“Writers & Lovers” by Lily King was a book that crept up on me a grabbed me while I wasn’t looking. It haunts me long after I’ve finished reading it. It is rare that I read a novel twice. In fact, I don’t believe I’ve done that since I was in my twenties and re-read Animal Farm by George Orwell. I plan to read “Writers & Lovers” again, very soon, because it was not only written in such a stunningly realist way, but there were tidbits of writing tips sprinkled throughout that wowed me.

I was once a waitress. “Writers & Lovers” took me back to those years. Casey’s experience reminded me of my own, both externally and internally. Her fears and her dreams were so relatable, as were her struggles with the various relationships in her life. Her grief over the loss of her mother was so real. Because of this., I didn’t want to put it down. I found myself trying to will her from making poor decisions at some points and at others, cheering her on.

Regarding blush factor: There was swearing, although it wasn’t gratuitous. Sex was talked about—a lot—but never written about explicitly.

“Writers & Lovers” is literature at its finest. It is written with eloquence and power. The pacing is different than other books, in terms of plot points, but it is perfect. Despite the many characters in “Writers & Lovers,” the plot was easy to follow and I had no trouble keeping track of them. You can pre-order “Writers & Lovers” until it is released on March 3rd!

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of “Writers & Lovers” in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the writing and the way the author immersed me in her world of writing and the restaurant. The character's friendships were also well described, but her relationships were harder to empathize with. I'm glad that we got to see Casey make some good choices and start to get to a better place in her life. I needed some resolution to feel better about the hard times that she went through.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance e-book copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Euphoria by Lily King. As an anthropologist, I enjoyed her fictionalized account of ethnographers I studied during university. So I was excited to learn that the author had a new book coming out.

I was not as interested in the story in Writers & Lovers, but the writing style makes up for it, as does the ease of reading.

It is a book I will recommend to others, but warn that it is unlike Euphoria.

I loved Lily Kong’s Euphoria and was excited to pick up Writers and Lovers. The writing here is beautiful, but there is little plot to speak of and the characters are just not likeable enough to make this a full on pick for me.

I won't recommend this book to everyone I know - but for any reader whose tastes are more character-driven than plot-driven (and anyone who underlines whole paragraphs just for the beautiful writing), this should be a favorite. I never got around to reading Lily King's last book, Euphoria, but I'm excited to circle back to that one next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing at ARC of Writers and Lovers. I have been a fan of Lily King since discovering Euphoria a few years ago. I was thrilled when I saw that King had a new book arriving on shelves this spring. I am conflicted about this book, however.

As the title suggests, it is truly a book about writers and lovers. The main character, Casey, is a writer (and a waitress and a grieving daughter and a sister and a flat-broke 31 year old) and yes, a lover too. The first third of the novel, while very disjointed, was terrific. Possibly because I have lost my mother too and identified with Casey, or possibly because I was just excited to be reading Lily King, I enjoyed reading about Casey's life. However, I eventually got bored. I simply wasn't interested in her relationship with Oscar or Silas and I also didn't empathize with her as she went through her medical issues.

When things finally started to go her way after she got her teaching job, I became interested in Casey again. In fact, I loved the ending. Overall, though, I don't know that I would enthusiastically recommend the book. Casey, as a character, didn't have enough depth. Things happened to her, but she didn't cause things to happen.

I wanted to love this book, but I didn't. The beginning and the end were good, but the middle sagged under the weight of ho-hum characters.

There is something about books that are about writers who are trying to write books. Maybe it’s just me but the intellectualness of these kinds of books is way above my pay grade of understanding! I really want to understand all of their idiosyncrasies. I find myself going to the quietest room of my house just so I can really what the characters are trying to say to each other. This is not a bad book/story but the main character has major emotional issues. She’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown every second of every day as she has these (far beyond me) conversations with other aspiring authors. It’s not that I don’t feel bad for her and what she is going through but it’s so mixed in with what her life is like and the writing a book thing along with the talking about literature with other potential literary geniuses. But kudos to this author getting her literary genius out there!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This story follows a woman named Casey who is in her early thirties. She has come to live in Massachusetts after suffering the death of her mother and the loss of her relationship. Her gross garage apartment and waitressing job feels infinitely worse as she compares her life to those around her. Her mail box seems stuffed with only bills and wedding announcements. She simply feels lost. As she struggles to navigate her own existence she begins to date again. Surprisingly she falls for two very different men. I think this is a story for anyone who has come to any kind of crossroad in life. Lily King is a wonderful writer. I recommend this book as well as her book, Euphoria.

Well written and absorbing. A writer's life is one frequently written about and this was one of the best. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!

I LOVED this book because there was so many things I could connect to my own life, and was different than other books about 30 somethings looking to start over. I don't want to spoil any plot, but pick up this book! The writing is beautiful, the story is great, and there are so many things to unpack.

‘How’s the novel?’ He says it like I made the word up myself.

‘You know,’ he says, pushing himself off his car, waiting for my full attention. ‘I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say,’ may well be the most condescending, snide thing to say to a woman, especially one that is writing a book. Casey Peabody is a writer, even if she is blocked, even if she never finishes more than eleven pages. Published or not, she writes because if she doesn’t ‘everything feels worse.’ The fellow writers she once shared an apartment with when she was young and fresh have dropped off their writing like dead flies, moving on to more practical careers, choosing instead to lead real adult lives. To think she once had such promise, a child prodigy playing professional golf, talented beyond her years, means nothing. That’s all dried up now. She’s traveled, had a romance (if not with the man, then with the language they shared) only to return to all her debts, particularly student loans. Life was once free and easy when the answer was credit cards, but those happy days are over and bought happiness, like everything else, comes due. She certainly didn’t mean to move back to Massachusetts, but without any other plan, here she is, living a life in default. After the crushing weight of her mother’s unexpected, sudden death life feels far more rudderless. The one salvation and bitter sweet victory is the artist’s residency at The Red Barn, and yet… a man and messy love finds her there, when she is at her most vulnerable.

In the aftermath of loss, riding her bike (salvaged from junk) to work, living in a side garage her brother’s friend ‘graciously’ rents to her, working in a restaurant barely making enough to survive, we find Casey longing for her mother during the day and burning for the man she met at Red Barn in the night. Emotionally wobbly, hungry to finish her novel and yet doubtful it will happen as she gets older and older, Casey spends more energy torn between two men than creating a great work. The men she must choose between are at different points in their life, complete opposites, while she herself is anchored in past hurts and many disappointments. Who is she, where is she going? Does she just need to grow up and find something more ‘stable’, realize the artist’s life of writing isn’t viable for her? Does either man have a place in her life, or she in theirs? Which man is the right one? Is there such a thing as ‘the right one’?

How do you heal from the wounds of the past, find a romantic life without sacrificing yourself and not waste the few chances laid at your feet that could lead to a successful career? Is it easier to just forget your dreams, as others have? Why must the people you meet and love on the way be as messy as yourself? Why must relationships cloud your mind and knock you off your track? Her own parents relationship isn’t exactly the model to follow.

Regardless of your age, social status, career and the people in your life, you are never finished nor completely sure everything will end in your favor. Casey is at a turning point, a moment that leads to the bigger decisions, but how can she know if her choices will lead to the desired outcome, especially with dwindling confidence? We are along for the ride, sometimes along a bridge, as Casey tries to define her future. Everyone is a complicated mess at some point on the timeline of their lives, we just happen to step into Casey’s as she is lost in the confusion of heartbreak and loss. Will she give up her dreams, or find her way around the obstacles, the biggest one being herself? It is a story of youth as it leaves and what sacrifices must be made to finally become a real grown up, whatever that means. Lost in general, but there is hope. A solid read to add to your TBR list.

Publication Date: March 3, 2020

Grove Atlantic

Grove Press

A heartfelt, emotionally ambitions novel, exploring a writer at a fragile phase of her life. With much trauma, depression and desperation, this young woman explores limited possibilities, different men in her life, challenging living arrangements, jobs, and most importantly writing, to ultimately find her light. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the early release copy for review. All opinions are my own.

Starting this review by saying: I loved this book!

This story has the making of everything I would like - an aspiring 31 year old writer who works at a restaurant in Cambridge, MA in the 1990's, trying to complete her first novel while grappling to make sense of her mother's sudden death. It was executed perfectly! I loved the main character, I loved its witty tone, I loved the restaurant scene depictions (you'll appreciate the lingo if you've worked in a restaurant before), and the depictions of anxiety were spot on. I wish this book was an indie movie because I'd want to watch it too.

I'm hoping by the time this one is published they've added chapters in (in my e-ARC there were none.) That is my only complaint. Add those chapters!!

Writers and Lovers comes out in March - thanks Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for the change to review it early - it's one of my new favorites! (Will be posting this review to my Instagram handle: @bookish_molly)

I couldn't put this book down! I found myself quickly and almost painfully invested in Casey's story. I posted a positive review in my Instagram stories with the pub date.

Lily King is incredibly adept at creating characters and settings that stay with you long after you finish reading, and Writers & Lovers was no different. Beautifully written and crafted.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC. It is the first Lily King book I have read, so I had no expectations. I loved it. Casey, is a struggling writer, working as a waitress barely staying afloat while grieving her mother’s sudden death. She is intelligent and creative, but suffering anxiety attacks and questioning her life choices. Most of her writer friends have given up the dream of creative expression and may be leading more successful lives. The language is beautiful, the main character totally relatable, and although we are shown Casey’s struggle there is much humor in this book. This is one I will reread.

Theres not much that happens in this book but the narrator's voice is so very compelling. Kind of wish it hadnt all been tied up in a neat bow at the end.

My first 5 stars in 2020 and only five days in! Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I absolutely loved this book. It is nothing like Euphoria, which I also loved, except maybe the connection to authors and writing. If Lily King wants to make up more stories about writers and writing, what happens in their every day lives, their families, their grief over loss, I will be first in line for my copy. I loved the story of 31 year old Casey Peabody, $70,000 in debt from college, with waitressing being the only job she can hold down while spending the last 6 years writing her first novel. Her friends who wanted to become authors gave up on it years ago and are doing adult things now, while Casey is stuck. The men she meets are writers, her best friend is a writer, yet none seem as poor or unhappy as Casey.

Lots of humor in this book despite the sadness, a couple of adorable little boys, and great conversations about books, about words, about the writing process, and emotions. I just ate it up.

Lily King's new novel spoke to me. Casey is a struggling novelist, 31 years old, at the end of her coming of age and the beginning of real adulthood and independence. Casy lives in Boston, writes every day, she has for six years. She works as a waitress at a popular upscale restaurant near Harvard Square. Casey's struggles include grieving for her recently departed mother, finishing her novel, and trying to find true love.

I remember those years of the early thirties when the whole world was open to me, and I needed to know, really know, what I wanted. Casey suffers from anxiety attacks. These kinds of physical reactions to stress are different for everyone, but all come from a place of fear and dread, hidden deep inside. Casey calls her physical symptoms, "the bees." The episodes can occur frequently and are always terrifying. I got what the author was describing, and I felt genuine empathy for Casey.

Casey has too much to deal with, and no one besides Muriel, her best friend, to help. Various men come in and out of Casey's life, but she keeps looking for the one who makes her feel still and calm. Even her cheap rent in a detached shed is a miserable place to go home to every night. I remember those days and rejoice when she has small victories and sit on the edge of my seat, hoping for the brass ring to come around. Lily King knows writers, deep in their souls, and this novel is a gift to them and to us readers who love them as well.

Thank you to the author, Grove Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC (March 3).

This is the story of an aspiring writer who is struggling through the recent and unexpected passing of her mother and the strong sense that life is passing her by as she continues to pursue her writing. Although the central character is 31, in many ways this is a coming of age story. In a less capable writer's hand, the central character and her journey could have come off as unsympathetic. But this author creates rich interior and exterior worlds that make the reader understand and empathize with the central character's situation and path, as she navigates her jobs, relationships, and writing. I was fully engaged from beginning to end. Recommended.