There's just nothing like starting a new book by Lily King. Immediately absorbing, King's superpower is being able to create such depth in her characters in such a short period of time. With themes of love and loss, coming of age and the evolution of a life through time, and the complexity of human relationships, this is the kind of story that sticks with you.

Gorgeous and devastating, consise and rich, Heart the Lover is without a doubt one of the best books I've read this year. Fans of Writers and Lovers are in for a treat.

From the first few pages, you can tell this novel was written by Lily King. This is going to be big! A coming of age novel that reflects on friendships, hardships, and relationships. This was hard to put down aside from pausing to feel all the emotions this brings. I loved it! Will be a favorite of the year.

Loved this one so much. A book about literature and philosophy and relationships and first loves. So much emotion and tenderness and astute observations about the ways we love and hurt one another and the choices we must make in life.

For various reasons, the book reminded me a bit of "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin, and also a little bit like Sally Rooney. I can't wait to read another by the author.

to me, a five star book will make me feel, think, and love my people even harder. lily king’s heart the lover does all of these and more.
college. early twenties. a young love followed by a true love. three friends who try to get it right but who struggle with emotions and honesty. they get scared. they run. they make big decisions on their own. the love hides in dark corners for the next few decades but never leaves.
present day. late forties. a steady love. a family. three friends who are still in each other’s lives. they’re facing big life moments. honesty. pain. fear. loss. unconditional love. the love comes to the surface and still it never leaves.
this book tore me apart. i feel like a better human having read it.

thank you to grove atlantic for providing this book for review consideration via netgalley. all opinions are my own.

I love Lily King's books! I have had a lot of success recommending her books in the past, especially Writers and Lovers, which I think is a really great, accessible book for readers interested in getting into literary fiction. I think those readers who loved Writers and Lovers are also going to love Heart the Lover (for multiple reasons)!

This novel explores the complex bond between three college seniors and what it means to choose between love, friendship, faith, and creativity. A young woman, nicknamed Daisy and later Jordan (both nods to The Great Gatsby), lives and learns alongside two classmates as their relationships deepen. After graduation, the choices they make—friendship over romance, religion over desire, art over attachment—carry consequences that echo nearly 30 years later.

It is a moving story about truth, loss, forgiveness, and the possibility of hope. The narrator’s real name isn’t revealed until the final page, which adds another thoughtful layer I won’t spoil here. If you loved Writers & Lovers, this is one to pick up.

I am a big fan of Lily King and thought this book was just amazing. On a macro level the book was emotionally engaging and relatable, yet also intellectually propulsive. But I was far more impressed with the writing at the micro level; the dialogue style treats the reader as smart enough to understand context without overly-literal explanations. The chapters withheld and revealed details at exactly the right pace to be intriguing and satisfying. My one gripe with the book was resolved with the last paragraph, and I suspect that was intentional. Sublime!

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for providing me with an advance reader copy of Lily King's latest novel, Heart the Lover. Getting to dive back into the world of Casey Peabody from Writes and Lovers was an absolute treat.

King has a unique ability to capture the anxieties and triumphs of the creative life with such raw honesty, and this book is no exception. Heart the Lover follows Casey as she navigates new challenges in her personal and professional life. It's a testament to King's masterful character work that Casey feels not just like a fictional character, but a close friend you're rooting for. The prose is as beautiful and insightful as ever.

What I loved most about this novel is the way it explores the evolution of a person—the messy, beautiful, and often surprising journey of finding your footing in the world, even when you thought you already had. King's writing is infused with a deep sense of empathy, and she handles complex relationships with a light but profound touch.

I truly adored this book. For fans of Writers & Lovers, it's a must-read, a perfect continuation of a beloved story. For new readers, it's a brilliant entry point into King's world of heartfelt, character-driven fiction. It's a moving and powerful story that will stay with you long after you've turned the final page.

Wow! Simply amazing! What a great story, written flawlessly by the ever-impressive Lily King. Heart the Lover will take you on a ride you’ll never forget, while breaking your heart in two and sewing it neatly back together again. All cliches aside, the novel is a beautiful look at friendship, first love, college experiences that help one find oneself, and the beauty and bravado of those relationships that last a lifetime. Ms. King’s writing style is near-perfection, effortlessly drawing the reader in from the first page. From beginning to end, I was a fan of each character, the storyline and this incredible author. I hope you
enjoy Heart the Lover as much as I did, and I hope you smile when you read the title of the book within the story. I did—it truly added to the magic.

i will preface this with saying that if you don't like it when authors write in a different structure or when they throw you into the middle of the story, it may be hard to get past that in heart the lover. however, this new one is in classic king fashion with keen observations of coming of age and what that means in forming one's identity. i especially loved the background discussions of religion and how that can add structure to life but also make confusing what a boundary is. i can also relate to how wrong it can feel when something goes right in one's life or when someone shows love in the way we deserve so of course king's writing obliterated me.

This is the first work by Lily King that I’ve read and I will be immediately going to purchase her prior writing.

I wanted more time with these characters, the absolute perfect transition to fall book.

Lily King is the only author I would follow into this kind of emotional devastation. This book is another astonishing literary achievement and no author makes me feel feelings quite like she does. I could not recommend this title highly enough.

Another winner from Lily King.
This book tugs at your heart strings.
She is a wonderful writer and a national treasure!

3.5 stars

For much of this book, I was trying to get a sense of where King was going, what she was doing. Unlike in her "Writers & Lovers" which—though plot was not hugely important--- was at least character driven with good writing, well-crafted personalities and inner processes, this one felt spare and unemotional. The minimalist approach left me feeling not particularly connected to our narrator nor any of the characters, with a sort of “Okay, and…??” feeling. Additionally, she gives many barely sketched “clues” to things in this book rather than spelling things out, which seemed like it was trying to be cool or clever but I found rather annoying (I mean simple things like when and where she was, who she was talking with). Given all of that, still, it was a fast read that kept my interest.

The second and last parts spring into much more interesting plot development, with a tad more inner richness, and things happening that bring in worthwhile themes in compelling ways: the vulnerabilities of love, meaning, loss, grief, regret, forgiveness, friendships. Lines now woven between past and present, regret and forgiveness, things chosen and lost, brought more heft and allowed for more immersion into the point of things.

I don’t normally repeat publisher’s blurbs by giving plot outlines, but this one in particular would give spoilers if much at all is revealed along those lines. The part I can say is that the narrator of this story is a senior college student /aspiring writer (English major) as the novel begins. One can piece together that this is in North Carolina @ Chapel Hill with close reading. The setting is likely 1980’s, and she becomes close to a household of male, pretentious, intellectual students, including becoming the girlfriend of one (Sam). Though all these guys can talk all night about philosophy or literature, none of them is very emotionally mature. We get a sense of the entrancing energy in her being accepted by these self-important students, and maybe some of those who were in college in that era (especially if white and heteronormative) will relate to how it felt to be part of this clan. With so many analogies to literature and philosophy that she gets to discuss (and for we the readers to ponder), it was a heady feeling I imagine for her. The guys can be fun, and—maybe equally important—their place has heating! (they are living it up housesitting for a professor for the year). Never underestimate the key things in the “starving student” life. King does a good job sketching some of these types of details in her otherwise kind of bare-bones emotional and literary framework.

Her BF Sam however is uptight and blocked by religious beliefs (around sex particularly). He seems like a bit of an arse & we watch the narrator’s awareness of there being more that she wants emotionally, leading to the rest of the increasingly immersive plot. The incredibly low emotional I.Q. of some of these men, we later find out, will affect her life for years to come.

Parts 2 & 3 will take the reader forward in time, and this is where the book more deeply explores what love is—familial, friend, lover. I found the inventive arc to render a fairly fulfilling plot. Anything more I say on that will give too much away!

The descriptors of her life in the three time periods, along with the writing about friendship, love and life, and the themes threaded into of the grace of the perspective of time, wound up being worthwhile. However I can’t say that I loved this book to pieces; I still found it too one-dimensional and removed in tone for my particular tastes. The skeletal approach doesn’t give us a great deal of grounding in how these characters developed (or not) over time. Everyone is self-absorbed; redemption and grace only comes with crisis. I also kept being put off by King’s poser syndrome of being coy with key details that were later revealed—it seemed more device than necessary.

At this early stage before publication, I am a bit of an outlier on this one, with so many 5 & 4 star reviews on GoodReads. So you may want to read other reviews too. But it's a short book; a fast read if you are just curious and/or have liked her other work.

I am most grateful to Lily King, Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

I loved this book so much. I read Writers and Lovers, and while I adored that book it left me wanting more and this book satisfied my craving. It’s amazing how Lily King really captured a bittersweet, melancholic, and nostalgic vibe. This is a truly sentimental book and I relish in it!

Gorgeous book! I have been telling everybody about this and am so glad I got to read it.

Thank you NetGalley and Lily King!

It’s hard to pinpoint what makes some books great. How do certain authors make you forget this is fiction and make the characters so real they break your heart?

We don’t find out the main character’s name until the very last line of the book. Sam and Yash are roommates in college. They call all of their dates “Daisy”, but when Sam brings our MC home they decide she’s a “Jordan” and that’s what she’s called throughout the novel.

This book is about love, loss, choices and regrets. It is about first love, a relationship that starts in college and goes through different stages over more than twenty years. I think Heart the Lover will unlock memories for many readers. It did for me, and I couldn’t put it down. I cried almost the whole way through, I was so connected to the characters.

I am a big fan of Lily King, and I was reminded why after finishing this novel.

I am rarely someone who cries while reading, yet this story did it to me towards the end. Kudos to the author for creating characters who I was invested in.

I'd prob rate this a 4.5, only because there were certain aspects of the storyline that veered a little tropey for me at times, but overall I loved this novel and look forward to King's next book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the eARC of this novel.

Wow Wow Wow. This one was for me.

When our narrator, known by the nickname 'Jordan' for most of the book is in her senior year of college, she meets Sam. Her and Sam date for a time, but when things end, she's more worried about her friendship with Sam's best friend and roommate Yash. When Jordan and Yash find themselves, the only ones needing extra time to finish their degrees something blossoms between them, but neither of them wants to hurt Sam. As new opportunities arise and they enter their adult lives, they must grow up or give up.

I recommend this to those who enjoy coming of age (adult version), the continuation of love after relationships, and the closeness of human connection.

Thank you (SO MUCH) to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel, when I found out I got approved for this one I downloaded it ASAP.

After meeting Sam and Yash her senior year of college, our narrator finds herself in a love triangle, but choices have to be made. Ones that will affect their lives forever. And now, decades later, she finds herself back in the past, reckoning with all that was left unsaid.

Lily King is an auto-buy author for me and I’ve been digging through her backlist so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, especially after seeing all the rave reviews. I’ll admit, I had a hard time with the first part of this novel. There was so much talk about classic writers and poets and writing that I found myself fairly bored. But I knew I had to keep pushing through and the rest of the book was more than worth the weight.

So much here felt like an emotional gut punch, and I loved seeing how the decisions of their earlier selves affected them later in life. The last parts of the book were at once sad and beautiful and I found myself tearing up in the best ways. Lily King has done it again.