Lily King has a way of writing about love that feels both raw and refined, and this novel is no exception. Heart the Lover blends tenderness with ache, diving deep into longing, connection, and the slippery nature of desire. King’s prose is sharp yet lyrical, and the dialogue carries that mix of intimacy and sting that makes her work so human. At times, the narrative drifted a little too inward, almost meandering, but I was never bored—just contemplative. This isn’t the kind of book you speed through for the twists; it’s one you sit with, savor, and maybe even reread for the lines that catch in your chest. Lily King has a way of writing about love that feels both raw and refined, and this novel is no exception. Heart the Lover blends tenderness with ache, diving deep into longing, connection, and the slippery nature of desire. King’s prose is sharp yet lyrical, and the dialogue carries that mix of intimacy and sting that makes her work so human. At times, the narrative drifted a little too inward, almost meandering, but I was never bored—just contemplative. This isn’t the kind of book you speed through for the twists; it’s one you sit with, savor, and maybe even reread for the lines that catch in your chest.

Once again, with Heart The Lover, Lily King has given us a beautifully rich story with characters that won't soon be forgotten.
A story of friendship, love, and the ways we hurt each other.
I laughed, I cried and more than anything else, I felt every single word on the page.
For a more indepth, yet still spoiler free review please check out my YouTube review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw3AwqvQ7jg

4.5
The perfect title with a beautiful meaning revealed in the book.

The story begins on campus when Jordan begins dating and hanging out with a guy and his roommate. Things are a little weird with the relationship but she comes into her own, enjoying discussing poets and authors and nerdy school things with the two guys. We follow Jordan in life as time moves on and I loved how these college connections and experiences reemerge to be a bigger part of her life.

This is a story of love, laughter, joy, hope, sorrow, forgiveness, and a book that will keep your heart.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the gifted e-ARC of this book.

Lily King’s characters breathe and live among us.
This was devastating. I was immediately hooked by the college-age characters’ world, and as the time jumps happened, I was totally unprepared for how deep she would go. Every situation and nuance is authentic, and she taps into our lead character’s motivations and emotions in lovely and true ways. Her respect for the humanity of every perspective of each love triangle was generous and real.
What a gorgeous read. Lily King throws her heart on the page.

4⭐️ This book elicited such an indescribable emotion that I struggled to write this review. Lily King has always been great at taking relatable moments, feelings, and choices, and focusing on why they matter so much.

In Heart the Lover, we see a little bit of ourselves in the main character. We see her grow from a young adult to a woman, a mother, a wife, and an author. She navigates love, pain, difficult decisions, grief, and so much more. This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story, one that is worth the read. It’s the kind that sticks with you. The writing, although sometimes overly erudite when discussing literature, was captivating, making the novel fast-paced and unputdownable. I appreciated how Lily King was able to create such a great story and do so in so few pages. This was very quick, but it did the job it set out to achieve.

I would recommend this, especially to readers who love emotional stories, literary fiction, and/or those looking for a book that is nostalgic and tragic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for early access to Heart the Lover in exchange for an honest review!

I'm never quite sure how to write about stories that make me cry. Clearly they are written well enough to elicit such a response, but it's hard to enjoy the feeling of your heart breaking.
This relatively short novel packs a lot into its 250ish pages. Decades, first loves, former selves, the complicated lives of ones parents and then becoming a parent yourself. I'm a wreck after reading it and I think it's mostly because it feels real. It captures the strange mundanity of the progression of death, and the often unbearable nature of deepest love in all its forms.

So fantastic. I loved being back inside Casey's head, hearing her words and her thoughts. This is a beautiful and heartbreaking love story, with all the pitch-perfect scenes and dialogue of King's other novels. I adored it.

HEART THE LOVER
BY: LILY KING

LILY KING has written a profoundly deep, intoxicating and mature novel of Literary fiction that I as an older reader found heartbreaking, yet hopeful called, "HEART THE LOVER." I have read all of her novels starting when she wrote her debut, "THE PLEASING HOUR, over at least three decades ago when Barnes & Noble had that program of discovering new writers with their pamphlets which I would read most from each pamphlet. That was the dedicated section I would always go to first, and I was rewarded with discovering many great new Authors. She has written many subsequent novels that I have wonderful memories of looking back to what I was doing on that period of my life that has started before my now adult children were born who are now grown. I always have a nostalgic visual memory to go with each novel which they have been different except this one is related somewhat to "WRITERS & LOVERS." It's funny because I keep thinking that I want to reread, "EUPHORIA," which I'm planning to, but I've been too busy reading but that was my favorite, and I want to reread her short story collection called "FIVE TUESDAYS IN WINTER, which I loved and, might reread those stories to lighten up the emotional toll that this latest one has affected me with such an impact that I was totally unprepared for called, ":HEART THE LOVER."

I think it caught me off guard since I wasn't prepared for it to hit me so hard, and it started out to be my least favorite one, but it turned out to be her strongest writing with a sophisticated, MULTIFACETED depth of realistic themes that even though it has a hopeful ending, I wasn't prepared for the endless heartache that so many themes I felt, since I won't spoil by listing them. I just want to say that this one shows her masterful artistic razor sharp insight and that I LOVED IT! I would love to explain more other than it started out to be my least favorite, and as an older reader appreciated what an exquisite, and thought provoking emotional novel that was so true to life that I for one can say that Lily King is a SPECTACULAR and keen observer of how choices that we make when we're younger can affect us in ways we couldn't have predicted. of course, everyone is different, but I love it when a novel makes me deeply feel for the characters, and has me so engrossed that I'm sad to read the final paragraph. My best advice to those who are considering reading this would be if you give it a chance, this novel is one that you'll resonate with most likely with readers who have gained wisdom from life experience. I think this latest novel, deserves to reach as wide of an audience as possible. I know I'll be recommending it to every reader I know. I feel so grateful for reading this, and I'll be looking forward to whatever this favorite Author, Lily King writes about in the future. In the meantime, I plan on rereading her former novels again, since she writes such BRILLIANT & STUNNING novels that never disappoint. They all soar, with each one being original, and relatable, but most of all take you on unforgettable & positive reading experiences. Five, Plus, Plus Sparkling Stars. ELECTRIFYING & DAZZLING

Publication Date: September 30, 2025

Thank you to Net Galley, Lily King and Grove Atlantic, and Grove Press for generously providing me with my wonderful ARC, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own, as always.

#HearttheLover #LilyKing #GroveAtlantic #GrovePress #NetGalle

I love this book so much I can't even talk about it. I'm glad I have until the end of the month to get myself together without crying.

King crafts another emotionally intelligent exploration of modern relationships. Cannot believe she hit it out of the park yet again.

<i>You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, aruly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.</i>
Lily King drew me in from the very first line and didn't let go until the last, which was a wonderful surprise connection to her book Writers and Lovers. The writing is gorgeous without being pretentious and there is much left for the reader to interpret. The characters are richly drawn, absolutely authentic, and truly flawed. The mistakes they make will break your heart in all the best possible ways. It's a story of love, friendship, and forgiveness and it's not to be missed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

In her senior year at college, the narrator is taking a 17th Century literature class. Two students in the class, Sam and Yash, are exceptional students, and they bring her into their world of academic excellence and magical companionship. Soon enough, Jordan (the nickname they have given her, though first she was Daisy … both from The Great Gatsby) becomes romantically involved with Sam and discovers her own intellectual capabilities. I was an English major living in a house with another English major in college. I can say, with absolute certainty, that the undergraduate year in the novel rings true.

Jordan’s life over the next 20+ years all goes back to this earlier time.

One of the best quotes: ""I start to understand the power of fiction, the reason we make things up. My best story is about my father. It’s not autobiographical. It’s about the manager of a shoe store and the high school boy who gets a job there— but it is about my father, about my rage and shame and love for him. These scenes that didn’t happen concentrate and distill the emotion of what did."

Does the book tend to be philosophical and sentimental? I guess. Maybe. But I am still going to put it out there as one of the best books I have read this year. Four stars, but I could be talked into five.

This is my first book by Lily King and definitely not my last. It was such a beautiful story about friendship, love and grief. I finished this within a few hours and spent the third part of the story a blubbering mess. I am not usually drawn to literary fiction or books about academia but the cover caught me off guard and I was intrigued. The story follows three college students over three decades and how they have grown and changed within their relationships with each other. Parts of their relationship felt uncomfortable and I am not sure if I was expecting things to go differently. We do jump from college years to their forties, and I would have loved to read more about the in between. Overall I look forward to reading more from this Author.

This was my first Lily King novel and I am now a fan! The way in which she captures love and grief was so visceral and had me drawn in from the start. I was thrown for a moment as the book shifted into the second part of the novel, but the way in which it was all pulled together was masterfully done. I love that if felt like we were privy to snippets of a life and the way our childhood loves weave their way through our lives and into our adulthood. This was so beautifully written and I found myself enraptured in the text until its bittersweet end. I will be recommending this to everyone.

Thank you to Lily King, Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for a digital copy of the book for an honest review.

An absolutely beautiful, tender love and life and grief story. I went into it blind, just knowing that I adore Lily King's work, and the second half of the book threw me but by the end, it was just exquisite, and I understood exactly why the plot went as it did. Just a beautiful book.

In her senior year of college, our main character takes notice of two highly intellectual young men in her literature class. They invite her into their social sphere, and she all but abandons the college life she’s known up to this point. These kids are smart! They eat, sleep, and debate all sorts of scholarly aspects of the written word. The trio remains tethered in a sometimes healthy/sometimes not triangle for decades.

It’s not dark academia, but maybe we can coin “melancholy academia?” There’s a nostalgic mood over the whole telling of this story that never lets your hopes get too high. Only in hindsight can we see how the formative year(s) they shared in the same physical space laid the foundation for the beautiful story we get.

I attempted to finish this story while lying in bed this morning, but it’s hard to cry and breathe in that position. Whew. That ending got me. While I appreciated the brevity of this novel (let’s hear it for short fiction!), I also could have used more insight into these characters (let’s hear it for sagas!)...

A must read for lit fic fans! Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for the ARC!

I’m not the kind of person that appreciates pretentious academic settings but that was the only part of the book I enjoyed. Seeing the characters in isolation - reading Joyce and Homer as their romance developed - was much more interesting than following them in adulthood. King squeezes together so many vague plot points it becomes difficult to discern what the actual narrative is. The time jump felt confusing to me. Nearly 30 years after part 1, the characters are just as hopelessly pathetic as they were in their early 20s. I liked the ending but this didn’t have the profound and heartbreaking tone I was expecting.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

This book was so beautiful! I finished this in one sitting. I could not put this down. I have loved the previous novels and short story collection by Lily King but this is my favorite book that she has written so far.

In my top handful for the year. LOVE Lily King. This book was just such a moment in itself. The best way I can describe it is like having a dream where you relived a part of your past. A beautiful story of how a first love can linger thru a lifetime. Thank you @netgalley @lilykingbooks for the ARC. Out Sept 30.

"..these decisions we make in youth are everything. You have no idea. Those feelings, they don’t revenir. Pas comme ça. And no one tells you.’" These lines from the book clearly describe the crux of Heart the Lover by Lily King.

We have three Literature students, Sam and Yash fall in love with our unnamed narrator. The book itself is divided into three sections, the first that sees them in the flush of their youth as students, working and earning, studying and writing theses, attending seminars, trying to make an impression and a life, meeting people, dating, making love and falling in love, None of the characters are really likeable in this section, there is Ivan who is so full of himself, there is Sam who stands on a religious and moral high ground when it fits his needs, he is extremely critical and madly passionate with the unnamed narrator, and despite his pretty toxic nature, their relation lasts a little longer before it dies. It's then that Yash and our narrator realise that they have been in love always , kinda made for each other. But there is a tussle between friendship ( Sam and Yash are best buddies) and romance and one lapse of judgement messes up lives of all involved, atleast that of Yash and the narrator.

The second and third sections are where the characters are all in their forties - here the author gives importance to love and emotions more than sex. That saves the book, really. There is looking back at difficulties of a long distance relationship, there is asking forgiveness and not getting it, there is anger that dominates and chokes love, a ton emotions that never got the right words or right chances to be expressed.

Excessively sentimental and syrupy, at places over preachy and philosophical, the only real saviour in this book is the fact that the protagonists are all literature students and through their conversations and discussions, we learn a lot about books and authors. This is the saving grace of the book which otherwise drowns in lot of love and lust in the first section, silent remorse in the second section and a lot of coming to terms with life as it is at the present in the third section. While her friends and her boyfriends including Sam and Yash call her husband different nicknames - Daisy, Hink, Jordan and Babe, it's only in the end that we really learn the name of the narrator (hoping Salis is addressing her using her real name). Also, mention worthy is that the book is not just all about romance, a love triangle, opportunities gotten and missed, a life that steered off the track it should have taken, it's also about equations between children and their parents, how their love fills our lives and how its lack leaves a clear void that we never actually allow anyone to easily fill.

My first by Lily King, I would like to read her more because she keeps some of her characters real and flawed, true to life.and writes emotions well. I.only wish she has kept this novel shorter and less sentimental. Overall, a good read that gives us readers some smiles, sighs and tears