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!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.