I enjoyed this! I would say a 3.5/4 star overall. I was more interested in Casey's path of mourning and her writing journey more so than the romance parts. I wish we had been given a bit more of Silas's character, because I didn't feel as if I knew him well, and had to suspend some disbelief by the end. I wish she hadn't ended up with either of them and the focus had been on the other sources of happiness in her life (but that might be more of a personal thing than a critique of the book, I think). I think it wrapped up a little too neatly, but sometimes you want that, you know? Especially since such a large part of the book was processing grief. 

I thought the way King discussed navigating the world as a woman from every angle was brilliant, and Casey felt very real. She included the full range of misogyny, and I feel like I rarely see the level of detail included on the subject in books I read. 

Overall, this was an entertaining read for me, and I am definitely excited to read more of King's work!

This might be good literature but I found it very boring and cannot get past 50 pages I enjoyed her last book 
I would highly recommend that book to everyone

Unfortunately, I had to DNF Writers & Lovers. I started off feeling disappointed because I remembered liking Euphoria a bit more, but looking back I also gave it three stars. For Writers & Lovers I found the plot quite slow and not engaging to me as a reader.  Casey as a character is well fleshed-out but she's a bit too mundane.  The combo of a deep but bland character and a slow plot really couldn't keep my attention over the other books waiting on my shelf so I had to DNF.  If anything can bring be back for one more try on Lily King, it would be her prose and her ability to create full characters -- it just didn't quite work for me on this one.

I was very excited to read this book but, unfortunately, I am disappointed. I kept seeing raving reviews and comments about how this is a brilliant depiction of life in your twenties/thirties but I didn't find anything relatable in it. I have never read a book with more pretentious people in my life! The main character is selfish, craving attention and egocentric but, to be honest, it's not like all of the other ones were any better... Something that really bothered me in this book was how she belittled everyone's jobs or their writing. She puts herself on this pedestal and if something doesn't go her way she is mean and hateful.

I don't think I ever gave a one star, but I had to force my way through this one - it did not spark any interest nor did it have appealing characters. The main character had no redeeming qualities and just annoyed me throughout the story. I almost DNF-ed it at some point.

Just... I don't know, maybe it would appeal to writers (although you don't get a lot of the writing process documented).

And that ending? Was it supposed to make it okay? It was just too flowery and non-realistic.

Camilla (Casey) Peabody is a former golfer turned struggling writer in Boston with a complicated family and personal history. She’s grieving after her mother’s sudden death and navigating an interesting love life. 

The writing is great and I adored the last 20% of this read. The majority of the book was difficult to get invested in but by the end, I was hooked. The last bit of the book bumped it up to 3 stars for me and I think it’s a worthy read just for that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

DNF - I hate when I'm anticipating enjoying a book but then once I start, it doesn't turn out that way. Based on the feedback I may be in the minority on this but I didn't enjoy the writing or the beginnings of the story.

I read and really enjoyed a previous book by Lily King, however, this one seemed to be a bit overhyped. I felt that it was really slow, and found it difficult to remain interested. In the beginning, there was a lot of information about the main character's (Casey) struggles with mundane work while trying to start a career as a writer, her student loan debt, and meeting two different men and attempting to choose between them. I was hoping that it would begin to improve, as I read further, but it continued to be really slow and with little plot. I'm definitely in the minority, but I felt that this was overall a difficult book to read, as it didn't hold my attention and I couldn't identify with Casey.

I'm sad to share that I didn't really enjoy Writers & Lovers. Based on everyone else's feedback, I thought that I was going to love this one, but unfortunately, I despised the writing style. I found it very bland and depressing, and at time difficult to follow. The characters weren't anything special, and I had a hard time finishing this novel.

I'm so glad I got this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley! At first, I'd passed, because the title or the cover didn't really appeal (am I that shallow?). To be honest, I feared it would be an all-American novel for young MFA graduates or aspiring novelists. But I read many enthusiastic reviews, especially Ann's at Cafe Society and her post convinced me to request a copy. Just like me, she's not American and she's not a young MFA graduate, yet she enjoyed the novel a lot!

It took me very few pages to develop some sympathy for the main character, Casey Peabody, who has recently lost her mother, who is estranged from her father and who subsists as a waitress in a Boston (or Cambridge?) restaurant while writing her novel in her free time. In theory, because I'm a pragmatist, I wouldn't approve of Casey's life choices. Early on, she tells of her encounter with a fellow MFA graduate, who has stopped writing and settled in a comfortable career as a realtor. This friend is shown through Casey's eyes under the worst possible light, both callous and egocentric: Casey doesn't want to settle, and in fact, she physically can't get herself to take a better paying job that would make her renounce her writing dream, because her novel is the only thing that holds her together at this point.

Casey is vulnerable and on the verge of a breakdown. We readers are on our toes because something has to happen to her, and we really hold our breath that there isn't another tragedy befalling her. We really want a happy ending for her, both for her book, and also for her relationship. I couldn't put the novel down!

All along the way, I couldn't help but think how American this book is, not only because of its Boston setting (I loved it!), but because of the MFA programs, the massive student debts, the importance of the college experience, the writing retreats, also the insecurity of living off waitress's tips (tipping in the US is so confusing to me, and I know how important it is to the waitress), the medical coverage (or lack thereof) and insurance bills... A coming-of-age story is nothing new, but this particular one could not happen elsewhere. And of course, spoiler alert, it has to have a happy ending, which seems to me as credible as a fairy tale's ending.

Ann mentions that the book came recommended by Elizabeth Strout. I can see the connexion between both universe, determined people enduring hardships and a very neat, effortless writing style. I'm glad I discovered Lily King and I would be glad to read another of hers.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.

Lily King's story will appeal to a wide variety of readers. She makes her main character appealing to a broad variety of people. I couldn't wait to see which man she ended up with!

Writers & Lovers was rich is context and enveloped you in the story effortlessly.  It was an utter joy to read and feel the mood swings and angst of the protagonist.  Casey Peabody is complex but relatable.  She has aspirations and setbacks and chaos. Something everyone experiences throughout their life.  Relationship dynamics were beautifully expressed and you felt the highs and lows of trying to navigate your way through Casey's love life . At times you were not sure who was the right person for her, which is a credit to Lily for not making it so clear cut from the beginning. That would not be realistic or a great read.

5/5 stars. Beautifully written story about a down on her luck writer passionate about her craft but adrift and anxiety-ridden following her mother’s sudden death, while facing crippling student debt and a badly timed love triangle with two very different men. This book was an unadulterated pleasure to read, even when experiencing some cringe-worthy and questionable decisions by the lead character. When you can’t put the book down at 4:30am on a Friday night, and you’ve made 19 annotations in your e-reader (vs your 4-5 usual highlights), you know the book is good. This one was under my radar but I’m so glad I read it. One of my favorite books of 2020 so far.

Lovely & True
Hey, the advice to write what you know can read like a early draft in a fiction-writing seminar, yet Lily King writes of writing in such a gorgeous way it’s just another part of life on the page, as equal in importance as the jagged edges of grief, families made in the trenches of lunch and dinner shifts at a restaurant, or the passing of seasons registered from a bike. I loved Writers & Lovers. 

Wendy Ward                                                          
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Now that's a great read!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy to read for a fair review.

I love this book! It made me laugh - a lot - and cry - even more. I love Casey in all her names and all the feels.

. . . I take it Lily King has written some other stuff . . .

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. I had a hard time getting into this book so will circle back at a later date. My reading tastes have changed during the pandemic.

Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

SPOILERS included. 

Super engaging. Like those scenes in movies that are interesting because you're watching people do a skill or task or job, I loved all the descriptions of Casey's shifts at work as a waiter. I don't even know why. Just the movement and logistics and specific customers and sneaking bites of food and moments alone, so good. Something about Lily King's writing does this, walks the reader through a work shift, or the activities of a weekend of babysitting, or even describes the way the main character is conceiving of her novel-in-progress, and I'm in. 

I really really loved Casey's quick bond with Oscar's old friend who went with them to dinner after his reading, and Casey and Oscar's disagreement afterward. I feel like that woman is going to blurb Casey's book. 

Oscar is gross and needs to leave all women alone. No one wants your chicken fingers with cucumber slices or your WEIRD JEALOUSY ABOUT YOUR KIDS. Silas is whatever. Casey is awesome.

I went into this book pretty blind; I wasn't sure how it was "billed" in terms of the type of book, the feelings people had when reading it, etc.  I'd read the synopsis, and that's it.  I am VERY glad I went into it that way.  This book is a journey to wind through, emotionally, and I love that I wasn't prepared for it. 
Casey has recently lost her mom, struggled through an artist's residency-type program, was unceremoniously dumped in a relationship in quite a surprising way, and has landed in a 1 bedroom (actually a potting shed) in Massachusetts. It's from this potting shed and Iris (restaurant; her waitress job) that Casey moves through the process of trying to put pieces back together. There are two parts of her life that each evolve into a few paths:  her "writers" part, as she works to complete and sell a novel, and her "lovers" part where she ends up with two very different choices in two very different men. On the "writers" part, I loved that Lily King takes the reader behind-the-scenes for the writing/publishing part of the writing path; it was fascinating to hear the mental journey Casey went through during this process.  It was such a peek into the literary world and the book launch parties and the intellectual discussions that happen when all of these writers are together. (King did the same thing with the restaurant industry; I've never waitress-ed, and it was such an interesting peek into how the restaurant worked and what goes on behind the swinging doors.) 
On the "lovers" side, what I found most surprising about this book, and what I'm wondering most about, is if anyone else wished that she'd picked the OTHER path.  I'm trying to be careful not to spoil anything... but I got really attached to some of the characters in this book.  Am I supposed to have these complicated feelings? Maybe not, but what I CAN say is that when a book leaves me deep in thought like this, I respect the hell out of the writer and the writing. Thank you to #groveatlantic and #netgalley for the copy of #writerslovers ; it was an amazing read. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52715989-writers-lovers
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDz-kSgAFFE/

This book has been at the top of every ‘must read’ list for this year, but it didn’t seem so spectacular to me. Sort of like Normal People (the book, not the show, which I love)  in that it’s a plain, introspective story lacking wit and edginess.

Another wonderful novel from Lily King. Put me in mind of Sally Rooney's 
'Normal People.'  A coming-of-age story, a love story, an ode to the writerly life,  engaging characters, and so very beautifully written.