Ammalie's feelings and experiences seemed so real. Any woman who is approaching her fifties or in her fifties could relate to so many parts of this novel. I also loved the message of this book. It gives me hope and actually makes me excited to live the next phase. Unlike Ammalie, I do not see myself on a long road trip and breaking into homes but I love that she was a generous soul who tried to make the world a better place while trying to live a better and exciting life. Overall, this book is a great read and I think women over 40 will be able to relate!

Thank you to Dell/Random House Publishing for this ARC.

What an amazing story. I found myself unable to put this book down. Her feelings were so real and at times I am sure every women could identify with her struggles and victories. I do not think many of us would do what she did to find her true self but what an amazing adventure.

A great adventure story! A better (fictional) Eat,Pray,Love. Also, the writing was so well done. Relatable and beautifully written descriptions of nature and how humans interact with the world. Loved that I couldn't predict what would happen next in her travels and how the author wove in little bits of life philosophy into the narrative.

I received an electronic ARC from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through NetGalley.
I was intrigued by the synopsis and wanted to learn more about the main character's journey. Readers meet Ammalie after she has begun her solo journey to places that were meaningful to her late husband. She is a recent widow seeking to find her place again. As the story unfolds, we learn more about her marriage and her reasons for finding closure in locations that were important to Vincent. Though I struggled with some of her choices, I was delighted to see Ammalie grow and figure out who she wanted to be beyond a wife and mother.
Some of the transitions from scene to scene were disjointed which disrupted the overall storyline. The side characters were interesting but never fully developed (except for how they interacted with Ammalie). The ending wrapped up a bit too smoothly with everyone being happy to be connected together.

Sometimes huge life events, whether tragic or joyous, cause us to stop, take stock and figure out where we are and where we want to go, or who we are, have become and what we might like to be in the future. Laura Pritchett explores these themes through Ammalie, a recent widow who embarks on a solo trip to explore herself and her life, as well as reflect on her now deceased husband (and their relationship, for better or for worse) as well as her only child.

Overall I liked this book, I am in a very very busy season of life (my firstborn just had her firstborn!) so my reading was a bit disjointed and distracted. This was no fault of the book or writer, however.

3.5 stars

I could relate to so much of this book. The whole feeling of being invisible, superfluous once you’re past your child, rearing years.. compounding it with widowhood has got to be so difficult. I I totally understood the main characters need to go on an adventure and expand her horizons. I just didn’t understand the methods that she was using.. Breaking and entering, living like a popper, sleeping in her car. The writing was good, the scenery was stunning, there were just pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit for me..

This is the book I never knew I needed!
I remember back when I read Cheryl Strayed. I felt SEEN and HEARD and so did millions of others. Now at the same age of the author Laura Pritchett, I nearly didn't pick this story up. So, so, so glad I did.

Ammalie Brinks, is still grieving her husband's death. Her son is in college, her job is irrelevant. She decides to take a trip and utilize keys that she has kept in her home over the years of marriage. What happens next is a hero's journey. Ammalie changes the lives of everyone she encounters and we are truly on the edge of our seat and she makes decisions that put her safety at risk but also allow her to live life.

I was charmed by her willingness to name her inanimate objects (I do the same) and Fluffiest Red, her trusty sleeping bag never seemed to let her down. There are dogs, woman, children and men that can be dangerous, but Ammalie journeys on. It is incredibly hard to describe just how magical this book is, but it is safe to say that if you are over 40, this is a book for you! Grab this book, journey with Ammalie and then begin to plan your own.
#randomhouse #ballantine #threekeys #laurapritchett. #refugia #fluffiestred #ladyshackleton

Going into this book, I had really high hopes. I loved the concept of the book, and the cover I thought was great. Unfortunately, this just didn't resonate with me. Ammalie didn't seem invisible to me, and her "privilege" seemed to consist of her socio-economic status, which allowed her to take all these fanciful excursions. The self-deprecation was a little wearing after a while, and several of the situations seemed really contrived.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy reading this -- I did. I think there's a large demographic who will really identify with the character and her struggles. I just didn't think the book was written for me.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

This novel has a very unique and interesting conceit: a middle-aged woman, recently widowed, embarks on her personal voyage of discovery to do some adverturizing at three remote cabins that figured prominently in her former husband's life, using actual keys that can open the doors of said cabins. Along the way, she meets some interesting characters, finds out all sorts of cool stuff about the world around her and her own self, and manages to avoid breaking and entering charges. She ends up using these places as refugias, places that creatures large and small could live during momentous events. The plot could easily move into the mundane, or the trite and trivial, but steers clear of both and the novel has some meaningful moments that spoke to me, a 60s-something male. Her adventures seem very realistic and momentous, and the people she meets along the way just the sorts of folks that one who travels on their own would intersect with. The keys are of course a metaphor for decisive points in the heroine's life choices and unlock further insights, but the book doesn't get heavy-handed about applying them. Highly recommended.