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ellemnope 's review for:

The Key to My Heart by Lia Louis
4.0
emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A lovely contemporary romance from Lia Louis that examines the personal nature of grief. Gently written and a nice slow and naturally developing plot that follows heartbreak, friendship, and love. Heartwarming story that isn't full of fluff and contains a protagonist who feels unapologetically real.

There is a bit of P.S. I Love You flavor to the narrative, but with its very own style and creative exploration. There was a lot of heaviness to the plot, so don't expect to go into this one as a rom-com. There are moments of levity in the banter, but the narrative is more seriously centered and things move at a slow burn.

Lia Louis is great a character creation and her cast in this novel works together quite well. Even the majority of the secondary characters have a good amount of personality and individual flavor to them. It's easy in a book containing a friend group for the characters to blur together as a solid mass, but that doesn't happen here.

An enjoyable and contemplative read that I flew through in two days. Quite well constructed. Not your usual contemporary romance fare, but something special all on its own.