The Key to Love, by Betsy St. Amant, 2020, Revell (Baker Publishing)

What does Romance have to do with Love, anyway?

I chose The Key to Love because I wanted to read a light romance as a get-away from tough times this year. Thank you, Revell, for choosing me as a reviewer and sending me a copy.

The title and cover promise a sweet love story, with pink and black and a bakery window full of French pasteries. I hoped perhaps this novel would even take me to Paris and I might get a recipe for macarons. But no, the story stays in a town called Story in the heart of rural America.

St. Amant presents us with a taste of Americanized ‘French’ romance. The main character has a French name, as does her love interest. Born and raised in this little American town, she is devoted to it and her career as a French pastry chef in the footsteps of her mother. Her mother had gone to Paris to learn this skill many years ago. The book makes me want to eat petit fours and travel to Paris. The protagonist does eventually get there but disappointingly we readers don’t go with her.

Down-home, messy realities

You will like The Key to Love if you get off on non-stop sarcasm and bickering. To give them credit, the main characters consciously attempt to overcome these habits. However, it takes at least the first half of the book for them to climb out of their rut. Hope exists, though, and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

There is lots of homey humour, and love is seen through acceptance of reality rather than holding out for the imaginary dreamy version. I just wish, as an honest reviewer, that the first two-thirds of the story could have been shortened and the last third developed more. It’s not until the end that we get some more serious thoughts about the real keys to love.

What was the mother’s story?

Some intriguing mysterious threads are only loosely tied up in the end. I hope St. Amant will write a sequel taking readers to Paris with the protagonist. She might research the history of her mother’s time there. Perhaps we could meet the legendary photographer she knew. The author could take us to the places mentioned in The Key to Love and look into the mysteries that she has enticed us with.

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