This was my first Lily King book, and I fell head over heels in love with her prose within the first few pages. Lily's writing style is so lyrical & concise- it hits you in the gut like a fist wrapped in poetry. While the structure of this book frustrated me at times, I think that was the point. Good writing should make you feel things- and I felt every word. It's one of those books you finish, and continue to think about for weeks after. I immediately took a walk to my local bookstore to buy Writers & Lovers and can't wait to dive into her backlist.

This coming-of-age tale is told in three parts as our intrepid narrator (nicknamed Jordan) tells the story of her time in college, impacted by the relationships she has with Sam and Yash – best friends who let her into their off-campus world. Told with astounding insight with prose that will have you highlighting each page, Jordan’s college life is as mundane as it is monumental – especially in the decisions she makes after graduation.

As time progresses, Jordan shows us the beginnings of her marriage and early parenthood when an unexpected visitor comes to see her, and then a brief, but earthshattering few days in the future that collide with the ripple effects of her post-graduation choice.

Trigger Warnings
Cancer

Why Kirsten loves it
I started this book at 9:30 at night, forced myself to stop 2 hours in, and had it finished by 10am the next morning. When I say I couldn’t put it down, I mean it. I was reading it while brushing my teeth, walking on the treadmill, and eventually I turned off notifications on my phone so I could devour this incandescent story without distraction.

I ran an emotional gauntlet while reading this story, and even at the 95% mark, I was still on pins and needles with so much anxiety I could scarcely breathe. It is a hauntingly beautiful tribute to the impact of first love. It would make an EXCELLENT book club book too, because I bet people will have FEELINGS about some of the choices our dear heroine made. #gifted by Grove Press.

‘Heart the Lover’ is undoubtedly a good book, and I’m sure it could really work for someone who enjoys this writing style more (e.g. if you enjoy Sally Rooney’s writing, I would recommend this book) and/or has a closer personal connection to this story, but for me this book didn’t feel particularly memorable. I am very glad to have read it and look forward to reading King’s previous novels now, as well as any future books she writes.


King’s prose is spare, yet emotive. Normally I feel too distanced from the characters to be invested in them with this sort of writing style, which is why I said above that the writing here wasn’t a perfect fit for me, but I didn’t have that problem so much here. With very few words, King was able to make me care for the main character and love interest, although I didn’t quite fall for them completely. <spoiler>I also loved her husband and sons. One bit I wanted to mention here was how her youngest son’s reactions to / behaviour around his brother’s illness felt very realistic and well-rendered. This stood out to me even though it was just a small part of the story.</spoiler>

The last third of this book was very emotional, however, the fact that so many characters (who<spoiler> Jordan and Yash just happened to have visited all at once during one trip they took together</spoiler>) re-appeared in this section felt a bit forced and set up for the sake of the reader. (Major spoilers ahead) <spoiler>I surprisingly enjoyed seeing Sam again though, despite how negatively I felt for him in the first two thirds of this book. Perhaps just having him and some of Yash’s family members present when the main character visited Yash in hospital would have felt more realistic for me.</spoiler>

My thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books for the eARC. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book before its publication.

Heart the Lover is a journey through youth into adulthood in all its mess, chaos, exuberance, and grief. This novel is a masterclass in character development. From start to finish, the characters shine and are written with a distinctive voice that evokes strong emotions from the reader. I found the subtle allusion to The Great Gatsby to be beautifully enriching to both the plot and character journeys, and the ending was sublime and heart-wrenching. You are left with an enormous sense of grief, but hope despite what has just occurred.

I recommend this to readers who enjoy contemporary character stories like Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.

An absolutely beautiful novel. I was fascinated and captivated by this look at the relationships we form in our college years and how they stay with us as adults. The allusions to The Great Gatsby seem appropriate, right down to the cover's homage to the original art deco Daisy eyes from Gatsby. As an English major, I loved the cerebral lit discussions and "Jordan's" striving for both love and success. A poignant exploration of youth to adulthood. AND - repeating the past.

Lily King’s Heart the Lover is well written on a sentence level—there’s no denying her talent for wit and emotional insight. The novel explores love, friendship, and forgiveness through Jordan, a narrator who looks back on her college days and a complicated love triangle that shaped her life. The premise is compelling, and the book clearly aims to capture the messy, transformative nature of youth and memory.

That said, I found the story somewhat dull in execution. The characters—Jordan, Sam, and Yash—never felt vivid or layered enough to make me truly invested in their choices or their fates. Much of the narrative’s tension relies on the dynamics between the trio, but those dynamics never quite sparked enough to hold my attention.

The final section, which introduces cancer diagnoses for two characters, felt especially contrived, as if added just to inject gravity into the story rather than arising naturally from the plot. Rather than deepening the emotional resonance, it left me feeling manipulated.

Overall, Heart the Lover is a well-crafted novel with elegant prose, but its characters and conflict didn’t fully engage me. Readers who enjoy quiet, introspective literary fiction might appreciate its meditations on love and regret, but those seeking more compelling characters or a more organic emotional arc may come away underwhelmed.

I LOVED this book. I loved the main character, "Jordan", and I absolutely could not reading this slower, character paced story about a relationship between Jordan and the love of her life, Yash. Will be a favorite of the year FOR SURE. Also, going back to read Writers & Lovers, which is connected to this title. READ THIS BOOK (and have tissues nearby)-Lily King will break your heart and put it back together!

Loved this! read it all in one day because it's so raw and you can really sink your teeth into it. I loved and then hated and then loved every single character in this book and even though it's pretty short I really felt like I'd been on a lifelong journey with them. So thankful to have gotten this ARC

I’ve been thinking about HEART THE LOVER every day since I finished reading—a surefire sign of a great book in my opinion.

I appreciated knowing little going in (though do check content warnings if you are inclined), so here’s a mini plot set-up: our narrator is beginning her senior year of college in the late 1980’s when she forms a relationship that deeply affects her life in the decades to follow.

Lily King is just a really, really great writer. She captures a full spectrum of authentic human emotion (the book is in turn romantic, and swoony, and cringey, and heartbreaking, and funny, and devastating, and hopeful) without ever veering into maudlin or cheesy territory. There’s a precision with the specific details she chooses to include—just enough to feel like we know these characters and care deeply about them. Her prose is straightforward and direct, and had me smiling and crying, at least in part because these characters and the world of the book felt so vibrant and real to me.

The writing is incisive and beautiful throughout, but the first campus-set section was my favorite (I am who I am). The setting here felt particularly vivid, and King captured the emotions of youth through a hazy veil of nostalgia. There are a few lines that keep spinning around my head, like how someday even the characters’ college-era hardships will be looked back on and cherished.

The rest of the book was equally compelling and exquisitely written, but a few elements threw me for a loop and I still feel like I am processing even more than a week later. I’m looking forward to discussing this with other readers. Regardless, this was an excellent book resonant in its authentic portrayal of very human experiences. I expect it will keep me thinking for a long time to come.

4.5 🌟’s

Thank you to @groveatlantic @netgally for the ARC. All opinions are my own. Publishes 9/30/25.

I loved Euphoria by Lily King and had been hoping she would write another book somewhere atmospheric and exotic. When I first read the description for Heart the Lover, I felt a disappointment…nothing exotic here. That disappointment quickly vanished, as King transported me to the world of my own university days.

She captures with the intensity, wonder, and heartbreak of the relationships we form when we are still shaping who we are, and the lasting ways those connections shape our future selves.

Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the final scene contains some of the most accurate and poignant writing I’ve ever read about that time in life, I found it very moving.

Lily King’s Heart the Lover is a layered, tender story about three college friends figuring out creativity, connection, and all the different ways love shows up. It nails that dreamy, campus-lit vibe.

The narrator—who we don’t actually “meet” until the very last page, a nice touch—is tangled in a mix of affection, loyalty, and ambition. The book follows that shift from wide-eyed twenties idealism to the heavier realities of adulthood, and it really makes you think about how those early choices ripple through a lifetime. The whole thing is framed as a long-overdue letter to the mysterious “you,” and the reveal hit me hard. The last forty-ish pages had me bouncing between teary sniffles and full-on gutteral sobs.

Sure, some of the big ideas reminded me of a Philosophy 101 class I took (Sam reminded me a little too much of a guy I dated in 2013), and there are a few sentimental stretches that feel a little too sweet. But there’s this bittersweet, melancholy thread running through the whole book that ties it all together beautifully. Even in the quieter moments, it carries that achey feeling that something important is just slipping away.

Not perfect, but thoughtful and moving. If you liked Writers & Lovers, this is definitely a worthy follow-up. Big thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC!

Loved this romantic love triangle starting from their college days together and then moving to 20 years later when they meet up again. If you want a quick but emotional read this is for you!

Can't see through my tears currently but oh wow was this good! This was so emotional, so heartwrenching and sad and yet so realistic in some ways. Wow this book really says do it all now cause you will regret later.
I still cannot process the ending but this broke me and I loved it so much
This one is for all my emotional lover girlies

gorgeous, unique, and literary vaguely romance work that's really just about the life of our MC and how it intertwines. it's really well-done. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

4.5 stars - slooooow first quarter, and then mind blowingly awesome. Crushed my heart into bits and left me in awe once again of King’s golden pen. I do wish I had reread Writers & Lovers but even without it, fantastic book!

Heart the Lover follows writer Jordan and her romance with the complicated Yash through their college days, young adulthood, and middle-life. I loved how King explored their love through these different phases of life, from an early whirlwind romance to a mature, deep, and platonic love in later life. The characters in this novel matured beautifully, and avoided the overt bitterness, resentments, or awkwardness that may have resulted in a more dramatic, but less REAL, story.

The literary backdrop, from creative writing classes at college to Jordan's later career as a best-selling author, was an added treat. It was a bit pretentious, but so are brilliant young writers! And it made me nostalgic for my university days and the joy of earnestly discussing literature in small upper-year seminars. If there's one thing we millennials love, it's nostalgia.

One complaint - what is this cover?! If you pick this up because the cover vibes with you, you will discover a very different story than what is suggested on the outside.

I was struggling a bit with this in the first part. I just wasn't into it. However, the second part randomly gets super deep out of nowhere and sad. Didn't expect that. This is a story with a love triangle, which I wasn't a huge fan of. I did like the academic vibes, a great fall read for that alone.

Life through many stages is beautifully captured and portrayed here. It’s about love, regret, and what we carry forward. The reader is carried through the college, young adult, and adult lives of the narrator, and given space to explore the idea of how our decisions from the past affect us both positively and negatively. The time span of multiple decades allows the protagonist’s reflection on how she has become her adult self to be the center of the story. This novel was insightful, sad, and relatable.

A beautiful and compelling story with elements of nostalgia and tragedy. I didn't think it was possible to care about characters so deeply within a 250 page book, but I felt like I knew them, their lives, their struggles.

I'd recommend going into this one blind and trusting the author!

Lily King's latest novel follows another writer from her college years, when she starts dating Sam and meets his friend group, including his best friend Yash. As she grows as a writer, graduates college and moves abroad, their triangle shifts and pulls their relationships to a breaking point. Sparingly but gorgeously written in the first and occasionally second person without being too interior or self-reflexive, this book is perfect for those who have enjoyed King's previous work or love a campus novel.