Having previously enjoyed Lily King’s novel, Writers and Lovers, I was eager to read an ARC copy of her newest novel, Heart the Lover, due to be published this fall.

Immersive, tender, and beautifully written, I devoured Heart the Lover over the course of a few hours (stopping only to sleep, actually). I loved getting to know these endearing and complex characters, watching their relationships unfold and deepen as they graduated from college and moved on with their lives. Lily King's writing is witty and clever -- and absolutely compelling. The pacing is excellent (like I said . . . I couldn't put it down), and the powerful ending had me reaching for the Kleenex box.

Heart the Lover was everything I need in a novel right now.

(And, for fans of King’s earlier Writers and Lovers, there is a surprise twist for you . . . right at the very end. I guess I’d call Heart the Lover . . . a most clever set of Lily King "bookends.")

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 7, 2025.

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

Holy moly, I love Lily King. This is masterful. Read this in 24 hours and spent probably the last 25% of this book actively trying not to sob.

There is no way my summary of this book could do it justice. The only way I know how to describe this book is if Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tom Lake mixed together with a dose of philosophy into just a beautiful story of growing up and growing old and the people we love along the way. You'll cry for your old friends, you'll cry for your children, you'll cry for your husband, you'll cry for your past self and your current self. You'll just cry and feel good for it. You'll be happy to be alive.

Extra points for one of my most favorite book covers and book titles. Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this book early!

Since discovering local Maine author Lily King early last year, I have been a huge fan of her work. So when I received notification that I had received an early copy of her new book on NetGalley I was over the moon excited.

I was instantly taken by the cadence of this book - told from the first-person perspective of a narrator in her senior year of college, who has just met two men - Sam and Yash, both subletting a professor’s home while he is on sabbatical. Sam and Yash are true academics, and Lily King’s love of literature and deep thought shine through in her writing of these two young men, both of whom possess both intellectual prowess and the still-developing brains of 21-year old men. Together, the three of them share a bond that transcends decades, and as their story evolves in ways that are both expected and not, the reader is taken on a journey that both captures the heart and leaves it broken.

There is a quote in this novel that I highlighted while reading. Upon completion knew I needed to include in this review (shared with permission from the publisher):

“A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you're reading it.”

As I sat in my chair with tears streaming down my face after reading the last page, I knew this quote perfectly summed up my feelings about this novel. It is one of those stories that will take you on a ride, captivate your attention, and then bring a flood of emotions from your own life in a way you never expected.

It took me a day to fully recover from this book. It is beautiful, captivating, heartbreaking, emotional, and overall a moving and brilliant read.

Lily King - you did it again. 👏🏻 I cannot wait to read your author’s note on this story and have my own hard copy in my collection when it is released this fall.

Breathtaking prose infused with emotion.
To be honest, the early part of the book during the story origins dragged for me, but the story came into its own as the characters & settings evolved and completely captivated me.
Deeply affecting story, one which I uncharacteristically would like to read again.
Gorgeous cover and such a poignant title.


With great thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this e-ARC.

Heart the Lover by Lily King is a beautifully written, emotionally resonant novel that lingers long after the final page. King has a gift for exploring the complexities of love, vulnerability, and human connection without slipping into sentimentality.

The prose is elegant but restrained, allowing the emotions to emerge naturally. The characters feel lived-in and real—flawed, searching, and achingly human. Their relationships unfold with nuance, and even in the quietest moments, there's a quiet tension that pulls the reader along.

While the pacing can be slow in places, and a few plot threads don’t fully resolve, the emotional depth and lyrical writing more than make up for it. King doesn’t offer easy answers, but she invites reflection—which, for this kind of story, feels exactly right.

A moving and deeply felt novel. Highly recommended for readers who appreciate literary fiction that leans into introspection and emotional truth.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the eARC.

Heart the lover is available Oct, 7th, 2025

Lily King’s book is a tender story about the complicated relationships between 3 college friends. Jordan and Yash’s love is complicated by conflict from Jordan’s old boyfriend Sam. Heart the Lover is about how strongly our friends can influences our lives and how impactful those choices made at a young age can be. It is clearly told in three time lines. Each time line is better than the last.
In Heart the Lover we see imperfect characters face difficult obstacles. Jordan and Sam’s unwieldy relationship ends which allows her to move on to her true love Yash. As they navigate college and their future Jordan moves temporarily to Paris. In returning to meet Yash he never shows up but instead goes to Sam’s house. This devastates her. She is left to deal with a pregnancy she has kept a secret.
The second section progresses to years later. Jordan is a successful author with a happy marriage and a family. Yash visits her, the meeting is tenuous but welcome. A lot is left unsaid.
The last section is heart wrenching and truly majestic. Jordan had her present love, her family, and her past love, Yash. Each desperately needed her. It is about misunderstandings and miscommunication and ultimately forgiveness. A coming of age book I absolutely could not put down in the end.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Grove Press for the ARC of this wonderful book. These opinions are my own.

Hilariously, as I was about halfway through "Heart the Lover," I told a friend how much I was enjoying it, noting that I adored "Euphoria," but couldn't quite get into "Writers and Lovers." Imagine my surprise at the end of "Heart the Lover," when I finally got hip to the connections (no spoilers here!) between the books. Guess it's time for me to try "Writers and Lovers" again, because I really did so love "Heart the Lover." Hunt writes like she's unspooling a big, grand story (that's also the most intimate thing you've ever heard) to a new acquaintance. The major movements are just as big as the little ones (a line about how Casey's kids can never quite fathom stories about their parents before they knew each other is a gem in a sea of them), and that all adds up to an uncanny ability to make a very deep-feeling story that never feels showy or soapy. It's all wonderfully earned, and it sticks with you. What a treat.

I am so honored to receive an ARC from one of my all-time favorite authors. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.

My face is still wet from the heavy tears after finishing the end of this book. King has a remarkable way of pacing her stories so well that every sentence is important. Her characters are realized enough while still remaining ambiguous and allowing the reader to infiltrate the plot subconsciously. I am so relieved at this one that is just as good as Writers & Lovers. This story spans decades over the course of our female protagonist’s life similar to her past novels. And of course the main character is literary-adjacent. This one focuses on aspects of relationships, motherhood, the meaning of life and a good card game. We are on a journey with these characters, flipping through pages up until the very end where she inevitably sticks the landing.

Bravo, Ms. King. I’ll read anything you put pen to paper to.

HEART THE LOVER is a relatively uncomplicated yet incredibly poignant slice of life tale that revolves around the friendship/ love triangle between best friends Sam and Yash, and the girl they call “Jordan”, after the character “Jordan Baker” in THE GREAT GATSBY.
“Jordan”, our narrator, first falls for Sam, a TA in one of her college classes , but eventually realizes she’s in love with Yash, Sam’s best friend and roommate. The feeling is mutual, and Sam and Yash share some truly blissful days. But , Yash is perpetually torn between love for Jordan and loyalty to Sam. The couple plan to move to New York, but when Yash doesn’t show, the relationship collapses. For both Jordan and Yash, the other is “the one that got away”.

Years later, the three friends come together again, but it’s already too late. As they face tragedy, they all grapple with regret of what might have been, and face the existential questions we all struggle with— should I have done something differently? Am I leading the life I was meant to live? Did I give enough?
By design, we don’t learn Jordan’s real name until the very end of the book, which invites the question of how much we ever really know about others, even the ones we love most.

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book. I'm a big Lily King fan and this book was great. I kind of wondered about the first part (set when the three main characters were in college) because it just seemed kind of==pedestrian---but then "Jordan" goes to Paris and wow did the story change. It is a beautiful story about love and loss, friendship and anger, regret and promises for the future. I just loved it.

I admit that I devoured this book. I absolutely love Lily King's prose.
I wish that I'd read it slowly and a bit more carefully- will need to go back and reread.
The characters are so interesting and multi-dimensional- you can't help but adore them, even for their flaws and short-comings.
The story is propulsive, honest and heart wrenching.
I will read anything Lily King writes!!

I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley.

I really enjoyed Euphoria, so I was excited to pick up Lily King's new book. The complicated love triangle in Euphoria was fully baked, intense and passionate set in an equally high stakes environment. I was very disappointed in Heart the Lover, as neither the love triangle nor the situation in which it was set was particularly novel or fresh. It felt like a juvenile backslide for King, compared to her previous work. I did not read Writers and Lovers, so I can't speak to any connections between that one and this one, but for fans of Euphoria, I expect this novel might come as a bit of a disappointment. At least it did for me. Still, I read through it in the span of two days, so it was a fast-paced read, and I was curious and entertained enough by the characters to see how it ended. I enjoyed the college romance in the first half, but found the second half to feel wholly disjointed from the first. The jump felt abrupt as did the experiences and challenges facing the three lead characters decades after. I think some of this could have been resolved by drawing out the novel longer. It felt too short for all the topics it covers, especially in the second half. We hadn't stayed with the characters in the first half long enough to develop real compassion for them by the time the second half came where that compassion was necessary to bring the point home.

Lily King’s power and finesse as a writer continue to grow, and Heart the Lover contains plenty of both. We meet the narrator during her senior year in college, just as she meets Sam and Yash — the men who change her life. King captures all the love and torture of young relationships, and people trying to find themselves. The first 75% of the book is just a setup for the incredibly emotional ending, but I loved every second of it. Fans of King and similar writers (Emma Straub, etc.) will not be disappointed.

They call her Jordan, like Jordan Baker in "The Great Gatsby."

Sam and Yash are like fire and water. Sam, a mercurial man of faith and Yash, a genial academic. They notice Jordan in their senior year 17th Century Literature class, and she's immediately swept up into their exhilarating world. Yash's easygoing nature is cool water to Sam's intensity; the former entertains Jordan with stories of his casual dates gone wrong, while the latter's lust for Jordan is confounded by his faith and refusal to go all the way with her. A single year on campus with Sam and Yash is all it takes: the trajectory of Jordan's life changes forever.

Decades later, Jordan is living a life of her own outside the reach of Sam and Yash. Having loved them both, she can never truly be rid of them. Their memories creak under her floorboards and pulse in her blood; that one year changed everything.

And despite the passage of time, it's not over.

"Heart the Lover" is Lily King's masterpiece. With not a wasted word in the entire short novel, King weaves the glamour of academics with the poignancy of college love and its reverberations across time. Jordan, Sam, and Yash are beautiful, complicated, flawed characters and yet they don't feel the least bit cliche. Their entanglement is written so perfectly, so emotionally, that I simply could not stop reading. In so many ways, "Heart the Lover" is a siren song for readers with memories of a past love locked in time, and what it would mean if it returned once the bones of adult life have set. If there's one book you read this year, let this be it, readers. It doesn't get any better than this.

Lily King, stop doing this to me (never stop).

This book is Challengers meets Past Lives. I am always envious of Lily King's writing and the rich, hand plucked detail she provides in this. There's a phrase in this book that's about a mere 7 words, but has not left my mind since reading. That's the power of a well placed detail and writing. This was SO easy to read I couldn't put it down. Each character is just a real person that I love and hate and love to hate and to experience yearning and hurt described in a new way is astounding.

Loved this. Will be buying.

If you want to deeply and wholly fall in love with a book, but also sob uncontrollably into the night, this is the book for you. Heart the Lover was a tender, philosophical, and thoroughly addicting nov. We follow our unnamed protagonist across decades, as she falls into a complicated love and struggles with purpose as a college student, and in later years when she is navigating impossible obstacles that life throws at her. The dialogue was witty, the humor perfectly dry, and the prose was beautiful and delicate. There’s a fun absurdity in the writing, even in the mundaneness of ordinary life. It’s a love letter to writers, creatives, and book lovers alike, and gives incredible food for thought on themes of love, eternity, and death.
On a separate note, I didn’t even know that this story was connected to Writers & Lovers, and since I couldn’t get the world of Heart the Lover out of my system, I immediately checked out W&L from the library. Both books are sincerely incredible in their own rights, and in my opinion, you do not have to read W&L before this book; I personally loved getting the chance to read Heart the Lover first, in terms of its structure and depth of storytelling.
Heart the Lover was 5 stars for me, and I’ll be thinking about these characters for a long time.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC! Posted on goodreads

Ooh. Maybe 4.5 stars even. This was a really great read with a fantastic flow. It had “Normal People” vibes in really the best of ways. What was really great about this one was the gritty realness. The longterm romance plot line is never bad, but wow was it far from perfect. It’s also really sad, but not superfluously. I feel like I had an intimate window where I could watch the full breadth of these characters’ relationship play out. Thank you for the ARC - so great.

Irresistible!!!!
The creativeness, tenderness, uniqueness is so thoroughly enjoyable, I predict it will be a forever timeless literary novel and the most popular book of the year in 2025.

….Lily King’s prose is elegant and effortless — my favorite type of novel —
filled with captivating, imperfect characters, who, in one moment, made me laugh out loud, and in the next pierce my heart.
The storytelling- itself is deeply intimate and moving.

Celebrate love, friendships, (relationship-complexities)
literature, card games, and more with characters you won’t want to say goodbye to.

I could not put this book down!!

“On the trail we talk as we often do about books, what makes the magic, where the genius lies. He says it’s in the structure. It’s always in the structure. We argue about this. I insist it can be in a number of elements—the images, the dialogue, all the ways in which the narrative comes to life—and he says it’s always the form that makes the difference” .
The conversation continues— they discuss Tolstoy while still hiking. They have sex in a grassy meadow outside…..
“until three cows come trotting quickly” towards them.
Yash and Jordan were naked and laughing — happy!
Yash says:
“I think for the rest of my life the sound of cowbells will make me horny”.

Every woman and every man will devour “Heart the Lover”
256 pages …
Lily King is brilliant!!!

A fabulous five star read about first love and how the relationship never really leaves us. There were some beautiful, poignant subtle twists that I didn’t see coming and kept me reading way past my bedtime! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Loved this newest novel by Lily King. Her female characters are so compelling and so relatable and while the story to me is somewhat abstract, the emotion she evokes is very real. This book truly brought me to tears. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.