Writers and Lovers
Lily King
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release date 3-3-20

I had a difficult time getting into the book and connecting with characters for the first half of the book. I wanted to love it and I tried but something was missing for me. There were times when I felt nothing was happening and I couldn’t figure out what the point of the story was. Halfway through I started to feel for Casey in how she was raised and how her childhood shaped her to be. She was a struggling writer, stuck in a dead end job, she was missing her Mom and she struggling with the a bad breakup. I started rooting for Casey and wanted to see which lover she would choose. I’m glad I read it but wished I would of felt more of an attachment to the storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with and Advanced Readers’ Copy for an exchange of my honest review.

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I received an electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Press.

This book feels like the cross over between a romcom and literary fiction. It’s telling the story of Casey, a woman transitioning from her 20s into her 30s while feeling behind and struggling in pretty much all areas of life - her career, her health, her family, her living situation.

The book was a really easy and fast read because it felt very relatable to me and captured the struggles of a, not quite young, adult very well. In my opinion, it did, what the HBO show „Girls“ tried to do but failed. I also liked that none of Casey’s love interests were not primarily there to save the day for her and she herself had a feminist thing or two to say. On top of that, this seems to be one of the few books that actually depict the career of a writer in realistic, not romanticizing light.

The book did read very meta and stream of consciousness like and it wasn’t always clear where the story headed but overall I very much enjoyed reading it.

I found this to be a fascinating book that tells the story of Casey, a 31 year old struggling writer. Actually she is really struggling in all aspects of her life as she wrestles with who she is, what she wants to do with her life and with whom. She has no money, huge debt and has recently lost her mother. She’s feeling quite alone in the world, living in a moldy tiny apartment and waitressing with people she hates. She gets involved with two men, but are either of them right for her ? She is experiencing panic attacks when suddenly the pieces of her life start falling into place. She is easy to relate to because certainly we have all felt lost and panicked as we try to settle into adulthood.

I love words and books. I love books about books and writing.   Also books about relationships filled with raw and real human emotions.   Lily Kings new novel Writers and Lovers had all of these and then some.     Perhaps it was simply perfect timing for me to read this one but the pace and nature of this story felt just right.     I've recently read too many books reminding me about human ugliness in various shapes and sizes, war on a global scale, Colombian drug lords and guerilla warfare, refugees escaping unsafe territory.    By no means though am I suggesting this was fluffy and filled with unrealistally beautiful people.     The characters were believable and it provided what I imagine to be a genuine representation of the life and struggles of an aspiring writer.     I very much enjoyed the change of pace and found it a pleasure to read.

Casey is the protagonist and readers get the sense her life is quietly unravelling.  She's in serious debt, has health concerns but no health insurance, working as a waitress barely covers her rent and she's grieving the sudden loss of her mum earlier that year.
She has dedicated the past six years to penning her first novel but her confidence is flagging.  On the romantic front she hasn't fared much better and we journey with her as she meets and becomes torn between two very different men.   Throughout the book I felt the anxiety mounting and I so wanted the best for our girl Casey so it was lovely to end on a note of hope.

My thanks to this new-to-me author who I'm sure I'll read again, to Grove Atlantic and of course to NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

I really struggled to get through this book. While I appreciate access to the inner life of a character, the internal monologues of the main character felt overdone, distracting, and ultimately aimless. I am usually a fan of literary fiction so I anticipated enjoying this one, but the writing felt too dense and the plot too thin. In spite of exploring themes related to class issues (debt, career change), the author's voice came across as a bit uppity compromising the entire credibility of the narrator. I would recommend this book to fans of Meg Wolitzer and Anne Patchett, who enjoy a character driven novel.

Super excited to see this become a March BOTM pick.

This was a lovely, enjoyable contemporary fiction. Perfect for any woman in her 20s and 30s who feels behind in life. All of Casey's ambition, hopes and dreams become sidelined as she was busy dealing with the difficult parts of life. She's recently lost her mother, and has to deal with the grief of that loss, She's swimming in debt, struggling with becoming a writer, while still working double shifts as a waitress. She is stuck and lost. She must work through everything, including relationships, in order to find a path forward.

I received an advanced copy of this novel through NetGalley for an honest review.

Casey Peabody is a writer. She is an artist through and through. Casey is a compilation of everything she has ever written and ravenously read throughout her young life. At 31 she never expected to feel so lonely, but since her mother tragically passed away this creative soul can no longer feel the words. The last 6 years Casey has spent traveling the world, waiting tables in bougie restaurants and working on her novel. She is exhausted by all the details that once inspired her, including all the men she cannot seem to hang on to. While working at a bistro in Boston Casey crosses paths with a cast of quirky characters that may be just what she is looking for. She must dig deep inside herself to find the answers. Highly recommend this unique, imaginative journey of self discovery that is perfect for any book lover as the eloquent words of author Lily King take you away.

My guess is that this book will have mixed reviews. I think you have to really connect with the characters and the writing style, which unfortunately I didn’t really do until the last 3rd of the book. Up until that point I would have given this book 2 stars. There are several times I wanted to DNF it, but kept going because it was an ARC given to me by the publisher and netgalley (releases 3/3/2020)

I had a really hard time figuring out characters in the beginning. I don’t know if I was distracted or if it was just the writing style. I will be honest and say nothing really happens in this book. It is a story about a young writer whose mother dies and she breaks up with her boyfriend. Then she has two other love interests while she works at a restaurant and writes a book. That’s about it. I’m starting to want to change my rating to 2 stars. I’ll say 2.5 and leave it at 3. Because I do think there will be those who really connect with this book, it just wasn’t me.

It's 1997 and Lily is treading water. Her mom died, she's in $70,000 of debt, she works as a waitress and makes extra by walking her landlord's dog, and she's trying to finish her novel. Oh and she's 31. You might have to resist the impulse to tell her to grow up (I know I did) but this turns into a quite interesting discourse on writers while including a love story of sorts. Should Lily choose Oscar, who has success, money and two quite cute children, or Silas, who has none of that but who seems to relate to her better? There are some lovely phrases here and nice characters but in the end, this felt like a romcom for fans of literary fiction. That's not a bad thing. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

This book is rich with emotion and real life issues that a reader can really identify with. The the theme of loss really resonated with me and I could not put the book down because I really wanted to see Casey fulfilled. I can't wait to discuss this book with other readers. I have some stuff to unpack!

Though I have very little in common with the main character, Casey Peabody, I felt like I could relate to her so much. Like most women, our twenties and early thirties can be a time of exploration, discovery, mistakes, and revelations. I loved following Lily through the instability of these years. I found the description of her time waiting tables funny and honest. I didn't care much for her early boyfriends, and found those parts a bit dragging and aimless. But at about the halfway point, both Lily and the book seemed to blossom. She seemed more sure of herself and I started to respect her choices a bit more. Casey is grieving the loss of her mother, but these heavy moments are balanced out well with witty dialogue between Casey and her co-workers and friends. There's so much to love about this book. Pick it up if you want to experience the emotional roller coaster of life as a thirty-something aspiring writer.

This just was not for me. It was too slow and I found the main character to be too depressing. I like a bit of angst in a protagonist but I was getting bogged down in her sadness and struggles. I love the setting in Boston but also find restaurants to be a boring workplace for a book. This is the second one I've read this month that was set in a restaurant and both were a struggle to get through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

A tight, riveting and intimate drama of a woman struggling with the debt, sex and the death of her mother.

SUMMARY
Casey Peabody gets up early every morning to work on her novel, while trying not to think about her huge college loan debt, sex, or her mother’s death while vacationing in Chile last winter. Casey lives in Boston in an old potting shed that smells of mold and decaying leaves. She get a discount on her rent by walking her landlord’s dog. She’s thirty-one and rides an old banana bike she found at the dump, across the Charles River every day to work as a waitress at a restaurant near Harvard Square.

One evening, while attending a literary event she meets the handsome Silas, who she finds kind and interesting. Weeks later, Oscar, who is an established author and had recently lost his wife, walks into her restaurant with his two young sons in tow. Cassie instantly falls in love with the boys and promises to play miniature golf with them soon. Cassie soon finds herself torn between these two different men and two different futures.

REVIEW
WRITERS & LOVERS is a dramatic, moving, and clever chronicle of a woman moving into full adulthood. Thirty-one-year-old Casey is depressed and devastated by her mother’s sudden death, and the end of a romantic relationship.

Author Lily King has brilliantly captured the wretched and desolate thoughts and feelings a daughter experiences following the death of a mother. Not only does King tell us about how Casey and her mom would spend hours talking on the phone, and how Casey wants to call mom to tell her about these men, only to remember she is no longer here.

I adored how King continues with the mother theme as Casey begins reading stories in the biography section of the public library about famous writers and their dead mothers. Among other she shares, that George Eliot’s mother died of breast cancer, to Edith Wharton mother who refused to let Edith read novels until after her marriage.

Despite her grief, Casey refuses to give up on her dream of becoming a author. King effortlessly blends Casey’s financial strain, her love life, her waitressing gig and her six year attempt at writing a novel and takes her to the brink of disaster. You’ll want keep your head in the book to see what happens next.

Casey’s character development was delightful. You can’t help but feel her vulnerability, her pain and her desolation, as well as her courage and strength to never give up on her dream.

Despite the novel’s dramatic tone, it is chocked full of clever and witty quips. One of my favorite’s was Casey’s discussion of authors book cover photos. She shows Silas how male author photo’s alway look so menacing in a ‘I might have to murder you if you don’t read this’ way. Conversely, she shows him how women author photos are pleasing, pleading and even apologetic.

From the squawking Canadian geese at the river to the writers workshop with the blue giraffe, King has written a tight and delightful emotional roller coaster of a read that is not soon forgotten.

King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M. A. in creative writing from Syracuse University. I read her novel Euphoria (2014) and loved it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Grove Atlantic
Published March 3, 2020
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

A little slow to start but I really enjoyed the "meta"-ness of this book and often wondered how Casey and the author were similar or different in their writing experiences. And I am so glad it had a happy ending; the reader is left feeling hopeful about the future.

I'm not a writer or remotely creative person, so Casey wasn't an especially relatable character in that way. However, I think that many contemporary readers will identify with the internal conflicts she feels. At what point "should" you give up on your dream pursuits and forge forward into a "productive" life? How do you cope with losing your mother without an extensive support system? etc. I enjoyed the writing and the author made me feel like I was right there in 90s New England with the characters.

I'll admit that I went into Writers and Lovers, by Lily King expecting a fluffy, mind-numbing, romantic comedy style book. I was wrong as it was a pleasantly surprising and insightful book.
Casey Peabody is a tormented and aspiring writer who is six years into writing her novel. She is at a crossroads in her life that has stalled her progress professionally and personally. In the span of a few months, everything Casey has ever wanted in her life, all of her deepest desires and fears she never realized she had, are all given to her. The problem is that they are not wrapped up in a nice neat package, they are a hot mess of disarray, and Casey needs to figure out how to put them in order so that she can live her best life.
This novel is set in the late 1990s, which I love because it shows how people struggled with communication before we lived with emails and text messages in our pockets. Answering machines, letters in the mail, notes taken down on post-its for later. It truly was a little simpler without the technology to keep us connected, as it gave people time to think through responses and feelings because it took longer to get back in touch.
The insight into people is my favorite part of this book. Lily King wrote a book about the mess that is being an adult. She wrote about the insecurities of being a woman, of being a writer, of being a human. And it was beautiful to watch Casey's story as she sorts herself out and figures out what her best life looks like.

I am going to make a bold statement, and say Lily King is just not the author for me. I so want to love her, but it is unfortunate that I just cannot.

Casey is lost in this world. She is in her early 30’s, her mother has recently died, she is estranged from her father and her brother lives on the other coast. Casey has a great education and strives to be a published author. She is also in massive debt, trying to make ends meet to pay her enormous student loans.

Let me be very clear, the writing is brilliant. I personally could not get past that were zero chapter markings. King really does divide the book into Writers & Lovers. When I was reading about the artist, I could absolutely not put it down. Intertwined are the many lovers of Casey, and I found myself just not caring.

This is a book that does get stronger as you read and you get more invested in Casey, however it just does not hold up in the end for me. Sadly, I believe I will be in the minority here, but I will say that I am learning that not every book is for everybody.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Press for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"It's like when you go into a dressing room with a three-paneled mirror and you line them up just right to see the long narrowing hallway of yourselves diminishing into infinity. It feels like that, like I'm sad for an infinity number of selves."

3.5 stars rounding up. I've got an internal battle going on in my head right now about this book because some aspects are very good and other aspects are very mediocre. Writers & Lovers is one of those books that I could never convince someone else to read based on a plot synopsis alone because the story-line is very sleepy. Our heroine of sorts is Casey, a 31-year-old aspiring novelist who works as a waitress in Boston. Former golf prodigy and present owner of mounds of student debt, Casey is trying to figure out what she wants to do when she grows up while kinda-sorta dating two different gentlemen - neither one of which seems quite right for her, but neither one is quite wrong, either. Her mother's untimely death, her father's overall ickiness, and observing her friends' literary successes as she's still struggling to write her first novel also contribute to her life as it stands in 1997, when this novel takes place.

Although the plot isn't riveting nor action packed, it is very real. Casey is an extremely relatable protagonist. I could see a piece of myself in her, and I think that's what King was going for when she fabricated this character. While Casey is meandering along in all aspects of her life - career, money, love, friendships, and family - she reminds the reader how easy it is to let one (or more) facets of your life fall to the wayside. Adulting is hard, and it's even harder when it feels like all of your peers have it figured out while you're still floundering. Even though I appreciate that King created a real-person-type character in Casey, it did make the plot very slow moving and boring at times. I read books to escape from reality, not to submerse myself in it further.

King's way with words is absolutely exquisite. I was reminded of Lorrie Moore's or Donna Tart's prose - none of these authors require flashly plots to write a good book. I found myself highlighting passage after passage to squirrel away and save for later literary enjoyment.

"A lot of studies say that despite all our fears in this country - death, war, guns, illness - our biggest fear is public speaking... And when people are asked to identify which kind of public speaking they are most afraid of, they check the improvisation box. So improvisation is the number-one fear in America. Forget nuclear winter or an eight point nine earthquake or another Hitler. It's improv. which is funny, because aren't we just improvising all day long? Isn't our whole lief just one long improvisation? What are we so scared of?"

My biggest gripe with this book is the ending. It's always such a disappointment to me when an otherwise good book gets ruined in the final pages. Casey led such a tangled, complicated, and messy existence in the vast majority of this book that it was a complete mismatch in literary styling when she was given her perfectly wrapped up rom-com ending in the final ~20 pages. For her to pick the "right" guy, land her dream job, sell her novel, and make bucketloads of money all within a few days time was unrealistic and wholly unexpected. King needs to watch more gymnastics so she can figure out how to nail that landing. Plus, gymnastics is just plan pretty to watch. We should all watch more gymnastics.

Casey Peabody has always wanted to be a writer. At 31, she finds herself waiting tables, living in a run-down garage and with several debt collectors on her heels. For six years she has worked on her novel but somehow it does not work out, too high the pressure from real life. When her mother died a couple of months before, she not only lost her confidant, but constantly feels the big hole this loss left behind in her. Then she meets Oscar, a successful writer and widowed father of two, who seems to be the way out of her misery: a lovely home, stable relationship, two adorable boys, a life without worries. But it does not feel right, especially since there is Silas, too, quite the opposite of Oscar. When Casey is fired from the restaurant and her landlord tells her that the house is to be sold, the anxiety that has accompanied her for years becomes unbearable.

Raise your hand is you never dreamt of writing a novel. Isn’t that what we as avid readers long for? To intrigue others with what is lurking within ourselves and, of course, to be praised and complimented for our artistic capacities. Well, that’s just one side of being a writer, many more authors will actually have to face a life just like Casey: never to know if you can make the ends meet, frustrated because the writing does not move on, the words do not come, taking on any job just to survive and organising the writing around working hours. Lily King has painted quite a realistic picture of a novelist’s situation in “Writers & Lovers”. Yet, that’s by far not all the novel has to offer.

Her protagonist belongs to the generation who struggles to grow-up. They have been promised so much, they were full of energy in their twenties, but now, hitting 30, they have to make a decision: giving up their dreams for a conservative and boring but secure life just like the one their parents lead or going on with a precarious living that feels totally inadequate. No matter how they decide, it could be the wrong choice and the fear of not picking the right thing paralyses them, an overwhelming anxiety takes over control making them incapable of moving on or doing anything at all. They are stuck in a never-ending rat race which covers all areas of their life. Casey is the perfect example of her generation, highly educated, intelligent, good at dealing with people but nevertheless full of doubts about herself and frustrated by the constant setbacks.

I totally adored the novel, it is somehow a coming-of-age at a later age novel. The characters are authentically represented, the emotional states are wonderfully conveyed and thus easy to follow. Even though there is quite some melancholy in it, I did not feel saddened since it also provides a lot of hope just never to give up since all could turn out well in the end.

Very emotional coming of age story. Raw feelings for a woman to have lost her mother as a young adult now struggling with love, writing and her student loans. Very well written.