Title: A devastating, deeply healing masterpiece about grief and second great loves

If you are looking for an emotionally heavy, "ugly cry" book that still somehow manages to feel like a warm, grounding hug, you need to pick this up immediately. Like Maybe I'll Marry Her Someday is a breathtakingly raw exploration of finding love again after losing "The One," set against the suffocating, claustrophobic grief of the post-lockdown era.

The story follows Jaime, who is drowning in the compounded trauma of losing both of her parents while simultaneously surviving the end of a deeply volatile, decade-long relationship. The author makes an incredibly smart technical choice here: the book is written in a strict, first-person present tense. You are trapped right there in Jaime’s anxious brain as she processes the world in real-time, constantly calculating thousands of catastrophic outcomes for every minor decision. The narrative brilliantly uses macro-level global chaos—severe weather, climate change, the relentless news cycle—as a direct metaphor for her internal panic and her deep-seated terror of bringing a child into an unpredictable world.
At its core, though, this is a gorgeous "toaster oven" romance. The love story blossoms between Jaime and Ariana, a supposedly straight member of her core friend group. Their transition from platonic support to a romantic connection is handled with so much care. Ariana is a revelation of a love interest; she is a deeply grounding force who completely refuses to judge Jaime's trauma. Their conversation regarding the fear of "reparenting" an inner child and the terror of repeating toxic relationship cycles is quite literally a masterclass in healthy, mature communication.

Instead of wrapping things up with an easy, unrealistic bow, the book leans into the grueling, real-world struggles of eldercare, the exhausting fertility journey, and the trial-and-error of building a community from scratch. But the emotional payoff is immaculate. In its final moments, the narrative physically shifts its perspective from the anxious, trapped "right now" into a hopeful future tense.

Completing her journey from paralyzing fear to genuine wholeness, Jaime gets a hard-earned, beautiful ending where she finally reclaims her life and steps confidently into the future she was once too terrified to build.

It is a heavy read, but the emotional reward is absolute perfection.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and Heart Moxie Press for providing an ARC!

Oh my goodness what a breathtaking beautiful story of two people moving through their life together. The prose is stripped down and reflective, the characters make such mature, but very realistically flawed human decisions. Even small choices like the author knowing when to explore specific topics versus understanding those talks where the subject is secondary to what is going on in the heads and hearts of the people having it. It touches on so many different types of grief and love while at the same time flowing between moments of cozy romance and humor. I look forward to more from this author!

Lili Key’s Like Maybe I’ll Marry Her Someday is thoughtful and heartwarming, offering a rich exploration of romantic and personal midlife recalibration.

I enjoyed the novel’s insightful investigation of love, identity, and relationships. Following forty-something Jaime as she navigates life after the end of a decade-long partnership—compounded by grief and the daunting world of modern dating—felt wonderfully grounded and authentic. Ms. Key examines how our sense of self shifts when the future we had carefully envisioned suddenly dissolves. The emotional journey Jaime undertakes to reconcile her past what-ifs with the possibility of new, unexpected love is handled with immense care, maturity, and warmth. The dynamics between the characters feel genuine as they endeavor to do right by one another despite lingering exes, familial burdens, and life’s unpredictable complications. Not to mention a toaster-oven plotline handled without melodrama.

At times, I felt there was a bit too much narrative description of events. You might feel the reliance on summary and “telling” here rather than allowing moments to unfold more dynamically at times through character interaction and dialogue. It’s a stylistic choice that risks detaching you from the immediacy of the scenes and can create more emotional distance than there should be.

Hang on to the very well-drawn characters and their relationship arc, though, and you’ll find that what is present here remains thoroughly interesting, engaging, and enjoyable. A tender, realistic portrait of finding hope and love later in life, and I found the overall experience satisfying.