#AmReading

 

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The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis
Published by Atria on December 6, 2022
Age/Genres: Contemporary, Romance

Goodreads

A heartwarming novel about hope after loss as a young widow receives mysterious messages of love from the “must-buy author” (Jodi Picoult) of Eight Perfect Hours.

Sparkly and charming Natalie Fincher has it all—a handsome new husband, a fixer-upper cottage of her dreams, and the opportunity to tour with the musical she’s spent years writing. But when her husband suddenly dies, all her hopes and dreams instantly disappear.

Two and a half years later, Natalie is still lost. She works, sleeps (well, as much as the sexually frustrated village foxes will allow), and sees friends just often enough to allay their worries, but her life is empty. And she can only bring herself to play music at a London train station’s public piano where she can be anonymous. She’s lost motivation, faith in love, in happiness…in everything.

But when someone begins to mysteriously leave the sheet music for her husband’s favorite songs at the station’s piano, Natalie begins to feel a sense of hope and excitement for the first time. As she investigates just who could be doing this, Natalie finds herself on an unexpected journey toward newfound love for herself, for life, and maybe, for a special someone.

When I first met Natalie, she was still in the throes of grief. Here she was, a young window reeling from the untimely death of the man she thought would be her forever. My heart ached for her. There was this pressure, from those who loved her, to move on, but she couldn’t. Instead, she pushed people away and abandoned all things she enjoyed.

Gosh, this was such a wonderful story! The plot was a good one, trying to figure out who was leaving the sheet music for Natalie, but the best thing about this story were the characters Louis created to be a part of Natalie’s healing journey. Shauna, Tom, Notebook guy, her sister, and college friends all formed a fantastic support group for Natalie even if she wasn’t always ready for what they had planned for her.

Lia Louis knows how to tug at my heartstrings! Packed with humor, warmth, and emotion, I absolutely loved taking this healing journey with Natalie. Losing her husband so tragically resulted in Natalie losing pieces of herself. By rekindling her love for music in a different way, she was able to heal and open her heart to new people, experiences, and possibilities. Overall, this was a perfect and beautifully told story.

*ARC PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER

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The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on May 9, 2017
Age/Genres: Fiction

Goodreads

He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last?

Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story—their story—at the very beginning.

Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated—perhaps they’ll find life’s meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts.

I am going to start by saying I have avoided this book for years because I was put off by early reviews I saw, and I understand that certain things are dealbreakers for many readers, but when a book can make me feel the things this book made me feel, I throw stars at it.

Stories that span years tend to be ones that burrow into my heart. I love the history and getting to see the characters grow and change. I should have known this one would annihilate me. I mean, their love story began in NYC on 9/11. That alone evoked such visceral emotions for me, and I pretty much never stopped feeling my big emotions for the entirety of this book. I was engrossed by this messy tale and inhaled it whole.

Hearing Lucy tell the story of her and Gabe was often heartbreaking. Though fate and events kept them in each other’s orbits, they were moving in different directions in their lives. Still, the whole time I wanted them to be together. In my heart I knew they belonged to each other. I won’t say I agreed with all the decisions made by Lucy, but those decisions are part of her story, of her love story with Gabe, and there was no doubt that these two loved each other. Beautiful and devastating, and I know this story will haunt me.

Me at the end of this book

Do you have a song attached to any special memory?
Let us know in the comments!