Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you love Lily King, you'll love this one. It's everything you would want from something she's written. In fact, I'd call it required reading for fans of Writers & Lovers, especially given the direction the book ultimately takes.

Heart the Lover follows the story of our unnamed narrator, a writing student who finds herself entangled in a complicated dynamic with two guys from one of her classes. Initially, she and Sam have a go at things. Sam introduces her to a world she would have otherwise not known. And yet, it's Sam's friend Yash that really draws our narrator in. Speaking of our narrator, this book is littered with allusions to literature, as is Lily King's way. And my favorite reference was, perhaps, the narrator's nickname throughout: Jordan, as in Jordan Baker. Given that Jordan Baker is very much a flawed character in Gatsby, this could be seen as a somewhat insulting nickname. And yet, I think the intentions behind it spoke more to Jordan's progressiveness as a female character in the 1920s than anything else.

All of that said, the story fixates on the narrator/Jordan's evolving dynamic with these two men, eventually moving forward in time to focus on her later marriage to a man named Silas. Down the road, she has two sons that she cares for, one of which has been plagued with illness. And we get to witness where she and Yash stand with each other at that point in time. Their relationship evolved into something far beyond friendship, but its roots were centered there, begging the question: does time heal all wounds?

There's a nice surprise on the very last page for those who are fans of King's other work. This book serves as a neat tie into something she has already written. While it's not necessary to have read anything else she's written, it's definitely offers a new lens through which to read this one. Recommend for anyone who enjoys modern literary fiction and messy, complicated character dynamics.

Gotta read this one - started sweet but ended very intensely. Makes the heart ache but couldn’t put it down!

What a beautiful book! I love Lily King’s writing and particularly enjoyed Writers and Lovers, so when I heard she had written a new novel connected with that story I couldn’t wait to read it. I don’t think you have to have read Writers and Lovers to read and appreciate Heart the Lover, but it is such a special experience to have the knowledge of that book going into this one.

This is a coming-of-age story of a young woman in college who falls in love and then processes that love for the rest of her life. It’s a unique story but also deeply relatable - I couldn’t help but think back on my first real love as I read about hers.

One thing I love about King’s writing is her care for her characters, no matter how flawed or difficult what poor decisions they make. She lets them be human in all the ways and it is truly lovely to read.

This book broke my heart a little, but I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end. What a gem. It will be in my favorites this year for sure.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in advance.

A heartbreaking and emotional journey, this is for sure a contender for my best book of the year 2025! We follow one woman in college/shortly after and later in middle age as she falls in love and finds out what it all really means for herself. I do feel this is best going in with little knowledge of the plot, but just know it will completely break you open in the very best way. Lily King is a master!

Heart the Lover by Lily King
Review by Mimi Slater, The Book Reporter

With Heart the Lover, Lily King brings us a concise but powerful story about the dimensionality of enduring love, the fraught but thrilling transition from childhood to adulthood, and the complexities of middle age. During her senior year of college, our narrator, an aspiring writer, meets students Yash and Sam in an English seminar. The boys are best friends, living together in a professor’s house off-campus. They are self-assured, intellectual, and ambitious, and our narrator quickly becomes enmeshed in their lives. Decades later, their reunion reveals our narrator’s growth as a writer, mother, and lover.

King effortlessly captures the uncertainty and exhilaration of first loves: the desire for a night that never ends; the subtleties of sexual tension; the disorientation of infatuation; and the physical pain of longing and heartbreak. (“His absence feels like losing a lung,” writes the narrator). During their college years, the three of them often seem as if they are rehearsing adulthood. When we meet the narrator in middle age, she has come to a deeper, more mature understanding of love, loss, and heartache.

This book is as much about great love as it is about great literature. Yash and Sam give our narrator a nickname, Jordan, after The Great Gatsby character, which seems both cliche and fitting for this group of earnest intellectuals. Time and again, the characters find their voices through other writers’ words, using a poem or a short story to express themselves to each other. The entire book, in fact, feels like a brief education in modern literature, rich with references to Tolstoy, Proust, Joyce, Wolff, Yeats, Auden, Hemingway, and Faulkner.

The bookish thread weaves through the novel, illustrating the ways that literature connects people. The narrator says, “‘You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? 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. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.’” Which led me to own time capsule: what I was reading when I started dating my husband, when I met my friend Danielle, when my friend died in high school... Books are the heart of Heart the Lover.

Lily King doesn't write overdone tomes. Her style is succinct but engaging, using subtle, commonplace details to bring us into a scene: a soundless laugh that sounds like a pant, the intimacy of cooking scrambled eggs with a crush, the frustration of trying to fit a suitcase in an airport bathroom stall. I feel like I’m reading a novel written by my cool best friend. King is restrained in her treatment of secondary themes like family trauma, inherited wounds, faith, and religion; make of it what you will, King presents the topics but is not going to spell it out. Heart the Lover is not fast-paced and there are no stylistic tricks, yet it left me always wanting more, in the best possible way.

I had some trouble placing certain memories on a timeline, especially later in the book, but perhaps exact time isn’t essential to this story. At the end, our narrator writes of presentism, the idea that the only time that matters, or even exists, is the current moment - a nod to King’s treatment of time throughout the novel and the use of present-tense narration.

I won’t divulge too much, except that I was very surprised by the ending (and maybe shouldn’t have been, but I did not make the connections that King served up). The first line (“You knew I’d write a book about you someday”) and the last sentence are absolute perfection (but please, please, do yourself a favor and don’t read ahead). If you love Writers & Lovers, this is without question your next great read. Ditto for fans of Ann Patchett and Sally Rooney and for anyone who enjoys character-driven, coming-of-age literary fiction.

King covers a lot in a short novel: love, loss, forgiveness, regret, eternal bonds, and the courage it takes to live honestly. This book could’ve been twice as long and still it wouldn’t have been enough time with these characters. And I know “Jordan” would agree.

4.5 Stars

Why I Read This Book: I'm a fan of the author, and I've heard great early reviews.

Plot: A woman and author reflects on the intense love triangle that defined her college and early adult years. Her friendship with two literature classmates, Sam and Yash, toed the line of love and betrayal. Decades later, unexpected news forces her to reckon with all three of their choices, which shaped their lives. At its core, it's about the enduring impact of first love, personal growth, and forgiveness.

Thoughts: This unputdownable book isn't the type you read in a day. It's the type you read in a sitting. (I did, and I highly recommend this strategy.) While I didn't intend to become so immersed that I had to bring my Kindle on a car ride, even though I get motion sickness, there I was, simply unable to push this short 250-page book into even two sittings. Its brevity, though, should not underscore its emotional depth, which is the star of this gem. You may leave it in tears! Its themes also shine brightly, making you think deeply and form big opinions on the things we do when we are young and in love, and why. One of my top 2 reads of 2025 and a contender for my book of the year!

Who It's For: Gilmore Girls fans on Team Jess. This easily could have been Jess and Rory's story. Fans of Broken Country, my other favorite book of the year. Book club members and fans of celebrity book clubs-- I can honestly see any of them picking this book, and I predict someone will.

Pub Date Sep 30, 2025.
4.5/5 ⭐️This was a beautifully written, emotionally resonant work of literary fiction. The story starts out on a college campus with two men and a woman, and their love triangle of sorts. We follow the story of the woman’s life, initially nicknamed Daisy and then Jordan, which she is called throughout the book. (Yes, the character names from The Great Gatsby.) As I was reading, I totally forgot that Jordan was a nickname until the last page, when I literally said, “What?!” Heart the Lover is described as having a “connective thread to Writers and Lovers.” Readers, it is so much more than a thread. So, although this is fine to read as a stand alone, you will enjoy it so much more if you read Writers and Lovers first. And, second, please don’t read the last page first! Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sat down to read this one and didn't stop reading until I reached the last page. This is a beautifully-written book about love and decisions and choices. I am far beyond college=age and yet this evoked times in my young adult life when I faced heartbreaking choices. Lily King wrote in a way that swept me up. I remembered things that I haven't remembered in 35 years. I mourned losses from that same time of life. And the title! In Tarot, the Lovers card signifies choices, relationships, and harmony and not necessarily in a romantic love kind of way. A perfect title. Bravo to Lily King and heartfelt thanks to Grove for the advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.
This book had me in a chokehold! Such a beautiful and complex exploration of the many forms of love that come into the life of our narrator, nicknamed Jordan. Jordan meets two friends, Sam and Yash where the intertwining of these relationships (platonic or not) shape each of their lives. This book was very heartfelt with the rawness in emotional impact that every person along the way had on Jordan. I enjoyed reading the different stages throughout her life and the woman she ended up by the end of the book. I couldn’t put this down and was glad to have the uninterrupted time within this story.

Heart the Lover by Lily King is an emotional read and a beautifully written story about an unnamed main character (nicknamed Jordan for most of it) and her senior year in college then pieces of her adulthood. She has complicated relationships with her boyfriend Sam and his best friend Yash in college that will provide many mixed emotions for the reader. Post college, she lives in Paris, then eventually gets married and has kids. Throughout her life, we feel the tug of her past intertwining with her present.
This is a story about friendship, love, heartbreak and forgiveness. I found similarities in themes and emotions to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and a cohesion with Writers and Lovers. I am thankful to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for my ARC.

“Heart the Lover” by Lily King is a heart wrenching and poignant book about the complexities of love, friendship, grief and forgiveness. It is told in two parts, the first as college students and the second as married adults with children. I teared up many times reading this novel and now have a deep understanding of how all the decision we make in our youth shape everything that happens in our future. This book is written with exquisite skill, the characters authentic and the story courageous. I loved it and I know it’s one that I will read again and again!

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is beautifully written story about first love, memory, and the lasting impact of our choices. It follows Jordan, a college student caught in a love triangle with two classmates, Sam and Yash. What begins as a youthful romance slowly reveals deeper layers of connection, regret, and self-discovery when the past unexpectedly comes back decades later.

Lily King’s writing is clear, emotional, and full of meaning. In just a short novel, she captures the way love can shape a person’s entire life. This is a quiet, powerful book that stays with you long after finishing.

This book will be on my top books of the year.

An emotional rollercoaster from our heroine’s college days and beyond. Lots of poignant scenes. Lots of classic literary references. I thought the writing was moving and engaging from beginning to end.

This book was recommended by Becca Freeman from Bad on Paper Podcast. I LOVED THIS. As someone who is currently beating cancer it hit very close to home. I typically do not like “miscommunication” based almost love stories but I couldn’t get enough of this. Finished in one day. This was my first Lily King. Very excited to dive into her back catalogue.

Lily King wrecks me once again. Even though this novel spans decades, it in a way feels like a coming of age story. We follow our narrator through a winding journey from undergrad to motherhood - one kickstarted by the introduction of two fellow literary students that impact the trajectory of her academic and emotional life. The extreme highs and lows of early adulthood are caught with great tenderness, humor, and specificty. Reading this book felt like you were curled up on the couch with these characters - their inside jokes, quirks, and heart breaks are your own. King writes women just like I like - strong-willed, sensitive, biting, and on the cusp of hope and skepticism. Any true literary fiction lover will eat this one up as fast as I did.

Heart the Lover follows Jordan who meets Sam and Yash in her senior year of college. The boys invite her into their world and she discovers the pleasures of friendship and love. She finds herself in a triangle, with graduation coming and choices being made. Decades later, Jordan’s college days seem to be behind her but the past collides with the present when Jordan gets unexpected news and Jordan must reckon with her past.

For the right sort of reader this will be a life changing novel. The ending was particularly impactful and fans of Lily King will eat this novel up. This was written well on a technical level and it was quite a quick read. That said this wasn’t a new favourite for me but I liked the conversations in this particularly involving Sam and his religion.

Thank you netgalley and Grove Atlantic | Grove Press for the ARC. this was such an interesting story of college student into adulthood. i love a good love triangle so i was compelled from the beginning. read in one sitting

Heart the Lover explores the unsettling concept that choices we make when we’re young can shape everything that comes next. The author confronts the many forks in the road where retrospectively we wonder what would have happened had we made different choices. The three protagonists (Sam, Yash and Jordan) meet as college students in the mid-1980s. All are gifted, ambitious, intense and creative.. Their couplings encompass lust, love, jealousy, grief and forgiveness. As the narrative unfolds over three decades, none of their lives turn out exactly as expected though each character evolves in a beautifully crafted story that is tender, emotional, complex and lingers long after the final page.

No author captures the human experience in their writing for me quite like Lily King does. Masterful work. I started with a smile and ended with a deep ache in my chest. There’s three parts and freaking hell, the way they seamlessly transitioned and connected. I literally read part two with my mouth hanging open. Honestly, chef’s kiss. A+. No notes. Lily is doing the lord's work in the litfic genre.

At a certain point in the book, I burst into tears and thought “life sucks.” The tears simply did not stop after that. I cried a minimum of 9 times until it just blurred together. I can’t remember the last time a book made me cry this much. I’m literally dehydrated.

So yeah, clearly I had a very fun time reading this. Thanks Lily, I guess. 5 stars. I already know this will be one of my favorites this year.

Lily King can do no wrong this was rich with the nostalgia of that first great love the one that shakes your very foundation and never quite leaves you. This story is tender and gutting it’s beautiful and real. The dialogue is addictive, I stayed up all night to finish this. I sobbed and felt beyond gratified by the entire reading experience.